All good in defending Ardern, but are those commentators actually wrong?
[lprent: Of course they’re wrong. While there are a lot of dimwits who subscribe to the great all-seeing dictator theory of management, I’ve never ever seen anyone ever managing it. You’d have to be a complete and utter fool to even think that.. This is probably about as close as you’re going to get to it.
Now lets go back and actually hear your ‘opinion’ perhaps you could explain your theory on it so I can explain why I think that you’re wrong, query the source you parroted it from and spit on your intellect in robust debate.
However that will be a week away. Banned for a week so you can figure out the following.
I see you try this standard troll tactic again, I will boot you off the site permanently. This site is here for your opinions, not for you to play dumbarse debating team / trolling tactical games on it.
this whole Inquiry is like the shit they are investigating – so sad they are getting it wrong on such an important area. Time to walk the walk minister
Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin has refused to express confidence in the leadership of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, after it was revealed a convicted child sex offender was involved.
The gang member chosen is I understand someone who has faced up to his own misdeeds and understands the dynamic so is good value. Pity that many politicians who are guilty of bad actions of all sorts don't own up to them, and turn round and try to improve the situation for the people ane the country. People who declare themselves pure of all stain, have never moved from their easy chair.
The problem here is the connection between gangs and sexual assault. It's not simply about whether the gang member has made amends, it's about whether the survivors feel safe. This should be the priority.
In this case, complaints have been made about his current behaviour, so his 'good value' is undermined by that.
Edit:
Uh-huh. Sounds as if his presence may be disturbing at present, and if a young woman has been attacked she isn't going to feel comfortable seeing a similar guy to the attacker in the panel or even in the room.
However he would be useful in later discussions after the victims have given evidence and got some comfort from that. He would be invaluable to give background about the sexual behaviour that he has observed, and why and how it happens that way, and his opinions on improving the situation.
I think NZ is embarrassed about sex and there should be discussions about it on a medical and social discussion level to try and get a balanced view about sexual matters. We need to think about it and progress, it is a public health thing, and we owe it to each other and our children to have clear guidelines that fit our modern world which seems to have past rigid attitudes and prudishness lingering. We need to respectfully treat the matter, as important to all for relationship health, and to mental health and understanding of our drives as humans.
Do people generally know about the way that young people go about their first sexual experience? Is there open discussion about sexual matters, so basic to us all? What do girls think about it, what do boys? There should be discussions as part of sexual education at school, or run by Primary Health nurses, and should be in a mixed group with appropriate professionals or community leaders leading the discussion. There might be a model discussion videoed that parents could watch to see and understand the value of this.
Guidelines for behaviour formed by agreement between the participants after discussion, would go a long way to preventing feelings of being pushed to participate and talking about the misunderstandings that could lead either gender to believe that it was okay to push ahead because it would be enjoyable in the end, or some such reason.
I apologise to anyone who thinks that the whole matter should be screened off and the less said the better. I think that has led us to where we are now, just as I think that being obsessed with sex and talking about it a lot, casually, is also in appropriate. It should be a special personal thing, 'Not Given Lightly'. Balance is all.
Don't know what you are trying to say there, but the inquiry is about the state's responsibility for children in its care who were abused (sexually, physically, emotionally). This isn't about sex and sexuality, it's about abuse. That you conflate the two renders your opinion on what is appropriate in the inquiry irrelevant.
There is a concept of trauma-informed or clinically-informed process. It exists because when put into practice it gives the best wellbeing outcomes for people who have been harmed. The inquiry has failed on that in a number of ways. The complaints against the gang member are about his behaviour and how that has affected the inquiry in a number of roles. His expertise can't trump that.
With regard to the issue of women not trusting a gang member, the inquiry should have managed that so he wasn't in a role where that would be an issue. Again, trauma-informed process matters and creates better outcomes.
I saw your comment and have thought about since it was made.
Try and listen to Insight this Sunday just after 8am on RNZ. Part of the reason is cyber abuse and predatory tourists.
Parents /grandparents needs to be educated on how to keep a child safe and a child needs to known what is grooming and what is unsafe contact from an adult.
Governments need to take sexual exploitation seriously both online and tourism.
I think you need to have a think about why this Inquiry is being set up in the first place – it is about the innocent victims abused and treated like shit – which apparently continues, in the form of the way this Inquiry is going, to date imo
Sorry marty mars – I do understand that I had suggested something inappropriate at the first. It seems the heariang should be divided into two – first the victims and then better approaches to ensure respect of both genders for each other's emotional nature. I have tried to explain how I feel that things could be done afterwards to lead to less of this sort of trauma happening in the future.
I'm sorry too – I know you are engaging with comments and working hard to put stuff up and debate it – I can be a bit 'shoot first ask questions later' type which is irritating I know.
The purpose of the Royal Commission is to give a voice to the now adults who were children in social welfare care and in faith based care. To exclude anyone who is entitled to be there is to do them a disservice, example a convicted pedophile who was sexually assaulted while in social welfare care.
The Royal Commission needs to establish what the outcome/impact is from an individual's experience of being mistreated and harmed.
Everyone appearing before the Royal Commission need to feel secure about the process.
There are some gaps in the Royal Commission which require immediate action.
"The hope is that Labour will adopt it as official party policy and add the Green New Deal proposal to its next manifesto"
The problem is however as Greta said
“….saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight…”
hmmmm ..solutions are nowhere is sight.
Hey, just a repeat post from last night…if anyone else knows of a group of people pushing for the WEAG recommendations to be implemented can you pls let us know.
What we would all like to know is what WEAG and AAAP mean. Some of us do, and many don't. Will people stop talking in acronyms because you are not going to reach your potential audience to make your point if they don't know what you are talking about?
Horeskin and Garner are Natzi paid shrills trying to destroy Jacinda's reputation by making these types of comparisons, the problem is the RWNJ's will start believing these guys as most New Zealanders are sheep who can not think for themselves and believe MSM ?
What deadbeats – beating up on a kid! No doubt they are put out because all their ranting and raving hasn't had a scratch of the influence of a 15 year old who quietly and respectfully sat outside the Swedish Parliament with a placard on Fridays.
What's new? Not worth the effort to write criticising the 'boys'.
I suggest any outrage you feel uses energy that is precious that could be applied elsewhere. Wallowing in outrage is so satisfying but getting into the support works and the promotion of new ways and the thinking of who and what is being hurt by climate change and political maltreatment is ongoing hard labour.
RNZ are reporting the US Congress leader Nancy Pelosis have announced a formal investigation with a view to impeach the president.
Apparently it is based on an anonymous whistleblower allegations, that link Trump personally gaining political favour, by having investigations in the Ukraine linking Biden to the baddies.
My very amateur hunch is that if this goes ahead, rather than sink trump, it will embolden him and strengthen his voter support. The Dems will think they have their trump card (boom boom!) and Trump can continue to Fake News!, obfuscate and fib.
On one hand, Don of the Deadbrains has been in impeachable violation of his constitutional obligations from the moment of of his inauguration, and has been vigorously adding to his rap sheet ever since. He has made it abundantly clear he's quite happy to betray his country if he thinks there's personal benefit to be had. So if the Dems don't impeach him, they're basically surrendering their oversight and accountability obligations and the power of impeachment becomes meaningless. Also, there may be political benefit in publicising the wrongdoing that's been done and forcing Repugs into a yes or no vote.
On the other hand, removing the Mango Mugabe from office via impeachment simply ain't gonna happen. There's an absolute minimum of 20 Repug senators that would have to vote for conviction. But watching what happened to Mark Sanford, Jeff Flake and the very few other elected Repugs that spoke against the mandarin manutang has dissolved whatever vestigial spines and principles they may have once possessed.
Hell, even after a successful impeachment in the House, Moscow Mitch might just Garland the trial in the Senate and thereby spare Repug senators from having to even cast an uncomfortable vote. I certainly haven't yet seen any language in the constitution compelling the Senate to hold the trial, whereas the language requiring the Senate to consider Merrick Garland's nomination was quite clear, yet Moscow Mitch got away with just blowing off that constitutional obligation.
So yeah, there's the risk that impeaching Hair Furor in the House without a conviction and removal from office by the Senate might be viewed by enough of the electorate as stupid partisan political games and backfire on the Dems.
Great analysis, Adrian. My reckons have a small % following this with enthusiasm, some thinking this will sink the Hysterical Hairdo and for the majority, it will barely register.
BTW do you have a Trump name generator app? The Mango Mugabe caused an involuntary snort.
It looks like the Dems may have evidence yet to be released:
It appears that a lot of additional information about the Ukraine affair is about to come to light. The House intelligence committee has announced that the whistleblower wishes to testify, and could do so as early as this week, meaning that the public could soon learn the details of the allegations against Trump – and see what evidence there is.
Oops: I can’t find the link address. It was a Guardian news item which appears to have disappeared or been incorporated into another story. Sorry.
yep – I can't imagine they have gone this way without some big gotchas – I don't think the teflon turnipturd will be bothered though – he just turns it around by lying
Hi Marty, Anne, things like modern politics have less and less to do with evidence and truth. Witness the British Prime Minister illegally and unlawfully dissolving parliament.
I don't doubt that there is damning evidence but that doesn't matter if the perception of the great unwashed differs from the narrative.
eg CC is no problem because we have 'clean coal', I heard the president say so a few times.
Equally, I have little faith in the Dems making hay from this.
Akin to Hilary being a sure bet, she will win because she is experienced, it's her turn, she is a woman….
Within 24 hrs of the "wonderful" (Trump's words) meeting with Ardern he has:
1) Ruled out any tightening of gun laws in the US.
2) Refused to sign the US up to the Christchurch Call and has made a speech at the UN denouncing the attempt by technological companies to curtail free speech.
Worst case: the terms of the investigation are too narrow, charges go to Senate, and the repugs exonerate him. Re-election 2020.
Best case: he gets investigated, it takes until november 2020 but the dirt getting exposed is so overwhelming that it scuppers his re-election bid. And then federal and state charges are laid January 2021. He spends the last years of his life shafting his lawyers' attempts to have him ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Middle-worst case: senate convicts him, president pence gets elected as a spiritual cleanser.
Middle case: whether or not he gets convicted or re-elected, New York State does him for tax fraud.
So after flailing round for 3 years the Dems think they've finally got their man by saying he's obstructing aid. Oh the irony! Let's see if this has opened the door for Iran, Venuezuela and N Korea to launch their own impeachment proceedings too lol.
A touch cynical, but often correct. The operative word there is "us", though. The national interest, not the personal interest of the officials making the decisions.
The essential difference between realpolitik and personal corruption.
The call is only one red flag. A whistle blower went to the IG with evidence of other wrongdoing, too.
btw, the Senate has unanimously agreed to Schumer's resolution calling for the whistle blower complaint to be turned over to the intelligence committees
Mate is pretending to be too stupid to understand the obvious threat being made. So he can pivot to his one true love, perpetual whining about Dems.
edit: Also interesting is how closely Mate is parroting Repug talking points:
“McConnell also indicated that he hasn’t backed off even an inch from his cover-up for Trump’s criminal behavior, releasing a statement claiming that Democrats have held “a two-and-a-half-year impeachment parade in search of a rationale.” ”
wonderful stuff thank you maui – must be time for a guestpost from you – be great to read all your ideas on this in one post – that will create a forum for debate no doubt
You have a view, shared by many, that tbh I don't agree with AND it would be good to have that difference outlined to see the logic and arguments – I want to really understand why people think the way they think.
A lot of Maori men are in prison, but while a lot is made of the percentage to population, they are still a minority to pakeha and tauiwi extremely unpleasant criminals. Have a look at the s.itheads in this nasty murder case. Should these men when babies have been taken from their parents? What sort of parental methods result in adult outcomes who will never realise their potential to be a great, happy, admirable person? Would parental classes for both young people which would come connected to a fortnightly child assistance payment to them, get them on a positive line of child rearing and understanding how to cope and manage through stresses, and be co-operative.
Those who have worked in the criminal justice system are well aware that there is a massively high probability that the sorts of people you refer to were taken from their parents.
From the "I am not a believer in conspiracy" files.
On Sunday I visited another town in my EV. While having it recharged at a public facility. I went for a walk with my wife for a block a way and went through a car yard I had visited two years ago while searching for an EV to buy. There were no staff as the yard was closed.
Today on Facebook there is a specific ad on my Facebook Home page from the very car yard that I visited.
Coincidence? It's a startling thing.
Is there a possibility that facial recognition technology from a security camera is at play here? That my very basic cell phone is being tracked? That my car rego was noted when I drove past twenty minutes later? That my EV's electronic key in my pocket was somehow 'discovered'?
Or is it just coincidence and some very targeted advertising based on my facebook activity and previous purchase? As the saying goes, coincidence occurs only when we can't see the levers and pulleys.
I guess I am really asking for comment from wiser technology-savvy heads about how deep intrusion in our lives is based on tracking our personal information?
assuming you are in NZ I would guess it's either a semi-coincidence (based on targeted advertising from other activity), or it's your phone or credit card usage.
If your phone is a smart phone you can turn location services off.
FB will be using your IP address to target advertising, so if you have FB on your phone it will know your general area by how you connect to the internet.
I don't know what happens with EVs, but it's worth checking if it's the EV's GPS. You could ask the manufacturer for details on what the tech is in your car and if it's connected to online services.
I would be very surprised if this was facial recognition, we're not there yet in NZ afaik.
According to David Spiegelhalter in The Art Of Statistics there is no such thing as coincidence, its just a matter of mathematics. "Connected "people, the sort who talk to others a lot, and I know you are one mate, find more coincidences simply because they have a lot more information and contacts. Yes, it looks suspicious but as you say you have been online looking at EV sites, also you were in this specific town using cards etc which ramps up the coincidence possibilities. If you had not gone there would the pop up have happened the next day. Who knows ? . It may simply be the act of paying for the charge up in the vicinity and the webby thing did the rest.
Its disturbing this bullshit which is why I have stared paying for everything with pebbles.
So Mac1 if I don''t come back from the bar with my round on Friday night its because I've been thrown out on my arse.
Thanks, Weka and Adrian. The EV's GPS still thinks it's in Japan. I’m in NZ as Adrian knows.
My cell has a FB icon but I've never used it or set it up.
I did get e-mail acknowledgements immediately of my use of public chargers but would FB know that? That charger also accessed my bank account and was my only credit card use on that trip.
So as you say, Adrian, it might be a webby thing……. perhaps I should adopt your payment method using the asparagus coming out of my ears at the moment.
When I return to work after 3 days off, I am often prompted to offer a review of my hospitality place of work. I have put it down to the location tracker jobbie in my Whoarewe phone.
This in no way makes me think we are under-survielled and spied upon excessively.
Location services and the apple equivalent is a generic facility on your cell phone. I haven't looked at it too recently, but it uses GPS, wifi, cell towers, and even near field or blue tooth to try to increase the accuracy of its fix – especially when you are indoors and the GPS signal sucks.
It is also something that quite a lot of apps access, everything from google maps to various other systems that read location information and sell it directly or indirectly to advertisers.
If it's capable a 3g net connection google will be following you around. Need to turn that off, also downloaded any apps? Plenty of them capture location data and sell it back for advertising purposes.
Yep they use all of the things you mentioned. Sometimes car yards/shops use beacons which push messages to your phone (if you have this enabled and didn't realise you could turn it off it would freak you out).
I'll be watching you
Every move you make
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
Bluetooth beacons, however, can track your location accurately from a range of inches to about 50 meters. They use little energy, and they work well indoors. That has made them popular among companies that want precise tracking inside a store.
The beacons connect with your phone to gather data.
The Guardian Firewall team has discovered that a growing number of iOS apps have been used to covertly collect precise location histories from tens of millions of mobile devices, using packaged code provided by data monetization firms. In many cases, the packaged tracking code may run at all times, constantly sending user GPS coordinates and other information.
In order to gain initial access to precise data from the mobile device’s GPS sensors, the apps usually present a plausible justification relevant to the app in the Location Services permission dialog, often with little or no mention of the fact that location data will be shared with third-party entities for purposes unrelated to app operation.
All location data monetization firms listed on this page collect one or more of the following data points:
Bluetooth LE Beacon Data
GPS Longitude and Latitude
Wi-Fi SSID (Network Name) and BSSID (Network MAC Address)
In addition, some firms also collect the following types of less sensitive device information:
Accelerometer Information (X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis)
Advertising Identifier (IDFA)
Battery Charge Percentage and Status (Battery or USB Charger)
It's used by one of the biggest retailers in the country.
When customers use mobile applications developed by Scentre, or logon to Wi-Fi provided in Westfield shopping centres or third party applications utilising Scentre’s infrastructure (including Bluetooth beacon networks), customers provide Scentre with certain information including their contact details.
The protest took place in the township of Ruawai, at the northern end of Kaipara Harbour.
Between 120 and 150 farmers turned up, most of them by tractor.
They said a suite of measures, zero carbon legislation, the latest water plan and the Billion Trees Programme could force some of them off their land.
The Mayor of Kaipara, Jason Smith, said it was a quiet protest but with a strong message.
"They weren't tooting horns, there was no loud noise, people were standing around in solidarity, just being concerned (about the future)," Dr Smith said.
The Kaipara Harbour is NZ's largest by area. There are many acres of farmland surrounding it and it's tributaries. As more pressure comes to bear against farmers adjacent to waterways, I think the Kaipara region will become a hotbed of discontent.
I think the strongest protest they could mount would revolve around showcasing farmers that are going the extra enviro mile. We all support those guys.
Edit
We do indeed, and should be helping others up by their bootstraps. All is not won though as i have heard of farmers watching their stock eat down the greenery, flaxes, and then stepping past it to get to the stream. So vigilance is required for effectiveness even once measures to remediate pollution are taken.
I understand that Kaipara has had a lot of run off into the estuary? So it is in farmers interest to keep their top soil, and also to keep the estuary water in good health, because I think it is a place for growing spat as a business? Isn't that also where they had the great sewerage fixing bill? It seems there is a lot to do, so just getting together to protest would be not being real men. Getting together to form working groups helping each other for the good of the whole, as well as to meet the government requirements that have been needed for probably two decades or longer. The problems have not shown up suddenly, out of the blue.
And not to be overlooked is the effect of sea rise. I think that it is flat around Kaipara, so the farmers can huddle around a map showing projections of where the sea will rise and how it will affect them. Perhaps dredging and building up sand and mud dunes on which they could plant mangrove or such that would be good fish spawning cover for young fish. That would help to take some of the brunt of waves in storms.
They might get help on their streams from the Environment River Patrol Aotearoa NZ which Milan Ruka has been behind. He has been doing more stuff than the farmers about water and environment health and might have some tips.
I've thought of a word to describe some of the regular commenters here – CAN'T (Carpers and Negative Controllers) and they attempt to shut down discussion, either deliberately or in the nit-picking way they treat others comments.
While it may not be ad hominem comment, it is slanted to give the commenter the feeling that their comment from their mind has nothing to say of relevance and therefore the person is mindless, ignorant, and for many people this is the same as an ad hominem in its effect. Obsessed people may continue to arise despite, but for those concerned for a wider discussion covering all topics it is greatly disheartening.
The reply to the comment will not build on it adding more background, it will not simply correct a mistake. The comment will be dumped on as wrongly quoted, the syntax is wrong, some figures wrong and so the whole comment is useless to consider, and it shows a mind uninformed and with nothing to add to the superior understanding of the person who responds. Wrong, wrong, wrong, so buzz off you inferior person. That's the message and the end result to many, while the lords, mainly I think, of the internet roll on flattening the poppies who might otherwise have got tall before they were attacked.
In other words the message is 'You 'Can't' say anything of importance or helpful – why bother.'
I try to put my comments to the table test before clicking Submit Comment.
'Would I use the same words if I was sitting across the table from the person I'm responding to?'
I wonder if people that feel the need to dominate and seed confrontation in a discussion on an anon message board lead somewhat different lives in the real world.
I wonder. But I get concerned at the lack of participation in this blog from lefties. I wonder if they lose heart. Times are tough and work hours or making do is demanding. But learning while you are going is not wasted time and just raising a query and some ideas and getting response is heartening. If the response is a sneer not. If it is a little query about meaning or the need to put source, or show opinion one way and quote okay. But encouragement is primary rather than scholastic lessons or entrenched opinion coming down on you.
There are some great people out there so those who seem to want to dominate, go schtum. Let it pass, ask for more info. Try to love other people's reaching up for understanding, communication, togetherness. There are some people who I am very wary of, anyone who tries to love and trust all others is unwise, but let's try to find How to get There…?
Since i read about the Exclusive Brethren leader who commented that a young man who was suicidal over the split between the cult and his family, would be better off dead, should take rat poison, I thought that I can't trust these people. And there were other features of their behaviour which when understood showed they can never be trusted and that applies to a number of cults.
Going round being kind to all without wariness, is being naive sorry gsays – and over time you will find they often understand you very well and prefer to remain obscure themselves.
You are starting to sound like a flower child from hippy times. I think loving all is OTT, trying to have goodwill to all with wariness is good, and helping where you can be kind and being friendly. When you find who to trust, and know the small number that you will ever understand the heart of, then love them. Just don't throw it away like tissues or easy tears, it is precious, there isn't a lot of the real thing around.
Love for those who deserve it, good will for those who deserve it, patient tolerance, disdain or disgust for those gone off track or beyond redemption. That says it I think. No need to hang social dictionary tags on it.
I wonder if people that feel the need to dominate and seed confrontation in a discussion on an anon message board lead somewhat different lives in the real world.
Not usually, however that is mostly because I tend to avoid arguing with people outside of online. It is obvious when you look at what happens on these kinds of forums.
Arguing or even discussing things with other people often means that you need to be somewhat on a level playing field to get anything out of it. But conversations are usually one to few in real-life.
Now I’m an extreme case. I have always had a really capacious memory, lots of CPU cycles, and a habit of thinking a lot about everything. Plus I have been continuously on the ‘social’ nets in some form or another since the mid-1980s BBSes and 90s usenet and have no interest in TV, sport, gossip and anything else that is essentially repetitive. And I never bother to compete or dominate with anyone – it is too easy to just leave them holding a some sinking island while I move on to something that is of interest to me. Plus I’m too damn arrogant to be concerned about what anyone else thinks of me.
Which makes it rare for me to find someone who has anything that interesting or new to me. Which also means that there isn’t that much to argue about except work.
But social networks and especially ones like this, you’re effectively talking to thousands of people at once with a bit of a lag. Yesterday on this site with a quiet day there were 2,784 distinct humans visited and read various posts and comments. 9,978 over the last 7 days**.
That gives a much larger selection of people who can provide the grist for interesting disagreements. It is also self-selecting for people who can argue.
So on here, even if I wasn’t having to moderate, my behaviour would change compared to IRL and has ever since I joined argument forums. I learn a hell of a lot just reading these forums. It is also why I’m also willing to expend time stomping on people who try to dilute the good arguments of a robust debate. The returns make it worthwhile.
//————
** there will be some inaccuracy in that due to people not using cookies or having different ‘identities’ on different systems. However when I analysed it a while ago, the maximum inaccuracy on users was less than 10%. Some of them are single reads from search engines. However that is well less than 30% of all of the users. Something like 40% of users read the site multiple times per week.
humans == Unique Users (at least as far as google can see).
You can see this in the analytics summary in the dashboard. But reminds me that I'm on holiday for 5 days starting tonight. Google analytics coming your way.
Yep. You have to look at how google collects the information about users.
If you look in the cookies on your system, you'll find tracking cookies from google and others. These come in if you're on gmail or logged in on chrome or any number of other things.
What they also do is to allow google analytics to track user patterns. They do this by allocating a analytics number to everyone.
You should have access to analytics now. If you look under Audience / User Explorer you can see the anonymised data looking at individual user stats. That gives a better idea of how it is done.
I’m having a 5 day weekend to do some outstanding work at home. Procrastinating on working on web code rather than my favoured hard-core code inevitably results in me becoming more blog-active…
Oh well the weekend boss is dragging me off to lunch, so I’d expect that there will be an expectation of less blog and more work on her site.
Hope you're well. I just aren't for the Labour Party. Since you know when. When they combined with the strong. When I logically knew them to be in the wrong. In my young age.
I fleetingly heard it and it sounded like the guy was saying that gandhi didn't like a group of people because of the colour of their skin – in other words he said and acted like black people were inferior because they were black. If so then that is racism in my book.
The British Supreme Court has ruled that the decision by the British prime minister Boris Johnson to prorogue or suspend parliament for five-weeks was unlawful. Dr Dean Knight is the co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Public Law at Victoria University and spoke to Corin Dann about the case from London.
Trudeau is no monster; he has spent the past few years upholding refugee rights in Canada and should be commended for it. But he has also spent years basking in a progressive image he doesn’t deserve. For too long, too many people have given him too many passes, preferring to focus on his feelgood soundbites rather than interrogate his less-than-feelgood actions. But the current controversy has made the poster boy of progressivism’s ugly side impossible to ignore.
This comment on Mahdawi's opinion article offers an interesting point of view. As I read it I found myself thinking about the political and public reaction to Metiria Turei's 2017 admission of benefit fraud some 25 years earlier at ~22 years of age – NZ lost an excellent MP over that.
I'm not comparing Trudeau to Turei (there are so many differences), but the effects of self-destructive tendencies in the progressive left are worth reflecting on before going full tilt, IMHO.
"At times, it really surprises me how we have any progressive governments at all. The right cheerfully conducts itself with a lack of shame, self awareness and responsibility. The left subjects itself to a neurotic level of self scrutiny and as each historical mistake or social faux pas comes to light, the evil perpetrator is fed to the howling wolves of Twitter. In other words, rightwingers have no need to undermine the left when the left is quite capable of kicking itself in the balls.
Does this mean we stop holding people to account? No – its only through being aware of our flaws that we improve as people. What is *desperately* needed is proportionality and the capacity to forgive. If we keep nailing leftwing politicians up every time they make a mistake then the right will continue to get louder and stronger because they have something the left doesn't – unity. And unity wins votes."
I found this paragraph in the article to be telling
The right gets incredibly worked up about social justice issues when there is an opportunity to use them for political gain. Just look at the bad-faith way in which US Republicans have weaponised antisemitism to attack Ilhan Omar and curtail criticism of the Israeli government, while ignoring or even stoking antisemitism in their own ranks. Look at how outraged about sexual harassment Donald Trump got when the person accused of it was the Democratic senator Al Franken. You almost have to admire the right for being so shamelessly hypocritical.
For me the left reflexive defensive cos someone is a 'good' person or done 'good things' is the real problem. Own it, accept it, try to change it and then get on with it. Defend it or blame the others for being worse and other tactics really do feed the right. They don't need feeding – they need starving and you do that by sorting shit out fast and you do that imo by owning it, being a grown up and doing something about it and then moving on.
"Own it, accept it, try to change it and then get on with it." – good advice, and I wonder what more Trudeau could do now to address the hurt and allay concerns about the choices he made some years before becoming a politician.
Could Canada do better than Trudeau as PM – yes (IMHO). But will they?
Hats off to Simon Bridges. I admire the consistency with which he depicts himself as the village idiot and the certainty he has that the rest of us are too.
The news just had him as saying Tracey Martin should have been more hands on in the Royal Commission into historical abuse in state care.
I must admit my disappointment that he hasn't called for the resignation of Jacinda Ardern over the situation which has arisen with the Commission. Oh well, maybe tomorrow or when she gets back in the country he'll be singing that tune.
The whipping Bridges has been receiving from all quarters must be taking a toll. The most confident of battlers eventually gets driven to stepping aside.
Bridges' repeated deadpan delivery of the same answered question in the house yesterday was the work of a broken man.
Martin answered his 'What are you doing about a pedo on the board?' question straight out of the gate.
"You're a lawyer, you know it's illegal for an MP to have any influence over a Royal Commission."
On and on Bridges went with his prepared supps. I thought Martin was masterful…mistressful?? The temptation to say "I've already answered that." must of been strong. She went into the rare circumstances under which an MP could influence the Royal Enquiry. She had obviously studied the situation closely.
Still Bridges ground on with questions she had answered in finite detail.
I guess they're stuck with him for the 2020 election but crikey.
One of his Bridges' bridge promises has come true. The new Taipa bridge will be open in the next month or so and it's looking great. They have also hopefully solved issues with the largest school in the district flooding. The guys that built it will move onto the Kaeo bridge, that was always their intention. I see Robertson has begun calling the Kaeo job a Labour party win. Gosh they're amusing the way they all try to pin their brand on the wins, anyone's win.
Gosh they're amusing the way they all try to pin their brand on the wins, anyone's win.
So true. I remember the Nats making a big deal out of the completion of the Waterview tunnel when it was the previous Labour govt, who did all the hard yards.
Canadian feminist Meghan Murphy is coming to New Zealand and will be speaking at the Feminism2020 event in Wellington on November 13th along with Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, Dr Melissa Derby, and SUFW spokeswoman Ani O’Brien. These are the feminists they don’t want you to hear. Banned, deplatformed, censored, and harassed, nonetheless these are women on the frontline of feminism.
Ta. She really understood the role of the UN well, compared with the buffoon who spoke earlier.
Ms Ardern spoke of the need for countries to work together to combat crises like the 15 March terror attack. "Experiences in recent years should lead us to all question whether any of us ever truly operate in isolation anymore."
…
In contrast, Mr Trump's speech was a celebration of unbridled nationalism.
"Wise leaders always put the good of their own people and their own country first," he said. "The future does not belong to globalists. It belongs to patriots."
…
"If you want democracy, hold on to your sovereignty. And if you want peace, love your nation."
Ardern’s liberal supporters see her as the polar opposite of the US president, and she has even been labelled the “anti-Trump”. They expected her in some way to speak truth to power when meeting the man who has become synonymous with the most reactionary problems in politics today. More than anything, Ardern might have been expected to use the opportunity to push Trump hard on the issue of climate change.
Does Edwards really expect the PM to trade in her dignity, authority, diplomacy skills and self-respect by having a slanging match with a Trump, who lacks all three of those qualities. The Guardian should engage better commentators.
Mike Hosking's latest effort "Hyperbole and hot air – Greta Thunberg's the new Jacinda" was a bit much, even for him. It read as though he was trying to comfort himself with nonsense instead of fact – exactly what he's accusing Greta of doing, ironically enough.
…
I won't mince words; you are on the wrong side of history and you are wrong.
"Twyford says the claim the Government was missing $3.8 billion of new transport projects had "no factual basis"
It seems that Treasury was writing reports based on wishful thinking from NZ National
"Treasury has been left with egg on its face for the second time this year after Transport Minister Phil Twyford slammed the ministry for missing out billions of dollars from its calculations.
Based on wishful thinking from the Infrastructure Council, I read somewhere. Can just imagine the neolibs in Treasury giving it a free pass cos not govt.
In part it's Twyford's own fault. He failed to clear out NZTA's Board or refresh its objectives as a Board. Instead he presumed that tilting the NLTP would be sufficient.
Also he forgot to clean out Ministry of Transport, who have guided him about as poorly as it's possible for a Ministry to do so. This is one of the results. Another is the entire regulatory debacle. Another is the light rail strategy disaster and light rail procurement mess.
But the suspicion I have is that Robertson decided to kick Twyford while he was down – ready to be reshuffled – and get another of Robertson's wieners replacing him in Cabinet.
Maybe the entire transport portfolio needs clear felling. OIA suggests that there are problems in Wellington with the LGWM ,the mayors recollection of what he told councillors,and did JAG threaten to hold her breath.
"Justin's advice to us was that this was the best he could do. There was also talk about the Green's/JAG [Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter] influence on the package," the documents say.
ACC chair Dame Paula Rebstock said the record deficit was an accounting measure, and in its day to day dealings the corporation had a cash surplus of $570 million.
"The cash operating surplus demonstrates ACC's robust funding structure that enables the scheme to withstand volatility, including falling interest rates."
She said the deficit would not affect ACC's ability to pay claims and it's too early to say what effect it might have on levies, which would be set by the middle of next year….
However, Dame Paula said in the medium term levies would have to rise to cover increasing costs such as medical treatments and rehabilitation.
ACC had a record 2 million claims in the past year, which adds to the financial demands on its funds.
The value of its outstanding claims liability (OCL) rose by $10.8b because of the fall in interest rates to $53b. ACC operates on the basis of having to cover the lifetime cost of all claims already made, and extends that out 100 years to 2119. (Should that be 3119? And why ahead so long, pay as we go plus have some reserves, would be practical but not pure enough for Treasury no doubt.)
ACC operates on the basis of having to cover the lifetime cost of all claims already made, and extends that out 100 years to 2119. (Should that be 3119?
Next year is 2020, so 100 yrs later is 2119. No need add another 1000 yrs.
Seems to me to be silly to go out 100 yrs , 50 yrs should be fine for almost all claimants and the few after that are inconsequential in terms of their reserves of $43.8 bill.
An increase of $5 bill this year alone- not sure why thay should highlight the 'balance sheet future costs'
Labour kept ACC on its full pre-funding trajectory after 1999 partly to build a handy nest egg they could plunder just like the Nats have, but the main reason Shipley et al made the shift in the first place was to prepare for privatisation. Sadly for English, Joyce and chums the Aussie insurance industry were not keen enough in 2009.
Returning the scheme to annual pay-as-you-go instead would remove the prospect.
I'm looking forward to Air New Zealand being regulated by the Commerce Commission as a monopoly on most New Zealand domestic routes, now that Jetstar is pulling out.
It needs a lot more that Shane Jones to actually regulate price from a company that totally dominates one entire sector of the country. It's akin to every New Zealand motorway being tolled with no alternative route, and no one to hold them to legally hold them to account for the price they charge or how often you're allowed to drive on it.
Or maybe the government can provide stronger scrutiny as the major shareholder.
Government as usual hasn't the guts to run it's commercial businesses for the advantage of the whole country. There will be an opportunity to charge more for the main flights and subsidise to some extent the regions. And Jetstar shouldn't get the red carpet if they want to come here and get some of the cream.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it was a shame to lose airline competition in the regions, but the government won't be telling Air New Zealand not to raise its prices.
Mr Robertson was hopeful another airline would emerge.
"We've had times in the past in New Zealand where we haven't had other operators on those regional routes and we'll have to see whether another one emerges but those decisions are entirely for Air New Zealand to make," he said.
"Clearly there's an expectation from New Zealanders that there are fair prices paid, and we'll keep an eye on that."
62 year old man abducts and sexually violates a 16 year old girl. There is a frame around his face from a CCTV picturte. Would that be for facial recognition tech?
I haven't heard lately of any 62 year old woman abducting a teenage boy and sexually violating him. Seems that it is time we had a better approach to enable people to sort out their sex urges without invading someone else's self and respect. There have been some teachers however, so it's not quite black and white.
Thought you might have some ideas seeing as you were the one who bought it up like you knew what you were talking about, so apart from precogs and precrime units like in Minority report, or chemical castration for all men and mandatory bromide in our tea just in case, unless you're on a sex offender list where you can be monitored and directed accordingly, there's not really much else you can do for individuals apart from keep pushing the message not to do it and punish those who do, is there?
there's not really much else you can do for individuals apart from keep pushing the message not to do it and punish those who do, is there?
and in the 'punish those who do' is where we fail utterly . We do not treat this particular crime as the crime it is. 'their sex urges' – heck of an urge there.
is that when i steal a car i have uncontrolled 'drive urges'?
I agree, Sabine. When I saw Al1en's comment, I thought it askew with that standard punishment bit. Punishment (known as negative reinforcement in the 60s when I was training to be a teacher) works (in my experience) only in the shallowest way for activities to which people are NOT emotionally inclined at a deep level, in which case punishment does next to nothing.
I always liked the film 'A Clockwork Orange' because it deals with this issue.. but gives no solution.
throw the darn law book at them, lock em up – no matter how bright their future – and keep them locked up until time served.
or else lets stop with the pretense that we are a nation of laws and simply abolish all laws as there will always be offenders and really what can be done?
Isocrates in Areopagiticus, (some 25 centuries ago) suggested that excess laws was a sign of poor government.
Written laws do not increase virtue, but quotidian customs. Most men tend to take up the customs as moral of the place in which they were brought up. More so, it is evident that where there is a large number of defined laws, it is a signal that the state is badly governed. There are cases in which men try to build barriers against delinquency decreeing large numbers of norms. But well-governed men do not need to fill the porticos with written laws, but simply fix justice in the spirits, and those poorly educated will try to break the laws accurately produced. By contrast, well-educated men will be in good disposition to respect even the simplest codes.
You are so wet Allen always spoiling for an argument. I show example, express concern and say something should be done. And that starts you off with a demand that I delineate a policy to deal with it. Are you becoming an ambush troll I hope not? Well I have given you something to bother about – I have spelt your pseudo wrongly. What's your cunning plan?
To be honest, the way you write leaves me bemused, and often I'm left thinking wtf is that all about, not to mention thoughts about quality over quantity. Tell you what, if you're responding to me in future, I'd consider it a courtesy if you'd make your arguments and points in plain English and help me out a bit. Though it has to be said, to completely shoot it down, in the exchange here you haven’t once given examples of how to deal with the issue you yourself raised, in fact you answered “Don’t know at present”. If you’re going to lie, at least look at the previous posts first.
As for not using my chosen login name correctly, well, that's just a failing on your part you wilfully advertise to the membership here. I don't mind that at all. 😉
Check We are stuffing there future so Our Rangatahi deserve to vote to protect their future but I say move the goal post a bit closer and go for 17 years old to vote.
That is a great discription of Aotearoa Prime Minister she is genuine and is using her Mana to make other tangata lives better.
More putea being invested into our Rangatahi sports programme is great I hope some of that putea get to the Regions.
Tutai shonkys only minute on the Papatuanuku stage was the golf game.
Our change to a green future will boost our Papatuanuku economy and leave Our futures A Clean and Green environment we all know that's a bit had for unintelligent people to Grasp?????????.
Great interview Rangatahi don't worry about the neanderthal they will be rolled into our history books.
The idea of Rangatahi being able to vote has just started. Opinions will change I have seen polls change quite rapidly on some subjects
Yes our farmers are putting them selves under a lot pressure they are isolated with no one to talk to. I tau toko this big barbecue initiative to help farmers who are on a low at the minute Ma Te Wa thing will get better that's the way of life ups and downs tangata just have to stay look for the positive side of every situation Ka kaha.
That's is a huge Strike for Our Climate in Aotearoa Ka pai Ka kaha keep up the good mahi
Shaun Eco Maori won't be flying any time soon not until air travel has cleaned up there act.
Wow that's a big drop for NZ post yes online shopping is takeing off for them it's replaceing posted letters.
The Takia promise of our Aotearoa quest leaving behind only foot prints and not rubbish is great everyone knows they have to get on the Clean and Green WAKA or they will sink.
Our Strikes for Our Climate makes Eco Maori so proud. It is a emergency Our way of living has to change we are only on Papatuanuku for a very small finite time it's not on that our generation is making such a big mess that it will make living in the future extremely hard for the common poor tangata to live a healthy life. The climate change deniers are making out that mitergateing Global warming will make Tawhirimate fall on Our heads YEA RIGHT mitergateing global warming will be the best thing for us all.
I….Eco Maori tipuna new this Phenomenon people power is stronger than people in power he made a Haka
Te tangata Te tangata its the people that count in Te Papatuanuku
Climate crisis: 6 million people join latest wave of global protests
Week of strikes and demonstrations is ‘only the beginning’, say organisers
Six million people have taken to the streets over the past week, uniting across timezones, cultures and generations to demand urgent action on the escalating ecological emergency
“This week was a demonstration of the power of our movement,” said a spokesperson for the FridaysForFuture group which has helped coordinate the demonstrations. “People power is more powerful than the people in power. It was the biggest ever climate mobilisation, and it’s only the beginning. The momentum is on our side and we are not going anywhere
The day of protests began in New Zealand, where an open letter was delivered to parliament on Friday morning calling on the government to declare a climate emergency – following the lead of numerous councils around the country
On Friday there were huge protests in Italy – where more than 1 million people were reported to have taken part – Spain, the Netherlands and New Zealand, where more than 3.5% of the country’s population joined the demonstrations.
Organisers said they were expecting more people to join as the day progressed. High turnouts were expected in Canada, where Greta Thunberg – who kickstarted the school strike movement with a solo protest in Sweden 12 months ago – was due to join demonstrators in Montreal.
May Boeve from 350.org, which has helped organise the demonstrations, said: “We will keep fighting until the politicians stop ignoring the science, and the fossil fuel companies are held responsible for their crimes against our future, as they should have been decades ago.”
Condolences to Careys whanau for their loss of their mother.
There you go people not respecting Tangaroa mokopuna by driving heavy machinery over them to gather mussels spat
FOMA is a awesome initiative way to encourage Maori tangata to get into business It takes a lot of courage to make the leap into business in Aotearoa for tangata whenua as some will try and put us off our mission of building a moanga for Te mokopuna.
Ngāti pikiao culture is looking strong that is great for mokopuna to carry on with their culturel identity kia kaha.
Ka pai to the Papatuanuku waka free day that is what everyone can do to easily drop our Carbon footprint walk and ride a bike for smaller journeys. I don't burn nowhere as much carbon as I use to. I have plans to lower my carbon footprint even more Ma Te Wa.
Pollutionwatch: how does World Car-free Day affect emissions?
Though air quality appeared to improve, measuring the precise impact of car-less days is difficult
Last Sunday peace and tranquillity descended on city centres across the world as many went car-free for the day.
This annual event started in the UK, in Bath, in 1994 with a road closure and street party for the Environmental Transport Association’s Green Transport Week. In 1997 it spread to France with En Ville Sans Ma Voiture (In Town Without My Car) in La Rochelle, and by 2007 it spanned 2,000 cities in 35 countries Ka kite Ano link below.
Ka pai to the people who are backing Wahine and giving them opportunity to have clean and green energy in their own whare. Mana Wahine. I have also read that whaine are making sure that there retirement savings is invest in companies that care for our future generations environment Wahine toa
Jaipur, India (CNN Business)India is trying to bring electricity to hundreds of millions of its citizens who live off the grid. And it's trying to ensure that the power comes from clean and renewable sources.
Frontier Markets is helping to achieve both those goals in the Western desert state of Rajasthan, selling solar-powered products to hundreds of villages. The company is thriving by turning its customers into salespeople.
The company employs women to sell products like lamps, stoves, and even TVs that run on solar power through a program called Solar Sahelis (Solar Friends). Each woman is in charge of selling products to hundreds of rural households
We learned that while the customer — the person paying for the product — was a man, the person using the product was a woman," Frontier Markets CEO Ajaita Shah said in an interview with CNN Business. "In fact, 70% of our users were women and that is when we realized that in order to properly serve the right households needs, women had to be at the center of that value chain," she added.
Shah founded Frontier Markets in 2011, with the goal of providing clean energy to millions of rural Indians while also giving women a source of employment and income. The goals encapsulate some of India's most urgent issues.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made rural electrification a big priority, announcing last year that 100% of the country's villages now have access to power. But the government considers a village electrified if just 10% of its houses are on the grid, meaning over 200 million people still don't have access to electricity.
The Modi government has also set aggressive targets to increase solar energy capacity, and it has succeeded in going from less than four gigawatts in 2015 to nearly 30 gigawatts — about 8% of India's total energy capability. The government wants to increase that to 100 gigawatts by 2022.
The 3,000 women that Shah employs have helped to provide energy to more than half a million village houses in Rajasthan, she said. The women communicate the benefits of clean energy to rural households, but also help Frontier Markets understand the kind of innovations that those households need most, she added.
Another pressing need that Frontier Markets is helping to solve is getting more women into work. Only 22% of India's workforce is female, according to the latest data from the World Bank, one of the lowest rates in the world. India lags behind countries such as Sudan, El Salvador and Afghanistan.
"As India starts growing and moving and changing and evolving, especially with the digital revolution, women are still being left behind," Shah said. "It's really important for us to continuously invest in our women's skills and their education to be able to catch up."
Te atea college is a great organisation that has helped tangata whenua get greater education its sad that they are facing problems I hope they can sort it out and keep the school open.
Kamo school is having problems to we need to taonga all our Maori based education centres.
Te tangata whenua of Alask are going to get a ap to help keep their culture going strong its a great way to use social media to help keep their historical culture Mana Ka kaha.
Yes there was a big celebration in Japan this Rugby World Cup is quite exciting
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...
ByKoroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) says impending bad weather for Port Vila is now the most significant post-quake hazard. A tropical low in the Coral Sea is expected to move into Vanuatu waters, bringing heavy rainfall. Authorities have issued warnings to people ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...
Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...
As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...
The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...
Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes.Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...
Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...
By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker.Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...
A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...
If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...
Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...
Here we go again: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/116055224/jacinda-ardern-feted-abroad-but-emissions-trading-scheme-extension-in-trouble-at-home. The PM is trying to sell NZ agricultural products to the world by praising the progressive element of the farming sector who are working to reduce GH gasses in the production chain. Meanwhile, she is being stymied by naysayers, intransigents, vote grabbers and a media and opposition that depict her as a proxy sexual abuser.
All good in defending Ardern, but are those commentators actually wrong?
[lprent: Of course they’re wrong. While there are a lot of dimwits who subscribe to the great all-seeing dictator theory of management, I’ve never ever seen anyone ever managing it. You’d have to be a complete and utter fool to even think that.. This is probably about as close as you’re going to get to it.
Now lets go back and actually hear your ‘opinion’ perhaps you could explain your theory on it so I can explain why I think that you’re wrong, query the source you parroted it from and spit on your intellect in robust debate.
However that will be a week away. Banned for a week so you can figure out the following.
I see you try this standard troll tactic again, I will boot you off the site permanently. This site is here for your opinions, not for you to play dumbarse debating team / trolling tactical games on it.
I don’t like trolls ]
this whole Inquiry is like the shit they are investigating – so sad they are getting it wrong on such an important area. Time to walk the walk minister
The gang member chosen is I understand someone who has faced up to his own misdeeds and understands the dynamic so is good value. Pity that many politicians who are guilty of bad actions of all sorts don't own up to them, and turn round and try to improve the situation for the people ane the country. People who declare themselves pure of all stain, have never moved from their easy chair.
It's pretty basic stuff imo – you don't get it.
I am not sure that you do either. You are just so sure that you know it all there is no room for any other thought to circulate.
The problem here is the connection between gangs and sexual assault. It's not simply about whether the gang member has made amends, it's about whether the survivors feel safe. This should be the priority.
In this case, complaints have been made about his current behaviour, so his 'good value' is undermined by that.
Edit:
Uh-huh. Sounds as if his presence may be disturbing at present, and if a young woman has been attacked she isn't going to feel comfortable seeing a similar guy to the attacker in the panel or even in the room.
However he would be useful in later discussions after the victims have given evidence and got some comfort from that. He would be invaluable to give background about the sexual behaviour that he has observed, and why and how it happens that way, and his opinions on improving the situation.
I think NZ is embarrassed about sex and there should be discussions about it on a medical and social discussion level to try and get a balanced view about sexual matters. We need to think about it and progress, it is a public health thing, and we owe it to each other and our children to have clear guidelines that fit our modern world which seems to have past rigid attitudes and prudishness lingering. We need to respectfully treat the matter, as important to all for relationship health, and to mental health and understanding of our drives as humans.
Do people generally know about the way that young people go about their first sexual experience? Is there open discussion about sexual matters, so basic to us all? What do girls think about it, what do boys? There should be discussions as part of sexual education at school, or run by Primary Health nurses, and should be in a mixed group with appropriate professionals or community leaders leading the discussion. There might be a model discussion videoed that parents could watch to see and understand the value of this.
Guidelines for behaviour formed by agreement between the participants after discussion, would go a long way to preventing feelings of being pushed to participate and talking about the misunderstandings that could lead either gender to believe that it was okay to push ahead because it would be enjoyable in the end, or some such reason.
I apologise to anyone who thinks that the whole matter should be screened off and the less said the better. I think that has led us to where we are now, just as I think that being obsessed with sex and talking about it a lot, casually, is also in appropriate. It should be a special personal thing, 'Not Given Lightly'. Balance is all.
Don't know what you are trying to say there, but the inquiry is about the state's responsibility for children in its care who were abused (sexually, physically, emotionally). This isn't about sex and sexuality, it's about abuse. That you conflate the two renders your opinion on what is appropriate in the inquiry irrelevant.
There is a concept of trauma-informed or clinically-informed process. It exists because when put into practice it gives the best wellbeing outcomes for people who have been harmed. The inquiry has failed on that in a number of ways. The complaints against the gang member are about his behaviour and how that has affected the inquiry in a number of roles. His expertise can't trump that.
With regard to the issue of women not trusting a gang member, the inquiry should have managed that so he wasn't in a role where that would be an issue. Again, trauma-informed process matters and creates better outcomes.
I saw your comment and have thought about since it was made.
Try and listen to Insight this Sunday just after 8am on RNZ. Part of the reason is cyber abuse and predatory tourists.
Parents /grandparents needs to be educated on how to keep a child safe and a child needs to known what is grooming and what is unsafe contact from an adult.
Governments need to take sexual exploitation seriously both online and tourism.
I have not commented on the safety of adults.
A complex subject.
Could not save changes.
I think you need to have a think about why this Inquiry is being set up in the first place – it is about the innocent victims abused and treated like shit – which apparently continues, in the form of the way this Inquiry is going, to date imo
Sorry marty mars – I do understand that I had suggested something inappropriate at the first. It seems the heariang should be divided into two – first the victims and then better approaches to ensure respect of both genders for each other's emotional nature. I have tried to explain how I feel that things could be done afterwards to lead to less of this sort of trauma happening in the future.
I'm sorry too – I know you are engaging with comments and working hard to put stuff up and debate it – I can be a bit 'shoot first ask questions later' type which is irritating I know.
The purpose of the Royal Commission is to give a voice to the now adults who were children in social welfare care and in faith based care. To exclude anyone who is entitled to be there is to do them a disservice, example a convicted pedophile who was sexually assaulted while in social welfare care.
The Royal Commission needs to establish what the outcome/impact is from an individual's experience of being mistreated and harmed.
Everyone appearing before the Royal Commission need to feel secure about the process.
There are some gaps in the Royal Commission which require immediate action.
From the link above
I was not being specific.
Did your hear what Sonja Cooper said on Morning Report?
Read my last paragraph 2.2
no I haven't
I just wish the focus was REALLY on the victims and their trauma and not some process which may or may not be – but certainly will be traumatic.
This abuse and terror is happening today in this country – it has to fucken stop.
Many many people are going to feel the affects of the Royal Commission.
Being accountable to a person (especially a child) for behaviour which was condoned and should never have been, is a starting point.
british labour party conference has just pledged to 'de-carbonise' britain by 2030..
which makes that local carbon neutral by 2050 ambition – look kinda underwhelming..eh..?
Too soon
"The hope is that Labour will adopt it as official party policy and add the Green New Deal proposal to its next manifesto"
The problem is however as Greta said
“….saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight…”
hmmmm ..solutions are nowhere is sight.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/24/labour-set-to-commit-to-net-zero-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/23/greta-thunberg-vows-that-if-un-doesnt-tackle-climate-change-we-will-never-forgive-you/emissions-by-2030
Hey, just a repeat post from last night…if anyone else knows of a group of people pushing for the WEAG recommendations to be implemented can you pls let us know.
I think for now we have given up on AAAP
What we would all like to know is what WEAG and AAAP mean. Some of us do, and many don't. Will people stop talking in acronyms because you are not going to reach your potential audience to make your point if they don't know what you are talking about?
WEAG = welfare working group
AAAP = Auckland action against poverty
ta – the outer world needs to know, and join in with you to help so need to know these things.
Who is 'we'?
A has been trying to contact them I think.
Ah, we as in I.
a small group https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-24-09-2019/#comment-1657157
You know even one person can make a difference 🙂
But yes, more than one of us and we recognised we need bigger national networks to push for change.
I do 🙂
Thanks. How come your gravatar is different?
My gravitar? Idk.
Weka's.
different IP does it I think. Or different email address.
So Hoskins and Garner think Greta is “hot air and the new Jacinda" and "over played her hand at the un" well that's all okay then 🙄
Garner says if climate change is so bad, why aren't adults doing anything about it? Well wasn't that the point the kid was making?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12270668
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/09/duncan-garner-dramatic-greta-thunberg-sends-counterproductive-message.html
What arseharts, the pair of them.
Horeskin and Garner are Natzi paid shrills trying to destroy Jacinda's reputation by making these types of comparisons, the problem is the RWNJ's will start believing these guys as most New Zealanders are sheep who can not think for themselves and believe MSM ?
Horeskin and Garner are not adults IMHO ?
You can add Sean Plunkett to your list of backside bowler-hats.
Greta says she is a very happy young girl,looking forward to a bright and wonderful future.
She will be when climate change deniers don't run the White house
She updated her profile to say she was now.
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg
I know, I read the papers. Turned Trump's dig into a quality reverse troll.
What deadbeats – beating up on a kid! No doubt they are put out because all their ranting and raving hasn't had a scratch of the influence of a 15 year old who quietly and respectfully sat outside the Swedish Parliament with a placard on Fridays.
yep they disgrace themselves so effortlessly – their behaviour shows why they need to go – bullythickshakes with the emphasis on thick
What's new? Not worth the effort to write criticising the 'boys'.
I suggest any outrage you feel uses energy that is precious that could be applied elsewhere. Wallowing in outrage is so satisfying but getting into the support works and the promotion of new ways and the thinking of who and what is being hurt by climate change and political maltreatment is ongoing hard labour.
Thanks for your concern, but no thanks.
RNZ are reporting the US Congress leader Nancy Pelosis have announced a formal investigation with a view to impeach the president.
Apparently it is based on an anonymous whistleblower allegations, that link Trump personally gaining political favour, by having investigations in the Ukraine linking Biden to the baddies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/399542/trump-ukraine-row-democrats-launch-trump-impeachment-inquiry
My very amateur hunch is that if this goes ahead, rather than sink trump, it will embolden him and strengthen his voter support. The Dems will think they have their trump card (boom boom!) and Trump can continue to Fake News!, obfuscate and fib.
Yeah, it's quite the conundrum for the Dems.
On one hand, Don of the Deadbrains has been in impeachable violation of his constitutional obligations from the moment of of his inauguration, and has been vigorously adding to his rap sheet ever since. He has made it abundantly clear he's quite happy to betray his country if he thinks there's personal benefit to be had. So if the Dems don't impeach him, they're basically surrendering their oversight and accountability obligations and the power of impeachment becomes meaningless. Also, there may be political benefit in publicising the wrongdoing that's been done and forcing Repugs into a yes or no vote.
On the other hand, removing the Mango Mugabe from office via impeachment simply ain't gonna happen. There's an absolute minimum of 20 Repug senators that would have to vote for conviction. But watching what happened to Mark Sanford, Jeff Flake and the very few other elected Repugs that spoke against the mandarin manutang has dissolved whatever vestigial spines and principles they may have once possessed.
Hell, even after a successful impeachment in the House, Moscow Mitch might just Garland the trial in the Senate and thereby spare Repug senators from having to even cast an uncomfortable vote. I certainly haven't yet seen any language in the constitution compelling the Senate to hold the trial, whereas the language requiring the Senate to consider Merrick Garland's nomination was quite clear, yet Moscow Mitch got away with just blowing off that constitutional obligation.
So yeah, there's the risk that impeaching Hair Furor in the House without a conviction and removal from office by the Senate might be viewed by enough of the electorate as stupid partisan political games and backfire on the Dems.
Andre
That was beautifully written – a triumph of good political analysis in popular slang and malapropisms?
Great analysis, Adrian. My reckons have a small % following this with enthusiasm, some thinking this will sink the Hysterical Hairdo and for the majority, it will barely register.
BTW do you have a Trump name generator app? The Mango Mugabe caused an involuntary snort.
Sorry Andre, got yr name wrong…
Great comment; informative and entertaining – particularly liked this, which might be more widely applicable:
It looks like the Dems may have evidence yet to be released:
Oops: I can’t find the link address. It was a Guardian news item which appears to have disappeared or been incorporated into another story. Sorry.
yep – I can't imagine they have gone this way without some big gotchas – I don't think the teflon turnipturd will be bothered though – he just turns it around by lying
Hi Marty, Anne, things like modern politics have less and less to do with evidence and truth. Witness the British Prime Minister illegally and unlawfully dissolving parliament.
I don't doubt that there is damning evidence but that doesn't matter if the perception of the great unwashed differs from the narrative.
eg CC is no problem because we have 'clean coal', I heard the president say so a few times.
Equally, I have little faith in the Dems making hay from this.
Akin to Hilary being a sure bet, she will win because she is experienced, it's her turn, she is a woman….
Yes.
Within 24 hrs of the "wonderful" (Trump's words) meeting with Ardern he has:
1) Ruled out any tightening of gun laws in the US.
2) Refused to sign the US up to the Christchurch Call and has made a speech at the UN denouncing the attempt by technological companies to curtail free speech.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/399543/donald-trump-warns-about-social-media-platforms-acquiring-immense-power
Maybe not, a yougov poll has 55% in favour of impeachment over this, if true.
Even among republicans it's 38%. The tide could well be changing.
https://mobile.twitter.com/YouGovUS/status/1176597972659970048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1176602161750450177&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Flive%2Fworld-us-canada-49819346
Worst case: the terms of the investigation are too narrow, charges go to Senate, and the repugs exonerate him. Re-election 2020.
Best case: he gets investigated, it takes until november 2020 but the dirt getting exposed is so overwhelming that it scuppers his re-election bid. And then federal and state charges are laid January 2021. He spends the last years of his life shafting his lawyers' attempts to have him ruled incompetent to stand trial.
Middle-worst case: senate convicts him, president pence gets elected as a spiritual cleanser.
Middle case: whether or not he gets convicted or re-elected, New York State does him for tax fraud.
I cant figure out what the dems think will happen here
They cant seriously think impeachment will fly so it must be a set up for the next election. its just crazy,, this will solidify Trumps support
The only rational explanation is that they are completely irrational
It still hasn't occurred to them that they could use a democratic process to get the best candidate and then actually win on merit!…
or is that idea just too radical
So after flailing round for 3 years the Dems think they've finally got their man by saying he's obstructing aid. Oh the irony! Let's see if this has opened the door for Iran, Venuezuela and N Korea to launch their own impeachment proceedings too lol.
Giuliani seems to know what this is all about…
No. It's about tRump allegedly using public money in an attempt to coerce a foreign power into investigating a political opponent.
That is diplomacy – we will withhold money until you do this for us in return.
A touch cynical, but often correct. The operative word there is "us", though. The national interest, not the personal interest of the officials making the decisions.
The essential difference between realpolitik and personal corruption.
Using public money to stitch up a a political rival isn't diplomacy.
edit:
https://twitter.com/tomwatson/status/1176578447134613506
Political rival.. hehe.. "tui". Man, that letter is a barrel of lol's.
There's just so much irony in the Dems carry on. Years have been spent on investigating Trump, and when he recipricates they completely lose it.
The call is only one red flag. A whistle blower went to the IG with evidence of other wrongdoing, too.
btw, the Senate has unanimously agreed to Schumer's resolution calling for the whistle blower complaint to be turned over to the intelligence committees
Essentially more innuendo…
https://twitter.com/aaronjmate/status/1176930298124107776
Aaron should stick to what he's good at; defending war criminals.
You'll like this one then Joe… from another one you called a "war criminal defender"…
https://twitter.com/henryrodgersdc/status/1176957062959521795
It’s not about the transcript of a call. It’s about his ongoing abuse of the powers of the presidency.
And Gabbard? She's a Republican so of course she's going to defend the yam.
Mate is pretending to be too stupid to understand the obvious threat being made. So he can pivot to his one true love, perpetual whining about Dems.
edit: Also interesting is how closely Mate is parroting Repug talking points:
“McConnell also indicated that he hasn’t backed off even an inch from his cover-up for Trump’s criminal behavior, releasing a statement claiming that Democrats have held “a two-and-a-half-year impeachment parade in search of a rationale.” ”
https://www.salon.com/2019/09/25/will-republicans-dump-trump-nope-theyll-cover-up-for-him-until-the-bitter-end/
wonderful stuff thank you maui – must be time for a guestpost from you – be great to read all your ideas on this in one post – that will create a forum for debate no doubt
Thank you marty. I have been sort of waiting for someone like Bill to step in though, he's much better at analysing and writing than moi.
You have a view, shared by many, that tbh I don't agree with AND it would be good to have that difference outlined to see the logic and arguments – I want to really understand why people think the way they think.
Horeskin and Garner are not adults IMHO ?
A lot of Maori men are in prison, but while a lot is made of the percentage to population, they are still a minority to pakeha and tauiwi extremely unpleasant criminals. Have a look at the s.itheads in this nasty murder case. Should these men when babies have been taken from their parents? What sort of parental methods result in adult outcomes who will never realise their potential to be a great, happy, admirable person? Would parental classes for both young people which would come connected to a fortnightly child assistance payment to them, get them on a positive line of child rearing and understanding how to cope and manage through stresses, and be co-operative.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399497/murderers-told-victim-to-dig-his-own-grave
Those who have worked in the criminal justice system are well aware that there is a massively high probability that the sorts of people you refer to were taken from their parents.
Are you thinking of pakeha who I was referring to?
Yes.
Well lets hope neither of these two ever get out of jail as it's hard to imagine them reforming and becoming valuable members of society.
From the "I am not a believer in conspiracy" files.
On Sunday I visited another town in my EV. While having it recharged at a public facility. I went for a walk with my wife for a block a way and went through a car yard I had visited two years ago while searching for an EV to buy. There were no staff as the yard was closed.
Today on Facebook there is a specific ad on my Facebook Home page from the very car yard that I visited.
Coincidence? It's a startling thing.
Is there a possibility that facial recognition technology from a security camera is at play here? That my very basic cell phone is being tracked? That my car rego was noted when I drove past twenty minutes later? That my EV's electronic key in my pocket was somehow 'discovered'?
Or is it just coincidence and some very targeted advertising based on my facebook activity and previous purchase? As the saying goes, coincidence occurs only when we can't see the levers and pulleys.
I guess I am really asking for comment from wiser technology-savvy heads about how deep intrusion in our lives is based on tracking our personal information?
assuming you are in NZ I would guess it's either a semi-coincidence (based on targeted advertising from other activity), or it's your phone or credit card usage.
If your phone is a smart phone you can turn location services off.
FB will be using your IP address to target advertising, so if you have FB on your phone it will know your general area by how you connect to the internet.
I don't know what happens with EVs, but it's worth checking if it's the EV's GPS. You could ask the manufacturer for details on what the tech is in your car and if it's connected to online services.
I would be very surprised if this was facial recognition, we're not there yet in NZ afaik.
According to David Spiegelhalter in The Art Of Statistics there is no such thing as coincidence, its just a matter of mathematics. "Connected "people, the sort who talk to others a lot, and I know you are one mate, find more coincidences simply because they have a lot more information and contacts. Yes, it looks suspicious but as you say you have been online looking at EV sites, also you were in this specific town using cards etc which ramps up the coincidence possibilities. If you had not gone there would the pop up have happened the next day. Who knows ? . It may simply be the act of paying for the charge up in the vicinity and the webby thing did the rest.
Its disturbing this bullshit which is why I have stared paying for everything with pebbles.
So Mac1 if I don''t come back from the bar with my round on Friday night its because I've been thrown out on my arse.
Thanks, Weka and Adrian. The EV's GPS still thinks it's in Japan. I’m in NZ as Adrian knows.
My cell has a FB icon but I've never used it or set it up.
I did get e-mail acknowledgements immediately of my use of public chargers but would FB know that? That charger also accessed my bank account and was my only credit card use on that trip.
So as you say, Adrian, it might be a webby thing……. perhaps I should adopt your payment method using the asparagus coming out of my ears at the moment.
When I return to work after 3 days off, I am often prompted to offer a review of my hospitality place of work. I have put it down to the location tracker jobbie in my Whoarewe phone.
This in no way makes me think we are under-survielled and spied upon excessively.
you dont use google maps?
you can delete FB off your phone.
"I did get e-mail acknowledgements immediately of my use of public chargers but would FB know that?"
Was that a gmail account?
Might want to check the TOS for the charger.
Location services and the apple equivalent is a generic facility on your cell phone. I haven't looked at it too recently, but it uses GPS, wifi, cell towers, and even near field or blue tooth to try to increase the accuracy of its fix – especially when you are indoors and the GPS signal sucks.
It is also something that quite a lot of apps access, everything from google maps to various other systems that read location information and sell it directly or indirectly to advertisers.
If it's capable a 3g net connection google will be following you around. Need to turn that off, also downloaded any apps? Plenty of them capture location data and sell it back for advertising purposes.
Hi there,
Yep they use all of the things you mentioned. Sometimes car yards/shops use beacons which push messages to your phone (if you have this enabled and didn't realise you could turn it off it would freak you out).
who is using face recognition that they sell to FB?
I'll be watching you
Every move you make
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/14/opinion/bluetooth-wireless-tracking-privacy.html
paywalled out for this month. Are the beacons the bluetooth tracking or something separate?
Alternative link to the article.
http://archive.li/6sbMl
The beacons connect with your phone to gather data.
The Guardian Firewall team has discovered that a growing number of iOS apps have been used to covertly collect precise location histories from tens of millions of mobile devices, using packaged code provided by data monetization firms. In many cases, the packaged tracking code may run at all times, constantly sending user GPS coordinates and other information.
In order to gain initial access to precise data from the mobile device’s GPS sensors, the apps usually present a plausible justification relevant to the app in the Location Services permission dialog, often with little or no mention of the fact that location data will be shared with third-party entities for purposes unrelated to app operation.
All location data monetization firms listed on this page collect one or more of the following data points:
In addition, some firms also collect the following types of less sensitive device information:
https://guardianapp.com/research/ios-app-location-report-sep2018/
"The beacons connect with your phone to gather data."
Wasn't sure the beacon was bluetooth only, or using a range of tech (bluetooth, wifi, mobile network).
I have location services turned off, usually bluetooth is off, but wifi is often on when I am in town.
not sure how relevant the beacons are to NZ. Yet.
Those free apps you install on your phone?
Well, if its free, you're the product.
edit: they’re here alright
https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/87241219/beacons-making-a-comeback
that's about the US?
If I have bluetooth turned off, how do the apps send data?
It's used by one of the biggest retailers in the country.
When customers use mobile applications developed by Scentre, or logon to Wi-Fi provided in Westfield shopping centres or third party applications utilising Scentre’s infrastructure (including Bluetooth beacon networks), customers provide Scentre with certain information including their contact details.
https://www.westfield.co.nz/privacy-policy
I saw a tweet recently about how Uber and others can use that information to jack up their prices when you're desperate. Joy.
as in the car driver has a device that reads the customer's phone data?
The phone app communicates it to Uber's platform directly. Driver not involved.
Uber determines price rather than teh driver?
Correct. Drivers basically underpaid slaves.
Most likely to be location services on your cellphone is turned on.
The Australian government, along with the RW of Australians, will steal the gold fillings from our teeth if they find they need them.
At present we are defending the manuka honey business that we have been working to build.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/399537/millions-poured-to-ensure-manuka-honey-is-a-nz-only-product
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/399398/tractor-protest-farmers-concerned-by-rush-of-reforms
The protest took place in the township of Ruawai, at the northern end of Kaipara Harbour.
Between 120 and 150 farmers turned up, most of them by tractor.
They said a suite of measures, zero carbon legislation, the latest water plan and the Billion Trees Programme could force some of them off their land.
The Mayor of Kaipara, Jason Smith, said it was a quiet protest but with a strong message.
"They weren't tooting horns, there was no loud noise, people were standing around in solidarity, just being concerned (about the future)," Dr Smith said.
Another Dr Smith!
The Kaipara Harbour is NZ's largest by area. There are many acres of farmland surrounding it and it's tributaries. As more pressure comes to bear against farmers adjacent to waterways, I think the Kaipara region will become a hotbed of discontent.
I think the strongest protest they could mount would revolve around showcasing farmers that are going the extra enviro mile. We all support those guys.
Edit
We do indeed, and should be helping others up by their bootstraps. All is not won though as i have heard of farmers watching their stock eat down the greenery, flaxes, and then stepping past it to get to the stream. So vigilance is required for effectiveness even once measures to remediate pollution are taken.
I understand that Kaipara has had a lot of run off into the estuary? So it is in farmers interest to keep their top soil, and also to keep the estuary water in good health, because I think it is a place for growing spat as a business? Isn't that also where they had the great sewerage fixing bill? It seems there is a lot to do, so just getting together to protest would be not being real men. Getting together to form working groups helping each other for the good of the whole, as well as to meet the government requirements that have been needed for probably two decades or longer. The problems have not shown up suddenly, out of the blue.
And not to be overlooked is the effect of sea rise. I think that it is flat around Kaipara, so the farmers can huddle around a map showing projections of where the sea will rise and how it will affect them. Perhaps dredging and building up sand and mud dunes on which they could plant mangrove or such that would be good fish spawning cover for young fish. That would help to take some of the brunt of waves in storms.
They might get help on their streams from the Environment River Patrol Aotearoa NZ which Milan Ruka has been behind. He has been doing more stuff than the farmers about water and environment health and might have some tips.
I've thought of a word to describe some of the regular commenters here – CAN'T (Carpers and Negative Controllers) and they attempt to shut down discussion, either deliberately or in the nit-picking way they treat others comments.
While it may not be ad hominem comment, it is slanted to give the commenter the feeling that their comment from their mind has nothing to say of relevance and therefore the person is mindless, ignorant, and for many people this is the same as an ad hominem in its effect. Obsessed people may continue to arise despite, but for those concerned for a wider discussion covering all topics it is greatly disheartening.
The reply to the comment will not build on it adding more background, it will not simply correct a mistake. The comment will be dumped on as wrongly quoted, the syntax is wrong, some figures wrong and so the whole comment is useless to consider, and it shows a mind uninformed and with nothing to add to the superior understanding of the person who responds. Wrong, wrong, wrong, so buzz off you inferior person. That's the message and the end result to many, while the lords, mainly I think, of the internet roll on flattening the poppies who might otherwise have got tall before they were attacked.
In other words the message is 'You 'Can't' say anything of importance or helpful – why bother.'
I try to put my comments to the table test before clicking Submit Comment.
'Would I use the same words if I was sitting across the table from the person I'm responding to?'
I wonder if people that feel the need to dominate and seed confrontation in a discussion on an anon message board lead somewhat different lives in the real world.
I wonder. But I get concerned at the lack of participation in this blog from lefties. I wonder if they lose heart. Times are tough and work hours or making do is demanding. But learning while you are going is not wasted time and just raising a query and some ideas and getting response is heartening. If the response is a sneer not. If it is a little query about meaning or the need to put source, or show opinion one way and quote okay. But encouragement is primary rather than scholastic lessons or entrenched opinion coming down on you.
There are some great people out there so those who seem to want to dominate, go schtum. Let it pass, ask for more info. Try to love other people's reaching up for understanding, communication, togetherness. There are some people who I am very wary of, anyone who tries to love and trust all others is unwise, but let's try to find How to get There…?
I replied to your question about comment formatting here https://thestandard.org.nz/the-climate-action-momentum/#comment-1656997
Thanks weka I have copied that and rushed off with it to my lair to study.
"There are some people who I am very wary of, anyone who tries to love and trust all others is unwise,…"
I am curious, why do you think it is unwise to try and love all?
So often I find, first needing to understand the other before I can hope to be understood by them.
Since i read about the Exclusive Brethren leader who commented that a young man who was suicidal over the split between the cult and his family, would be better off dead, should take rat poison, I thought that I can't trust these people. And there were other features of their behaviour which when understood showed they can never be trusted and that applies to a number of cults.
Going round being kind to all without wariness, is being naive sorry gsays – and over time you will find they often understand you very well and prefer to remain obscure themselves.
You are starting to sound like a flower child from hippy times. I think loving all is OTT, trying to have goodwill to all with wariness is good, and helping where you can be kind and being friendly. When you find who to trust, and know the small number that you will ever understand the heart of, then love them. Just don't throw it away like tissues or easy tears, it is precious, there isn't a lot of the real thing around.
ahh.. conditional love.
Love for those who deserve it, good will for those who deserve it, patient tolerance, disdain or disgust for those gone off track or beyond redemption. That says it I think. No need to hang social dictionary tags on it.
That's some pretty pecksniffian stuff there grayzy.
Not usually, however that is mostly because I tend to avoid arguing with people outside of online. It is obvious when you look at what happens on these kinds of forums.
Arguing or even discussing things with other people often means that you need to be somewhat on a level playing field to get anything out of it. But conversations are usually one to few in real-life.
Now I’m an extreme case. I have always had a really capacious memory, lots of CPU cycles, and a habit of thinking a lot about everything. Plus I have been continuously on the ‘social’ nets in some form or another since the mid-1980s BBSes and 90s usenet and have no interest in TV, sport, gossip and anything else that is essentially repetitive. And I never bother to compete or dominate with anyone – it is too easy to just leave them holding a some sinking island while I move on to something that is of interest to me. Plus I’m too damn arrogant to be concerned about what anyone else thinks of me.
Which makes it rare for me to find someone who has anything that interesting or new to me. Which also means that there isn’t that much to argue about except work.
But social networks and especially ones like this, you’re effectively talking to thousands of people at once with a bit of a lag. Yesterday on this site with a quiet day there were 2,784 distinct humans visited and read various posts and comments. 9,978 over the last 7 days**.
That gives a much larger selection of people who can provide the grist for interesting disagreements. It is also self-selecting for people who can argue.
So on here, even if I wasn’t having to moderate, my behaviour would change compared to IRL and has ever since I joined argument forums. I learn a hell of a lot just reading these forums. It is also why I’m also willing to expend time stomping on people who try to dilute the good arguments of a robust debate. The returns make it worthwhile.
//————
** there will be some inaccuracy in that due to people not using cookies or having different ‘identities’ on different systems. However when I analysed it a while ago, the maximum inaccuracy on users was less than 10%. Some of them are single reads from search engines. However that is well less than 30% of all of the users. Something like 40% of users read the site multiple times per week.
Is the 40% return users over the long term, or just the period you are looking at (eg a week)?
"2,784 distinct humans visited and read various posts"
Is the Unique Views, Users, Page Views, or something else?
That is the long-term average for a week.
humans == Unique Users (at least as far as google can see).
You can see this in the analytics summary in the dashboard. But reminds me that I'm on holiday for 5 days starting tonight. Google analytics coming your way.
Sweet!
The graph I'm looking at has Unique Views or Users (not Unique Users). Which one are you looking at?
hmm, ok, it's the Users then I think. Unique views might be some Users looking more than once.
Yep. You have to look at how google collects the information about users.
If you look in the cookies on your system, you'll find tracking cookies from google and others. These come in if you're on gmail or logged in on chrome or any number of other things.
What they also do is to allow google analytics to track user patterns. They do this by allocating a analytics number to everyone.
You should have access to analytics now. If you look under Audience / User Explorer you can see the anonymised data looking at individual user stats. That gives a better idea of how it is done.
😎 That should keep me busy.
That is just play… 🙂
Just don't let it interfere with the serious business of writing posts. 🙁
lol, ok.
So many posts up today!
Yep. That happens.
I’m having a 5 day weekend to do some outstanding work at home. Procrastinating on working on web code rather than my favoured hard-core code inevitably results in me becoming more blog-active…
Oh well the weekend boss is dragging me off to lunch, so I’d expect that there will be an expectation of less blog and more work on her site.
You're a strange man, lprent. Though magisterial about computer shit. For which I thank you.
I'd agree and I have known this for many years.
Hope you're well. I just aren't for the Labour Party. Since you know when. When they combined with the strong. When I logically knew them to be in the wrong. In my young age.
Ghandi a racist? Wouldn't he actually be a nationalist or a patriot/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018714782/racist-gandhi-should-not-be-honoured-at-un-event-researcher
I fleetingly heard it and it sounded like the guy was saying that gandhi didn't like a group of people because of the colour of their skin – in other words he said and acted like black people were inferior because they were black. If so then that is racism in my book.
His own words condemn him.
https://atlantablackstar.com/2015/03/31/not-all-peaceful-13-racist-quotes-gandhi-said-about-black-people/
This academic gets his points across well and is interesting on Brit and the unlawful decision against Boorish's pro-rogueing.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018714767/supreme-court-biggest-constitutional-mic-drop-in-50-yrs
The British Supreme Court has ruled that the decision by the British prime minister Boris Johnson to prorogue or suspend parliament for five-weeks was unlawful. Dr Dean Knight is the co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Public Law at Victoria University and spoke to Corin Dann about the case from London.
A good read and nuance regarding trudeau. Worth noting for our progressives here I'd say
This comment on Mahdawi's opinion article offers an interesting point of view. As I read it I found myself thinking about the political and public reaction to Metiria Turei's 2017 admission of benefit fraud some 25 years earlier at ~22 years of age – NZ lost an excellent MP over that.
I'm not comparing Trudeau to Turei (there are so many differences), but the effects of self-destructive tendencies in the progressive left are worth reflecting on before going full tilt, IMHO.
I found this paragraph in the article to be telling
For me the left reflexive defensive cos someone is a 'good' person or done 'good things' is the real problem. Own it, accept it, try to change it and then get on with it. Defend it or blame the others for being worse and other tactics really do feed the right. They don't need feeding – they need starving and you do that by sorting shit out fast and you do that imo by owning it, being a grown up and doing something about it and then moving on.
"Own it, accept it, try to change it and then get on with it." – good advice, and I wonder what more Trudeau could do now to address the hurt and allay concerns about the choices he made some years before becoming a politician.
Could Canada do better than Trudeau as PM – yes (IMHO). But will they?
Hats off to Simon Bridges. I admire the consistency with which he depicts himself as the village idiot and the certainty he has that the rest of us are too.
The news just had him as saying Tracey Martin should have been more hands on in the Royal Commission into historical abuse in state care.
I must admit my disappointment that he hasn't called for the resignation of Jacinda Ardern over the situation which has arisen with the Commission. Oh well, maybe tomorrow or when she gets back in the country he'll be singing that tune.
The whipping Bridges has been receiving from all quarters must be taking a toll. The most confident of battlers eventually gets driven to stepping aside.
Bridges' repeated deadpan delivery of the same answered question in the house yesterday was the work of a broken man.
Martin answered his 'What are you doing about a pedo on the board?' question straight out of the gate.
"You're a lawyer, you know it's illegal for an MP to have any influence over a Royal Commission."
On and on Bridges went with his prepared supps. I thought Martin was masterful…mistressful?? The temptation to say "I've already answered that." must of been strong. She went into the rare circumstances under which an MP could influence the Royal Enquiry. She had obviously studied the situation closely.
Still Bridges ground on with questions she had answered in finite detail.
I guess they're stuck with him for the 2020 election but crikey.
One of his Bridges' bridge promises has come true. The new Taipa bridge will be open in the next month or so and it's looking great. They have also hopefully solved issues with the largest school in the district flooding. The guys that built it will move onto the Kaeo bridge, that was always their intention. I see Robertson has begun calling the Kaeo job a Labour party win. Gosh they're amusing the way they all try to pin their brand on the wins, anyone's win.
https://www.dealsonwheels.co.nz/trucks/news/1908/new-bridge-brings-benefits-to-taipa
So true. I remember the Nats making a big deal out of the completion of the Waterview tunnel when it was the previous Labour govt, who did all the hard yards.
At least one of Bridges promised bridges has come to fruition.
Yet the troubled waters remain?
Bugger – Simon 'No' Bridges has a ring to it. Simon 'One' Bridges won't work.
Roll on Simon 'Two' Bridges, right up there with Arthur 'Two Sheds' Jackson I reckon.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/09/24/iconic-feminists-to-speak-at-new-zealand-event/
Canadian feminist Meghan Murphy is coming to New Zealand and will be speaking at the Feminism2020 event in Wellington on November 13th along with Dr Holly Lawford-Smith, Dr Melissa Derby, and SUFW spokeswoman Ani O’Brien. These are the feminists they don’t want you to hear. Banned, deplatformed, censored, and harassed, nonetheless these are women on the frontline of feminism.
Sanders won New Hampshire in 2016.
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1176526908235878400
Seems like she's building that movement she was on about at her 20,000 attended rally.
PM Jacinda Ardern speaking at the UN.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/399573/jacinda-arden-tells-un-words-and-actions-have-immeasurable-consequences
Ta. She really understood the role of the UN well, compared with the buffoon who spoke earlier.
We have always been at war with Eurasia..
Naturally his Bryceness cannot resist fluffing a strawman based on his superior knowing of the NZ public's wishes:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/25/ardern-was-supposed-to-be-the-anti-trump-but-she-failed-to-speak-truth-to-power
Does Edwards really expect the PM to trade in her dignity, authority, diplomacy skills and self-respect by having a slanging match with a Trump, who lacks all three of those qualities. The Guardian should engage better commentators.
And Victoria University should employ smarter lecturers.
Talking of "the buffoon"… he's reached out to Nancy Pelosi wanting to… wait for it… negotiate a settlement with her over the impeachment:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/116088298/donald-trump-tried-to-negotiate-his-way-out-when-he-heard-of-impeachment-inquiry
Unbelievable.
To head off a flood of Press Council complaints about bias, The Harold rushes out a response by one of its travel writers to another's most recent silly rantings: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12270749
Media Council doesnt review bias in Opinion columns. They are .. well opinions but rely on a 'foundation of fact' which means no easily provable lies.
Neither are they expected to provide balance for opinions
Twyford has torn strips off the bumblers in Treasury who botched the financial numbers in a report on Road infrastructure spending
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116076628/phil-twyford-hits-back-at-treasury-for-misleading-wrong-briefings-that-leave-out-billions-of-spending
"Twyford says the claim the Government was missing $3.8 billion of new transport projects had "no factual basis"
It seems that Treasury was writing reports based on wishful thinking from NZ National
"Treasury has been left with egg on its face for the second time this year after Transport Minister Phil Twyford slammed the ministry for missing out billions of dollars from its calculations.
Based on wishful thinking from the Infrastructure Council, I read somewhere. Can just imagine the neolibs in Treasury giving it a free pass cos not govt.
In part it's Twyford's own fault. He failed to clear out NZTA's Board or refresh its objectives as a Board. Instead he presumed that tilting the NLTP would be sufficient.
Also he forgot to clean out Ministry of Transport, who have guided him about as poorly as it's possible for a Ministry to do so. This is one of the results. Another is the entire regulatory debacle. Another is the light rail strategy disaster and light rail procurement mess.
But the suspicion I have is that Robertson decided to kick Twyford while he was down – ready to be reshuffled – and get another of Robertson's wieners replacing him in Cabinet.
Maybe the entire transport portfolio needs clear felling. OIA suggests that there are problems in Wellington with the LGWM ,the mayors recollection of what he told councillors,and did JAG threaten to hold her breath.
"Justin's advice to us was that this was the best he could do. There was also talk about the Green's/JAG [Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter] influence on the package," the documents say.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116084129/documents-reveal-claims-green-party-agreement-used-by-mayor-as-leverage-for-transport-deal-in-wellington
ACC posts 8.7$ billion deficit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/399579/acc-posts-8-point-7-billion-deficit
ACC chair Dame Paula Rebstock said the record deficit was an accounting measure, and in its day to day dealings the corporation had a cash surplus of $570 million.
"The cash operating surplus demonstrates ACC's robust funding structure that enables the scheme to withstand volatility, including falling interest rates."
She said the deficit would not affect ACC's ability to pay claims and it's too early to say what effect it might have on levies, which would be set by the middle of next year….
However, Dame Paula said in the medium term levies would have to rise to cover increasing costs such as medical treatments and rehabilitation.
ACC had a record 2 million claims in the past year, which adds to the financial demands on its funds.
The value of its outstanding claims liability (OCL) rose by $10.8b because of the fall in interest rates to $53b. ACC operates on the basis of having to cover the lifetime cost of all claims already made, and extends that out 100 years to 2119. (Should that be 3119? And why ahead so long, pay as we go plus have some reserves, would be practical but not pure enough for Treasury no doubt.)
No
Next year is 2020, so 100 yrs later is 2119. No need add another 1000 yrs.
Seems to me to be silly to go out 100 yrs , 50 yrs should be fine for almost all claimants and the few after that are inconsequential in terms of their reserves of $43.8 bill.
An increase of $5 bill this year alone- not sure why thay should highlight the 'balance sheet future costs'
Crikey, 100 years?
Labour kept ACC on its full pre-funding trajectory after 1999 partly to build a handy nest egg they could plunder just like the Nats have, but the main reason Shipley et al made the shift in the first place was to prepare for privatisation. Sadly for English, Joyce and chums the Aussie insurance industry were not keen enough in 2009.
Returning the scheme to annual pay-as-you-go instead would remove the prospect.
I'm looking forward to Air New Zealand being regulated by the Commerce Commission as a monopoly on most New Zealand domestic routes, now that Jetstar is pulling out.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12270903
It needs a lot more that Shane Jones to actually regulate price from a company that totally dominates one entire sector of the country. It's akin to every New Zealand motorway being tolled with no alternative route, and no one to hold them to legally hold them to account for the price they charge or how often you're allowed to drive on it.
Or maybe the government can provide stronger scrutiny as the major shareholder.
Or something.
+100
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/399566/jetstar-to-pull-out-of-regional-flying-in-nz-at-end-of-november
Government as usual hasn't the guts to run it's commercial businesses for the advantage of the whole country. There will be an opportunity to charge more for the main flights and subsidise to some extent the regions. And Jetstar shouldn't get the red carpet if they want to come here and get some of the cream.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said it was a shame to lose airline competition in the regions, but the government won't be telling Air New Zealand not to raise its prices.
Mr Robertson was hopeful another airline would emerge.
"We've had times in the past in New Zealand where we haven't had other operators on those regional routes and we'll have to see whether another one emerges but those decisions are entirely for Air New Zealand to make," he said.
"Clearly there's an expectation from New Zealanders that there are fair prices paid, and we'll keep an eye on that."
62 year old man abducts and sexually violates a 16 year old girl. There is a frame around his face from a CCTV picturte. Would that be for facial recognition tech?
I haven't heard lately of any 62 year old woman abducting a teenage boy and sexually violating him. Seems that it is time we had a better approach to enable people to sort out their sex urges without invading someone else's self and respect. There have been some teachers however, so it's not quite black and white.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/399589/police-hunt-man-after-teenager-abducted-and-sexually-violated
” Seems that it is time we had a better approach to enable people to sort out their sex urges without invading someone else’s self and respect.”
What do you suggest?
Don't know at present what do you suggest.
Thought you might have some ideas seeing as you were the one who bought it up like you knew what you were talking about, so apart from precogs and precrime units like in Minority report, or chemical castration for all men and mandatory bromide in our tea just in case, unless you're on a sex offender list where you can be monitored and directed accordingly, there's not really much else you can do for individuals apart from keep pushing the message not to do it and punish those who do, is there?
and in the 'punish those who do' is where we fail utterly . We do not treat this particular crime as the crime it is. 'their sex urges' – heck of an urge there.
is that when i steal a car i have uncontrolled 'drive urges'?
I agree, Sabine. When I saw Al1en's comment, I thought it askew with that standard punishment bit. Punishment (known as negative reinforcement in the 60s when I was training to be a teacher) works (in my experience) only in the shallowest way for activities to which people are NOT emotionally inclined at a deep level, in which case punishment does next to nothing.
I always liked the film 'A Clockwork Orange' because it deals with this issue.. but gives no solution.
So what are the options if punishment fails?
a truly novel approach.
throw the darn law book at them, lock em up – no matter how bright their future – and keep them locked up until time served.
or else lets stop with the pretense that we are a nation of laws and simply abolish all laws as there will always be offenders and really what can be done?
Isocrates in Areopagiticus, (some 25 centuries ago) suggested that excess laws was a sign of poor government.
Written laws do not increase virtue, but quotidian customs. Most men tend to take up the customs as moral of the place in which they were brought up. More so, it is evident that where there is a large number of defined laws, it is a signal that the state is badly governed. There are cases in which men try to build barriers against delinquency decreeing large numbers of norms. But well-governed men do not need to fill the porticos with written laws, but simply fix justice in the spirits, and those poorly educated will try to break the laws accurately produced. By contrast, well-educated men will be in good disposition to respect even the simplest codes.
yes dear.
and thus we get raped.
He didn't have 2500 years of documented government to put paid to that wishful thinking. Doesn't stop business cabals demanding deregulation, though.
You are so wet Allen always spoiling for an argument. I show example, express concern and say something should be done. And that starts you off with a demand that I delineate a policy to deal with it. Are you becoming an ambush troll I hope not? Well I have given you something to bother about – I have spelt your pseudo wrongly. What's your cunning plan?
To be honest, the way you write leaves me bemused, and often I'm left thinking wtf is that all about, not to mention thoughts about quality over quantity. Tell you what, if you're responding to me in future, I'd consider it a courtesy if you'd make your arguments and points in plain English and help me out a bit. Though it has to be said, to completely shoot it down, in the exchange here you haven’t once given examples of how to deal with the issue you yourself raised, in fact you answered “Don’t know at present”. If you’re going to lie, at least look at the previous posts first.
As for not using my chosen login name correctly, well, that's just a failing on your part you wilfully advertise to the membership here. I don't mind that at all. 😉
The UK bookies on Johnson and Brexit.
Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/24/bookies-slash-odds-boris-johnson-leaving-office-year-10799358/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Check We are stuffing there future so Our Rangatahi deserve to vote to protect their future but I say move the goal post a bit closer and go for 17 years old to vote.
That is a great discription of Aotearoa Prime Minister she is genuine and is using her Mana to make other tangata lives better.
More putea being invested into our Rangatahi sports programme is great I hope some of that putea get to the Regions.
Tutai shonkys only minute on the Papatuanuku stage was the golf game.
Our change to a green future will boost our Papatuanuku economy and leave Our futures A Clean and Green environment we all know that's a bit had for unintelligent people to Grasp?????????.
Great interview Rangatahi don't worry about the neanderthal they will be rolled into our history books.
The idea of Rangatahi being able to vote has just started. Opinions will change I have seen polls change quite rapidly on some subjects
Yes our farmers are putting them selves under a lot pressure they are isolated with no one to talk to. I tau toko this big barbecue initiative to help farmers who are on a low at the minute Ma Te Wa thing will get better that's the way of life ups and downs tangata just have to stay look for the positive side of every situation Ka kaha.
Ka kite Ano
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
https://youtu.be/Z0lufcRgZlA
Kia Ora Newshub.
That's is a huge Strike for Our Climate in Aotearoa Ka pai Ka kaha keep up the good mahi
Shaun Eco Maori won't be flying any time soon not until air travel has cleaned up there act.
Wow that's a big drop for NZ post yes online shopping is takeing off for them it's replaceing posted letters.
The Takia promise of our Aotearoa quest leaving behind only foot prints and not rubbish is great everyone knows they have to get on the Clean and Green WAKA or they will sink.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Our Strikes for Our Climate makes Eco Maori so proud. It is a emergency Our way of living has to change we are only on Papatuanuku for a very small finite time it's not on that our generation is making such a big mess that it will make living in the future extremely hard for the common poor tangata to live a healthy life. The climate change deniers are making out that mitergateing Global warming will make Tawhirimate fall on Our heads YEA RIGHT mitergateing global warming will be the best thing for us all.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/QAB6aXOfUmU
Ma Te Wa
I….Eco Maori tipuna new this Phenomenon people power is stronger than people in power he made a Haka
Te tangata Te tangata its the people that count in Te Papatuanuku
Climate crisis: 6 million people join latest wave of global protests
Week of strikes and demonstrations is ‘only the beginning’, say organisers
Six million people have taken to the streets over the past week, uniting across timezones, cultures and generations to demand urgent action on the escalating ecological emergency
“This week was a demonstration of the power of our movement,” said a spokesperson for the FridaysForFuture group which has helped coordinate the demonstrations. “People power is more powerful than the people in power. It was the biggest ever climate mobilisation, and it’s only the beginning. The momentum is on our side and we are not going anywhere
The day of protests began in New Zealand, where an open letter was delivered to parliament on Friday morning calling on the government to declare a climate emergency – following the lead of numerous councils around the country
On Friday there were huge protests in Italy – where more than 1 million people were reported to have taken part – Spain, the Netherlands and New Zealand, where more than 3.5% of the country’s population joined the demonstrations.
Organisers said they were expecting more people to join as the day progressed. High turnouts were expected in Canada, where Greta Thunberg – who kickstarted the school strike movement with a solo protest in Sweden 12 months ago – was due to join demonstrators in Montreal.
May Boeve from 350.org, which has helped organise the demonstrations, said: “We will keep fighting until the politicians stop ignoring the science, and the fossil fuel companies are held responsible for their crimes against our future, as they should have been decades ago.”
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/27/climate-crisis-6-million-people-join-latest-wave-of-worldwide-protests
Kia Ora Newshub
Condolences to the whanau who lost their pepi to a idiot on a dirt bike in Palmerston North. Dirt bike should be only riden on farms or tracks.
A big scrub fire near Queens Town let's hope they can get it under control before to much damage is caused.
That's good that the girl has been found whom got swept out to Tangaroa while white baiting.
Cool Aotearoa first Tamariki building academy that's innovation at its best from Our Government Ka pai.
War is for idiots.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to Careys whanau for their loss of their mother.
There you go people not respecting Tangaroa mokopuna by driving heavy machinery over them to gather mussels spat
FOMA is a awesome initiative way to encourage Maori tangata to get into business It takes a lot of courage to make the leap into business in Aotearoa for tangata whenua as some will try and put us off our mission of building a moanga for Te mokopuna.
Ngāti pikiao culture is looking strong that is great for mokopuna to carry on with their culturel identity kia kaha.
Ka kite Ano
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Ka pai to the Papatuanuku waka free day that is what everyone can do to easily drop our Carbon footprint walk and ride a bike for smaller journeys. I don't burn nowhere as much carbon as I use to. I have plans to lower my carbon footprint even more Ma Te Wa.
Pollutionwatch: how does World Car-free Day affect emissions?
Though air quality appeared to improve, measuring the precise impact of car-less days is difficult
Last Sunday peace and tranquillity descended on city centres across the world as many went car-free for the day.
This annual event started in the UK, in Bath, in 1994 with a road closure and street party for the Environmental Transport Association’s Green Transport Week. In 1997 it spread to France with En Ville Sans Ma Voiture (In Town Without My Car) in La Rochelle, and by 2007 it spanned 2,000 cities in 35 countries Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/26/pollutionwatch-how-does-world-car-free-day-affect-emissions
Ka pai to the people who are backing Wahine and giving them opportunity to have clean and green energy in their own whare. Mana Wahine. I have also read that whaine are making sure that there retirement savings is invest in companies that care for our future generations environment Wahine toa
Jaipur, India (CNN Business)India is trying to bring electricity to hundreds of millions of its citizens who live off the grid. And it's trying to ensure that the power comes from clean and renewable sources.
Frontier Markets is helping to achieve both those goals in the Western desert state of Rajasthan, selling solar-powered products to hundreds of villages. The company is thriving by turning its customers into salespeople.
The company employs women to sell products like lamps, stoves, and even TVs that run on solar power through a program called Solar Sahelis (Solar Friends). Each woman is in charge of selling products to hundreds of rural households
We learned that while the customer — the person paying for the product — was a man, the person using the product was a woman," Frontier Markets CEO Ajaita Shah said in an interview with CNN Business. "In fact, 70% of our users were women and that is when we realized that in order to properly serve the right households needs, women had to be at the center of that value chain," she added.
Shah founded Frontier Markets in 2011, with the goal of providing clean energy to millions of rural Indians while also giving women a source of employment and income. The goals encapsulate some of India's most urgent issues.
The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made rural electrification a big priority, announcing last year that 100% of the country's villages now have access to power. But the government considers a village electrified if just 10% of its houses are on the grid, meaning over 200 million people still don't have access to electricity.
The Modi government has also set aggressive targets to increase solar energy capacity, and it has succeeded in going from less than four gigawatts in 2015 to nearly 30 gigawatts — about 8% of India's total energy capability. The government wants to increase that to 100 gigawatts by 2022.
The 3,000 women that Shah employs have helped to provide energy to more than half a million village houses in Rajasthan, she said. The women communicate the benefits of clean energy to rural households, but also help Frontier Markets understand the kind of innovations that those households need most, she added.
Another pressing need that Frontier Markets is helping to solve is getting more women into work. Only 22% of India's workforce is female, according to the latest data from the World Bank, one of the lowest rates in the world. India lags behind countries such as Sudan, El Salvador and Afghanistan.
"As India starts growing and moving and changing and evolving, especially with the digital revolution, women are still being left behind," Shah said. "It's really important for us to continuously invest in our women's skills and their education to be able to catch up."
ka kite Ano link below.
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/01/business/india-solar-frontier-markets/index.html
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Te atea college is a great organisation that has helped tangata whenua get greater education its sad that they are facing problems I hope they can sort it out and keep the school open.
Kamo school is having problems to we need to taonga all our Maori based education centres.
Te tangata whenua of Alask are going to get a ap to help keep their culture going strong its a great way to use social media to help keep their historical culture Mana Ka kaha.
Yes there was a big celebration in Japan this Rugby World Cup is quite exciting
Ka kite Ano