Well it was exactly the tradeoff that tax group suggested. They wanted to extend the lowest tax bracket @10.4% from its current level of 14k up to between ~22 or ~30k. That gives a tax reduction to everyone paying personal income tax.
So I wouldn’t say that the question was loaded, it is exactly what is on the table.
I imagine the list is very long. The national anthem and to speak in parliament are the most obvious ones. Probably too to greet people when they come to her office.
How long before NZ’s idiotic ‘adventure tourism’ industry gets such a bad Health & Safety reputation that it goes bust?
Apart from the lost jobs, I wouldn’t be sad to see it go. Nothing more irritating than oblivious fools compelled to race across the landscape and jump off bits of it, rather than being content to merely be in it.
What a typical leftist view of the World – “I don’t like what other people want to do with their free time so I want them to stop it despite it providing tens of thousands of jobs that pay more than anything I’m
offering as an alternative.”
Evolution made the young (especially men) into risk takers . The riskiest thing most get in their day to day lives is crossing the road . That is the y of adventure tourism .
Was surprised to find out when the fatality at Tree Adventures took place a few years ago, that they don’t have to be reviewed on safety procedures to start operations.
World total debt now stands at $250 trillion dollars and we can never pay this amount back.
“Global debt levels soared over the past decade, with the vast majority accumulated by emerging market nations.
According to figures from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), global levels of debt held by households, governments, financials and non-financial corporates jumped by over $US70 trillion in the past decade to a record high of $US215 trillion, equating to 325% of global GDP.
Here’s what that increase looks like, looking back not only over the past decade but also to the decade before.”
Global Debt is now 10 x times what it was in the last GFC, through Qualitative Easing and money printing by the Federal Reserve it would appear their will be another correction at some stage in the future, it may be 10 x times as big as the last GFC. Interested know how Gossie reads the situation hopefully he can advise us tomorrow ?
Any chance you can explain why the opposition keep killing black Venezuelans in their violent night protests? Or can you explain why the opposition keeps violently attacking security forces and police?
And more importantly, why do you personally oppose a democratically elected President?
Maduro has said they will have new election and has asked the opposition to participate.
Also the UN special envoy found no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela
Maduro is not the democratically elected President of Venezuela as his election did not meet the criteria set down for a free and fair democratic election.
Are you by any chance Venezuelan or have you even been to Venezuela in the last 3 years? Just trying to establish your credibility for making such an unsubstantiated claim.
Wow Gosman, all you got is lies. What he won exactly the same percentage of votes as Obama, in a system way more honest than the US one. So I’m going to say Bullshit on your statement or what normal people would call it – a lie.
Caught out on your lying again, how about you do the world a favour and stop lying.
“Under the Venezuelan constitution, the CNE is the official independent body responsible for overseeing and guaranteeing the transparency of all elections.
The opposition says it is dominated by Maduro allies. It is made up of five members. The opposition alleges that four of the five are government stooges and therefore does not trust the body to be independent.
Luis Emilio Rondón, the one CNE member which has been critical of the government, said he did not recognise the results because “Venezuelans’ freedom to vote” had not been respected.”
The one member of the so called “independent” electoral body that is not a government appointed stooge called the election not free and fair. Was there something similar in the US during the last election?
Funny that the only one of the so called “independent” electoral body that wasn’t appointed by the Maduro regime was the only one that had a problem with the election don’t you think adam?
Do you believe electoral bodies should be regarded as independent by the political parties in the country or do you think the government of the day can appoint anyone they like without reference to the opposition? I’m just asking next time you complain about a National lead government appointing someone to say the board of RNZ.
Evidently the US have been flooding Venezuela with weapons to effect some kind of Civil War ?
Cuba have traditionally been one of Venezuela’s main trading partners, Cuba supply Venezuela with Doctors in exchange for oil to get around the USA embargo on Cuba which has been in effect since 1959 when Castro & Guevera took back Cuba after it was annexed by the USA in 1900.
In general Gosman conducts himself with a great deal more dignity and intellectual consistency than almost everyone here who berates him like children having tantrums …
The forces collapsing Venezuela are coming from outside, not from with in its domestic economy. Venezuelas food production is privately owned. There is nothing that would support gooies ideoical possesion.
Never though it possible until now but I just gave less of a fuck about what gooie has to say. You didn’t catch any more feelings or reasons did you logic?
“In 2010, the government nationalised the farm supply business. Agropatria is now responsible for supplying farmers with everything from seeds to pesticides.”
Your own linked article states Venezuela imports 70% of it’s food yet you want to claim Maduro is responsible for the actions of private companies being dicks with Venezuelan food, you fake. What’s even more distasteful is how any one would stick up for you, let alone allow your fake news bullshit opinions to go unchallenged just pisses me off to no end (is there no one here with a set of balls?)
Since at least 2002 after the failed military coupe against Chavez, America has issued Terrorism-Related Sanctions, Drug Trafficking-Related Sanctions, Trafficking in Persons Sanctions, Targeted Sanctions Related to Antidemocratic Actions, Human Rights Violations, and Corruption, Sanctions on Holding Companies, Additional Financial Sanctions. None of which has any evidence, just concerns from Whitehouse spokespeople who’ve never set foot in Venezuela in there life’s.
Correction: The link stated Venezuela used to make 70 % of it’s own food BEFORE Chavez took over and did stupid things like nationalise the agricultural inputs businesses. Did you not read the article?
Your questions are insulting. Now you blame Chavez for foreign interests meddling in the affairs of another nation during a military coup but what ever.
You obviously did not read the link I posted in any depth.
“In 2010, the government nationalised the farm supply business. Agropatria is now responsible for supplying farmers with everything from seeds to pesticides.
Timing is crucial and producers say the government is not delivering.
Corn is a government staple, meaning farmers have to sell it at regulated prices
This year, Ronald did not get fertiliser in time for his corn crop, so it suffered.
The corn he does grow he has to sell at regulated prices because it is a government staple. He can only just keep the farm afloat.
“We have to go it alone to try and make things better but the situation is so bad,” he says. “The country’s financial situation and what we have now is tough.” ”
In 2010 Chavez was still in power. It was his decision to nationalise the Agricultural supply company.
This decision has contributed mightily to the collapse in farming as did the decision to impose price controls and the hyper-inflation caused by excessive government spending.
You ignore countries forign to Venezuela meddling in there affairs, organising military coups and basically being shit bags because of what the largest oil reserve nation in the world, Venezuala, may one day represents a threat to U.S interests by virtue of economic sovereignty and standing on there own to feet. Still amazed at how you could gender such love from a self professed left wing site as the Standard. Amazed and angry self proffered smart people can’t even see it.
I don’t ignore them. I discount them because by far the biggest damage to the Venezuelan economy was done by the Chavista regime. This is what YOU are ignoring in your attempts to place the blame anywhere but on left wing policies.
So Chavez was elected in 1999, and was succeeded by his deputy Maduro. That’s about 20 years, and, nope, still zip nada skeletons in the closet. The numbers are just not on your side.
The sharp cold snap will have horticulturalists out with the smudge pots and other tools to defeat frost on crops, some not quite ready yet. Thought of you Robert and your grapes etc Hope you were ok. We too had rain last night Cinny, and were delighted after a long dry spell has sent the younger trees to autumn colour early.
No worries, Patricia – is was a bit chilly but today’s sunny and warmer. Your trees have assumed their autumn coats – yikes! Too soon, too soon! I need a long summer for our plans to come to fruition. One of our guests is a winemaker trained in Italy in an ancient style where the grapes are mushed into huge clay amphora. He’s going to teach me how, having seen the lovely big crop we have here this year 🙂
How long before it is drinkable? Do the vines have to have age?
My father made fijoa wine, it was beautiful. He said the trees were mature so the fruit was flavoursome and sweet.
Venezuelan socialism seems to be working just fine. Perhaps our resident Venezuelan reporter or Dick Brandson will be able to explain the humanitarian crisis over there lol.
Yes and the fact that an average meal costs over 12,500 Bolívar Soberano and that this is tied to the USD officially at a rate of 60 to 1 must mean that Venezuelans are doing wonderfully well to afford a lunch worth over 200 US dollars.
Perhaps you can report back from Venezuela how the millions there can afford $200 dollar lunches? Sure you’re not getting confused with how much you spend for lunch down at the Viaduct?
You two are such numpties. The average price of a basic meal in Venezuela is not really the equivalent of 200 USD. The Bolívar Soberan’s value has been set articifically high by the dunderheaded Venezuelan regime. The ACTUAL value is probably about 1 or 2 USD however that is likely to be out of reach for the vast majority of Venezuelans as they don’t make even that amount per day as a result of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
The US should invade NZ, as we have had more kiwis leave these shores (as a percentage) than people who have left Venezuela. Just following your logic stunned mullet.
That was certainly true between 1999 and 2008 I suppose.
On the other hand in 2008 we had an election that got rid of the incumbent lot of idiots and the flow reversed.
The New Zealand Military accepted the result of the poll and didn’t, like the Venezuelan lot, keep the rejected junta in power.
Lucky for that wasn’t it? Otherwise we might have continued with the massive exodus and been invaded.
Gee isn’t this sort of history fun? I see why you indulge Adam.
I love your ideological wankery alwyn. You’re consistent at least.
As for the military keeping a junta in power – man you so detached from reality with that line, I’m going to suggest you put down the crack pipe. But I’m not sure you can.
If I heard correctly on RNZ this morning that there is a suggestion that all rental properties should heave a heater to bring them up to 18C ????
Franly a silly suggestion however well intended..
The trouble people, some idiots, seem to think you can swan around in light clothing as they see in Hollywood etc movies.
I am a house owner and over the years I have double glassed a house I built which was insulated to start with … I also wasted money on a heat pump which rarely gets run as I am a firm believe in “personal’ as opposed to ‘general’ heating and from an experiment learnt that using the heat pump would reduce or cripple my life style so I keep warm with personal heating.
I guess that is only what an adult can do and difficult for children, or safe for them to be near heaters
Some ti,me ago the suggestion was 16C now its is 18C …. how high will these folk want it to go?.
I can only guess where this suggestion comes from which helps to confirm my opinion that they are hopelessly impractical and a menace to the well-being of the country.
If this government wants to improve conditions they should build and run more state houses so that everyone can have a good basic standard of accomdation and only have to ‘private rent’ if they want better for themselves and are prepared to pay for it.
Further to my last point … my son has central heating in the States where he lives these days but I remembering his wife telling me hat the price of electricity is much less there.
I do not know the details but it seems to me that Govt should reduce the price of power rather than gouging folk with current high prices.
It is probably not surprising really that their power is cheaper in the USA.
Did you know that 32% of US electricity is generated using Natural Gas, which is a clean method of production?
And that 30% is by coal?
And also that 20% is from Nuclear power plants? https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=electricity_in_the_united_states
Now who was it that won’t let us explore for natural gas anymore?
And has demanded that any coal fired stations be shut down?
And never allowed us to have nuclear power, which is probably the greenest of all the electricity generation methods?
And you act all surprised that our electricity is more expensive than in the US?
Our power assets were stolen by incompetent, venal scumbags – who can’t run the companies efficiently, and don’t want to anyway.
The coalition seems to be considering a few steps other than the lameass populism the Key kleptocracy embraced to try to stay in power at any cost. Reform of the power companies would enjoy a strong mandate, particularly if it includes significant punishment for non-performing PPPs that lie about outcomes to steal public assets.
Without that reform, rental landlords and employers will face another round of controls, because NZ’s poor cannot save for housing while being simultaneously rack rented and squeezed by utility companies.
Yes, both he and the companies should face some kind of consequence for their lies, and for their professional irresponsibility.
In Korea, PPPs know they’d better deliver what they promise – or their CEOs will be in jail, and the companies will be restructured until they deliver, or sold off to make good on the penalty provisions that were part of the agreement.
STANDARD 9 – ACCURACY
9e
whether the broadcaster sought and/or presented comment, clarification or input from any relevant person or organisation
STANDARD 8 – BALANCE
8c The assessment of whether a reasonable range of other perspectives has been presented includes consideration of the following, where relevant;
-whether the programme was narrowly focused on one aspect of a larger, complex debate
-the nature of the issue/whether listeners could reasonably be expected to be aware of views expressed in other coverage, including coverage in other media (eg, is it an ongoing topic of debate, such that listeners can reasonably be expected to have a broad understanding of the main perspectives on the issue)
”Venezuela: Growing condemnation of Maduro’s aid refusal’ RNZ Morning Report 25/02/2019 7.30am
This segment, does not inform the public of the following information in regards to aid/Venezuela, thereby misinforming the public through an lack of accuracy and balance in it’s reporting.
1. Both the Red Cross and the UN have declined to participate in the US/Lima Group aid programme, in large because of the politicized nature of the aid programme.
The right wing are in control of RNZ now, ever since the Labour Coalition Government took over in 2018, National moved to install their own CEO to control RNZ.
That CEO has damaged the brand beyond repair now, and forced John Campbell out after that right wing CEO was installed there .
Claire Curran did much of the damage as she fucked the whole RNZ system up for good.and should have removed him from CEO immediately.
We placed an official complaint with the RNZ after Labour took it over in november 2017 and got a dismissive letter back from Curran saying she would not dismiss the National appointed CEO.
Claire Curran is public enemy number one now, for her causing our loss of free speech.
That is a good example of how a CGT would affect a hypothetical business owner with no relevance to how small business (or any business) works. It is a terrible example of real life.
How, for instance, is leaving $600K of profit in the bank over 20 years reinvesting in the business? Her accountant would advise her against this.
No, Farrar’s think-piece is not based on any practical example. The businessperson in the article spent nothing at all on new equipment or vehicles and because all profit went to the bank. So she finished with the same tools and van she started with 20 years earlier. That is so hard to believe that the entire premise lacks any kind of validity whatsoever.
I definitely do not want to enter any discussion or argument about vaccinations but it is rather amusing that an article about measles includes the statement “…there has been a rash of recent cases in the South.”
They seem to be thinking the decades of their free market financial neo-liberalism has something to do with the marked state of societal decline, which is obviously a cover for rabid anti-semitism.
The other end of the street, fortified by surveiliance and private security, are more like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, while they embark on a grand destination of hard power and expansion, & the league of nations last century didn’t exist yet their colonies do!
China is one of the biggest methamphetamine manufacturers in the world, doubt whether production and export sales are monitored very closely. They now call Tonga the “Ice Kingdom” due to the amount of methamphetamine available in Tonga, this is one of the gateways into NZ.
I automatically laugh when I see a photo of soimon bridges in an article. I don’t bother reading it, because of his mind numbing “I will say anything to get elected” drivel contained within. Anyone else?
I seen this story on Stuff website at first it looks like a positive spin for The big 2 fertiliser companys Eco Maori totally agrees with the video on most points but big money has limited the positive data on Organic farming price will be a bit higher but if the whenua is worked correctly prouduction need not drop .The video do my mahi for me
Greenpeace wants to ban nitrogen fertiliser
Ka kite ano links below https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/110844298/nitrogen-fertilise-is-not-a-fundamental-part-of-nz-dairy-farming
Its a illision that New Zealand is one of the least corrupt countrys in the world if they can standby and let the cops break all my and my whanaus rights interfering in my grandchildrens futures playing games with my children getting people to play with my wife her psychologist is in on the game trying to tell her to do dumb shit for a 52 year old grandpearent because some cop from Gisborne Gisborne man has a big chip on his sholders because this savage is not stupid like he has stereotype me as has the whole justice system of the world at his disposal . Every time I go some were these clowns have a play in action WTF THE positive thing is I,m Not stupid and they are gracing Eco Maori with Mana and they are scared of me and te tangata can see with there OWN eyes that the systems are corrupt so they will keep out of the SHIT Lost his marbles try to intimadate Eco Maori he was a dirty RAT that one he got what he deserved he restated the Eco Maori man hunt framing me with his lies P.S I can thank the FOOLS FOR the Mana that I have now LOL One would be supprised at the amount of undercover cops they have spieing on KIWIS They swarm thats why they get the name sandflys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94dBVPpymac
Kia ora Newshub That’s a cheap air fair price from Air NZ I still won’t be flying.???
Wow the injustice system is hounding me and can’t even keep a REAL CRIMINAL in the country for prosecution Te muppets show.
Mike its dry all right have not seen it this dry since 2013 I feel for those farmers and horticultural croppers affected by the drought in Tasman and down south island. It would be logical to have a walkway and cycle lanes under the Auckland Harbour Bridge surely the transport agency will pay those people who have invested so much in to designing the under bridge walking way and cycling Lane.
That very unusual weather fish getting blown out of the the Wai and being caught mid air by people. The great lakes in Canada and America had a huge ice wall being blown on land I think it was about 3mtrs high it has happened before. I think that all the private contractors who lost money on the Mainzeal company going bust stinks.
Mercury Energy creaming kiwis it is shocking how high power price are its not on that private house holders are paying a higher price for power than commercial consumers.?????.
Ka kite ano
Kia James and Mulls from The Crowd Goes Wild.
Congratulat to the coach.
Nothing wrong with being nice
I try not to sound like the open Mike houling person but the Tamariki Mokopunas and Wahine issues + the sandflys one has to hold it down but when one see what I see most people will break In a few weeks as I don’t tell you everything.
That was a good catch by the dog 83 mtrs is that a record.
Eco Maori could do with a hinaki I would catch all of the buggers
Ka kite ano
Kia ora The AM Show yea you must have a nice spun out lieing dirt file on me and its growing everyday.
A America train stuck in the Snow for 2 days I wonder if trump can smell the Roses and change his neanderthal attitude towards climate change and stop backing carbon as it looks like he is the only one who has not figured out that the tipping point on climate change is here and now.
The Auckland council is trying to get traffic jam sorted out you sound like a blue flag wavering person. The public transport problems is being minupulated by blue flags wavers to get one of there carbon Pro m8 in the Auckland Mayor’s office. We need to get people onto buses and trains to lower our carbon footprint .
As for the cops carrying guns all the time a big Know.
You cannot even make a complaint at a police station you need to get a lawyer who cost $20.000 to be able to get justice against the cops otherwise its impossible to
lay a complaint why because they don’t want the public to know of all the dumb shit that they do to the common public you see they discrimination against the common people they intimidat they won’t go and break the rights of a person driving a $50.000 car they will get sued. The cops just want to use the fact if they get to carry guns as a intimidation device.
They are crying foul that I am damaging there reputation. But know they are the ones breaking the laws of the land breaching my whanau rights. All they have to do is FUCK OFF and leave my Whanau alone but know they are like a HALFWIT who keeps pushing a button and they get a punch blood nose they are just to stupid to learn to stop pushing that BUTTON.
A carbon tax is need Jamie yes the foolish neanderthal like duncan keep rubbishing any tax from the polluting people like him they think its OK that property owners make millions of untaxed money while the common people carry the tax burden.
Wars are started by wealthy people they still have the cups of tea together play sports but the stupid Wars they start is fought by the poor common people doesn’t matter if we die.
With your poll did the cops know the poll was run this morning polls are use to minupulate people into thinking that the majority think some thing is OK when in reality it is not a majority and most people are like SHEEP and will just follow the majority.
What idiot takes his child out of a house on to a footpath to watch a car chase and put himself and his child in danger very foolish or A SET Up to get cops guns.
Durr a house is accommodation I have said your small brain does not let you think about other people situation mark there is a housing crisis caused by national party so that people like you can cream the common people.
All the big country’s of Europe have been control by big businesses they love most people to rent off them they get the rent and capital gains to for Equality we need more people to own houses or the rich will get richer and the poor will be milked dry by the wealthy.
Ka kite ano
Here is the proff that global warming is here and now and still some neandathals keep there heads stuck in a pile of money blocking OUR True reality .
The reality is if we do not change our ways asap our grandchildren are going to have a big MESS
They were everywhere in London on the weekend. The people in short sleeves or sandals. The ones with sunglasses ostentatiously hanging from the front of their shirts or balanced on top of their heads. The beer gardens and riverside pubs of the capital were heaving; corner shops ran out of ice-cream. Outside it was 17C (62F).
Monday was another warm day, without a cloud in the sky, and in the late afternoon the light took on a magical, honey-coloured hue. It brought to mind one of those summer evenings you remember from childhood, when you’d be in the park all day and your parents let you stay out until bedtime, and you felt like you were doing something deliciously naughty just by being there.
‘I can’t help but be concerned’: early spring worries UK readers
Read more
Except it isn’t early summer: it’s February. And the entire developed world has not so much been doing something slightly naughty as systematically attacking the global ecosystem over a period of decades, and that’s how we go into this mess.
We should try to hold on to this fact as young, posh men the nation over develop a strange delusion that anyone would want to see their elbows; this is not supposed to be happening. Less than a month ago, there was video footage of extreme cold weather coming out of Chicago. Forks supported in midair by suddenly frozen noodles, water poured from kettles instantly freezing on its way to the ground: you know the sort of thing. OK, that was on the other side of the world, and was extreme and terrifying enough. But at least it was terrifying in the right direction.
On Monday, though, the temperature hit 20.3C in Ceredigion, west Wales: the highest February temperature ever recorded in Britain and the first time the thermometer had breached 20C in winter. The BBC weather account tweeted it out with a gif of the sunshine icon and the same excitable breathlessness with which Springwatch would announce it had found a new type of vole. My response contained a single word, repeated seven times. It began with F. Ka kite ano Links below
Eco Maori says people should unite across the World as the big companys here in NZ pay shit money no guarantee 40 hour week just enough money to servive but all one can afford to do is work and rest no money for leasure time we are acturly slipping backwards. When I was a young fellow any tep work no guaranted hours was payed 30 % more +holiday pay on top now that is not the case.
The big companys should be forced to pay the people who make there money a living wage.
It would be nice to know how much corporate welfare the BIG COMPANIES get in New Zealand besides family support that subserdizes there labour rates in the long run.
Cities across America should unite against big corporations
New York’s resistance to Amazon’s HQ2 is a model for a new kind of politics for cities to follow
Julia Salazar and Shaun Scott
We are from New York City and Seattle respectively. What unites us – and other major cities across the country – is that we are forced to make hard choices about equity, taxes, and jobs in the age of mega-corporations.
Seattle is the birthplace of Amazon. The city government has catered to corporations by refusing to tax them in ways that could benefit working people. When the Seattle city council repealed the Employee Head Tax in June 2018, it said goodbye to $47.5m of revenue that could have gone toward deeply affordable housing. The people of New York City, on the other hand, chose a different path. Despite a full-court press from the mayor, the governor, and business interest groups, a grassroots movement of ordinary people defeated the richest man in the world. Amazon’s lauded HQ2, which would have allowed the company to usurp millions of dollars in public funds, was rejected by the people of Queens who correctly saw the deal as the blatant giveaway that it waS
On one hand, Seattle’s actions were the latest act of political surrender to big business; on the other, activists across the country rightly took New York’s resistance as proof that a better world without capitalist extortion of public resources is possible.
There was a time when organized labor underwrote the most socio-economically equal period in American history. From the end of World War II until the mid-1970s, trade and factory workers could count on stable pay and reliable benefits in places like Seattle. The federal government played a major part in this post-war prosperity by subsidizing both urban and suburban housing, so that working families could save money and get ahead. After a corporate backlash in the 1970s, the free-market philosophy of Reagan-era America combined with widespread deindustrialization to dismantle this redistributive policy framework.
Using mass layoffs and casualized (“flexible”) labor, corporate America has kept the working class in a state of perpetual anxiety for the last four decades. The declining fortunes of working families is the result of capitalism’s war on organized labor, with the percentage of unionized workers in America dramatically decreasing from 33 percent in 1955, to 20 percent in 1983, to 10.7 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, federal housing investments have also declined sharply since since the 1970s. As professor Jason Hackworth wrote in his 2010 book The Neoliberal City, “gone are the days of the federal government providing direct subsidies to house the most acutely poor.” Stagnating wages combined with mounting costs-of-living have spelled doom for working people.
If we stand firm, major corporations will have to change how they do business. They might have to discontinue the kind of union-busting activity that Amazon has been known for. Like Microsoft, they might increase the philanthropic contributions they make towards local housing solutions. Or maybe they’ll finally pay their fair share of taxes. As any labor organizer will tell you, direct action gets the goods. When cities stand up for themselves, they stand up for each other.
We can live in cities that marshal public space and resources for the common good. To do so, we’ll have to band together. We’ll have to resist forfeiting the public trust for the private gain of a few. Ka kite ano Links below P.S Eco Maori Has these ultra wealthy people ————Ana to kai we just want a fair deal
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Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
With criticism from National piling on over the property market, the prime minister has detailed when the government will make housing announcements. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco Rizzi, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Western Australia Some Australians could be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine within weeks. Amid the continued spread of the virus and emergence of highly contagious variants, the federal government has accelerated the start of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Australia’s Threatened Species Strategy — a five-year plan for protecting our imperilled species and ecosystems — fizzled to an end last year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Lecturer, General Dentist & PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Baby teeth, or milk teeth, act like lighthouses to guide the adult ones to their correct destination. A baby tooth will become wobbly and fall out because the adult tooth ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Simon Coley, co-founder of All Good and Karma Drinks.Bananas are one of the ...
Tackling topics such as rugby and body image, Stuff’s latest podcast shines a much-needed light on Aotearoa’s complex relationship with masculinity, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black.I wasn’t sure what to think when two episodes of the new local podcast He’ll Be Right landed in ...
The Rainforest Alliance reveals that 68%* of Kiwis say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more conscious about environmental and social sustainability issues. Seventy two percent* state that they have been trying to make more sustainable purchasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns ...
ANALYSIS:By Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path Two weeks after the storming of the US Capitol by the followers of his predecessor, in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Lecturer, Creative Writing & English Literature, University of Southern Queensland Described as “the world’s greatest storyteller”, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked as the best children’s author of all time by teachers, authors and librarians. However, the new film adaptation of ...
Peak housing body, Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) welcomes the updated Public Housing Plan announced today by Minister Woods, and the commitment by this Government to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis. The 8,000 additional homes are a significant ...
Having recently walked much of the South Island stretch of Te Araroa, Kirsten O’Regan reflects on the magnificent landscapes and interesting characters she encountered along the way.On our 36th day of walking, we climb through the fire-blackened hills above Ohau, stopping to examine heat-disfigured trail markers. Fresh green shoots have ...
Miss Torta in central Auckland is putting the spotlight on a snack that’s commonplace in Mexico, but until now relatively unknown in New Zealand.You’ve heard of a torta, but what is it, exactly? Well, depending on the cuisine it can mean a flatbread, cake, tart, sweet pie, savoury pie or ...
Two of three ministerial statements from the Beehive have been released in the name of the PM over the past two days. The more important, insofar as it involves political action that will affect the wellbeing of significant numbers of Kiwis, was the release of the government’s Public Housing Plan ...
Jacinda Ardern has reminded Labour MPs "ongoing vigilance" will be required in 2021 to avoid another Covid outbreak, admitting she held her breath over the summer break. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Pinged $65 for overstaying 10 minutes in a parking block? Put away your hard-earned cash and read this first.Hopefully, by now, I’ve already established myself at The Spinoff as the resident tightarse, determined to avoid all unfair and unnecessary punishments (see: oversize baggage charges). Today, I’m focusing my attention on ...
Nuclear weapons states and their allies risk reputational ruin if they flout a new UN Treaty, Carolina Panico argues The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will come into force this month, on January 22, 2021, turning nuclear weapons into illegal objects. It is an achievement that ...
How does one turn into a rabid extremist over the description of a children’s bike? Emily Writes looks at Facebook comments so you don’t have to.You’ve been there, I know it. You’re scrolling along, trying to avoid QAnon conspiracy theories and Trump apocalypse memes when a story catches your eye. ...
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and many people across America and throughout the world will consequently be breathing more easily. But while the erratic, unpredictable and irresponsible years of the Trump Presidency may be over, ...
Tough border testing for New Zealand honey imports to Japan is re-igniting the conversation about the use of the weed killer glypohsate in New Zealand. ...
The Taxpayers Union should be aware of the law and of the history of ACC. The ACC is a legal system introduced in 1974 to replace the common law right of accident victims to sue for damages for personal injury sustained as a result of negligence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Terrorism, political extremism, Donald Trump, social media and the phenomenon of “cancel culture” are confronting journalists with a range of agonising free-speech dilemmas to which there are no easy answers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Associate Professor of the Sydney Pharmacy School, University of Sydney You’ve just come from your monthly GP appointment with a new script for your ongoing medical condition. But your local pharmacy is out of stock of your usual medicine. Your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna D’Alessandro, Professor & ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney On Wednesday this week, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was measured at at 415 parts per million (ppm). The level is the highest in human history, and is growing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington It might be summer in New Zealand but we’re in for some wild weather this week with forecasts of heavy wind and rain, and a plunge in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney University Last week, the McIver’s Ladies Baths in Sydney came under fire for their (since removed) policy stating “only transgender women who’ve undergone a gender reassignment surgery are allowed entry”. The policy was ...
There are good grounds for optimism after the guardrails of American democracy held firm through to Joe Biden's inauguration today as President, writes Stephen Hoadley Pessimism abounds about the perilous condition of American democracy. Commentators and headline writers proffer memes such as ‘broken and divided nation’, ‘the threat from within’. ...
*This article was originally appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Donald Trump will forever be remembered as the president who was impeached twice - and for his rhetoric that struck a chord so deep in America that it will take years to dissipate. Donald Trump leaves Washington with the lowest approval ...
A new plan shows how and where the Government will build 8,000 new state housing places it funded in Budget 2020, Marc Daalder reports Jacinda Ardern has kicked off the political year with a major announcement, promising hundreds of new state housing places in regional centres across the country. With ...
This is the full transcript of President Joe Biden's speech after being sworn in at his inauguration this morning in Washington DC Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, and my distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, this is America's day. This ...
Analysis: President Donald Trump has left the White House, and his deputy chief of staff confirms he is withdrawing his candidacy to lead the OECD. New Zealander Christopher Liddell withdrew his nomination to be Secretary-General of the powerful 37-member OECD and was one of the last members of the Trump Administration to depart ...
Kate Wills is facing stage four cancer with the same fierce approach she takes into her ocean swimming - never say can't. Even on the mornings Kate Wills feels wretched from her fortnightly chemotherapy treatment, she drags herself up at 5am and goes swimming. “I have to. It’s my job – to ...
Some costs associated with meetings speak for themselves, others are less conspicuous. Victoria University of Wellington's Val Hooper lays those costs out, making suggestions on where we can rein them in. Meetings – when last did we count the costs? And so it’s back to work and one of the ...
Andrew Paul Wood assesses the best-selling picture book by Grahame Sydney It's no great secret the commercially very successful Grahame Sydney has a long-standing beef that his work doesn’t receive more critical and institutional approval. I sympathise about the lack of critical attention, but I can understand why. The Discourse™ ...
This story was produced in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity and Columbia Journalism Investigations. It was originally published by Public Integrity, Mother Jones, The Arizona Republic and Orlando Sentinel. It is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the ...
Analysis: It has been easy to ignore anyone daring to criticise or even question any aspect of the government’s Covid-19 response. Their voices have rarely been heard, and when they have been raised they have been quickly and decisively howled down by the favoured coterie of academics. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US presidential inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated through Wednesday and Thursday. The inauguration ceremony begins at 5.15am Thursday, NZ time, and Joe Biden takes the oath of office around 6am. 7.25am: And what about Trump?In the early hours of this morning, NZ ...
In 10 x 100, we survey a group of 100 people via Stickybeak and ask them 10 questions. Last month we quizzed Wellingtonians. Today, we ask NZ drivers how they’ve found a holiday period without international tourists, and what they get up to while they’re on the road.Across Aotearoa roads ...
Emmanuel Macron's anti-separatist policies have garnered backlash from the international Muslim community. Now, a global coalition has complained to the UN. ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden as they go on an odyssey of women’s rage, and find out how we can channel our anger into good. First published September 15, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by ...
By Lorraine Ecarma in Cebu City The University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) will continue to stand against any threats to human rights, chancellor Clement Camposano has declared in response to the termination of a long-standing accord preventing military incursion on campus. In a Facebook post, Camposano said the academic ...
ANALYSIS:By Jennifer S. Hunt, Australian National University Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit different. If the last US presidential inauguration in 2017 debuted the phrase “alternative facts”, the ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby In spite of Papua New Guinea’s mandatory mask-wearing requirement under the National Pandemic Act 2020, many public servants attending a dedication service in Port Moresby have failed to wear one. They were issued masks before entering the Sir John Guise Indoor Complex but took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Moro, Associate Professor of Science & Medicine, Bond University How do scabs form? — Talila, aged 8 Great question, Talila! Our skin has many different jobs. One is to act as a barrier, protecting us from harmful things in the ...
US President Donald Trump is pardoning former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is accused of fraud in a case involving funds for the border wall. ...
Joel Little with Lorde, Dera Meelan with Church & AP, Josh Fountain with Maala and Randa and Benee – producers make good songs great. Now a new fund from NZ on Air is putting the focus on them.Six months ago it looked like the music industry was on the brink ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denise Buiten, Senior Lecturer in Social Justice and Sociology, University of Notre Dame Australia On average, one child is killed by a parent almost every fortnight in Australia. Last week, three children — Claire, 7, Anna, 5, and Matthew, 3 — were ...
This commendable and realistic decision again underlines that it is the police, not government, who are largely responsible for the reduction in cannabis prosecutions over the past 15 years, writes Russell Brown.The news that New Zealand police have discontinued the annual Helicopter Recovery Operation, which has, each summer for more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington We will not be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us until the world’s population is mostly immune through vaccination ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout Wednesday and Thursday, NZ time. Reach me at catherine@thespinoff.co.nz.4.00pm: What will Trump be doing tomorrow?It’s pretty well known by now that outgoing president Donald Trump intends to throw out the rulebook when it comes to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is calling out Mayor Phil Goff for his undignified comment that the claim made by Councillor Greg Sayers asking why Auckland Council is funding yoga classes is “bullshit.” Yesterday, Councillor Greg Sayers penned ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At 4am Thursday AEDT, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as president and vice president of the United States, replacing Donald Trump and Mike Pence. What follows is ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission. New Zealanders flocked to beaches and lakes this summer, but it wasn't enough to fill the gap left by international tourists in other regions. The tourism industry is struggling to fill a $6 billion hole left by international tourists ...
Summer reissue: Chef Monique Fiso joins us for a chat about Hiakai – her acclaimed Wellington restaurant, and the title of her stunning new book.First published November 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn ...
A new trough was brought to our attention this morning, although ethnicity will limit the numbers of eligible applicants. If you are non-Maori, it looks like you shouldn’t bother getting into the queue – but who knows?We learned of the trough from the Scoop website, where the Kapiti ...
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Capital Gains Tax Polls
https://sub-zero-politics.blogspot.com/2019/02/cgt-polls.html
The Colmar Brunton question is loaded – “Would you Support or Oppose the Capital Gains Tax if there was a Cut in Personal Income Tax ?”
That’s a bit like asking “would you like to pay less tax and someone else pay more tax’?
Even them only 46% supported “the Capital Gains Tax’ – something that is not even defined yet let alone agreed on by Government parties.
Well it was exactly the tradeoff that tax group suggested. They wanted to extend the lowest tax bracket @10.4% from its current level of 14k up to between ~22 or ~30k. That gives a tax reduction to everyone paying personal income tax.
So I wouldn’t say that the question was loaded, it is exactly what is on the table.
Meanwhile … the Feb 2019 Newshub Reid Research Poll question asked “Do you Support or Oppose the Government imposing a Capital Gains Tax”
(shades of the frequent use of Tax Burden as a deliberate rhetorical device laden with negative connotations)
(Note: client Newshub – rather than pollster Reid Research – devise the questions … as does One News rather than Colmar Brunton)
A simple question – what does Jacinda Ardern actually stand for? Can you explain that?
Sometimes you act like a political neophyte – don’t know if genuine or disingenuous but certainly silly.
What does Jacinda Ardern stand for?
All that is not grey.
Beige I meant beige!!
Have you wondered what would happen if PG joined the Labour Party?
https://www.santamargherita.net/us/product/beige-stardust/
I imagine the list is very long. The national anthem and to speak in parliament are the most obvious ones. Probably too to greet people when they come to her office.
🙂
And probably when elderly people enter the room also.
i heard that she does not stand for the No Mates Party, if that helps with your decision making?
the National Anthem.
Simple answer: read her opening address to Parliament.
it’s there in black and white.
Equity
How long before NZ’s idiotic ‘adventure tourism’ industry gets such a bad Health & Safety reputation that it goes bust?
Apart from the lost jobs, I wouldn’t be sad to see it go. Nothing more irritating than oblivious fools compelled to race across the landscape and jump off bits of it, rather than being content to merely be in it.
What a typical leftist view of the World – “I don’t like what other people want to do with their free time so I want them to stop it despite it providing tens of thousands of jobs that pay more than anything I’m
offering as an alternative.”
Gosman;
So what is the “typical rightist view of the world”?
let it be full of ‘plunder and extortion’?
Gossie left wing views of Democratic Socialists is equitable distribution of wealth and income.
Typical leftie I don’t like it when businesses kill their customers whiny bleating eh gozzer.
Evolution made the young (especially men) into risk takers . The riskiest thing most get in their day to day lives is crossing the road . That is the y of adventure tourism .
Was surprised to find out when the fatality at Tree Adventures took place a few years ago, that they don’t have to be reviewed on safety procedures to start operations.
Something I was not aware of at the time.
Killing people for trying to bring in humanitarian relief supplies. Bravo Venezuelan Socialism.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/23/venezuela-border-latest-maduro-guaido
Weaponising humanitarian aid is killing people. Bravo USA, bravo.
Perhaps the Venezuelan government is getting advice from Hamas.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/06/gaza-un-aid-hamas
Gosman your right wong lot will get your chance to plunder very soon now;
Global Debt is now 200% worse than when the last GFC came in 2008.
We are now on the edge of the financial cliff that is about to crumble.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/global-debt-levels-hit-an-eye-watering-215-trillion-last-year-2017-4
World total debt now stands at $250 trillion dollars and we can never pay this amount back.
“Global debt levels soared over the past decade, with the vast majority accumulated by emerging market nations.
According to figures from the Institute of International Finance (IIF), global levels of debt held by households, governments, financials and non-financial corporates jumped by over $US70 trillion in the past decade to a record high of $US215 trillion, equating to 325% of global GDP.
Here’s what that increase looks like, looking back not only over the past decade but also to the decade before.”
Read more at;
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/global-debt-levels-hit-an-eye-watering-215-trillion-last-year-2017-4
I don’t see what this has got to do with Venezuela other than the Socialist regime was very good at running up debts.
Gosman;
You are so bloody thick!!!
Read where I said ‘Global’ not ‘Socialist’ – get some new glasses.
Yes and what has “Global” debt got to do with “Socialist” Venezuela?
Agree + 100% the guy is as thick as pig shit
You are just trying to derail the comment thread.
You’re trolling Gozzie – go and have a cup of tea.
This is Open Mike. You can’t troll here.
That is manifestly untrue, though you may dodge the ban hammer here slightly longer.
Global Debt is now 10 x times what it was in the last GFC, through Qualitative Easing and money printing by the Federal Reserve it would appear their will be another correction at some stage in the future, it may be 10 x times as big as the last GFC. Interested know how Gossie reads the situation hopefully he can advise us tomorrow ?
More propaganda from Gosman.
Any chance you can explain why the opposition keep killing black Venezuelans in their violent night protests? Or can you explain why the opposition keeps violently attacking security forces and police?
And more importantly, why do you personally oppose a democratically elected President?
Maduro has said they will have new election and has asked the opposition to participate.
Also the UN special envoy found no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela
https://chicagoalbasolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/un-report-on-venezuela-and-ecuador-alfred-de-zayas.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2V_GVz6O7hF2E403rHokyK1crm5s3tH0dnpuPg_SI2UPSNKf9h_B50fgQ
You need more proof – or you going to keep up your B.S. Gosman and spreading lies.
https://www.unspecial.org/2018/09/successful-un-mission-to-venezuela/?fbclid=IwAR0WxhfcbNMBovNGgZz5Bi-DhTv4TbtscIE4gmqVJaNJ26J5isGNygs2TCM
Maduro is not the democratically elected President of Venezuela as his election did not meet the criteria set down for a free and fair democratic election.
Are you by any chance Venezuelan or have you even been to Venezuela in the last 3 years? Just trying to establish your credibility for making such an unsubstantiated claim.
CIA and US Sympathizer ?
Gooie can’t handle straying to far outside of his intellectual comfort zone, best to keep it PG for him, might have another tantey.
Wow Gosman, all you got is lies. What he won exactly the same percentage of votes as Obama, in a system way more honest than the US one. So I’m going to say Bullshit on your statement or what normal people would call it – a lie.
Caught out on your lying again, how about you do the world a favour and stop lying.
A system way more honest than the US – Really???
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-44187838
“Under the Venezuelan constitution, the CNE is the official independent body responsible for overseeing and guaranteeing the transparency of all elections.
The opposition says it is dominated by Maduro allies. It is made up of five members. The opposition alleges that four of the five are government stooges and therefore does not trust the body to be independent.
Luis Emilio Rondón, the one CNE member which has been critical of the government, said he did not recognise the results because “Venezuelans’ freedom to vote” had not been respected.”
The one member of the so called “independent” electoral body that is not a government appointed stooge called the election not free and fair. Was there something similar in the US during the last election?
“The opposition says…”
The same ones who have staged how many coup attempts now?
I put the UN link above it also proves the elections are robust and fair. But facts are an inconvenient truth to you ah gossy.
Funny that the only one of the so called “independent” electoral body that wasn’t appointed by the Maduro regime was the only one that had a problem with the election don’t you think adam?
Do you believe electoral bodies should be regarded as independent by the political parties in the country or do you think the government of the day can appoint anyone they like without reference to the opposition? I’m just asking next time you complain about a National lead government appointing someone to say the board of RNZ.
As always just more spin and lies from you.
Why can’t you answer my simple question adam?
When you answer mine, I’ll reciprocate.
Weren’t they trespassing gozzer? You’d think they could’ve left the supplies at the border to be picked up. I guess Guiado wanted to play Santrump.
The UN and the Red Cross were also opposed to the US backed ‘humanitarian’ relief effort, seeing it as a political gimmick.
Evidently the US have been flooding Venezuela with weapons to effect some kind of Civil War ?
Cuba have traditionally been one of Venezuela’s main trading partners, Cuba supply Venezuela with Doctors in exchange for oil to get around the USA embargo on Cuba which has been in effect since 1959 when Castro & Guevera took back Cuba after it was annexed by the USA in 1900.
Wrong on so many levels.
You ducking or did you concede earlier?
In general Gosman conducts himself with a great deal more dignity and intellectual consistency than almost everyone here who berates him like children having tantrums …
Oh certainly, he’s a real sweetheart
I didn’t say you had to agree with him, or even like him …
Suppose I could be a little more concrete then. Venezuela seeks to repatriate $550 million of gold from Britian>>> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-gold-exclusive/exclusive-venezuela-seeks-to-repatriate-550-million-of-gold-from-britain-sources-idUSKCN1NA1Q7
The forces collapsing Venezuela are coming from outside, not from with in its domestic economy. Venezuelas food production is privately owned. There is nothing that would support gooies ideoical possesion.
Never though it possible until now but I just gave less of a fuck about what gooie has to say. You didn’t catch any more feelings or reasons did you logic?
Wrong.
“In 2010, the government nationalised the farm supply business. Agropatria is now responsible for supplying farmers with everything from seeds to pesticides.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-latin-america-42398814
Your own linked article states Venezuela imports 70% of it’s food yet you want to claim Maduro is responsible for the actions of private companies being dicks with Venezuelan food, you fake. What’s even more distasteful is how any one would stick up for you, let alone allow your fake news bullshit opinions to go unchallenged just pisses me off to no end (is there no one here with a set of balls?)
Since at least 2002 after the failed military coupe against Chavez, America has issued Terrorism-Related Sanctions, Drug Trafficking-Related Sanctions, Trafficking in Persons Sanctions, Targeted Sanctions Related to Antidemocratic Actions, Human Rights Violations, and Corruption, Sanctions on Holding Companies, Additional Financial Sanctions. None of which has any evidence, just concerns from Whitehouse spokespeople who’ve never set foot in Venezuela in there life’s.
Correction: The link stated Venezuela used to make 70 % of it’s own food BEFORE Chavez took over and did stupid things like nationalise the agricultural inputs businesses. Did you not read the article?
Your questions are insulting. Now you blame Chavez for foreign interests meddling in the affairs of another nation during a military coup but what ever.
Maduro is in charge.
You obviously did not read the link I posted in any depth.
“In 2010, the government nationalised the farm supply business. Agropatria is now responsible for supplying farmers with everything from seeds to pesticides.
Timing is crucial and producers say the government is not delivering.
Corn is a government staple, meaning farmers have to sell it at regulated prices
This year, Ronald did not get fertiliser in time for his corn crop, so it suffered.
The corn he does grow he has to sell at regulated prices because it is a government staple. He can only just keep the farm afloat.
“We have to go it alone to try and make things better but the situation is so bad,” he says. “The country’s financial situation and what we have now is tough.” ”
In 2010 Chavez was still in power. It was his decision to nationalise the Agricultural supply company.
This decision has contributed mightily to the collapse in farming as did the decision to impose price controls and the hyper-inflation caused by excessive government spending.
You ignore countries forign to Venezuela meddling in there affairs, organising military coups and basically being shit bags because of what the largest oil reserve nation in the world, Venezuala, may one day represents a threat to U.S interests by virtue of economic sovereignty and standing on there own to feet. Still amazed at how you could gender such love from a self professed left wing site as the Standard. Amazed and angry self proffered smart people can’t even see it.
I don’t ignore them. I discount them because by far the biggest damage to the Venezuelan economy was done by the Chavista regime. This is what YOU are ignoring in your attempts to place the blame anywhere but on left wing policies.
Blaming policy is the gospel of liars, thieves, con-artists, and imbeciles who can’t handle the fact that forign policy is beyond them.
Ignoring the effects of bad policy is the domain of the moronic.
So Chavez was elected in 1999, and was succeeded by his deputy Maduro. That’s about 20 years, and, nope, still zip nada skeletons in the closet. The numbers are just not on your side.
Gossie is a lovely little boy, he is a real little sweetie his mum tells me.
US, relief supplies come with guns.
Ask Argentina….
USA actively trying to destabilize Venezuela IMHO
Gossie have a read of this and get back to me.
http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-war-on-venezuela-is-built-on-lies?fbclid=IwAR1T6XyELZ4JQa3N5jFHPlYUjmh_31bn7bTuPKmKKQH83YXD1szRDHMYEEs
Sad to see Pilger lose whatever was left of his journalistic integrity.
Caught some more feelings? So what.
The sharp cold snap will have horticulturalists out with the smudge pots and other tools to defeat frost on crops, some not quite ready yet. Thought of you Robert and your grapes etc Hope you were ok. We too had rain last night Cinny, and were delighted after a long dry spell has sent the younger trees to autumn colour early.
No worries, Patricia – is was a bit chilly but today’s sunny and warmer. Your trees have assumed their autumn coats – yikes! Too soon, too soon! I need a long summer for our plans to come to fruition. One of our guests is a winemaker trained in Italy in an ancient style where the grapes are mushed into huge clay amphora. He’s going to teach me how, having seen the lovely big crop we have here this year 🙂
You may be shit out of luck there bobs. Short cold summer this time.
substantive regime change
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/aao/aao_index.html
Gossie is a lovely little boy, he is a real little sweetie his mum tells me.
Arrived at work this morning after riding (mostly down) the 3.3km – not sweating. Arrived up the hill this evening panting but not sweaty…
I wish I could say it was because I was getting so fit. However it was just today’s Auckland weather.
How long before it is drinkable? Do the vines have to have age?
My father made fijoa wine, it was beautiful. He said the trees were mature so the fruit was flavoursome and sweet.
Autumn is nearly here, enjoying the cooler nights some what.
Venezuelan socialism seems to be working just fine. Perhaps our resident Venezuelan reporter or Dick Brandson will be able to explain the humanitarian crisis over there lol.
😆 Yes the exodus of people from Venezuela must just be due to their holiday season.
Yes and the fact that an average meal costs over 12,500 Bolívar Soberano and that this is tied to the USD officially at a rate of 60 to 1 must mean that Venezuelans are doing wonderfully well to afford a lunch worth over 200 US dollars.
https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/country/venezuela
http://fortune.com/2018/08/22/venezuela-redenomination-sovereign-bolivar/
200usd will buy two people an all they can eat Sunday buffet from the top hotel in Hawaii and will cover the tip as well.
Bloody USA, weaponising Aid so that it’s neighbours can eat for less than the price of weekly rent in small town
America.
Perhaps you can report back from Venezuela how the millions there can afford $200 dollar lunches? Sure you’re not getting confused with how much you spend for lunch down at the Viaduct?
You two are such numpties. The average price of a basic meal in Venezuela is not really the equivalent of 200 USD. The Bolívar Soberan’s value has been set articifically high by the dunderheaded Venezuelan regime. The ACTUAL value is probably about 1 or 2 USD however that is likely to be out of reach for the vast majority of Venezuelans as they don’t make even that amount per day as a result of the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.
Are you in Venezuela currently, Gosman?
Have you ever been to the nations which you piss all over in your diatribes?
One two;
Gosman is employed obviously to just annoy people as he/she just talks diatribe with every single post.
I now ignore his/hers rubbish trash.
Thanks cg..
Gosmans recorded archive speaks for itself…
Gossie is on the Gook Nationalist Payroll, he is a Professional RWNJ Troll IMHO ????
Gook?
Fuck you, you racist mother fucker.
yep that fucker should be banned
He/she annoys the f%#k out of me, I am sure he/she must be a faggot ?
Ever lived in a socialist nation? I notice the most starry eyed about socialism have never been or lived near a socialist nation, let alone in it.
Evidently women are more sexual in socialist societies.
Yes. I lived in New Zealand before the 80‘s.
The US should invade NZ, as we have had more kiwis leave these shores (as a percentage) than people who have left Venezuela. Just following your logic stunned mullet.
🙄 😆 🙄
More stunning logic from stunned mullet.
That was certainly true between 1999 and 2008 I suppose.
On the other hand in 2008 we had an election that got rid of the incumbent lot of idiots and the flow reversed.
The New Zealand Military accepted the result of the poll and didn’t, like the Venezuelan lot, keep the rejected junta in power.
Lucky for that wasn’t it? Otherwise we might have continued with the massive exodus and been invaded.
Gee isn’t this sort of history fun? I see why you indulge Adam.
I love your ideological wankery alwyn. You’re consistent at least.
As for the military keeping a junta in power – man you so detached from reality with that line, I’m going to suggest you put down the crack pipe. But I’m not sure you can.
If John Key was still here I am sure we would have had a US Airforce Military Base here by now.
USA have got their grubby little fingers in there somewhere.
Monsoon season in Venezuela they normally migrate down to Uruguay and Argentina for about six weeks until the rainy season finishes.
If I heard correctly on RNZ this morning that there is a suggestion that all rental properties should heave a heater to bring them up to 18C ????
Franly a silly suggestion however well intended..
The trouble people, some idiots, seem to think you can swan around in light clothing as they see in Hollywood etc movies.
I am a house owner and over the years I have double glassed a house I built which was insulated to start with … I also wasted money on a heat pump which rarely gets run as I am a firm believe in “personal’ as opposed to ‘general’ heating and from an experiment learnt that using the heat pump would reduce or cripple my life style so I keep warm with personal heating.
I guess that is only what an adult can do and difficult for children, or safe for them to be near heaters
Some ti,me ago the suggestion was 16C now its is 18C …. how high will these folk want it to go?.
I can only guess where this suggestion comes from which helps to confirm my opinion that they are hopelessly impractical and a menace to the well-being of the country.
If this government wants to improve conditions they should build and run more state houses so that everyone can have a good basic standard of accomdation and only have to ‘private rent’ if they want better for themselves and are prepared to pay for it.
Further to my last point … my son has central heating in the States where he lives these days but I remembering his wife telling me hat the price of electricity is much less there.
I do not know the details but it seems to me that Govt should reduce the price of power rather than gouging folk with current high prices.
jcuknz
Yes I lived in Canada and US for a decade and today the price of power is half the cost of NZ still.
Today we are now being robbed by extortionists called ‘power companies’ here in NZ now and it must stop!
Power Companies have to generate a good return for the investors & shareholders.
They arranged for their suited smootharsed mates in the private sector to do the gouging jucky.
It is probably not surprising really that their power is cheaper in the USA.
Did you know that 32% of US electricity is generated using Natural Gas, which is a clean method of production?
And that 30% is by coal?
And also that 20% is from Nuclear power plants?
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=electricity_in_the_united_states
Now who was it that won’t let us explore for natural gas anymore?
And has demanded that any coal fired stations be shut down?
And never allowed us to have nuclear power, which is probably the greenest of all the electricity generation methods?
And you act all surprised that our electricity is more expensive than in the US?
We’re not surprised at all.
Our power assets were stolen by incompetent, venal scumbags – who can’t run the companies efficiently, and don’t want to anyway.
The coalition seems to be considering a few steps other than the lameass populism the Key kleptocracy embraced to try to stay in power at any cost. Reform of the power companies would enjoy a strong mandate, particularly if it includes significant punishment for non-performing PPPs that lie about outcomes to steal public assets.
Without that reform, rental landlords and employers will face another round of controls, because NZ’s poor cannot save for housing while being simultaneously rack rented and squeezed by utility companies.
Max Bradford told us that privatizing our Electricity Companies was going to bring down power prices, lying thieving c&%t ?
Yes, both he and the companies should face some kind of consequence for their lies, and for their professional irresponsibility.
In Korea, PPPs know they’d better deliver what they promise – or their CEOs will be in jail, and the companies will be restructured until they deliver, or sold off to make good on the penalty provisions that were part of the agreement.
Yes, it is surprising, considering most of ours is generated by hydro power stations that were fully paid for, from taxation, decades ago.
With a free energy input.
The fact we are paying twice, is because ideological idiots, gave them away in a fire sale.
And we are having to pay back the private sector borrowing, to buy them.
Formal Complaints
Formal Complaint Submitted
STANDARD 9 – ACCURACY
9e
whether the broadcaster sought and/or presented comment, clarification or input from any relevant person or organisation
STANDARD 8 – BALANCE
8c The assessment of whether a reasonable range of other perspectives has been presented includes consideration of the following, where relevant;
-whether the programme was narrowly focused on one aspect of a larger, complex debate
-the nature of the issue/whether listeners could reasonably be expected to be aware of views expressed in other coverage, including coverage in other media (eg, is it an ongoing topic of debate, such that listeners can reasonably be expected to have a broad understanding of the main perspectives on the issue)
”Venezuela: Growing condemnation of Maduro’s aid refusal’ RNZ Morning Report 25/02/2019 7.30am
This segment, does not inform the public of the following information in regards to aid/Venezuela, thereby misinforming the public through an lack of accuracy and balance in it’s reporting.
1. Both the Red Cross and the UN have declined to participate in the US/Lima Group aid programme, in large because of the politicized nature of the aid programme.
Alexandra Boivin, ICRC delegation head for the United States and Canada, said Friday that the ICRC had told U.S. officials that whatever plans “they have to help the people of Venezuela, it has to be shielded from this political conversation.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/red-cross-warns-u-s-about-risks-of-sending-aid-to-venezuela
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14316
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/red-cross-warns-u-s-about-risks-of-sending-aid-to-venezuela
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-un/un-warns-against-politicizing-humanitarian-aid-in-venezuela-idUSKCN1PV2GF
2, The fact that Aid has been delivered from other country’s was (and is) never mentioned
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/aid-wars-in-venezuela-russian-medicine-arrives-as-maduro-blocks-us-aid-141387
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Venezuela-Receives-933-Tons-of-Medical-Aid-From-Allies-Abroad-20190214-0025.html
Please also note that RNZ, as far as I know, have never included this information in any of it’s reporting on this subject.
Adrian I am with you there, RNZ is useless now.
The right wing are in control of RNZ now, ever since the Labour Coalition Government took over in 2018, National moved to install their own CEO to control RNZ.
That CEO has damaged the brand beyond repair now, and forced John Campbell out after that right wing CEO was installed there .
Claire Curran did much of the damage as she fucked the whole RNZ system up for good.and should have removed him from CEO immediately.
We placed an official complaint with the RNZ after Labour took it over in november 2017 and got a dismissive letter back from Curran saying she would not dismiss the National appointed CEO.
Claire Curran is public enemy number one now, for her causing our loss of free speech.
Curran f%$ked it up big time trying to play secret squirrel stuff around Wellington, she was extremely wet behind the ears.
There is a good example of CGT and how it would effect a small business owner on Kiwiblog today.
That is a good example of how a CGT would affect a hypothetical business owner with no relevance to how small business (or any business) works. It is a terrible example of real life.
How, for instance, is leaving $600K of profit in the bank over 20 years reinvesting in the business? Her accountant would advise her against this.
Yes with CGT coming in there will be a high demand for good accountants to structure affairs to avoid as much CGT as possible.
No, Farrar’s think-piece is not based on any practical example. The businessperson in the article spent nothing at all on new equipment or vehicles and because all profit went to the bank. So she finished with the same tools and van she started with 20 years earlier. That is so hard to believe that the entire premise lacks any kind of validity whatsoever.
Farrar – almost always lies by omission of pertinent facts. The resulting trash gets gobbled up by the same old morons who can’t think.
They have about the same discrimination as stray dogs eating garbage.
Yeah, ‘blog blinkers’, tasty chestnuts plucked from the whole story.
I like the toleration of a contrary view here, albeit a thick-skin required, I think it fuels interesting debate.
Quality journalism used to be about ‘This is the ‘for’ argument and this is the ‘against’ argument. Make up your own mind.
Farrar’s blog of ‘Feel this way or be necklaced’ does little to make NZ a better place to live. I think this blog does, thank-you lprent.
Sigh… Damn you Wakefield.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/officials-race-identify-measles-patients-contacts
I definitely do not want to enter any discussion or argument about vaccinations but it is rather amusing that an article about measles includes the statement “…there has been a rash of recent cases in the South.”
😆
Well spotted !!!!
Rash is probably prickly too.
Deputy Leader issues a direct challenge to Corbyn to improve the internal conflicts within Labour. Not pretty:
https://www.politico.eu/article/tom-watson-uk-opposition-in-crisis-deputy-leader-admits-jeremy-corbyn-anti-semitism/
They seem to be thinking the decades of their free market financial neo-liberalism has something to do with the marked state of societal decline, which is obviously a cover for rabid anti-semitism.
The other end of the street, fortified by surveiliance and private security, are more like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, while they embark on a grand destination of hard power and expansion, & the league of nations last century didn’t exist yet their colonies do!
Just a reminder, this guy was considered one of the serious, responsible Repug contenders in 2016.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/02/marco-rubio-tweet-qaddafi-gaddafi.html?via=homepage_recirc_recent
Two more Chinese Methamphetamine Importers caught bringing in the substance into NZ in Golf Carts do we really need this breed of people in NZ ?
JK’s & National Party new imports no doubt ?
Lucky for them they weren’t caught smuggling at the Chinese end.
That’s why they bring it into NZ as they know the consequences are minimal for a very lucrative return on investment (ROI)
China is one of the biggest methamphetamine manufacturers in the world, doubt whether production and export sales are monitored very closely. They now call Tonga the “Ice Kingdom” due to the amount of methamphetamine available in Tonga, this is one of the gateways into NZ.
Tamati Tautuhi, A Thai on a business visa and an illegal Chinese immigrant.( on tv 1.)
Apologies only one Chinaman and a Thai I wonder who his mother was ?
I automatically laugh when I see a photo of soimon bridges in an article. I don’t bother reading it, because of his mind numbing “I will say anything to get elected” drivel contained within. Anyone else?
Nick Yes and Yes.
I seen this story on Stuff website at first it looks like a positive spin for The big 2 fertiliser companys Eco Maori totally agrees with the video on most points but big money has limited the positive data on Organic farming price will be a bit higher but if the whenua is worked correctly prouduction need not drop .The video do my mahi for me
Greenpeace wants to ban nitrogen fertiliser
Ka kite ano links below
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/110844298/nitrogen-fertilise-is-not-a-fundamental-part-of-nz-dairy-farming
Its a illision that New Zealand is one of the least corrupt countrys in the world if they can standby and let the cops break all my and my whanaus rights interfering in my grandchildrens futures playing games with my children getting people to play with my wife her psychologist is in on the game trying to tell her to do dumb shit for a 52 year old grandpearent because some cop from Gisborne Gisborne man has a big chip on his sholders because this savage is not stupid like he has stereotype me as has the whole justice system of the world at his disposal . Every time I go some were these clowns have a play in action WTF THE positive thing is I,m Not stupid and they are gracing Eco Maori with Mana and they are scared of me and te tangata can see with there OWN eyes that the systems are corrupt so they will keep out of the SHIT Lost his marbles try to intimadate Eco Maori he was a dirty RAT that one he got what he deserved he restated the Eco Maori man hunt framing me with his lies P.S I can thank the FOOLS FOR the Mana that I have now LOL One would be supprised at the amount of undercover cops they have spieing on KIWIS They swarm thats why they get the name sandflys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94dBVPpymac
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute .P.S They won`t beable to break my Wairua.
Kia ora Newshub That’s a cheap air fair price from Air NZ I still won’t be flying.???
Wow the injustice system is hounding me and can’t even keep a REAL CRIMINAL in the country for prosecution Te muppets show.
Mike its dry all right have not seen it this dry since 2013 I feel for those farmers and horticultural croppers affected by the drought in Tasman and down south island. It would be logical to have a walkway and cycle lanes under the Auckland Harbour Bridge surely the transport agency will pay those people who have invested so much in to designing the under bridge walking way and cycling Lane.
That very unusual weather fish getting blown out of the the Wai and being caught mid air by people. The great lakes in Canada and America had a huge ice wall being blown on land I think it was about 3mtrs high it has happened before. I think that all the private contractors who lost money on the Mainzeal company going bust stinks.
Mercury Energy creaming kiwis it is shocking how high power price are its not on that private house holders are paying a higher price for power than commercial consumers.?????.
Ka kite ano
Kia James and Mulls from The Crowd Goes Wild.
Congratulat to the coach.
Nothing wrong with being nice
I try not to sound like the open Mike houling person but the Tamariki Mokopunas and Wahine issues + the sandflys one has to hold it down but when one see what I see most people will break In a few weeks as I don’t tell you everything.
That was a good catch by the dog 83 mtrs is that a record.
Eco Maori could do with a hinaki I would catch all of the buggers
Ka kite ano
That’s excellent Mana Wahine Ad boys Ka kite ano
Kia ora The AM Show yea you must have a nice spun out lieing dirt file on me and its growing everyday.
A America train stuck in the Snow for 2 days I wonder if trump can smell the Roses and change his neanderthal attitude towards climate change and stop backing carbon as it looks like he is the only one who has not figured out that the tipping point on climate change is here and now.
The Auckland council is trying to get traffic jam sorted out you sound like a blue flag wavering person. The public transport problems is being minupulated by blue flags wavers to get one of there carbon Pro m8 in the Auckland Mayor’s office. We need to get people onto buses and trains to lower our carbon footprint .
As for the cops carrying guns all the time a big Know.
You cannot even make a complaint at a police station you need to get a lawyer who cost $20.000 to be able to get justice against the cops otherwise its impossible to
lay a complaint why because they don’t want the public to know of all the dumb shit that they do to the common public you see they discrimination against the common people they intimidat they won’t go and break the rights of a person driving a $50.000 car they will get sued. The cops just want to use the fact if they get to carry guns as a intimidation device.
They are crying foul that I am damaging there reputation. But know they are the ones breaking the laws of the land breaching my whanau rights. All they have to do is FUCK OFF and leave my Whanau alone but know they are like a HALFWIT who keeps pushing a button and they get a punch blood nose they are just to stupid to learn to stop pushing that BUTTON.
A carbon tax is need Jamie yes the foolish neanderthal like duncan keep rubbishing any tax from the polluting people like him they think its OK that property owners make millions of untaxed money while the common people carry the tax burden.
Wars are started by wealthy people they still have the cups of tea together play sports but the stupid Wars they start is fought by the poor common people doesn’t matter if we die.
With your poll did the cops know the poll was run this morning polls are use to minupulate people into thinking that the majority think some thing is OK when in reality it is not a majority and most people are like SHEEP and will just follow the majority.
What idiot takes his child out of a house on to a footpath to watch a car chase and put himself and his child in danger very foolish or A SET Up to get cops guns.
Durr a house is accommodation I have said your small brain does not let you think about other people situation mark there is a housing crisis caused by national party so that people like you can cream the common people.
All the big country’s of Europe have been control by big businesses they love most people to rent off them they get the rent and capital gains to for Equality we need more people to own houses or the rich will get richer and the poor will be milked dry by the wealthy.
Ka kite ano
Here is the proff that global warming is here and now and still some neandathals keep there heads stuck in a pile of money blocking OUR True reality .
The reality is if we do not change our ways asap our grandchildren are going to have a big MESS
They were everywhere in London on the weekend. The people in short sleeves or sandals. The ones with sunglasses ostentatiously hanging from the front of their shirts or balanced on top of their heads. The beer gardens and riverside pubs of the capital were heaving; corner shops ran out of ice-cream. Outside it was 17C (62F).
Monday was another warm day, without a cloud in the sky, and in the late afternoon the light took on a magical, honey-coloured hue. It brought to mind one of those summer evenings you remember from childhood, when you’d be in the park all day and your parents let you stay out until bedtime, and you felt like you were doing something deliciously naughty just by being there.
‘I can’t help but be concerned’: early spring worries UK readers
Read more
Except it isn’t early summer: it’s February. And the entire developed world has not so much been doing something slightly naughty as systematically attacking the global ecosystem over a period of decades, and that’s how we go into this mess.
We should try to hold on to this fact as young, posh men the nation over develop a strange delusion that anyone would want to see their elbows; this is not supposed to be happening. Less than a month ago, there was video footage of extreme cold weather coming out of Chicago. Forks supported in midair by suddenly frozen noodles, water poured from kettles instantly freezing on its way to the ground: you know the sort of thing. OK, that was on the other side of the world, and was extreme and terrifying enough. But at least it was terrifying in the right direction.
On Monday, though, the temperature hit 20.3C in Ceredigion, west Wales: the highest February temperature ever recorded in Britain and the first time the thermometer had breached 20C in winter. The BBC weather account tweeted it out with a gif of the sunshine icon and the same excitable breathlessness with which Springwatch would announce it had found a new type of vole. My response contained a single word, repeated seven times. It began with F. Ka kite ano Links below
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/terrified-warm-weather-global-warming-london
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Eco Maori says people should unite across the World as the big companys here in NZ pay shit money no guarantee 40 hour week just enough money to servive but all one can afford to do is work and rest no money for leasure time we are acturly slipping backwards. When I was a young fellow any tep work no guaranted hours was payed 30 % more +holiday pay on top now that is not the case.
The big companys should be forced to pay the people who make there money a living wage.
It would be nice to know how much corporate welfare the BIG COMPANIES get in New Zealand besides family support that subserdizes there labour rates in the long run.
Cities across America should unite against big corporations
New York’s resistance to Amazon’s HQ2 is a model for a new kind of politics for cities to follow
Julia Salazar and Shaun Scott
We are from New York City and Seattle respectively. What unites us – and other major cities across the country – is that we are forced to make hard choices about equity, taxes, and jobs in the age of mega-corporations.
Seattle is the birthplace of Amazon. The city government has catered to corporations by refusing to tax them in ways that could benefit working people. When the Seattle city council repealed the Employee Head Tax in June 2018, it said goodbye to $47.5m of revenue that could have gone toward deeply affordable housing. The people of New York City, on the other hand, chose a different path. Despite a full-court press from the mayor, the governor, and business interest groups, a grassroots movement of ordinary people defeated the richest man in the world. Amazon’s lauded HQ2, which would have allowed the company to usurp millions of dollars in public funds, was rejected by the people of Queens who correctly saw the deal as the blatant giveaway that it waS
On one hand, Seattle’s actions were the latest act of political surrender to big business; on the other, activists across the country rightly took New York’s resistance as proof that a better world without capitalist extortion of public resources is possible.
There was a time when organized labor underwrote the most socio-economically equal period in American history. From the end of World War II until the mid-1970s, trade and factory workers could count on stable pay and reliable benefits in places like Seattle. The federal government played a major part in this post-war prosperity by subsidizing both urban and suburban housing, so that working families could save money and get ahead. After a corporate backlash in the 1970s, the free-market philosophy of Reagan-era America combined with widespread deindustrialization to dismantle this redistributive policy framework.
Using mass layoffs and casualized (“flexible”) labor, corporate America has kept the working class in a state of perpetual anxiety for the last four decades. The declining fortunes of working families is the result of capitalism’s war on organized labor, with the percentage of unionized workers in America dramatically decreasing from 33 percent in 1955, to 20 percent in 1983, to 10.7 percent in 2017. Meanwhile, federal housing investments have also declined sharply since since the 1970s. As professor Jason Hackworth wrote in his 2010 book The Neoliberal City, “gone are the days of the federal government providing direct subsidies to house the most acutely poor.” Stagnating wages combined with mounting costs-of-living have spelled doom for working people.
If we stand firm, major corporations will have to change how they do business. They might have to discontinue the kind of union-busting activity that Amazon has been known for. Like Microsoft, they might increase the philanthropic contributions they make towards local housing solutions. Or maybe they’ll finally pay their fair share of taxes. As any labor organizer will tell you, direct action gets the goods. When cities stand up for themselves, they stand up for each other.
We can live in cities that marshal public space and resources for the common good. To do so, we’ll have to band together. We’ll have to resist forfeiting the public trust for the private gain of a few. Ka kite ano Links below P.S Eco Maori Has these ultra wealthy people ————Ana to kai we just want a fair deal
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/cities-america-unite-against-big-corporations