She lives near Selkirk where the great Sir Walter Scott author of “Ivanhoe”, “Rob Roy” and the “Waverley” novels. He was Provost of Selkirkshire for a time, and the author Jack Prout and illustrator of “Black Bob” (the Dandy wonder dog) was from Selkirk as well, living in what is now the butchers shop, next to the Court rooms (now museum) where Scott wrote his novels! The town want to erect a statue of Black Bob, But the Dandy, which is published in Dundee, wont give copywrite.
There must be something in the water around Selkirk.
Clearly plenty of profit in road maintenance contracts. Might explain why our roads are littered with cones and diversions for unnecessary work and why efficient public transport seems unlikely any time soon.
Fletcher Building Group’s infrastructure revenue has sustained the company through nearly $1 billion in losses over the last two years.
There was a piece on the new last night, where councils/rate payers are having to spend some millions (in the north?) to strengthen bridges for the ‘double sized’ logging trucks on the roads.
The NZTA are paying a proportion.
It struck me that WHY aren’t the logging companies paying the WHOLE cost of the strengthening?
The article you mentioned also included some HB road bridges also and they are using tractors to cart some of the logs across soe of these brades as the overweight trucks are now allowed to roam every road in the country without restrictions.
NZTA said they warned the local councils about the extra weighted trucks now about to carry much higher weighted loads freely in 2017.
The article said.It is wrecking our roads and bridges that were never designed for 63 tonne trucks so we are in for very heavy increased road repairs ahead now and Labour knows this..
We the other road users and ratepayers are subsidising the road transport industry and this was confirmed in several studies posted on yesterdays ‘open mike’ about public subsidises for road freight.
CEO spokesperson for TRF (The road transport forum) Ken Shirley has even raised a warning recently that road freight raies wil rise again.
So that is why they want rail gone or closed down, so they have complete ‘cartel’ pricing control to allow them to again freely raise freight rates/costs without us all having any other form of ‘land transport’ to offer a cheaper freight services to us and the business community.
Hell yes and it’s virtually a 3-way with Fulton’s and downer Laughing all the way to the bank. They plunder across central and regional funding.
Shoulders and surfaces are a disgrace as a result of nationals double whammy with extra tonnage and RONS siphoning from pre existing maintenance allocations.
We gave up expecting rural and state highways to be back at about 2012 levels years ago.
WDC can’t even keep sewage from raglan harbour and moan about that and only having a single grader for their entire region. So it’s third world shit literally imo.
” nationals double whammy with extra tonnage and RONS siphoning from pre existing maintenance allocations.”
A very good reason for the current coalition to reverse both those changes. That is, get the extra heavy vehicles off our roads which are not equipped to deal with them, and cancel any RoNS that do not provide a significant benefit to their region.
This is what happens when the you lose control of your assets and businesses. You are at the mercy of ownership changes and what have looked like a good deal at the time, becomes worse and worse as time goes on and subsequent new owners, changes in economy, come knocking.
Culture and people becomes controlled by the decisions of asset owners, the legal system and changes in government who control the legal system. Even if someone wins, it becomes about the quality of the lawyers and money is diverted into legal action, stress of that and massive loss in quality of life.
Taharoa tensions: Community fights back amid claims of corporate greed at mine
People in the UK are rejecting globalism via privatisation because their government lost control of their basic needs and costs rise steadily to keep the profits rolling in.
“In 1996, the Ministry of Defence decided to sell off its housing stock. The financier Guy Hands bought it up in a deal that would make his investors billions – and have catastrophic consequences for both the military and the taxpayer”
I was looking at the New Zealand top ten rich lists for the last few years…. checking something out.
One year stuck out ……as 5 in the top 10 NZ cash accumulators …. were people who had made a lot of money through privatizations and their gaining control of former Government / citizens assets.
Specifically they were …
Michael Fay & David Richwhite .. BNZ (wine-box), railways, port of Auckland etc etc
Graeme Hart ..from wiki : “gained a big break when he purchased the Government Printing Office for less than its capital value in 1990.”
And our two Chandler Bro’s … who were in on the Russian Neo Lib, shock doctrine carve up … When their country was leaderless under the useless drunk and western stooge Boris Yelstin…
The chandler brothers make a point of claiming morals and ethics in business … Yet they run their business empires through tax havens … and became the largest foreign owners of Gazprom and other Russian resources / infrastructure … when a looting was taking place in a criminals paradise.
The results for the Russian people from western Neo Lib, crony capitalist shock doctrine were dire … a 40% collapse of their economy …. and almost a 10 year decline in life expectancy for males.
Leaving aside my opinion that a enriched oligarch class .. making millions or billions from privatisation of state assets..is an indication of corruption.
Instead I’m interested in What are The Standard readers and poster opinions…
Regarding New Zealands worst privatisations or asset stripping
Your choice for … the most disastrous …. destructive ….or biggest rip-offs.
There’s a lot to choose from … like …
Telecom … where profit gouging, and abuse of monopoly positions followed its sale.
BNZ … bailouts and tax evasion .. big loans to share-holders / new owners.
The electricity industry and networks … rampant price increases .. for electricty generated by hydro schemes we’ve had for decades…. underinvestment … Auckland blackout ..profit shifting via tax havens ,,,, etc
DOC land give aways …. “The government privatizes a state-owned asset for $265,000. Four years later, a small part of it gets flicked on for $10 million. A tale from some corrupt African nation, or from post-Soviet Russia? No, its from New Zealand ”
Some quotes / info from Joe90’s link /nomination …. showing a huge rip off.
“The chain of custody went like this; the taxpayer gave up its land for an effective rate of $190 per hectare, which was on-sold for $51,800 per hectare, which was on-sold again for $70,000 per hectare.
The capital gain over a decade was roughly 37,000 per cent, none of which was realised by the taxpayer, and has ultimately put a prime piece of land into the private ownership of an America-based billionaire”
” data released under the Official Information Act, shows the taxpayer has paid nearly $65m to privatise land it owned, which in some cases has been on-sold for significant capital gain, pushing up property prices at the taxpayer’s expense.”
“the taxpayer paid $18,000 for one-third of a hectare by the road. It effectively bought back land it had sold for an effective rate of $15 per hectare in 2004 for what amounts to $55,000 per hectare in 2017. The capital gain on that small section of land was 366,000 per cent.”
“In her 2008 book on tenure review, Who Owns the High Country?, Ann Brower described her research topic as “unravelling the puzzle of why a government would behave so strangely”….
The whole thing stinks worse than Todd Barclay …
Foreign ownership rules … a large speculators tax…. stopping the buying of our citizenship … And redressing the original theft of the land from Maori … Are all needed in this instance … imo
Yep +1 Joe, excellent example. But the blame should also go to the people involved in selling the land off in the first place – why don’t people be censored for their actions of clear breaches – at present they are not named and shamed and just get away with it.
Local council reps are also often deep in it, when council land goes super cheap, often offshore buyers and often without even being put out to tender or ratepayers realising what has happened.
Good points all …. but in some instances it’s more than just money involved.
Watching this fascinating documentary I was struck by the dangerous corner cutting in a privately run human drug trial….. a lot of it looked to be about cost cutting.
The powerful love privatisation and deregulation in particular banks and politicians. It’s where they get their money.
How often do ex politicians end up on the board of the companies they privatise, on bank boards, infrastructure companies (now they have COO’s all the better more opportunities to be a corporate trougher) or on the board of new companies entering NZ that want access to the plumb deals of assets sells offs and preferential government deals.
In fact very few large companies don’t have an ex politician on tap to grease the path of those deals.
About time politicians are not allowed to double dip – should be 20 years before an ex political joins a board of directors. They already get generous benefits post their politician career as well as the plumb overseas posts.
In particular John Key should be banned from his ANZ directorship …. for a double conflict of interest.
ANZ has approx 30% of NZs bloated mortgage lending …..
If the cartel of Aussie banks put up Mortgage rates to 10% …. they would crash the housing market … along with our economy …. and the Govt would be gone within 12 months.
John Key would love to bring about the downfall of the Labour led Government … That’s conflict one.
And Key loves making money ….for himself above all else …. a crashed housing market would allow him to buy at depressed prices ….. conflict two.
Personally I’d give him a job as a NZ river water taster ….. make him drink his toxic legacy.
I’d like to see him off the Board of Air NZ too. Quite apart from the crony capitalism effect – in other countries people who use their power & position to assault others are being removed from those positions. here we appoint our pony tail puller to the board of a state owned enterprise – what do you think other people think of us??
Don’t forget Merryl Lynch did the assets sell offs too Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy and Air New Zealand, and apparently the sale price is already lower than than it’s income. What a bargain for the buyer. So Key wins, Merryl Lynch wins, the buyer wins, and the public loses.
“Merryl Lynch did the assets sell offs too Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy”
And what evidence do you have for this claim?
I trust it is a bit more than you imagination and wild hatred of John Key.
Treasury don’t seem to know anything about it do they? http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1305/S00407/firms-appointed-for-meridian-and-genesis-ipos.htm
Merrill Lynch may have been interested in the work but they were not chosen to have any involvement in the sale.
savenz may have been over reaching through confusion on Merrill Lynch … aka ” The Blundering Herd”.
Easy to do with John Keys old firm and its sordid long history of scandal and scams ..
Known for its Enron involvement and corporate tax base erosion, as described by Irish John himself ….
eventually its boozy greed blinded culture lead to it being the third cab off the rank …. in going bankrupt at the start of the GFC.
Key of course was prime minister at this time,… with the excuse he had got out before Merrill ‘went bad’ …. the truth of how much he had ‘gotten out’ depends on how many Merrill shares he had divested himself of….
Merrill got bailed out…. via a Govt forced take over by Bank of America ….
So Key got bailed out ….. its how he got his bank of America shares …
How many millions did this dud investor receive courtesy of usa taxpayers ???
and why do you think it has never been reported on in our media Alwyn ?…….. Teflon melting? ” … to boring? …. fear ? “, .
Key, regarding his crooked lawyer or something ….; “reporters “you guys were very careful last night, I think, in your coverage of these matters: the reason you were is because you don’t want to get your asses sued off you”. ”
And how come no reporters questioned this bully,,,,, on the administration of his ‘Blind Trust’ … with their wine box / tax haven connections ??
Or the virtual media blackout of his Tax haven work …. ” Quote : “In fact, what is even better news is that this is receiving little publicity in New Zealand – which means there is a higher likelihood the PM will nudge it through without too much meddling from the country’s left wing camp.”
Our dirty little right wing media …. guardians of the Key myth
Additional interesting info ….
Merrill destroyed approx 45 Billion of wealth in eye watering time … poisoned on its own toxic products and bullshit book keeping. Criminal creativity.
As repayment to the USA Govt / taxpayers for their bailout and TARP money …. The Bank of America will increase its numbers of shares from approx 7.5 Billion to 10 Billion odd and use some of the extras as settlement.
All of them share evidence of making things worse for the general population while having made a few individuals very rich which is itself prima facie evidence of corruption.
What we should be doing is asking what we could have done with all those profits that the profiteers have made off with. With Telecom we could have FttH across the country with unlimited bandwidth on all devices. Maybe we could have built up the infrastructure enough that communications bills would be down to $10 per month per household.
It a question that needs to be asked: What could we have done with all the profit?
All of us would have been better off instead of just a few. This is the proof that profit is a dead-weight loss. It causes more harm than benefit.
*** THREAD ***Let me explain how Paul Manafort's #TrumpRussia indictments are rolling rapidly from election inference into a replay of the Jack Abramoff scandal, but on STEROIDS, involving the secretive sale of American foreign policy for dark money.https://t.co/yfIGsub116pic.twitter.com/gGejl1G1zF— Grant Stern (@grantstern) February 23, 2018
Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort was hit with new charges on Friday, including an allegation he secretly recruited and funded a group of former European politicians to lobby in the United States on behalf of Ukraine.
[…]
The most significant allegation is that Manafort assembled what he called a “Super VIP” group of highly influential Europeans who could push Ukraine’s agenda “without any visible relationship” with the Ukrainian government, according to an email obtained by Mueller.
Manafort paid the politicians 2 million euros from offshore accounts in 2012 and 2013 to lobby members of Congress and other U.S. officials. It’s illegal for Americans to direct foreigners to lobby the U.S. without informing the Justice Department.
The so-called “Hapsburg Group” was managed by a former European chancellor, who was not named in the indictment.
One thing I’m supportive of here is having similar rules for money in politics here that the US has. Make it illegal for foreign money to be used in NZ politics. Make it illegal for foreigners (including foreign businesses and governments) to have any influence in our country.
“ Make it illegal for foreigners (including foreign businesses and governments) to have any influence in our country.”
You mean like the UN, Greenpeace, Oxfam, various American & Australian born Politicians, etc, etc?
I could live with that.
So if a NZ citizen is operating on behalf of your foreign organisation it is ok then?
And why should we differentiate between a corporate & a charity? They all push their own agenda, and are all potentially as corrupt and self-serving as each other.
In the case of the UN, even more so.
The UN is an international body made up of the governments of the world. The agreements that they come to are, technically, the agreements that we want. And they’re even agreements that we don’t have to implement.
And, after all that, it really doesn’t seem to have as much influence as business does. Now, here’s an interesting question: Can you point to any influence that the UN has in NZ?
Who’s the fool here? “Semantics” means the meaning of words. Charities and commercial organisations have separate names because they have separate meanings, so yes, semantics. The meanings of words are important.
When are charities not a charity as increasingly there are charity trusts from politicians and rich listers and questionable religions which are really lobby groups to keep the deregulation agenda or some pocket of religion going with extra tax benefits.
Even legitimate charities now follow a trend of putting in ‘corporate’ managers who have little interest in the charity itself, more a tick on their CV (ran Red Cross) with massive donations but little being shown for it for the people who are supposed to get the charity.
Then there are charities that seem more like some sort of scam.
Not only that but apparently overseas charities often attract a small percentage of pedophiles and the like. Yikes…
It’s hard to be a charity these days, because so many are taking advantage of the term.
erm – as board member of a trust that’s in the process of getting registered charity status, I have to declare a conflict of interest 🙂
Yes, oversight on political activities including donations needs to be increased.
But small charities funded in part by local grants can demonstrate a need for a service. And then when you’re in the arts and culture field, there’s no reason the Lower Corstophine Community Hippy Cultural Appropriation Society needs to be operated by a government department just to make teepees and those lantern balloon things for one or two events a year.
Now, if it turns into a massive thing and hippy cultural appropriation societies pop up all over the place, maybe they could do with an umbrella body and direct govt funding. But small local projects need some sort of entity to operate under if you want them to last longer than the interest of one person.
That, eliminate anonymous funding and because our political processes are public, require public disclosure of the financial interests of everyone participating.
‘Hapsburger’……..the New Swamp Nothingburger ? Strange (it’s not of course) that Trump surrounded himself with crooks.
Things are gonna get furious when the presidential pardons start. Will it be then that Trump code-calls the MAGA Deplorables and the NRA (not to forget the “very fine” ‘Blood and Soil’ fascists) to deploy vengeful violence on fellow Americans ?
Would not have thought it possible once. Not so sure now.
Hi North … Drumpf cannot pardon any individual on offences charged within individual states which is how most of these against Manafort and Gates have been laid. Mueller is one of the smartest men in USA, and has brilliant attorneys working with him.
Manafort and Gates charges laid in two separate districts in fact. Think they can’t outwit the Carrot ?? My money is 1000 to 1 on Bobby Three Sticks !
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC has the clearest and finely articulate breakdown and interviews if you are interested … http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show . She goes to air each weeknight in US at 9 pm so it is free online at this link each day from about 5pm NZ. (Currently top cable news in USA due to her coverage on these subjects. (So good to see this acuity and intelligence on TV !!)
Having sex with prostitutes when it is legal. Not allowed for aid workers. What is this about? There seems to be some sort of unreasoned moral uprising, purity patrol. It is hard work, sex has always been a relief, a small, fleeting pleasure and it is disgraceful that charities are starting to become inhuman in their regard to their workers. It sounds like an edict from above, from someone who has been an administrator too long, a bit like David Shearer coming back here from UN aid work and finding people not completely helpless in dire distress, objects of disdain.
There was a very good book written by aid workers just behind the firing line which gives the picture you only get fragments of in reports about overseas aid.
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Sex_and_Other_Desperate_Measures
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Doctor Andrew Thomson, is the memoir of three young people who join the United Nations (UN) in Cambodia with a dream of making the world a better place. Set in the 1990s, the book was published in 2004. Thomson is a New …
…every kind of child sexual abuse and exploitation imaginable…
Ms Csaky declined to name the 23 organisations implicated but said they were across the “full spectrum” of aid agencies, NGOs, peacekeeping forces and UN agencies.
Mr Daccord said that it was the recent reports of sexual misconduct from humanitarian agencies that had spurred the Geneva-based ICRC to conduct an internal review.
Its code of conduct has explicitly forbidden the purchase of sexual services since 2006….
I suggest that this is unreasonable as a blanket negative. It treats sex as something bad in itself, and doesn’t differentiate between child and adult partners. It contains its own moral hazard by not differentiating.
Also it is not against human dignity to have sex between consenting adults – this sort of talk is just prudish and irrational. Women who earn their living by being paid for sex are not in an ideal work situation, but it deserves better standing than being a mercenary soldier. Also when women have to get enough money to live, it is something to resort to, though a cleaning job is preferable; both are major female occupations. Seen in an understanding and compassionate mode, it can become a necessity and if a mother, then she is performing a noble action in sacrificing her personal inviolability to get necessities for her family.
The middle class aid salaried workers may never get personally close enough to this sort of poverty and distress to reach an understanding of the world beneath the grassroots. The ones at the top who make their pronouncements may have become saturated in management speak and elite levels of behaviour, seeing people as pawns represented by coloured markers on a map of their area of interest.
I said that aid workers going to prostitutes should be satisfactory. The prostitutes receive money, it is their job. Surely that isn’t hard to understand. The aid workers shouldn’t be blackmailing women for sex so that they can receive aid, they should be paying for what is a personal service.
And Brigid this is not a discussion about equality of the sexes. I don’t know where the female aid workers go for sex. If they can find an outlet for their own desires good on them. This is real, hard reality and people managing the best they can and hopefully fairly and with respect for each other even harsh conditions.
I am suggesting that making a difficult job more unpleasant because of rigid rules which ban any sexual interaction at all, and treats it as an ignoble and immoral action open to disgust and retribution by the employer is irrational and unfair.
The genesis of the issue is the (seven years later!) allegations made against Roland van Hauwermeiren, that while he was working in Haiti for Oxfam he paid for sex.
From there, a broader spotlight has fallen across the aid sector.
And I’d guess there are aid workers perpetrating all manner of abuses.
But I don’t believe for a second that crippling the likes of Oxfam and handing their government funding to outfits like Adam Smith International will make any difference for the better.
Timeline: 2004: Roland van Hauwermeiren is asked to leave his job at Merlin.
2007: Corinna Csaky report (See link at 7.1) criticises a wide ranging group of NGOs.
2011: Roland van Hauwermeiren resigns as head of mission in Haiti.
Then nothing for six years.
2017/18: News media frenzy attacking Oxfam.
I think you’re both right. The original allegations were far wider than consensual transactions, and, I suspect the genesis of the current media interest is far more likely to be the stuff Bill’s talking about: hostility towards advocacy in the developed world.
Original allegations happened in the context of wider historical problems within aid agencies around abuse (it’s not like van Hauwermeiren started this).
van Hauwermeiren’s allegations happened in the context of issues broader than consensual sex.
There’s something else going on with the current media reporting and focus on Oxfam.
I have said that the situation would be clearer if the aid agency did not say that all sex on the job with people from the work area was to be banned.
That is my point, because it clouds the issue. There is a fault in aid workers having sex with youngsters classed as children in the law of the country or against the law of the aid workers’ countries. Then there is also the problem of aid workers apparently trading aid for sex. I
Context is important here and needs to be seen as being so, to adequately discuss your issue as referred to at 11.11am OAB. .
And I started this thread. I was talking about having sex where it is legal. Haiti has been brought into it where it is illegal. That is another country.
And turning it into an abuse of power as a point. It is great for the comfortably off to have an impassioned discussion about this, with final agreement some time later that it would be better to have a no-sex rule so as not to run the risk of this. But even that is an abuse of power. The persons with the resources can afford to have long discussions when they are not in great need of the basics.
In the meantime there are people who could be doing good and being helpful to people in distress who would be happy to be treated with respect as well as aid, and who are not concerned if someone has sex with another adult and pays for it. So your academic discussions can be another barrier to being truly helpful and lack a listening ear to what people on the receiving end of aid want, and not what others say they want.
“And I started this thread. I was talking about having sex where it is legal. Haiti has been brought into it where it is illegal. That is another country.”
Well maybe you could tell us what you are talking about then, because if it’s not in reference to the Oxfam case it’s not apparent what you mean. Who has said that people can’t have sex?
It says in the quote I put up that it is from the ICRC and in the link address it says red cross. I am sorry that I didn’t spell that out for everyone.
This matter of sex on the job is emerging as a problem for all the aid agencies not just for Oxfam and I am pointing that out, and I think Oxfam might have exactly the same rigid rules as the Red Cross but am not sure about that.
I won’t say anything else now as I have made a point that I think is relevant and fair and others can pick it to bits if they wish.
So I still don’t know what you are talking about. You appear to be saying that aid agencies have rules that say their workers aren’t allowed to have sex. I would be highly surprised if that is true, but by all means put up something that shows that.
This is from my second comment. greywarshark 7.1.1
25 February 2018 at 10:29 am
Mr Daccord said that it was the recent reports of sexual misconduct from humanitarian agencies that had spurred the Geneva-based ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] to conduct an internal review. Its code of conduct has explicitly forbidden the purchase of sexual services since 2006….
weka I would like you to have said:-
‘I can’t see any reference in your comment about the Red Cross or Oxfam’. This would have been politer to me seeing that I had said that the information had been in my comment. It would be good as a commenter to receive the sort of respect that is demanded by moderators.
It’s a given that there are young teens and children doing sex work in Haiti, so rather than assuming that there is no rape and exploitation going on, it’s more useful to assume there is and to look at how those people can be protected where there is some choice.
This doesn’t mean that all aid workers paying sex workers is a problem, it means that politically if you argue in such a context that there is nothing wrong you are contributing to the problems by rendering invisible the power dynamics and abuse.
If men need to have sex with other people in order to have functional lives and they are in a country like Haiti, then they need to understand the broader context and the risks associated with paying people to have sex with them. Arguments that men *have to have sex in a situation where children are being raped is highly problematic for what I would have thought were obvious reasons.
I strongly agree when third world poverty and survival are involved … it becomes exploitation and slavery at that point….
But in a sick Irony….. its totally possible the Pimps providing the exploited woman and children is the UN …. They have form doing this … From Bosnia , to all over Africa …. and of course Haiti , where they ran a sex trafficking ring for approx 10 years. … and also brought along Cholera … infecting the water and killing roughly 8000 earthquake survivors.
‘Official agencies’ have long been outed as primary players in the trafficking of human beings, narcotics and weapons…
The ‘unofficial agencies’ will be operating in the same ‘industry’…likely under the watchful eye of the ‘official agencies’….
They should be disbanded as the criminal , moral and ethically defunct operations, they actually are…with long term custodial sentences of the most punitive level applied to those at the top..in the know..
Have Shearer or Clark ever spoken openly of the known and public issues within the UN ?
Because with as close to certainty…they will be ‘in the know’…
Let’s be absolutely clear about this: you’re alleging that David Shearer and Helen Clark are accessories to multiple counts of sexual assault of children, human trafficking, and related to the arms trade, to the extent that they should serve “long term custodial sentences”.
That’s what your innuendo implies. If you meant something else, let’s hear it.
I’d say at least 50% of aid workers are female. Where do they go for ‘relief’?
If you’ve read the book you mention you’ll know that none of the authors used prostitutes for ‘relief’.
This is interesting. Abacus Bank in USA. Tiny Chinese owned bank serving the Chinese community was the only bank to be sued after the GFC! Opened in 1985 by a resident or citizen, successful and have 6 branches. It has 1/20th default rates of USA banks. They found some small fraud, checked and audited and sacked the initial loan officer taking bribes and then found the others, reported to the regulators, and got a DA that wanted scalps.
Loan officers were arrested and brought in chains in front of the media, they were ordinary workers. “The DA announced the indictment and made a real spectacle of it.”
Steve James is best remembered as the director of the award-winning “Hoop Dreams” documentary in 1994, inexplicably snubbed for an Oscar nomination. But on Monday at the 90th Academy Awards he’s in the running, for his documentary “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”.
It’s the story of what happened to Abacus bank in New York in 2012, in the fallout from the American mortgage crisis of 2008. Abacus, a small Chinese bank in Manhattan founded by Thomas Sung, was targeted by the US District Attorney and taken to court, accused of mortgage fraud. Documentary maker Steve James explains.
I’ve got a low opinion of some of those aid agencies and how they squander money.
Go to a third world country and watch the well dressed white people driving around in their NGO stenciled late model Lexus. It’s a disgusting gravy train for some, a shame for the well meaning hard workers and also the people they are supposed to help.
( yes there’s no third world etc etc)
KCC
Yes, I have heard of them living apart from the areas they are serving – one might think okay what’s wrong with that. But apparently their standard of living will match upper middle class conditions back home. They will have swimming pools and a nice house, probably some sort of air conditioning; I don’t think they would bear to go out amongst the hoi polloi much, probably travel everywhere in an air conditioned vehicle. Aid kings and queens rather than workers.
It would be like disaster tourism for a longer period.
We humans have a capacity for callousness and turning people into grotesque spectacles. Like going down to Bedlam and seeing the mad people or going to a hanging, quite a spectacle and not to be missed. Getting down and dirty right beside the people who are in extremis means that ideas have to be changed, the level of acceptance of previously unacceptable behaviour has to be raised
for them, while keeping to the values of the wealthier society need to be maintained by the workers to control their own behaviour, but not the same in their living conditions.
KCC
I have reworded the last para a bit to try and be clearer about my thinking.
Previously unacceptable behaviour may have to be accepted in those they are helping, while keeping to the values of the wealthier society need to be maintained by the workers themselves to control their own behaviour. But in their living conditions it should be known that these will drop from the normal, and that they will not have money lavished on them.
No KCC it was just end to end of my two posts, not ineptitude. Operating from a small oblong instead of a large screen makes it hard to get the overview.
“Oxfam was trying with some desperation to stem the cholera epidemic, the first outbreak of which was detected in central Haiti in October, from spreading further. By the following month, it had reached Port-au-Prince and Oxfam was trying to provide uncontaminated water to 315,000 people already rendered homeless by the earthquake. ”
“We are currently reaching over 400,000 people with water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, and another 100,000 individuals mostly through our emergency food security and vulnerable livelihoods (EFSVL) programmes.”
None of this is as titillating as the sort of thing we have been reading or watching over the last week about the sexual misconduct of Oxfam employees in Haiti, but these do seem to have kept a lot of people alive who would otherwise have died.”
Surely the discussion should be on how to improve the recruiting systems and field administration systems ,….. combined with accountability of both UN or Oxfam staff.
Not destroy Oxfams funding and aid ,,,,,,,as the english tory tax haven party are doing ,,,, with help and consent generation from corporate media.
It appears they were meant to shut up about the biggest driver of poverty and inequality in the world …. stepped on the wrong toes
The Guardian reports large temperature rises in the Arctic.
“The North Pole and northern Greenland have been 17-22C (30-40F) warmer than historical averages in recent days, adding to fears of rapid polar warming that has huge implications for global climate. The northernmost weather station in the world, Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland, was above freezing nearly all day on 20 February, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. ”
More money than Key and from an even more dodgy source, if that’s truly possible !!! Blood money from murdering in Iraq, running a mercenary force in the illegal war; received many multi millions paid to him directly by the Pentagon, by his own admission.
This man must never become a major office holder, please.
Looks like Grand Marshal Bonespur is going play CIC.
President Donald Trump’s plans for a White House-backed military parade are beginning to take shape.
The president has directed the Department of Defense to organize a parade that would take place on Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – according to an unclassified Feb. 20 memo written by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
[…]
Whether the president himself will participate in the event remains unclear. Macron took part in France’s parade, riding in an open-top military vehicle alongside the former chief of the French armed forces and surrounded by hundreds of military men on horseback.
The Fletchers money will be long gone ,,, protected by Limited liability ,,, some ‘legally’ paid into executives different trusts … allowing personally bankrupted people to drive around in rolls royces … or live in multi million dollar homes … ala Wellingtons Renouf ,,,,or Aucklands equiticorp exec Hawkins …. etc
It sounds like Nationals come up with a neo leaky buildings disaster … pass the ball time again…. More bad times for home owners mainly.
Nationals new degraded building mess could be known as ……
The great Christchurch shake down
Rebuild Rortification
Brownless huge Crack syndrome … systemic arse,,,, 80% non compliant, National TM
But….
“EQC has set a deadline to close the Canterbury Home Repair Programme to all new customers and repairs from Monday, 1 June 2015, to ensure it has the right amount of resources necessary to complete the programme.
From 1 June, no further customers will be accepted into CHRP unless they have a prior agreement with EQR or EQC, and previously cash-settled customers will not be able to opt back in to the programme.”
So we the taxpayers are going to pick up the tab AGAIN for shonkey repairs in Christchurch or the homeowners are just going to have to eat shit like National’s Leaky Housing/Building Crisis which is still unresolved to date ?
probably both….some will give up (or have already) and wear the loss….others will continue to fight and will be paid (possibly partial) by the taxpayer.
Conservatives wanted to say they had a black guy, too.
WATCH: At the Ronald Reagan Dinner at CPAC, ACU Communications Director Ian Walters said the RNC hired Michael Steele as chairman in 2009 "because he’s a black guy." pic.twitter.com/g6YcyLET5w— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 24, 2018
The Russell McVeigh story must be causing insomnia for a few lawyers at the moment…
And I feel sorry for the victims and the huge imbalance of power from start to finish in this saga too. Surely it’s not an isolated situation.
Anyone else following this?
Just read the “not threatening” letter Adam Ross QC sent Newsroom.
My initial response to hearing the story was that this behaviour isn’t confined to one law firm. I’m hoping it creates space for others to come forward.
What a shame and the world is a poorer place for the death of this beautiful person.
Emma Chambers died today of natural causes
We will miss you Emma with your wonderful sense of humour that made us all feel very humble and had a good laugh at the same time.
Rest in peace. You will be sorely missed.
Awesome Haka Rotorua boys High. I have to remember that the mokos are there and I did not realise that you mokos had a good vantage point. Its hard keeping my ego in check when I have all those sandflys following me around everywhere and trying harressing me. But I will make sure that I’m a good example for the mokos just didn’t realise that you were there. Be proud of OUR Maori culture and your tepuna like ECO MAORI is Kia kaha. Ka kite ano P.S. Isn’t it peculiar that I had to get that book of my tepuna Ropata WahaWaha from A Australian online library that’s suppression of our Ngati-porou culture and people by the neoliberals they are scared of Ngati-porou Mana
I haven’t quite finished the book yet to busy checking the sandflys and rowing my Waka be good mokos from what I have read from our history one can have the genealogical of great tepuna but it is how you conduct yourself that counts being humble humane and respectful. That is the way my MAMA taught me Kai pai.
Ka kite ano
Being humble doesn’t mean you take a step backwards well I do when my wife challenges me that’s Mana Wahine treat the ladies with respect mokos that’s the way our tepuna did it.
Back to being challenged in life be it sports mahi whatever you don’t take a step backwards but you don’t go around disrespecting anybody or anything to complete your challenges in life.
That’s the way Steven Adams behaves that’s why I’m a fan of his and that’s the way ECO MAORI behaves.
I’m colour blind as well I can see colours just some I get mixed up with green yellow brown red blue purple.
So I treat every one the same no matter what colours they are with respect but with a guard up at all times that’s the way of OUR Papatuanukue at the minute. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
All right I do disrespect the sandflys but the don’t show ECO MAORI any respect they treat me like a idiot.
But you must show them respect that’s is the best way to keep your nose clean Ka pai Kia kaha Ka kite Ano P.S I will have to go back to school to learn more of OUR REO
China will remove the constitutional restriction for the maximum number of terms the president and vice-president can serve, Xinhua reported on Sunday, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay on beyond 2023.
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
How worried should we be about the cloud? This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. I currently have a few thousand unread emails languishing in my inbox, mostly old marketing newsletters and piles of unread science journal press releases. I have a similar number ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nuurrianti Jalli, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies College of Arts and Sciences Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies, Northern State University Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Murakami Wood, Professor of Critical Surveillance and Securities Studies, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa The skyline of Riyadh, the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.(Shutterstock) There is a long history of planned city building by both governments ...
The LIVE Recording of A View from Afar podcast will begin today at 12:45pm May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment of ...
The Boil Up’s Lucinda Bennett considers the oyster – from freshness to pearls to the joy of shucking your own. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. In Carmen Maria Machado’s short story ‘Eight Bites’, a woman begins her last supper before bariatric surgery with “a cavalcade ...
Asia Pacific Report A group of 65 Auckland University academics have written an open letter to vice-chancellor Dawn Freshwater criticising the institution’s stance over students protesting in solidarity with Palestine. They have called on her administration to “support” the students who were denied permission to establish an “overnight encampment” by ...
The Student Volunteer Army is on the march, generating approximately 1.6 million hours of volunteering from roughly 35,000 secondary school students in just five years. For Rebekah Brown, the pathway to volunteering started with her singing coach. With a passion for the arts, the suggestion to volunteer at Acting Antics, ...
Great synergy, owning a “security company” and a media empire.
Nothing to see here folks.
Another capitalist slimebag going after money.
Bit like this lot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica
Carole Cadwalladr joins the dots:
Go the mighty Scotland!
Slàinte!
Hopefully Flower of Scotland will be ringing out all over the highlands…and everywhere else
The brogue will be thickening by the minute.
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/967471083308965888
She lives near Selkirk where the great Sir Walter Scott author of “Ivanhoe”, “Rob Roy” and the “Waverley” novels. He was Provost of Selkirkshire for a time, and the author Jack Prout and illustrator of “Black Bob” (the Dandy wonder dog) was from Selkirk as well, living in what is now the butchers shop, next to the Court rooms (now museum) where Scott wrote his novels! The town want to erect a statue of Black Bob, But the Dandy, which is published in Dundee, wont give copywrite.
There must be something in the water around Selkirk.
Hah! And lookee here – a woman piper atop the stand to kick off Flower of Scotland!
About 1 mins 30 into the vid.
Clearly plenty of profit in road maintenance contracts. Might explain why our roads are littered with cones and diversions for unnecessary work and why efficient public transport seems unlikely any time soon.
Fletcher Building Group’s infrastructure revenue has sustained the company through nearly $1 billion in losses over the last two years.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/101631029/fletcher-buildings-infrastructure-arm-a-bridge-over-troubled-waters
There was a piece on the new last night, where councils/rate payers are having to spend some millions (in the north?) to strengthen bridges for the ‘double sized’ logging trucks on the roads.
The NZTA are paying a proportion.
It struck me that WHY aren’t the logging companies paying the WHOLE cost of the strengthening?
High street welfare.
Forestry trucks are ripping up Whanganui’s rural and suburban roads – and ratepayers may have to foot the bill.
The district council faces a $20 million shortfall over the next 10 years and has effectively run out of money to complete its roading programme.
And the situation is being blamed on damage caused by logging trucks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11818894
… and you all thought the National Government was working in the best interests of the people of New Zealand ?
… and guess what we probably don’t even own the trees being carted by these logging trucks ?
dv,
The article you mentioned also included some HB road bridges also and they are using tractors to cart some of the logs across soe of these brades as the overweight trucks are now allowed to roam every road in the country without restrictions.
NZTA said they warned the local councils about the extra weighted trucks now about to carry much higher weighted loads freely in 2017.
The article said.It is wrecking our roads and bridges that were never designed for 63 tonne trucks so we are in for very heavy increased road repairs ahead now and Labour knows this..
We the other road users and ratepayers are subsidising the road transport industry and this was confirmed in several studies posted on yesterdays ‘open mike’ about public subsidises for road freight.
CEO spokesperson for TRF (The road transport forum) Ken Shirley has even raised a warning recently that road freight raies wil rise again.
So that is why they want rail gone or closed down, so they have complete ‘cartel’ pricing control to allow them to again freely raise freight rates/costs without us all having any other form of ‘land transport’ to offer a cheaper freight services to us and the business community.
“It’s all about the money and profits”
Thanks CG.
I couldn’t recall the detail.
Hell yes and it’s virtually a 3-way with Fulton’s and downer Laughing all the way to the bank. They plunder across central and regional funding.
Shoulders and surfaces are a disgrace as a result of nationals double whammy with extra tonnage and RONS siphoning from pre existing maintenance allocations.
We gave up expecting rural and state highways to be back at about 2012 levels years ago.
WDC can’t even keep sewage from raglan harbour and moan about that and only having a single grader for their entire region. So it’s third world shit literally imo.
” nationals double whammy with extra tonnage and RONS siphoning from pre existing maintenance allocations.”
A very good reason for the current coalition to reverse both those changes. That is, get the extra heavy vehicles off our roads which are not equipped to deal with them, and cancel any RoNS that do not provide a significant benefit to their region.
One day we are going to have to bring back the old Ministry of Works.
I see nothing wrong with that happening.
This is what happens when the you lose control of your assets and businesses. You are at the mercy of ownership changes and what have looked like a good deal at the time, becomes worse and worse as time goes on and subsequent new owners, changes in economy, come knocking.
Culture and people becomes controlled by the decisions of asset owners, the legal system and changes in government who control the legal system. Even if someone wins, it becomes about the quality of the lawyers and money is diverted into legal action, stress of that and massive loss in quality of life.
Taharoa tensions: Community fights back amid claims of corporate greed at mine
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/101385931/a-community-fights-back-amid-claims-of-corporate-greed-at-taharoa-mine
People in the UK are rejecting globalism via privatisation because their government lost control of their basic needs and costs rise steadily to keep the profits rolling in.
“In 1996, the Ministry of Defence decided to sell off its housing stock. The financier Guy Hands bought it up in a deal that would make his investors billions – and have catastrophic consequences for both the military and the taxpayer”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/25/mod-privatise-military-housing-disaster-guy-hands
Oligarchs and privitisation
I was looking at the New Zealand top ten rich lists for the last few years…. checking something out.
One year stuck out ……as 5 in the top 10 NZ cash accumulators …. were people who had made a lot of money through privatizations and their gaining control of former Government / citizens assets.
Specifically they were …
Michael Fay & David Richwhite .. BNZ (wine-box), railways, port of Auckland etc etc
Graeme Hart ..from wiki : “gained a big break when he purchased the Government Printing Office for less than its capital value in 1990.”
And our two Chandler Bro’s … who were in on the Russian Neo Lib, shock doctrine carve up … When their country was leaderless under the useless drunk and western stooge Boris Yelstin…
The chandler brothers make a point of claiming morals and ethics in business … Yet they run their business empires through tax havens … and became the largest foreign owners of Gazprom and other Russian resources / infrastructure … when a looting was taking place in a criminals paradise.
The results for the Russian people from western Neo Lib, crony capitalist shock doctrine were dire … a 40% collapse of their economy …. and almost a 10 year decline in life expectancy for males.
Leaving aside my opinion that a enriched oligarch class .. making millions or billions from privatisation of state assets..is an indication of corruption.
Instead I’m interested in What are The Standard readers and poster opinions…
Regarding New Zealands worst privatisations or asset stripping
Your choice for … the most disastrous …. destructive ….or biggest rip-offs.
There’s a lot to choose from … like …
Telecom … where profit gouging, and abuse of monopoly positions followed its sale.
BNZ … bailouts and tax evasion .. big loans to share-holders / new owners.
The electricity industry and networks … rampant price increases .. for electricty generated by hydro schemes we’ve had for decades…. underinvestment … Auckland blackout ..profit shifting via tax havens ,,,, etc
Air NZ … Bust & Bailouts
Serco … corrupt reporting .. coverups.. increased profits from increased crime …..
DOC land give aways …. “The government privatizes a state-owned asset for $265,000. Four years later, a small part of it gets flicked on for $10 million. A tale from some corrupt African nation, or from post-Soviet Russia? No, its from New Zealand ”
https://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2013/05/the-corruption-of-high-country-tenure.html
Share your evidence of failure, waste or greed ….. and help bury the private= better myth .
https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2018/01/half-a-million-hectares-sold/
Some quotes / info from Joe90’s link /nomination …. showing a huge rip off.
“The chain of custody went like this; the taxpayer gave up its land for an effective rate of $190 per hectare, which was on-sold for $51,800 per hectare, which was on-sold again for $70,000 per hectare.
The capital gain over a decade was roughly 37,000 per cent, none of which was realised by the taxpayer, and has ultimately put a prime piece of land into the private ownership of an America-based billionaire”
” data released under the Official Information Act, shows the taxpayer has paid nearly $65m to privatise land it owned, which in some cases has been on-sold for significant capital gain, pushing up property prices at the taxpayer’s expense.”
“the taxpayer paid $18,000 for one-third of a hectare by the road. It effectively bought back land it had sold for an effective rate of $15 per hectare in 2004 for what amounts to $55,000 per hectare in 2017. The capital gain on that small section of land was 366,000 per cent.”
“In her 2008 book on tenure review, Who Owns the High Country?, Ann Brower described her research topic as “unravelling the puzzle of why a government would behave so strangely”….
The whole thing stinks worse than Todd Barclay …
Foreign ownership rules … a large speculators tax…. stopping the buying of our citizenship … And redressing the original theft of the land from Maori … Are all needed in this instance … imo
Good link of an ongoing scandal Joe
Two words: unjust enrichment.
Yep +1 Joe, excellent example. But the blame should also go to the people involved in selling the land off in the first place – why don’t people be censored for their actions of clear breaches – at present they are not named and shamed and just get away with it.
Local council reps are also often deep in it, when council land goes super cheap, often offshore buyers and often without even being put out to tender or ratepayers realising what has happened.
Good points all …. but in some instances it’s more than just money involved.
Watching this fascinating documentary I was struck by the dangerous corner cutting in a privately run human drug trial….. a lot of it looked to be about cost cutting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNB5O-EGbmA
22 things were wrong with the design of the drug trial …. which I seem to remember involved a New Zealander as one of those harmed
There is a Govt white wash at the end …. probably for ideological reasons.
Privitiasation of health is still a national party agenda
The powerful love privatisation and deregulation in particular banks and politicians. It’s where they get their money.
How often do ex politicians end up on the board of the companies they privatise, on bank boards, infrastructure companies (now they have COO’s all the better more opportunities to be a corporate trougher) or on the board of new companies entering NZ that want access to the plumb deals of assets sells offs and preferential government deals.
In fact very few large companies don’t have an ex politician on tap to grease the path of those deals.
About time politicians are not allowed to double dip – should be 20 years before an ex political joins a board of directors. They already get generous benefits post their politician career as well as the plumb overseas posts.
I agree 100% savenz ….
In particular John Key should be banned from his ANZ directorship …. for a double conflict of interest.
ANZ has approx 30% of NZs bloated mortgage lending …..
If the cartel of Aussie banks put up Mortgage rates to 10% …. they would crash the housing market … along with our economy …. and the Govt would be gone within 12 months.
John Key would love to bring about the downfall of the Labour led Government … That’s conflict one.
And Key loves making money ….for himself above all else …. a crashed housing market would allow him to buy at depressed prices ….. conflict two.
Personally I’d give him a job as a NZ river water taster ….. make him drink his toxic legacy.
I’d like to see him off the Board of Air NZ too. Quite apart from the crony capitalism effect – in other countries people who use their power & position to assault others are being removed from those positions. here we appoint our pony tail puller to the board of a state owned enterprise – what do you think other people think of us??
Don’t forget Merryl Lynch did the assets sell offs too Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy and Air New Zealand, and apparently the sale price is already lower than than it’s income. What a bargain for the buyer. So Key wins, Merryl Lynch wins, the buyer wins, and the public loses.
“Merryl Lynch did the assets sell offs too Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy”
And what evidence do you have for this claim?
I trust it is a bit more than you imagination and wild hatred of John Key.
Treasury don’t seem to know anything about it do they?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1305/S00407/firms-appointed-for-meridian-and-genesis-ipos.htm
Merrill Lynch may have been interested in the work but they were not chosen to have any involvement in the sale.
savenz may have been over reaching through confusion on Merrill Lynch … aka ” The Blundering Herd”.
Easy to do with John Keys old firm and its sordid long history of scandal and scams ..
Known for its Enron involvement and corporate tax base erosion, as described by Irish John himself ….
eventually its boozy greed blinded culture lead to it being the third cab off the rank …. in going bankrupt at the start of the GFC.
Key of course was prime minister at this time,… with the excuse he had got out before Merrill ‘went bad’ …. the truth of how much he had ‘gotten out’ depends on how many Merrill shares he had divested himself of….
Merrill got bailed out…. via a Govt forced take over by Bank of America ….
So Key got bailed out ….. its how he got his bank of America shares …
How many millions did this dud investor receive courtesy of usa taxpayers ???
and why do you think it has never been reported on in our media Alwyn ?…….. Teflon melting? ” … to boring? …. fear ? “, .
Key, regarding his crooked lawyer or something ….; “reporters “you guys were very careful last night, I think, in your coverage of these matters: the reason you were is because you don’t want to get your asses sued off you”. ”
And how come no reporters questioned this bully,,,,, on the administration of his ‘Blind Trust’ … with their wine box / tax haven connections ??
Or the virtual media blackout of his Tax haven work …. ” Quote : “In fact, what is even better news is that this is receiving little publicity in New Zealand – which means there is a higher likelihood the PM will nudge it through without too much meddling from the country’s left wing camp.”
Our dirty little right wing media …. guardians of the Key myth
Additional interesting info ….
Merrill destroyed approx 45 Billion of wealth in eye watering time … poisoned on its own toxic products and bullshit book keeping. Criminal creativity.
As repayment to the USA Govt / taxpayers for their bailout and TARP money …. The Bank of America will increase its numbers of shares from approx 7.5 Billion to 10 Billion odd and use some of the extras as settlement.
Air NZ is not an SOE. It’s a listed on the share market and the govt has share options.
Listed but NZ govt has majority shareholding
It’s still not an SOE. It’s a private company.
No, it’s a public company.
Sorry quite correct. Still not an SOE.
All of them share evidence of making things worse for the general population while having made a few individuals very rich which is itself prima facie evidence of corruption.
What we should be doing is asking what we could have done with all those profits that the profiteers have made off with. With Telecom we could have FttH across the country with unlimited bandwidth on all devices. Maybe we could have built up the infrastructure enough that communications bills would be down to $10 per month per household.
It a question that needs to be asked: What could we have done with all the profit?
All of us would have been better off instead of just a few. This is the proof that profit is a dead-weight loss. It causes more harm than benefit.
I would simply take back the state’s assets with no compensation.
And appropriate all assets of Fay, Chandler etc in NZ.
Yes Ed
I agree take the assets back from these “carpetbaggers again as they stole from us.
…. most of the sheep here in NZ have rose tinted glasses, also Fletchers who bought the Rural Bank for a song ?
Cheers Tamati Tautuhi … Im pretty sure there was a fletcher on the NZ rich list …. possibly giving NZ 6 privitisation oligarchs.
I think Fletchers also got a Government leg up in their early days …. building state houses.
Filling out the rich list were two Alcohol drug barons / families ……
Myers dynasty and Ercegs lolly waters for kids and females fortune…. pre-mixed and pre-roast busters ….
Polonium tea, anyone?.
https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/967170247202664448
(Unrolled https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/967170247202664448.html )
Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort was hit with new charges on Friday, including an allegation he secretly recruited and funded a group of former European politicians to lobby in the United States on behalf of Ukraine.
[…]
The most significant allegation is that Manafort assembled what he called a “Super VIP” group of highly influential Europeans who could push Ukraine’s agenda “without any visible relationship” with the Ukrainian government, according to an email obtained by Mueller.
Manafort paid the politicians 2 million euros from offshore accounts in 2012 and 2013 to lobby members of Congress and other U.S. officials. It’s illegal for Americans to direct foreigners to lobby the U.S. without informing the Justice Department.
The so-called “Hapsburg Group” was managed by a former European chancellor, who was not named in the indictment.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-trump-campaign-aide-rick-gates-set-plead-guilty-n849256
One thing I’m supportive of here is having similar rules for money in politics here that the US has. Make it illegal for foreign money to be used in NZ politics. Make it illegal for foreigners (including foreign businesses and governments) to have any influence in our country.
“ Make it illegal for foreigners (including foreign businesses and governments) to have any influence in our country.”
You mean like the UN, Greenpeace, Oxfam, various American & Australian born Politicians, etc, etc?
I could live with that.
Then you’d be very disappointed when New Zealand citizens who are members of Oxfam, Greenpeace etc. continue their activities here.
You’ll probably have to pretend that charities are corporations too.
So if a NZ citizen is operating on behalf of your foreign organisation it is ok then?
And why should we differentiate between a corporate & a charity? They all push their own agenda, and are all potentially as corrupt and self-serving as each other.
In the case of the UN, even more so.
on behalf of your foreign organisation
Charities operate “on behalf of” their charitable aims. By law. Or they get stripped of charitable status.
So we already differentiate between them and commercial organisations.
Semantics, fool.
Answer the question. Why do some get so uptight about foreign organisations influencing our politics yet kneel down before eg the UN?
You kneel down for people? Get off your knees.
We have direct influence on the UN. We were also directly involved in its creation.
The UN is an international body made up of the governments of the world. The agreements that they come to are, technically, the agreements that we want. And they’re even agreements that we don’t have to implement.
And, after all that, it really doesn’t seem to have as much influence as business does. Now, here’s an interesting question: Can you point to any influence that the UN has in NZ?
Semantics, fool.
Who’s the fool here? “Semantics” means the meaning of words. Charities and commercial organisations have separate names because they have separate meanings, so yes, semantics. The meanings of words are important.
When are charities not a charity as increasingly there are charity trusts from politicians and rich listers and questionable religions which are really lobby groups to keep the deregulation agenda or some pocket of religion going with extra tax benefits.
Even legitimate charities now follow a trend of putting in ‘corporate’ managers who have little interest in the charity itself, more a tick on their CV (ran Red Cross) with massive donations but little being shown for it for the people who are supposed to get the charity.
Then there are charities that seem more like some sort of scam.
Not only that but apparently overseas charities often attract a small percentage of pedophiles and the like. Yikes…
It’s hard to be a charity these days, because so many are taking advantage of the term.
Nothing wrong with an increase in oversight of charities, for precisely the reasons you outline.
Personally I’d like to see them all go broke as government takes back its duties of care, rendering them irrelevant.
In the meantime, the Family Firsts and Tamakis need more aggressive scrutiny, preferably before they manage to register at all.
erm – as board member of a trust that’s in the process of getting registered charity status, I have to declare a conflict of interest 🙂
Yes, oversight on political activities including donations needs to be increased.
But small charities funded in part by local grants can demonstrate a need for a service. And then when you’re in the arts and culture field, there’s no reason the Lower Corstophine Community Hippy Cultural Appropriation Society needs to be operated by a government department just to make teepees and those lantern balloon things for one or two events a year.
Now, if it turns into a massive thing and hippy cultural appropriation societies pop up all over the place, maybe they could do with an umbrella body and direct govt funding. But small local projects need some sort of entity to operate under if you want them to last longer than the interest of one person.
Fair enough.
Yes. Maybe.
International NGOs and unions would also be excluded. If they were carved out, they would become bundlers.
That, eliminate anonymous funding and because our political processes are public, require public disclosure of the financial interests of everyone participating.
Just call it like it is – money in politics, is corrupting.
Hapsburg and Chancellor in the same sentence suggests a short list of ex-chancellors from Austria.
and sure enough – Politico has more…
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/23/paul-manafort-mueller-probe-washington-lobbying-ukraine-austria-423439
‘Hapsburger’……..the New Swamp Nothingburger ? Strange (it’s not of course) that Trump surrounded himself with crooks.
Things are gonna get furious when the presidential pardons start. Will it be then that Trump code-calls the MAGA Deplorables and the NRA (not to forget the “very fine” ‘Blood and Soil’ fascists) to deploy vengeful violence on fellow Americans ?
Would not have thought it possible once. Not so sure now.
Hi North … Drumpf cannot pardon any individual on offences charged within individual states which is how most of these against Manafort and Gates have been laid. Mueller is one of the smartest men in USA, and has brilliant attorneys working with him.
Manafort and Gates charges laid in two separate districts in fact. Think they can’t outwit the Carrot ?? My money is 1000 to 1 on Bobby Three Sticks !
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC has the clearest and finely articulate breakdown and interviews if you are interested … http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show . She goes to air each weeknight in US at 9 pm so it is free online at this link each day from about 5pm NZ. (Currently top cable news in USA due to her coverage on these subjects. (So good to see this acuity and intelligence on TV !!)
Joe90 @ 6…….do the new charges signify that Manafort (quid pro quo presidential pardon on his mind?) is provng a hard nut to crack ?
I reckon Manafort’s a small fish so they’re squeezing him with layer upon layer of charges until he coughs up the big fish.
edit: Abramson has a crack
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/967125456666415106
Tx for link. And polonium tea ? Watching closely. More like a plain old bullet in USA isn’t it ?? Or a staged suicide with gun or rope.
Having sex with prostitutes when it is legal. Not allowed for aid workers. What is this about? There seems to be some sort of unreasoned moral uprising, purity patrol. It is hard work, sex has always been a relief, a small, fleeting pleasure and it is disgraceful that charities are starting to become inhuman in their regard to their workers. It sounds like an edict from above, from someone who has been an administrator too long, a bit like David Shearer coming back here from UN aid work and finding people not completely helpless in dire distress, objects of disdain.
There was a very good book written by aid workers just behind the firing line which gives the picture you only get fragments of in reports about overseas aid.
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Sex_and_Other_Desperate_Measures
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures, by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Doctor Andrew Thomson, is the memoir of three young people who join the United Nations (UN) in Cambodia with a dream of making the world a better place. Set in the 1990s, the book was published in 2004. Thomson is a New …
Having sex with prostitutes when it is legal. Not allowed for aid workers.
It’s a bit more than that:
Mr Daccord said that it was the recent reports of sexual misconduct from humanitarian agencies that had spurred the Geneva-based ICRC to conduct an internal review.
Its code of conduct has explicitly forbidden the purchase of sexual services since 2006….
“This behaviour is a betrayal of the people and the communities we are there to serve,” Mr Daccord said.
“It is against human dignity and we should have been more vigilant in preventing this.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/351184/red-cross-reveals-staff-paid-for-sexual-services
I suggest that this is unreasonable as a blanket negative. It treats sex as something bad in itself, and doesn’t differentiate between child and adult partners. It contains its own moral hazard by not differentiating.
Also it is not against human dignity to have sex between consenting adults – this sort of talk is just prudish and irrational. Women who earn their living by being paid for sex are not in an ideal work situation, but it deserves better standing than being a mercenary soldier. Also when women have to get enough money to live, it is something to resort to, though a cleaning job is preferable; both are major female occupations. Seen in an understanding and compassionate mode, it can become a necessity and if a mother, then she is performing a noble action in sacrificing her personal inviolability to get necessities for her family.
The middle class aid salaried workers may never get personally close enough to this sort of poverty and distress to reach an understanding of the world beneath the grassroots. The ones at the top who make their pronouncements may have become saturated in management speak and elite levels of behaviour, seeing people as pawns represented by coloured markers on a map of their area of interest.
Aid workers offering help in exchange for sex does not constitute a consensual transaction.
I said that aid workers going to prostitutes should be satisfactory. The prostitutes receive money, it is their job. Surely that isn’t hard to understand. The aid workers shouldn’t be blackmailing women for sex so that they can receive aid, they should be paying for what is a personal service.
And Brigid this is not a discussion about equality of the sexes. I don’t know where the female aid workers go for sex. If they can find an outlet for their own desires good on them. This is real, hard reality and people managing the best they can and hopefully fairly and with respect for each other even harsh conditions.
I am suggesting that making a difficult job more unpleasant because of rigid rules which ban any sexual interaction at all, and treats it as an ignoble and immoral action open to disgust and retribution by the employer is irrational and unfair.
The genesis of this issue is not aid workers making consensual transactions with sex workers, as the link I posted makes abundantly clear.
Can you please identify the source of your concern regarding consensual transactions?
The genesis of the issue is the (seven years later!) allegations made against Roland van Hauwermeiren, that while he was working in Haiti for Oxfam he paid for sex.
From there, a broader spotlight has fallen across the aid sector.
And I’d guess there are aid workers perpetrating all manner of abuses.
But I don’t believe for a second that crippling the likes of Oxfam and handing their government funding to outfits like Adam Smith International will make any difference for the better.
The link at 7.1 indicates the problem is far from confined to Oxfam, and I agree it’s suspicious that they’ve been singled out.
I’m not questioning the scope. I was only pointing to the genesis being from reporting on consensual transactions for sex.
As I said previously, aside from aid programmes, some agencies are reasonable critical voices of/for society.
And I can guess some government’s don’t really want them around.
It’s not clear that the sex was consensual in Hauwermeiren’s case, and I’m pretty sure this issue predates whatever he was doing.
I agree that if Oxfam are being targeted for other reasons that’s a big problem.
Timeline: 2004: Roland van Hauwermeiren is asked to leave his job at Merlin.
2007: Corinna Csaky report (See link at 7.1) criticises a wide ranging group of NGOs.
2011: Roland van Hauwermeiren resigns as head of mission in Haiti.
Then nothing for six years.
2017/18: News media frenzy attacking Oxfam.
I think you’re both right. The original allegations were far wider than consensual transactions, and, I suspect the genesis of the current media interest is far more likely to be the stuff Bill’s talking about: hostility towards advocacy in the developed world.
I’d say three strands.
Original allegations happened in the context of wider historical problems within aid agencies around abuse (it’s not like van Hauwermeiren started this).
van Hauwermeiren’s allegations happened in the context of issues broader than consensual sex.
There’s something else going on with the current media reporting and focus on Oxfam.
I have said that the situation would be clearer if the aid agency did not say that all sex on the job with people from the work area was to be banned.
That is my point, because it clouds the issue. There is a fault in aid workers having sex with youngsters classed as children in the law of the country or against the law of the aid workers’ countries. Then there is also the problem of aid workers apparently trading aid for sex. I
Context is important here and needs to be seen as being so, to adequately discuss your issue as referred to at 11.11am OAB. .
And I started this thread. I was talking about having sex where it is legal. Haiti has been brought into it where it is illegal. That is another country.
And turning it into an abuse of power as a point. It is great for the comfortably off to have an impassioned discussion about this, with final agreement some time later that it would be better to have a no-sex rule so as not to run the risk of this. But even that is an abuse of power. The persons with the resources can afford to have long discussions when they are not in great need of the basics.
In the meantime there are people who could be doing good and being helpful to people in distress who would be happy to be treated with respect as well as aid, and who are not concerned if someone has sex with another adult and pays for it. So your academic discussions can be another barrier to being truly helpful and lack a listening ear to what people on the receiving end of aid want, and not what others say they want.
“And I started this thread. I was talking about having sex where it is legal. Haiti has been brought into it where it is illegal. That is another country.”
Well maybe you could tell us what you are talking about then, because if it’s not in reference to the Oxfam case it’s not apparent what you mean. Who has said that people can’t have sex?
It says in the quote I put up that it is from the ICRC and in the link address it says red cross. I am sorry that I didn’t spell that out for everyone.
This matter of sex on the job is emerging as a problem for all the aid agencies not just for Oxfam and I am pointing that out, and I think Oxfam might have exactly the same rigid rules as the Red Cross but am not sure about that.
I won’t say anything else now as I have made a point that I think is relevant and fair and others can pick it to bits if they wish.
There’s nothing in your link about about the Red Cross or Oxfam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Sex_and_Other_Desperate_Measures
So I still don’t know what you are talking about. You appear to be saying that aid agencies have rules that say their workers aren’t allowed to have sex. I would be highly surprised if that is true, but by all means put up something that shows that.
weka at 1.47pm
This is from my second comment.
greywarshark 7.1.1
25 February 2018 at 10:29 am
Mr Daccord said that it was the recent reports of sexual misconduct from humanitarian agencies that had spurred the Geneva-based ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] to conduct an internal review. Its code of conduct has explicitly forbidden the purchase of sexual services since 2006….
“This behaviour is a betrayal of the people and the communities we are there to serve,” Mr Daccord said.
“It is against human dignity and we should have been more vigilant in preventing this.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/world/351184/red-cross-reveals-staff-paid-for-sexual-services
weka I would like you to have said:-
‘I can’t see any reference in your comment about the Red Cross or Oxfam’. This would have been politer to me seeing that I had said that the information had been in my comment. It would be good as a commenter to receive the sort of respect that is demanded by moderators.
Why am I not feeling compassion for the poor sex-starved dears?
What OAB said. The issue is of abuse of power.
Sex work in Haiti is illegal btw.
It’s a given that there are young teens and children doing sex work in Haiti, so rather than assuming that there is no rape and exploitation going on, it’s more useful to assume there is and to look at how those people can be protected where there is some choice.
This doesn’t mean that all aid workers paying sex workers is a problem, it means that politically if you argue in such a context that there is nothing wrong you are contributing to the problems by rendering invisible the power dynamics and abuse.
If men need to have sex with other people in order to have functional lives and they are in a country like Haiti, then they need to understand the broader context and the risks associated with paying people to have sex with them. Arguments that men *have to have sex in a situation where children are being raped is highly problematic for what I would have thought were obvious reasons.
Well said weka. Disturbing that anyone could think otherwise.
I strongly agree when third world poverty and survival are involved … it becomes exploitation and slavery at that point….
But in a sick Irony….. its totally possible the Pimps providing the exploited woman and children is the UN …. They have form doing this … From Bosnia , to all over Africa …. and of course Haiti , where they ran a sex trafficking ring for approx 10 years. … and also brought along Cholera … infecting the water and killing roughly 8000 earthquake survivors.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/04/12/ap-uncovers-numerous-sexual-abuse-allegations-against-un-peaceke/22037714/ … numbers in the thousands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_sexual_abuse_by_UN_peacekeepers
‘Official agencies’ have long been outed as primary players in the trafficking of human beings, narcotics and weapons…
The ‘unofficial agencies’ will be operating in the same ‘industry’…likely under the watchful eye of the ‘official agencies’….
They should be disbanded as the criminal , moral and ethically defunct operations, they actually are…with long term custodial sentences of the most punitive level applied to those at the top..in the know..
Have Shearer or Clark ever spoken openly of the known and public issues within the UN ?
Because with as close to certainty…they will be ‘in the know’…
Let’s be absolutely clear about this: you’re alleging that David Shearer and Helen Clark are accessories to multiple counts of sexual assault of children, human trafficking, and related to the arms trade, to the extent that they should serve “long term custodial sentences”.
That’s what your innuendo implies. If you meant something else, let’s hear it.
I’d say at least 50% of aid workers are female. Where do they go for ‘relief’?
If you’ve read the book you mention you’ll know that none of the authors used prostitutes for ‘relief’.
There is a thriving sex tourist industry in Africa ,where needy women enlist the services of young studs,the ‘boyfriend experience’.
This is interesting. Abacus Bank in USA. Tiny Chinese owned bank serving the Chinese community was the only bank to be sued after the GFC! Opened in 1985 by a resident or citizen, successful and have 6 branches. It has 1/20th default rates of USA banks. They found some small fraud, checked and audited and sacked the initial loan officer taking bribes and then found the others, reported to the regulators, and got a DA that wanted scalps.
Loan officers were arrested and brought in chains in front of the media, they were ordinary workers. “The DA announced the indictment and made a real spectacle of it.”
Wallace Chapman interview this morning with Steve James Director of doco that is one being shown
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2017/wellington/abacus-small-enough-to-jail/
Steve James is best remembered as the director of the award-winning “Hoop Dreams” documentary in 1994, inexplicably snubbed for an Oscar nomination. But on Monday at the 90th Academy Awards he’s in the running, for his documentary “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”.
It’s the story of what happened to Abacus bank in New York in 2012, in the fallout from the American mortgage crisis of 2008. Abacus, a small Chinese bank in Manhattan founded by Thomas Sung, was targeted by the US District Attorney and taken to court, accused of mortgage fraud. Documentary maker Steve James explains.
I’ve got a low opinion of some of those aid agencies and how they squander money.
Go to a third world country and watch the well dressed white people driving around in their NGO stenciled late model Lexus. It’s a disgusting gravy train for some, a shame for the well meaning hard workers and also the people they are supposed to help.
( yes there’s no third world etc etc)
KCC
Yes, I have heard of them living apart from the areas they are serving – one might think okay what’s wrong with that. But apparently their standard of living will match upper middle class conditions back home. They will have swimming pools and a nice house, probably some sort of air conditioning; I don’t think they would bear to go out amongst the hoi polloi much, probably travel everywhere in an air conditioned vehicle. Aid kings and queens rather than workers.
It would be like disaster tourism for a longer period.
We humans have a capacity for callousness and turning people into grotesque spectacles. Like going down to Bedlam and seeing the mad people or going to a hanging, quite a spectacle and not to be missed. Getting down and dirty right beside the people who are in extremis means that ideas have to be changed, the level of acceptance of previously unacceptable behaviour has to be raised
for them, while keeping to the values of the wealthier society need to be maintained by the workers to control their own behaviour, but not the same in their living conditions.
KCC
I have reworded the last para a bit to try and be clearer about my thinking.
Previously unacceptable behaviour may have to be accepted in those they are helping, while keeping to the values of the wealthier society need to be maintained by the workers themselves to control their own behaviour. But in their living conditions it should be known that these will drop from the normal, and that they will not have money lavished on them.
Cheers, sorry to reply to wrong post too- mobile phone plus ineptitude 🙂
No KCC it was just end to end of my two posts, not ineptitude. Operating from a small oblong instead of a large screen makes it hard to get the overview.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/19/people-care-more-about-the-osfam-scandal-than-the-cholera-epidemic/
“Oxfam was trying with some desperation to stem the cholera epidemic, the first outbreak of which was detected in central Haiti in October, from spreading further. By the following month, it had reached Port-au-Prince and Oxfam was trying to provide uncontaminated water to 315,000 people already rendered homeless by the earthquake. ”
“We are currently reaching over 400,000 people with water, sanitation and hygiene programmes, and another 100,000 individuals mostly through our emergency food security and vulnerable livelihoods (EFSVL) programmes.”
None of this is as titillating as the sort of thing we have been reading or watching over the last week about the sexual misconduct of Oxfam employees in Haiti, but these do seem to have kept a lot of people alive who would otherwise have died.”
Surely the discussion should be on how to improve the recruiting systems and field administration systems ,….. combined with accountability of both UN or Oxfam staff.
Not destroy Oxfams funding and aid ,,,,,,,as the english tory tax haven party are doing ,,,, with help and consent generation from corporate media.
It appears they were meant to shut up about the biggest driver of poverty and inequality in the world …. stepped on the wrong toes
Let Serco tend for it …./
The Guardian reports large temperature rises in the Arctic.
“The North Pole and northern Greenland have been 17-22C (30-40F) warmer than historical averages in recent days, adding to fears of rapid polar warming that has huge implications for global climate. The northernmost weather station in the world, Cape Morris Jesup in Greenland, was above freezing nearly all day on 20 February, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute. ”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/23/uk-faces-significant-snowfall-due-to-freezing-air-from-siberia
Has this happened before or is this a new development ?
The Schiff (Dem) rebuttal to the Nunes (Rep) memo.
http://docs.house.gov/meetings/ig/ig00/20180205/106838/hmtg-115-ig00-20180205-sd002.pdf
Oh dear.
https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/967602500693102592
We already have stink bugs arriving in NZ lets hope we don’t get the toads…
Toxic toad invasion puts ecology of Madagascar at risk
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/24/madagascar-toxic-toads-lemurs-ecology-threat
Major Ropata WahaWah
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-375351692/view?partId=nla.obj-375356889#page/n6/mode/1up
More money than Key and from an even more dodgy source, if that’s truly possible !!! Blood money from murdering in Iraq, running a mercenary force in the illegal war; received many multi millions paid to him directly by the Pentagon, by his own admission.
This man must never become a major office holder, please.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21-02-2018/why-aspiring-national-leader-mark-mitchells-war-for-profit-past-matters/
Carolyn-Nth .. no way to tag you, sorry !
Thanks, veuto. Very apt analysis. So Mitchell owned the Threat Management group until 2010, when he put himself forward as a National candidate.
And he refuses to answer questions about his involvement in war for profit.
Interesting.
Hi Carloyn-Nth .. glad you found it. Good to know others are watching this. Veuto ?? not this one but it doesn’t matter !!
Sorry, rawsharkyeshe – I followed your link, then read a couple of other related articles, and came back to thank you.
No probs at all !! 🙂 Wonder how Mitchell will fare tomorrow ? His background is so laundered now … ugh.
I suspect Mitchell is trying to get his name known for a leadership bid a couple of years down the track.
Looks like Grand Marshal Bonespur is going play CIC.
President Donald Trump’s plans for a White House-backed military parade are beginning to take shape.
The president has directed the Department of Defense to organize a parade that would take place on Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – according to an unclassified Feb. 20 memo written by National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
[…]
Whether the president himself will participate in the event remains unclear. Macron took part in France’s parade, riding in an open-top military vehicle alongside the former chief of the French armed forces and surrounded by hundreds of military men on horseback.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/23/trump-military-parade-veterans-day-423405?lo=ap_d1
Grand Marshal Bonespur indeed !! lol Wonder if Bobby Three Sticks Mueller will have his cunning way with him before then ? Popcorn ready ….
Just asking who picks up the tab for shonkey Earthquake Repairs in Christchurch, Fletchers or the Taxpayer ?
Surely if their has been fraud involved the Head Contractor should be responsible for the appropriate corrective action ?
The Fletchers money will be long gone ,,, protected by Limited liability ,,, some ‘legally’ paid into executives different trusts … allowing personally bankrupted people to drive around in rolls royces … or live in multi million dollar homes … ala Wellingtons Renouf ,,,,or Aucklands equiticorp exec Hawkins …. etc
It sounds like Nationals come up with a neo leaky buildings disaster … pass the ball time again…. More bad times for home owners mainly.
Nationals new degraded building mess could be known as ……
The great Christchurch shake down
Rebuild Rortification
Brownless huge Crack syndrome … systemic arse,,,, 80% non compliant, National TM
although typical, not necessary in this instance
Curiously….
“However, no KPIs were put in place until the agreement was amended in May 2015.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79176677/no-performance-targets-for-fletcher-eqr-until-2015
But….
“EQC has set a deadline to close the Canterbury Home Repair Programme to all new customers and repairs from Monday, 1 June 2015, to ensure it has the right amount of resources necessary to complete the programme.
From 1 June, no further customers will be accepted into CHRP unless they have a prior agreement with EQR or EQC, and previously cash-settled customers will not be able to opt back in to the programme.”
https://www.eqc.govt.nz/news/deadline-for-managed-repair-%E2%80%93-1-june-2015
Now theres a coincidence.
Taxpayer(if anyone)…..thanks National
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/71124031/no-responsibility-on-fletcher-eqr-for-shoddy-quake-repairs-contract-suggests
A good little bit of digging …..thanks Pat … I always appreciate learning something.
youre welcome…but no need to dig….is fairly common knowledge in ChCh
So we the taxpayers are going to pick up the tab AGAIN for shonkey repairs in Christchurch or the homeowners are just going to have to eat shit like National’s Leaky Housing/Building Crisis which is still unresolved to date ?
probably both….some will give up (or have already) and wear the loss….others will continue to fight and will be paid (possibly partial) by the taxpayer.
Conservatives wanted to say they had a black guy, too.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/967383625900556289
The Russell McVeigh story must be causing insomnia for a few lawyers at the moment…
And I feel sorry for the victims and the huge imbalance of power from start to finish in this saga too. Surely it’s not an isolated situation.
Anyone else following this?
Just read the “not threatening” letter Adam Ross QC sent Newsroom.
My initial response to hearing the story was that this behaviour isn’t confined to one law firm. I’m hoping it creates space for others to come forward.
Yeah it’s pretty screwed up.
Fairly toxic environment, by the look of it.
I think this behaviour is common practice in most major Law Firms in NZ it goes with the territory and is one of the perks of the job ?
Norman Finkelstein on Israel’s ramped up targeting of civilians
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/02/23/gaza-on-the-brink-norman-finkelstein-on-israeli-forces-targeting-palestinian-civilians/
What a shame and the world is a poorer place for the death of this beautiful person.
Emma Chambers died today of natural causes
We will miss you Emma with your wonderful sense of humour that made us all feel very humble and had a good laugh at the same time.
Rest in peace. You will be sorely missed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/24/vicar-dibleys-emma-chambers-dies-aged-53/
Awesome Haka Rotorua boys High. I have to remember that the mokos are there and I did not realise that you mokos had a good vantage point. Its hard keeping my ego in check when I have all those sandflys following me around everywhere and trying harressing me. But I will make sure that I’m a good example for the mokos just didn’t realise that you were there. Be proud of OUR Maori culture and your tepuna like ECO MAORI is Kia kaha. Ka kite ano P.S. Isn’t it peculiar that I had to get that book of my tepuna Ropata WahaWaha from A Australian online library that’s suppression of our Ngati-porou culture and people by the neoliberals they are scared of Ngati-porou Mana
Funny how a lot of the old family archives and records just disappear, especially if family lawyers have anything to do with things ?
I haven’t quite finished the book yet to busy checking the sandflys and rowing my Waka be good mokos from what I have read from our history one can have the genealogical of great tepuna but it is how you conduct yourself that counts being humble humane and respectful. That is the way my MAMA taught me Kai pai.
Ka kite ano
Question for people who have more knowledge than me on this. Have you heard of this outfit and what they are doing?
https://landinstitute.org/
From what I’ve read and seen I really like, can the smart weka and/or Robert Guyton offer their opinions – I would be very interested?
Is anything like it happening here?
Being humble doesn’t mean you take a step backwards well I do when my wife challenges me that’s Mana Wahine treat the ladies with respect mokos that’s the way our tepuna did it.
Back to being challenged in life be it sports mahi whatever you don’t take a step backwards but you don’t go around disrespecting anybody or anything to complete your challenges in life.
That’s the way Steven Adams behaves that’s why I’m a fan of his and that’s the way ECO MAORI behaves.
I’m colour blind as well I can see colours just some I get mixed up with green yellow brown red blue purple.
So I treat every one the same no matter what colours they are with respect but with a guard up at all times that’s the way of OUR Papatuanukue at the minute. Kia kaha Ka kite ano
All right I do disrespect the sandflys but the don’t show ECO MAORI any respect they treat me like a idiot.
But you must show them respect that’s is the best way to keep your nose clean Ka pai Kia kaha Ka kite Ano P.S I will have to go back to school to learn more of OUR REO
Mao Zedong lives.
China will remove the constitutional restriction for the maximum number of terms the president and vice-president can serve, Xinhua reported on Sunday, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay on beyond 2023.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2134624/china-will-scrap-limit-presidents-term-meaning-xi?