Child bride activist Nada Al Ahdal aged 11 – Escaped child marriage after making a harrowing two minute video appealing against her forced child marriage that went viral on you tube. Now leads an international movement against child marriage.
However, voting – AFAIK – at 16 isn't legal in any of the countries those teens come from.
Your point seems to be demonstrating that it is perfectly possible and valid for teens to be activists – and potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote.
Likewise, it would be perfectly possible for women everywhere to be activists – and potentially change their societies -without being eligible to vote.
"Your point seems to be demonstrating that it is perfectly possible and valid for teens to be activists – and potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote." Belladonna
Many of the same Right Wing talking points being trotted out against enfranchising young people, are a retread of similar talking points that were argued against extending the franchise to women.
In fact you could extend these same right wing anti-democratic arguments to everyone.
If the franchise was removed from everyone, people could still potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote.
Not really. Although there are plenty of examples both from our own history, and current events elsewhere, which actually do demonstrate that being eligible to vote is not essential for activism.
The difference between sex and age as criteria for voting, is, that one never changes [or, at least absent extensive surgical intervention, doesn't change], while the other is simply a matter of time.
Waiting a couple of years to exercise your right to vote doesn't appear to be a major issue.
And, of course, shifting the voting age, will simply create the same sense of dis-enfranchisement from the younger cohort of voters.
Given the examples above I would argue that it not be arbitrary. That the age of franchise should be set is where it is determined that social awareness and political activism generally begins.
The ability to be able to read and write and use and interact through social media might be another non-arbitrary point of reference to determine the age of franchise.
“Social media saved my life,” Nada Al Ahdal
Through the use of social medial Nada Al Ahdal escaped two wedding pacts arranged by her parents. and has since pledged to protect others from being sold 'like sheep'
She forced to sign a document banning comments about child marriage in the press or on social media.
"…..the head of the school said that I, being famous for showing social media about child marriage, would brainwash the other girls. She told me to study at home but I refused,” Nada Al Ahdal
Yes it is arbitrary. Can you point to any actual hard evidence that 16 is a more valid age than 18 (or for that matter 14)?
If you want to argue for the use of social media as a qualifying factor – then you would need to be open to 12-year-olds – and even younger – as voters. Plenty of them are very active social media users.
Your criteria is also arbitrary.
"That the age of franchise should be set is where it is determined that social awareness and political activism generally begins."
Who decides? I can assure you, that the majority of kids in my teens school, even at the senior levels are *not* particularly politically active or even politically aware. The exceptions are the outliers that we see in the media. Equally, I know of much younger children who have made moral or ethical life choices (to be vegetarian, for example), and are deeply aware of the political implications of their choice.
Your suggested additional qualifier of use of social media is also arbitrary. How much use qualifies? Do you have to be active in social areas – or does posting TikTok videos count? Who gets to judge?
Just as an aside, that criteria would also drop off voters at the other end – not many people over 70 (yes, there are some) – who are active social media users. And there are a tranche of people who deliberately choose not to engage on social media at all – should they be disenfranchised also?
Very good potted history on why we are in the situation we are with crime and poverty. A breath of fresh air cutting through all the tough on crime rhetoric
Ok, this might need a thread.
When Jenny Shipley rolled Bolger and became our first female PM, she took Ruth Richardson to her bosom (metaphorically, I assume) and began a spiteful reign of terror over the poor, solo parents and beneficiaries…
I'd query the targeting. In our local area – it's not only – or even predominantly – highly taxed pleasure shops which are being targeted – it's just ordinary run-of-the-mill ones – where, in many cases, they've taken only minor amounts of money and/or goods – while causing tens-of-thousands-of-dollars worth of damage.
The driver appears to be the thrill of destruction, combined with the excitement of notoriety (TikTok, etc.)
While I can understand (though not approve of) stealing vapes, alcohol and cigarettes – or even high-end fashion goods; there is no rational excuse for targeting the local Malaysian cafe, Subway franchise, or stationery shop (doesn't sell vapes or cigarettes).
Be interesting (if data makes it possible) to see if big excise tax increases correlate with a rise in ram raid type crime targeting Tobacco and Alcohol.
Ad, I would recomend looking at this article from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study. It links childhood self control (or its absence) to all sorts of negative life outcomes, including crime. Poor self control at three years of age predicts these outcomes even when controlled for socio economic status and IQ.
This in my opinion should be the basis for how to bring the crime rate down.
"childhood self-control is signficantly correlated with adult self-control but shows much more room for change. The fact that a child with low self-control can still become an adult with high self-control indicates that self-control may be a more malleable and teachable characteristic than IQ. Scores are normalized around a mean of 0"
I'd be loathe to ascribe any kind of single-factor causal relationship towards criminal conviction records. Certainly be surprised if the Dunedin study did that.
Doesn't account for the 2021-22 spike in ram raids, gun warfare, and school delinquency. But it does correlate really well with COVID and the tobacco and alcohol excise taxes going up by a big jump two budgets ago.
That would be something you would need to discuss with the researchers of the Dunedin study Ad.
I think it is hopeful that the authors acknowledge self control is malleable. It is something that can be taught, but it needs to be done early.
The Dunedin study is outstanding for all sorts of reasons including it being prospective and also having such a high retention rate.
Their self control finding is gold. A single casual factor that is found across a range of negative outcomes. I have some friends who are early childhood teachers and they haven’t heard of this study or it’s outcomes. This seems like a missed opportunity to me
No Swordfish, no ideological CRT or squeals of “its all colonisation. Just good science. These scientists found an outcome they weren’t expecting
We have known the importance of this Dunedin study for ages. Hell I think I commented on it in detail here years back. From memory they could by the age of 3 categorise children into five social styles with about 7% of children in a 'aggressive and disruptive' group who – we at the highest risk of going on to very poor outcomes with violence and crime.
The most vital stage of their lives is between age 4 – 7yrs old when they have the chance to learn how to moderate they behaviour in rough and tumble play with other children and especially their fathers. This is how they learn the boundaries of what is a good game and what is hurtful or out of bounds. They don't learn from being lectured or moralised to – they learn from the physical experience of play. They are typically very kinetic, energetic and physical kids, and if they learn this moderating ability at this age will grow into fine capable adults.
But if they lacked positively engaged fathers, siblings and others they could literally bounce off – or worse if they encountered sustained abuse of any form – their teenage and adult outcomes were almost certain to be terrible.
Requiring such young children (often boys, with tremendous amounts of physical energy) to conform to the confined and restrained behaviour expected in a classroom environment actively fails them.
Not only do they not have that level of self-management, they often gain a reputation for disruption that is difficult to leave behind.
Whoaaaaa there !!!, affluent Pakeha Woke dogmatists have assured me the neighbourhood terrorism being perpetrated by violent, out-of-control anti-socials indiscriminately dumped in Kainga Ora housing is all down to "Post Colonial Traumatic Stress Disorder"
(Admittedly the well-to-do power-wielding Critical Theory Cult members who angrily demand we all accept this theory without demur courageously ensure they're living as far away as possible from the Nightmare situations they've cheerfully facilitated … though we should, of course, bear in mind that they possess “uniquely-refined moral sensibilities”)
"Courageously ensure they're living as far away as possible from the Nightmare situations"
Yes but interestingly enough when the parliament protestors littered their work environment the howls of protest from the parliamentarians and their workforce couldn't have been louder about the "river of filth!' Where were their cries of "Post Colonial Traumatic Stress Disorder", when they called for the army and Costers force to remove these scum? And on the last day, when it was mainly Maori men left rioting in the streets of Wellington, where were the defenders of those anti social Kainga Ora tennants? Somehow the PCTSD diagnosis didn't apply then
Yeah, you are quite right, Anker … what the Dunedin study found is well-established in the international literature … after the age of 4, anti-social children (or to use a technical term: conduct-disordered children) tend to turn into anti-social adolescents who, in turn, become anti-social & criminal adults.
The literature in Psychology suggests the vast majority of those 2 year olds who are unusually aggressive (most of them male) are reasonably well-socialised / domesticated by the age of 4 (with the intervention of parents, teachers & peers) … and aided, as Redlogix says, by rough & tumble play.
They've learnt how to regulate their innate aggression.
But that minority of aggressive, anti-social kids who haven't been properly socialised by 4 tend to be hyper-aggressive for the rest of their lives.
As adults, they are generally very low in trait Agreeableness & trait Conscientiousness (in terms of Psychology's Big Five Personality Traits) … so they're bordering on Sociopath / Psychopath territory.
Characterised by Predatory Aggression (low agreeableness) in contrast to those with Paternal Sympathy (high agreeableness)
Chronically aggressive children, as they become adults, lack empathy, are suspicious, narcissistic & highly self-centered.
There is a substantial literature on trying to rectify the behaviour of anti-social children after the age of 4 … and the findings suggest it's very difficult. Few interventions are helpful.
And if these unusually aggressive, anti-social adults (again, largely males) find themselves in the underclass, at the bottom of the social hierarchy (as they so often do), they will seek to achieve status by dominating their immediate environment – their local neighbourhood – through violence & extreme anti-social behaviour … which, of course, points to the nightmare situation dumped on my elderly parents & their neighbours & street … along with hundreds, perhaps thousands of others around New Zealand.
The article I posted is an interesting read. I am so impressed by the Dunedin Study. Ideology free. Just good science.
They do say in that article some programmes teaching self control really early on have shown promise, so I feel somewhat encouraged by this. But of course everyone is barking up the wrong tree with this. Marama Davison and the Greens for one.
The poor self control thing absolutely makes sense to me. They also found it predicted people with gambling problems in their 30s.
The sad thing is these people with poor self control show very poor parenting skills and so the circle continues (and you have spoken about this with your parents tormenter and their child apeing his behaviour). It is too late for this anti social tennant. Across NZ people like this are making other peoples lives hell. Anti social PD's are deeply problematic. But they are likely beyond help and they should be given the message that their shitty behaviour is not tolerated. This was what was lacking in their upbringing. Good clear boundaries and consequences.
I know of the OCEAN stuff. It is a great little formula.
This also applies to the assessment of the problems. We need to be able to clearly determine the factors that may lead to the current behaviour, rather than use past understanding to define the causes.
There have been significant societal disruptors over the last two decades, there should be no automatic assumptions regarding causes.
The studies do appear to show that early intervention is critical, however we appear to be opposed to intervention…go figure.
As to what to do about those beyond that point Id suggest we can neither afford to excuse the behaviour but neither do we have the resources to provide the comprehensive oversight required.
It is a question of scale and we have allowed the problem to become too large….like many of our problems.
Your lack of argument in your comment, for starters. You made the claim – the problem cannot be solved or dealt with adequately or even appropriately because it is too large – you argue for it, or not. Are you a fatalist?
ah your sensibilities are upset because you dont wish to acknowledge that there is a problem of scale and resource….this attitude is reminiscent of the 'care in the community" proponents of mental health care….great in theory and absolutely useless in practice due to the complete lack of resource able to be applied and yet the policy was rolled out anyway.
Except for a bunch of bullet points without commentary that look like they come straight from the National Party Speaking Points Sheet – Executive Summary you have offered nothing, not a single decent argument that’s worthy of debate. Your skin is apparently too thin to point out this inconvenient truth to you. You seem to think that your comments are only read by a couple of commenters on this site, which is why they often lack clarity and explanation and why you tend to resist having to explain yourself in layman terms that are easy to understand for a more general audience. If I didn’t think you couldn’t do any better I’d not even bother trying to tease out a more meaningful comment from you. Your concern for me has been noted.
This is why so much crime "debate" is offering nothing.
We instantly switch on our fixed settings, our preconceptions, to put new events in a context we understand, which is outdated.
e.g.
Long-standing assumption: crims do not want to be seen. Cameras are their enemy. Use CCTV. Makes sense.
New reality: some (especially young) do want to be seen. Cameras are their friend. Get on Tik-tok. Makes no sense.
Churning out old reckons from people who grew up before mobile phones is the opinion that dominates the "debate". Not even close to understanding what is going on, because we never imagined doing it.
there is zero causality to the 1990s structural adjustment
The "zero" is a big call – "no obvious" might be closer to the mark because there's always the argument to be made about hyper-individualism, loss of empathic community relationships etc. etc. I get though that you are trying to kick people out of helplessly whining about the past and instead thinking about action in the present.
Yes, in the old days Peter it was the children of bath tub gin imbibers, they ended up in Reform Schools or Borstals.
Now we have the children of Poverty and drink/meth intoxicated by internet algorithms and copycat behaviour. That is why it is about the act not the booty.
We've also just gone through a period in our history where a section of society, led by some political leaders, rebelled against the rule of law and society, saying 'fuck you Society and Government, I'll do what I want to do and not what you tell me, fuck off…'
It's not surprising that societal engagement rubs off on youth who say ' fuck you, I'll do what I bloody well like and take whatever I like, fuck off..'
Societal disengagement has become normalised, the kids are only following adult leadership. And having a ball.
It's one of the reasons why I believe building strong community is an imperative at this point in time, including with people who think differently from us or who we dislike. We can't mend what's happened since the Shipley years unless there is a major political shift, but we can rebuild locally.
People rebelled because among other important things, they had lost personal autonomy over their health, jobs, movement and essentially their lives. This wasn't rebelling against rules just for the hell of it.
Something tells me that school shutdowns, disrupted education, health requirements to participate in class and in school sports, are going to have a larger detrimental effect on young people. We have let down young people badly in these last few years, isn't the mark of a good society how they treat their young.
I stumbled across this graph inadvertantly in the last week or so. Passing a lot of time on line as I recover from Covid (sick for two weeks now!).
What I found fascinating was that Maori rates of child homicide shot up from 1991 onwards (they had been the same as non Maori up till then). I hadn't heard or seen this figure before (maybe it is generally known). But I think it could do with some unpicking. The obvious conclusion is that the welfare reforms and Rogernomics play a role in this statistic. I would be surprized if there hasn't been some good research methods applied to confirm if this is the case. I realize it fits with what I recall of an ever increasing number of homicide victims that are Maori children.
I don't, but I would also look at whether Māori were disproportionately affected by the mass redundancies in the 80s thanks to ACTLabour (I will guess they were). So many things took at dive at the point, and then National in the 90s just cemented the neolib project in. Mental health, job security, employment conditions, union power, benefit rates, health system, on and on. I don't think younger people can probably appreciate just how massive a societal change it was.
My mother was a social worker in the 90s and she said it would take generations to recover from what they were doing.
Yes indeed re the generations comment. I worked in South Auckland car industry for 20 years, 70s to early 90s, and the workforce was mainly brown apart from admins and managers, industry deregulated and mostly gone well before end of 90s. Provincial county councils with their own works departments–contracted out, Manufacturing had the pin pulled, including footwear, clothing and textiles. With that unskilled but full time work, there were thousands of associated support workers and suppliers.
So perhaps Rogernomics greatest shame remains discarding people via macro economic decisions that they had no immediate control over, and then abandoning them. And to rub it in–demonising them as dole bludgers, market rents for state housing and the Richardson MOAB was the final straw. If you want to know who ram raiders are–they are the grand children of Roger and Ruth.
“What Rogernomics did, among other things, was to eradicate a lot of jobs. And we know that Māori were affected more than non-Māori. Māori health deteriorated and Māori mortality rose during the Rogernomics era quite against the long term trend. Moreover the Rogernomic policies were deliberately biased against the poor and therefore disproportionally hit Māori.
So, when we get through that period, what have we got? We’ve got a large, young population — it’s younger than the national average — and it’s an unskilled population. It’s not ready for the high-skilled jobs that are being created in the economy.”
I don't, but I would also look at whether Māori were disproportionately affected by the mass redundancies in the 80s thanks to ACTLabour (I will guess they were).
The redundancies in the late 1980s pulled the 'guts out' of the ability to work for large employers in predominantly Maori communities for labouring type jobs. So Forestry went, MOW local branches went etc etc.
Local branches for many govt depts went, where these branches were located in Maori areas this meant people had less chance of being able to live locally. With all of the Govt Depts retreating from small town NZ and even small city NZ eg Napier and Gisborne had no branches left in the Govt dept I worked for, all run from Wellington as was Whanganui & Palmerston North.
In the small town I grew up in it not only destroyed jobs but what I call the Maori middle class, those whose children went away to boarding schools such as Hato Petera, Te Aute, St Stephens, Queen Vic, Hukarere just as their mothers and fathers had or to the same schools that we also went to. Some families schooled their children locally and then sent them to boarding schools in the last two years of secondary school.
After the 1987 environmental restructuring followed by that of MOW, I think it was MOW that was asked to do a social impact report on the reforms and this was hurriedly pulped/withdrawn (from my recollection) after it was clear that not much good had resulted from these reforms and huge dislocation costing $$$$, careers, loss of retirement savings, and heartbreaking mental and social effects were the main results.
EA has brought out a consultancy paper ,for the management of winter 2023 tight generation periods.
This is not because demand is behind installed generation capacity (demand is down and will be around 1500 gwh on 2021) it is by the changes in the generation mix,and the high cost imposed by the necessary use of thermal generation for peak loads.
A key reason for this divergence between available and installed generation capacity relates to the increased role of intermittent generation and the growing cost of gas, coal and carbon emissions.
Intermittency from NI wind (over 1 gw) is dependent on near real time forecasting which is constrained to 5 day windows at the 60% probability window,and 1 day at the 90%.
This is with additional lessening of load,with the closure of Marsden point,and Norsk paper (around 100mw)
Peak load demand needs to be lessened substantially North of Taupo,for the winter months.
Where is the workers central labour organisation (NZCTU) today? I checked their FB Together and www, little on the RB OCR hike. The economist is no doubt beavering away, but there should have been heavy fire back on that, and to the Natzos claims about migrant workers on RNZ this morning.
Really–there is a classic contradiction between the RB and Employers arguments. Unemployment must rise says the RB, where as employers are desperate for more workers via migrant labour and want easing up on entry and residency. Translation–break down the growing workers action for higher wages, and use cheaper imported labour. NZ National have said that migrant workers should not be paid the median wage.
To paraphrase Marx… “wage rises generally happen in the track of previous price rises” – it’s a catch-up response, not due to ‘excessive’ and unrealistic demands for higher wages by workers. Second, it is not wage rises that cause rising inflation. Many other things affect price changes, Marx argued: namely “the amount of production (growth rates), the productive powers of labour (productivity growth), the value of money (money supply growth), fluctuations of market prices which happens constantly anyway, and “different phases of the industrial cycle” (boom or slump).
The claim that there is a wage-price spiral and that wage rises cause price rises is an ideological smokescreen to protect profitability.
It takes time to write something decent and also to get it published but I'm sure it's a high priority for CTU.
The November Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) has some quite good commentary on wages from page 33 including how different Stats NZ wage measures apply to different ways of obtaining pay rises. RBNZ agree with you and Marx that wages usually catch up to CPI and are forecasting that. What they are trying to avoid isn't the catch-up to CPI in and of itself, it's going too far past that (whatever that looks like), "forcing" prices up which in turn forces wages up more etc.
Recently I commented on David Seymour using the Ellerslie jeweller's store robbery for publicity. He even stood in Parliament to announce he'd been there.
I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in.
Seymour didn't disappoint though. The headline today is "Act Party criticises PM Jacinda Ardern for not supporting local community after stabbing."
It's appropriate to mention talk about 16 year olds getting the vote. That's the level Seymour is operating at and the level of the intellectually disadvantaged in that cohort he seeks to appeal to. (With due apologies to 16 year olds with a modicum of intelligence and class.)
It's a long-running trope that they love: "PM should not be in A, she should be in B".
If she's at APEC she should be at COP. If she's at COP she should be at APEC. If she's in NZ she should be overseas, if she's overseas she should be in NZ, if she's in Auckland she should be in Wellington, if she's anywhere it's a photo op, if she's not there she's hiding … zzzzzzzz.
It's a free hit because it can't be wrong. By definition, she is not somewhere. Infantile and idiotic, but Seymour gonna Seymour, he knows his fan base and their obsessive hatred.
But the comments already aren't, and won't be (though they are usually closed/deleted later).
Any Stuff article that mentions the PM gets the same comments. Doesn't matter if the subject is rugby or water or weather or tax or music or recipes with fish.
Yes, they've closed comments, and deleted some previous ones.
The Stuff moderation policy is daft. If they don't want the comments (which as I've stated are entirely predictable) then they shouldn't open an article for them … and then close them when the predictable happens. Leave them open and allow for rebuttal and free debate. Or, don't open them. Either is fine.
The article itself is fine, an overview of Chatham Island issues, no problem.
Davids been doing this since forever. Its reminiscent of his weird election ads where he was popping out from behind bushes. Is it mostly spin? Or are the voters of Epsom regularly left wondering just how long their MP has been hanging out there.
Heather Stupidity-Allen, in her creepy voice, was asking Chris Hipkins why the PM wasn't on the street corner outside the Rose Cottage. He must have thought it was Halloween again.
I admire these ministers who have to tread so carefully through the mire of malevolent idiocy which is right wing media.
“I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in. “- what a vile thing to think – someone was murdered, and you think of this. Says a lot about your character rather than pre supposing on someone else's.
Seymour literally said that Ardern needed fear of Covid for political gain, so when he's effectively accused her of hoping for Kiwi deaths, Peter's assessment is not wrong.
Peter assessment is a pig of a thing to even consider yet alone to publish, and with NO basis. So now can we Boise and extend our thoughts and assign them to others ??
There are some unglued people out there and more than enough who totally support this site that fall into this category, and even more who find it acceptable as long as they are for Labour imo Peter is still a pig to pass on his thoughts and apply them to someone else, or can/ should we now dedicate comments in this fashion moving forward??
Perhaps if the govt had thought post announcement of the $6m with follow up question to both officials and store owners/workers then deficiencies and improvements be made. But once announced, the govt moves on to the next crisis, and now we see after this avoidable death that ministers want a review ?? Shouldn’t that have been in progress following the initial commitment to see if it was effective and fit for purpose ?? Guess such follow up is beyond these guys
The core question from this thread that I commented on is "I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in."
Why don't you address this then ?? And where can you or anyone else derive support in Peters comment this out of anything on the subject ?? There is nothing out there to suggest this. Just yours and others acceptance of CRAP behaviour.
BUT he DID post it !!!!! So your argument is negated. Still no one able to link anything that supports this …. Still waiting or is making unsubstantiated comments now accepted ???
and observer don’t look in the mirror you may not like what you see looking back. You definitely are not a green supporter, at least they know there standards and when they swallow a rat they know and admit that it is against what they stand for.
If we all got hauled over the coals for everything we "considered posting" [but didn't] there would probably be lifetime bans for all of us.
David Seymour is an MP and party leader. I'd suggest his behaviour is more relevant and worth more of your indignation than somebody commenting on a blog. But each to his own. It's Friday night, I'm out, have a good one.
Peter's comment was an opinion, a personal appraisal of David Seymour, so doesn't require a link supporting it. The evidence is Seymour's grandstanding over crime which he delights making political hay from. Peter did provide a link for that.
I don't think Seymour is disappointed it didn't happen in Epsom but if it did he'd certainly not let it go to waste.
His answers, told to his fluffer Heather Stupidity-Allen, are:
To increase hard security tech in presumably every corner shop in the country and presumably at the taxpayers' expense (hence my comment above). I think proper staff training would be far more effective. First lesson might be not to follow a dangerous individual out of the shop.
To use Oranga Tamariki to incarcerate youth offenders so they are not delivered back to the address from which they committed the offence. This would have to be a borstal or juvenile detention because how are you going to keep them there?
David Seymour is a student politician and an idiot.
Next best thing for dear David would be to get headlines in the Herald. Oh dear. He has.
The Act Party is criticising Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for not being with members of her electorate who were grieving after a man was stabbed to death by a thief who had stolen a cash register from the dairy the man was managing.
I thought that Jacinda visited shops and spoke to the locals in Sandringham the day after the murder according to a TV news item that I caught the end of. Seymour is a dickhead BTW.
According to this article – she hasn't been (Ardern gives her reasons – but there is no claim that she's already visited the community)
"It is my local community, so I will be looking to be present there as soon as I'm able to but I'm also very aware there's a family grieving, and there's a police active investigation into a homicide," she said.
I expected Seymour to use the incident to play a vile game. It was vile thinking he would?
He did not disappoint. The reason that he does it and his particular mode of fomenting negativity and hate flourishes is that it's not called for what it is.
I know everyone has whinge hysteria mode turned up to the max – I can see the political vultures like Sunny Kaushal and David Seymour sitting on the powerlines in Fowlds Ave from my house – but from my positive RAT test to the delivery of anti-viral pills took less than two hours, whilst after registering my test result I got calls from my GP and PMO nurse within 24 hours. All free. The system does work if you want it to.
Nightime temperatures in Ukraine are below -0c and videos are emerging of entire squads of Russian mobiks huddled together out in the open or in their dugouts either dead or so hyperthermic they're unable to move.
Little wonder Poots has boosted spending on domestic security.
Could someone please explain what this black friday is all about? Are we really so dumb that we allow ourselves to get sucked into this American commercial bullshit?
Yes apparently so. We have already tucked into our Thanksgiving dinners…….what you don't celebrate Thanksgiving? For shame. /sarc
As I said last night Black Friday used to be any Friday that fell on the 13th of the month – when you didn't walk under a ladder with a black cat in your arms, or step on the cracks in the pavement, perhaps I have that a bit mixed up.
Oh yes, I remember the ladder thing. Everyone scrupulously avoided walking under the ladders. It was a good lurk to stop people being hurt from falling ladders. 😉
I thought it was the black cat walking across in front of you which was supposed to bring bad luck. Poor harmless pussy. 🙂
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
It was once legal for a man to beat his wife.
It was only recently that we made it illegal for parents to beat their children.
Youth are disempowered in many ways
Voting empowers
We are afraid of empowering young people, especially girls
For a reason
Climate activist Greta Thunberg aged 15 – Launched 'School Strike for the Climate' a movement that became global.
Education activist Malala Yousafzai aged 15 – Survived attempted assassination by the Taliban for demanding education for girls.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24379018
Child bride activist Nada Al Ahdal aged 11 – Escaped child marriage after making a harrowing two minute video appealing against her forced child marriage that went viral on you tube. Now leads an international movement against child marriage.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/arab-showcase/2022/11/24/the-yemeni-child-bride-activist-leading-the-fight-against-the-scourge-of-early-marriage/
However, voting – AFAIK – at 16 isn't legal in any of the countries those teens come from.
Your point seems to be demonstrating that it is perfectly possible and valid for teens to be activists – and potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote.
Likewise, it would be perfectly possible for women everywhere to be activists – and potentially change their societies -without being eligible to vote.
"Your point seems to be demonstrating that it is perfectly possible and valid for teens to be activists – and potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote." Belladonna
Many of the same Right Wing talking points being trotted out against enfranchising young people, are a retread of similar talking points that were argued against extending the franchise to women.
In fact you could extend these same right wing anti-democratic arguments to everyone.
If the franchise was removed from everyone, people could still potentially change their societies – without being eligible to vote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolpuddle_Martyrs
Not really. Although there are plenty of examples both from our own history, and current events elsewhere, which actually do demonstrate that being eligible to vote is not essential for activism.
The difference between sex and age as criteria for voting, is, that one never changes [or, at least absent extensive surgical intervention, doesn't change], while the other is simply a matter of time.
Waiting a couple of years to exercise your right to vote doesn't appear to be a major issue.
And, of course, shifting the voting age, will simply create the same sense of dis-enfranchisement from the younger cohort of voters.
You earlier argued that the age of franchise is arbitrary.
“Any voting age is an arbitrary cut-off point – with no way to justify it…” Belladonna
.https://thestandard.org.nz/the-politics-of-the-voting-age-change/#comment-1922761
Given the examples above I would argue that it not be arbitrary. That the age of franchise should be set is where it is determined that social awareness and political activism generally begins.
The ability to be able to read and write and use and interact through social media might be another non-arbitrary point of reference to determine the age of franchise.
“Social media saved my life,” Nada Al Ahdal
Through the use of social medial Nada Al Ahdal escaped two wedding pacts arranged by her parents. and has since pledged to protect others from being sold 'like sheep'
She forced to sign a document banning comments about child marriage in the press or on social media.
"…..the head of the school said that I, being famous for showing social media about child marriage, would brainwash the other girls. She told me to study at home but I refused,” Nada Al Ahdal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQszkZVNeFA
Yes it is arbitrary. Can you point to any actual hard evidence that 16 is a more valid age than 18 (or for that matter 14)?
If you want to argue for the use of social media as a qualifying factor – then you would need to be open to 12-year-olds – and even younger – as voters. Plenty of them are very active social media users.
Your criteria is also arbitrary.
Who decides? I can assure you, that the majority of kids in my teens school, even at the senior levels are *not* particularly politically active or even politically aware. The exceptions are the outliers that we see in the media. Equally, I know of much younger children who have made moral or ethical life choices (to be vegetarian, for example), and are deeply aware of the political implications of their choice.
Your suggested additional qualifier of use of social media is also arbitrary. How much use qualifies? Do you have to be active in social areas – or does posting TikTok videos count? Who gets to judge?
Just as an aside, that criteria would also drop off voters at the other end – not many people over 70 (yes, there are some) – who are active social media users. And there are a tranche of people who deliberately choose not to engage on social media at all – should they be disenfranchised also?
Very good potted history on why we are in the situation we are with crime and poverty. A breath of fresh air cutting through all the tough on crime rhetoric
https://twitter.com/k_t_pi/status/1595692454686388224
If long term poverty was a crime-driver we'd see burglaries up over a decade, and ramraids of supermarkets. We never have.
Until COVID all crime was down and staying down.
Ramraiders are targeting highly taxed pleasure shops: tobacco, vapes and alcohol.
Crime especially all kinds of assault is still down. It needs its own post but there is zero causality to the 1990s structural adjustment.
I'd query the targeting. In our local area – it's not only – or even predominantly – highly taxed pleasure shops which are being targeted – it's just ordinary run-of-the-mill ones – where, in many cases, they've taken only minor amounts of money and/or goods – while causing tens-of-thousands-of-dollars worth of damage.
The driver appears to be the thrill of destruction, combined with the excitement of notoriety (TikTok, etc.)
While I can understand (though not approve of) stealing vapes, alcohol and cigarettes – or even high-end fashion goods; there is no rational excuse for targeting the local Malaysian cafe, Subway franchise, or stationery shop (doesn't sell vapes or cigarettes).
If I get a couple of hours on the weekend I'll do a post on crime.
I'm not an expert on it but the graphed public reports are solid and far and away beat the anecdotes and bleed-lead cycles.
Be interesting (if data makes it possible) to see if big excise tax increases correlate with a rise in ram raid type crime targeting Tobacco and Alcohol.
https://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/files/1571970023782.pdf
Ad, I would recomend looking at this article from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Study. It links childhood self control (or its absence) to all sorts of negative life outcomes, including crime. Poor self control at three years of age predicts these outcomes even when controlled for socio economic status and IQ.
This in my opinion should be the basis for how to bring the crime rate down.
"childhood self-control is signficantly correlated with adult self-control but shows much more room for change. The fact that a child with low self-control can still become an adult with high self-control indicates that self-control may be a more malleable and teachable characteristic than IQ. Scores are normalized around a mean of 0"
I'd be loathe to ascribe any kind of single-factor causal relationship towards criminal conviction records. Certainly be surprised if the Dunedin study did that.
Doesn't account for the 2021-22 spike in ram raids, gun warfare, and school delinquency. But it does correlate really well with COVID and the tobacco and alcohol excise taxes going up by a big jump two budgets ago.
We have known the importance of this Dunedin study for ages. Hell I think I commented on it in detail here years back. From memory they could by the age of 3 categorise children into five social styles with about 7% of children in a 'aggressive and disruptive' group who – we at the highest risk of going on to very poor outcomes with violence and crime.
The most vital stage of their lives is between age 4 – 7yrs old when they have the chance to learn how to moderate they behaviour in rough and tumble play with other children and especially their fathers. This is how they learn the boundaries of what is a good game and what is hurtful or out of bounds. They don't learn from being lectured or moralised to – they learn from the physical experience of play. They are typically very kinetic, energetic and physical kids, and if they learn this moderating ability at this age will grow into fine capable adults.
But if they lacked positively engaged fathers, siblings and others they could literally bounce off – or worse if they encountered sustained abuse of any form – their teenage and adult outcomes were almost certain to be terrible.
I'd add a further point:
Requiring such young children (often boys, with tremendous amounts of physical energy) to conform to the confined and restrained behaviour expected in a classroom environment actively fails them.
Not only do they not have that level of self-management, they often gain a reputation for disruption that is difficult to leave behind.
.
Whoaaaaa there !!!, affluent Pakeha Woke dogmatists have assured me the neighbourhood terrorism being perpetrated by violent, out-of-control anti-socials indiscriminately dumped in Kainga Ora housing is all down to "Post Colonial Traumatic Stress Disorder"
(Admittedly the well-to-do power-wielding Critical Theory Cult members who angrily demand we all accept this theory without demur courageously ensure they're living as far away as possible from the Nightmare situations they've cheerfully facilitated … though we should, of course, bear in mind that they possess “uniquely-refined moral sensibilities”)
"Courageously ensure they're living as far away as possible from the Nightmare situations"
Yes but interestingly enough when the parliament protestors littered their work environment the howls of protest from the parliamentarians and their workforce couldn't have been louder about the "river of filth!' Where were their cries of "Post Colonial Traumatic Stress Disorder", when they called for the army and Costers force to remove these scum? And on the last day, when it was mainly Maori men left rioting in the streets of Wellington, where were the defenders of those anti social Kainga Ora tennants? Somehow the PCTSD diagnosis didn't apply then
Strange that…
.
Yeah, you are quite right, Anker … what the Dunedin study found is well-established in the international literature … after the age of 4, anti-social children (or to use a technical term: conduct-disordered children) tend to turn into anti-social adolescents who, in turn, become anti-social & criminal adults.
The literature in Psychology suggests the vast majority of those 2 year olds who are unusually aggressive (most of them male) are reasonably well-socialised / domesticated by the age of 4 (with the intervention of parents, teachers & peers) … and aided, as Redlogix says, by rough & tumble play.
They've learnt how to regulate their innate aggression.
But that minority of aggressive, anti-social kids who haven't been properly socialised by 4 tend to be hyper-aggressive for the rest of their lives.
As adults, they are generally very low in trait Agreeableness & trait Conscientiousness (in terms of Psychology's Big Five Personality Traits) … so they're bordering on Sociopath / Psychopath territory.
Characterised by Predatory Aggression (low agreeableness) in contrast to those with Paternal Sympathy (high agreeableness)
Chronically aggressive children, as they become adults, lack empathy, are suspicious, narcissistic & highly self-centered.
There is a substantial literature on trying to rectify the behaviour of anti-social children after the age of 4 … and the findings suggest it's very difficult. Few interventions are helpful.
And if these unusually aggressive, anti-social adults (again, largely males) find themselves in the underclass, at the bottom of the social hierarchy (as they so often do), they will seek to achieve status by dominating their immediate environment – their local neighbourhood – through violence & extreme anti-social behaviour … which, of course, points to the nightmare situation dumped on my elderly parents & their neighbours & street … along with hundreds, perhaps thousands of others around New Zealand.
The article I posted is an interesting read. I am so impressed by the Dunedin Study. Ideology free. Just good science.
They do say in that article some programmes teaching self control really early on have shown promise, so I feel somewhat encouraged by this. But of course everyone is barking up the wrong tree with this. Marama Davison and the Greens for one.
The poor self control thing absolutely makes sense to me. They also found it predicted people with gambling problems in their 30s.
The sad thing is these people with poor self control show very poor parenting skills and so the circle continues (and you have spoken about this with your parents tormenter and their child apeing his behaviour). It is too late for this anti social tennant. Across NZ people like this are making other peoples lives hell. Anti social PD's are deeply problematic. But they are likely beyond help and they should be given the message that their shitty behaviour is not tolerated. This was what was lacking in their upbringing. Good clear boundaries and consequences.
I know of the OCEAN stuff. It is a great little formula.
It outlines the duality of the problem….the solutions for the future anti socials is at odds with the solutions for the current anti socials.
We need to stop/slow the creation of future problem while addressing the current
This also applies to the assessment of the problems. We need to be able to clearly determine the factors that may lead to the current behaviour, rather than use past understanding to define the causes.
There have been significant societal disruptors over the last two decades, there should be no automatic assumptions regarding causes.
Id suggest the problems concerning wider society are self evident even if the causes are not
@pat
I agree.
When I said problems, I meant problem with assuming causes (admittedly unclear).
If causes are incorrectly identified, then solutions may not only be ineffective now, but create issues in the long term.
In short: what you said.
Meanwhile the problems (existing) must be addressed
@pat.
I agree.
Yes Pat, I agree. What to we do to try and prevent this and if we go by the Dunedin study, it is intervene very, very early as in about 3 years old.
I am at a lost to know what to do when people reach adolecences or older. I am not up with the play about what works.
The studies do appear to show that early intervention is critical, however we appear to be opposed to intervention…go figure.
As to what to do about those beyond that point Id suggest we can neither afford to excuse the behaviour but neither do we have the resources to provide the comprehensive oversight required.
It is a question of scale and we have allowed the problem to become too large….like many of our problems.
Nope, scale is not the issue at all and you cannot argue this.
Indeed!….and your basis for that assertion?
Your lack of argument in your comment, for starters. You made the claim – the problem cannot be solved or dealt with adequately or even appropriately because it is too large – you argue for it, or not. Are you a fatalist?
8,600 in prison
5,800 electronically monitored
2,500 501 deportees
5,200 in care and protection with OT
7,700 listed gang members (not including associates)
156,000 children living in poverty
How many required to provide wrap around services for this volume of people?
@Incognito
ah your sensibilities are upset because you dont wish to acknowledge that there is a problem of scale and resource….this attitude is reminiscent of the 'care in the community" proponents of mental health care….great in theory and absolutely useless in practice due to the complete lack of resource able to be applied and yet the policy was rolled out anyway.
Nah, you don’t appreciate the nature and complexity of those societal problems which is why you need to dumb it down to: too big, too hard, can’t do.
Lol…no need to stoop to abuse. Im a little concerned about you incognito, you appear under significant stress of late.
Except for a bunch of bullet points without commentary that look like they come straight from the National Party Speaking Points Sheet – Executive Summary you have offered nothing, not a single decent argument that’s worthy of debate. Your skin is apparently too thin to point out this inconvenient truth to you. You seem to think that your comments are only read by a couple of commenters on this site, which is why they often lack clarity and explanation and why you tend to resist having to explain yourself in layman terms that are easy to understand for a more general audience. If I didn’t think you couldn’t do any better I’d not even bother trying to tease out a more meaningful comment from you. Your concern for me has been noted.
This is why so much crime "debate" is offering nothing.
We instantly switch on our fixed settings, our preconceptions, to put new events in a context we understand, which is outdated.
e.g.
Long-standing assumption: crims do not want to be seen. Cameras are their enemy. Use CCTV. Makes sense.
New reality: some (especially young) do want to be seen. Cameras are their friend. Get on Tik-tok. Makes no sense.
Churning out old reckons from people who grew up before mobile phones is the opinion that dominates the "debate". Not even close to understanding what is going on, because we never imagined doing it.
The "zero" is a big call – "no obvious" might be closer to the mark because there's always the argument to be made about hyper-individualism, loss of empathic community relationships etc. etc. I get though that you are trying to kick people out of helplessly whining about the past and instead thinking about action in the present.
The children of the 'Mother of all Budgets" are with us. They've given birth to another generation who are out and about.
We tell women to not drink alcohol while pregnant because of, amongst other things, Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
Foetal Richardson Syndrome.
Yes, in the old days Peter it was the children of bath tub gin imbibers, they ended up in Reform Schools or Borstals.
Now we have the children of Poverty and drink/meth intoxicated by internet algorithms and copycat behaviour. That is why it is about the act not the booty.
Really?
1991 is 31 years ago.
The spike we are seeing in truancy, ram raids and gun violence is in the last 2 years.
The ages suggest most were born just after or during the GFC
Are you proposing that criminals are born because of economic crisis?
We've also just gone through a period in our history where a section of society, led by some political leaders, rebelled against the rule of law and society, saying 'fuck you Society and Government, I'll do what I want to do and not what you tell me, fuck off…'
It's not surprising that societal engagement rubs off on youth who say ' fuck you, I'll do what I bloody well like and take whatever I like, fuck off..'
Societal disengagement has become normalised, the kids are only following adult leadership. And having a ball.
It's one of the reasons why I believe building strong community is an imperative at this point in time, including with people who think differently from us or who we dislike. We can't mend what's happened since the Shipley years unless there is a major political shift, but we can rebuild locally.
People rebelled because among other important things, they had lost personal autonomy over their health, jobs, movement and essentially their lives. This wasn't rebelling against rules just for the hell of it.
Something tells me that school shutdowns, disrupted education, health requirements to participate in class and in school sports, are going to have a larger detrimental effect on young people. We have let down young people badly in these last few years, isn't the mark of a good society how they treat their young.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/29237/child-homicide-rates-for-maori-and-non-maori
I stumbled across this graph inadvertantly in the last week or so. Passing a lot of time on line as I recover from Covid (sick for two weeks now!).
What I found fascinating was that Maori rates of child homicide shot up from 1991 onwards (they had been the same as non Maori up till then). I hadn't heard or seen this figure before (maybe it is generally known). But I think it could do with some unpicking. The obvious conclusion is that the welfare reforms and Rogernomics play a role in this statistic. I would be surprized if there hasn't been some good research methods applied to confirm if this is the case. I realize it fits with what I recall of an ever increasing number of homicide victims that are Maori children.
Anyone know more about this?
I don't, but I would also look at whether Māori were disproportionately affected by the mass redundancies in the 80s thanks to ACTLabour (I will guess they were). So many things took at dive at the point, and then National in the 90s just cemented the neolib project in. Mental health, job security, employment conditions, union power, benefit rates, health system, on and on. I don't think younger people can probably appreciate just how massive a societal change it was.
My mother was a social worker in the 90s and she said it would take generations to recover from what they were doing.
Weka, agree. It didn't just start with Ruth Richardson
Yes indeed re the generations comment. I worked in South Auckland car industry for 20 years, 70s to early 90s, and the workforce was mainly brown apart from admins and managers, industry deregulated and mostly gone well before end of 90s. Provincial county councils with their own works departments–contracted out, Manufacturing had the pin pulled, including footwear, clothing and textiles. With that unskilled but full time work, there were thousands of associated support workers and suppliers.
So perhaps Rogernomics greatest shame remains discarding people via macro economic decisions that they had no immediate control over, and then abandoning them. And to rub it in–demonising them as dole bludgers, market rents for state housing and the Richardson MOAB was the final straw. If you want to know who ram raiders are–they are the grand children of Roger and Ruth.
Economist Brian Easton said in 2018…(full article linked)
https://e-tangata.co.nz/korero/brian-easton-maori-have-been-trapped-in-a-poverty-cycle/
“What Rogernomics did, among other things, was to eradicate a lot of jobs. And we know that Māori were affected more than non-Māori. Māori health deteriorated and Māori mortality rose during the Rogernomics era quite against the long term trend. Moreover the Rogernomic policies were deliberately biased against the poor and therefore disproportionally hit Māori.
So, when we get through that period, what have we got? We’ve got a large, young population — it’s younger than the national average — and it’s an unskilled population. It’s not ready for the high-skilled jobs that are being created in the economy.”
thank-you, really good comment. Rage inducing stuff.
The redundancies in the late 1980s pulled the 'guts out' of the ability to work for large employers in predominantly Maori communities for labouring type jobs. So Forestry went, MOW local branches went etc etc.
Local branches for many govt depts went, where these branches were located in Maori areas this meant people had less chance of being able to live locally. With all of the Govt Depts retreating from small town NZ and even small city NZ eg Napier and Gisborne had no branches left in the Govt dept I worked for, all run from Wellington as was Whanganui & Palmerston North.
In the small town I grew up in it not only destroyed jobs but what I call the Maori middle class, those whose children went away to boarding schools such as Hato Petera, Te Aute, St Stephens, Queen Vic, Hukarere just as their mothers and fathers had or to the same schools that we also went to. Some families schooled their children locally and then sent them to boarding schools in the last two years of secondary school.
After the 1987 environmental restructuring followed by that of MOW, I think it was MOW that was asked to do a social impact report on the reforms and this was hurriedly pulped/withdrawn (from my recollection) after it was clear that not much good had resulted from these reforms and huge dislocation costing $$$$, careers, loss of retirement savings, and heartbreaking mental and social effects were the main results.
People forget what a nasty bit of work Shipley is and was.
EA has brought out a consultancy paper ,for the management of winter 2023 tight generation periods.
This is not because demand is behind installed generation capacity (demand is down and will be around 1500 gwh on 2021) it is by the changes in the generation mix,and the high cost imposed by the necessary use of thermal generation for peak loads.
https://www.ea.govt.nz/assets/dms-assets/31/Driving-efficient-solutions-to-promote-consumer-interests-through-winter-2023.pdf
Intermittency from NI wind (over 1 gw) is dependent on near real time forecasting which is constrained to 5 day windows at the 60% probability window,and 1 day at the 90%.
This is with additional lessening of load,with the closure of Marsden point,and Norsk paper (around 100mw)
Peak load demand needs to be lessened substantially North of Taupo,for the winter months.
Where is the workers central labour organisation (NZCTU) today? I checked their FB Together and www, little on the RB OCR hike. The economist is no doubt beavering away, but there should have been heavy fire back on that, and to the Natzos claims about migrant workers on RNZ this morning.
Really–there is a classic contradiction between the RB and Employers arguments. Unemployment must rise says the RB, where as employers are desperate for more workers via migrant labour and want easing up on entry and residency. Translation–break down the growing workers action for higher wages, and use cheaper imported labour. NZ National have said that migrant workers should not be paid the median wage.
To paraphrase Marx… “wage rises generally happen in the track of previous price rises” – it’s a catch-up response, not due to ‘excessive’ and unrealistic demands for higher wages by workers. Second, it is not wage rises that cause rising inflation. Many other things affect price changes, Marx argued: namely “the amount of production (growth rates), the productive powers of labour (productivity growth), the value of money (money supply growth), fluctuations of market prices which happens constantly anyway, and “different phases of the industrial cycle” (boom or slump).
The claim that there is a wage-price spiral and that wage rises cause price rises is an ideological smokescreen to protect profitability.
It takes time to write something decent and also to get it published but I'm sure it's a high priority for CTU.
The November Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) has some quite good commentary on wages from page 33 including how different Stats NZ wage measures apply to different ways of obtaining pay rises. RBNZ agree with you and Marx that wages usually catch up to CPI and are forecasting that. What they are trying to avoid isn't the catch-up to CPI in and of itself, it's going too far past that (whatever that looks like), "forcing" prices up which in turn forces wages up more etc.
Recently I commented on David Seymour using the Ellerslie jeweller's store robbery for publicity. He even stood in Parliament to announce he'd been there.
I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in.
Seymour didn't disappoint though. The headline today is "Act Party criticises PM Jacinda Ardern for not supporting local community after stabbing."
It's appropriate to mention talk about 16 year olds getting the vote. That's the level Seymour is operating at and the level of the intellectually disadvantaged in that cohort he seeks to appeal to. (With due apologies to 16 year olds with a modicum of intelligence and class.)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/act-party-criticises-pm-jacinda-ardern-for-not-supporting-local-community-after-stabbing/6ZWMISM6TZHX3BC672R6ITRS5A/
It's a long-running trope that they love: "PM should not be in A, she should be in B".
If she's at APEC she should be at COP. If she's at COP she should be at APEC. If she's in NZ she should be overseas, if she's overseas she should be in NZ, if she's in Auckland she should be in Wellington, if she's anywhere it's a photo op, if she's not there she's hiding … zzzzzzzz.
It's a free hit because it can't be wrong. By definition, she is not somewhere. Infantile and idiotic, but Seymour gonna Seymour, he knows his fan base and their obsessive hatred.
Right on cue. Article: Chathams.
Comments on article … not. It's the Daily Cindy-Hate, given a platform by Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130579894/jacinda-ardern-visits-the-chathams-a-less-usual-and-much-farther-new-zealand-trip
At least she didn't take Mahuta down there.
Out of curiosity what what is there about the article that leads you to call it the "Daily Cindy-Hate"?
I cannot see anything there that falls into that category. What do you see?
In the article: nothing. It's about the Chathams.
But the comments already aren't, and won't be (though they are usually closed/deleted later).
Any Stuff article that mentions the PM gets the same comments. Doesn't matter if the subject is rugby or water or weather or tax or music or recipes with fish.
Ok. I misunderstood what you were complaining about and thought you meant the article.
They appear to have cut off the comments very quickly. There are only 3 at the moment which are 2/1 against her going.
Yes, they've closed comments, and deleted some previous ones.
The Stuff moderation policy is daft. If they don't want the comments (which as I've stated are entirely predictable) then they shouldn't open an article for them … and then close them when the predictable happens. Leave them open and allow for rebuttal and free debate. Or, don't open them. Either is fine.
The article itself is fine, an overview of Chatham Island issues, no problem.
Davids been doing this since forever. Its reminiscent of his weird election ads where he was popping out from behind bushes. Is it mostly spin? Or are the voters of Epsom regularly left wondering just how long their MP has been hanging out there.
Heather Stupidity-Allen, in her creepy voice, was asking Chris Hipkins why the PM wasn't on the street corner outside the Rose Cottage. He must have thought it was Halloween again.
I admire these ministers who have to tread so carefully through the mire of malevolent idiocy which is right wing media.
“I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in. “- what a vile thing to think – someone was murdered, and you think of this. Says a lot about your character rather than pre supposing on someone else's.
Seymour literally said that Ardern needed fear of Covid for political gain, so when he's effectively accused her of hoping for Kiwi deaths, Peter's assessment is not wrong.
Peter assessment is a pig of a thing to even consider yet alone to publish, and with NO basis. So now can we Boise and extend our thoughts and assign them to others ??
There are some unglued people out there and more than enough who totally support this site that fall into this category, and even more who find it acceptable as long as they are for Labour imo Peter is still a pig to pass on his thoughts and apply them to someone else, or can/ should we now dedicate comments in this fashion moving forward??
Perhaps if the govt had thought post announcement of the $6m with follow up question to both officials and store owners/workers then deficiencies and improvements be made. But once announced, the govt moves on to the next crisis, and now we see after this avoidable death that ministers want a review ?? Shouldn’t that have been in progress following the initial commitment to see if it was effective and fit for purpose ?? Guess such follow up is beyond these guys
No one has explained why it is up to the taxpayer to provide the cost of security to private business, and follow up no less.
Surely ACT is ideologically opposed to this type of idle dependence on government? Where will it end?
David Seymour must consider it an abomination…
What has your response got to do with my reaction to or Peters VILE comment ??
And no link from Peter to support his comment. Come on, time for you and others to display some decency, if you are able to
The core question here is: what is genuine concern, and what is shroud-waving and exploitation?
There's probably not much point debating that, most of us have formed a view on Seymour based on his previous behaviour.
No the core question is not …
The core question from this thread that I commented on is "I considered posting yesterday that he'd be disappointed that the tragic Sandringham incident wasn't in his electorate. I pulled my head in."
Why don't you address this then ?? And where can you or anyone else derive support in Peters comment this out of anything on the subject ?? There is nothing out there to suggest this. Just yours and others acceptance of CRAP behaviour.
And he did say he decided not to post but laid claim to thinking about it.
People do think 'unusual' and bad taste thoughts.
What would you have been like had he posted, they'd have had to disattach you from the ceiling after being airborne in an apoplectic rage.
Seymour is depressingly persistent in saying the PM should be here, there or anywhere rather than where she is.
.
BUT he DID post it !!!!! So your argument is negated. Still no one able to link anything that supports this …. Still waiting or is making unsubstantiated comments now accepted ???
and observer don’t look in the mirror you may not like what you see looking back. You definitely are not a green supporter, at least they know there standards and when they swallow a rat they know and admit that it is against what they stand for.
If we all got hauled over the coals for everything we "considered posting" [but didn't] there would probably be lifetime bans for all of us.
David Seymour is an MP and party leader. I'd suggest his behaviour is more relevant and worth more of your indignation than somebody commenting on a blog. But each to his own. It's Friday night, I'm out, have a good one.
Herodotus what is/was the significance of the word Boise in your post? Seems to have gone now?
Is this some new urban saying, I did look but can only find a ref to Boise Idaho and Bois for trees in French.
Peter's comment was an opinion, a personal appraisal of David Seymour, so doesn't require a link supporting it. The evidence is Seymour's grandstanding over crime which he delights making political hay from. Peter did provide a link for that.
I don't think Seymour is disappointed it didn't happen in Epsom but if it did he'd certainly not let it go to waste.
His answers, told to his fluffer Heather Stupidity-Allen, are:
David Seymour is a student politician and an idiot.
Need a link for that?
Next best thing for dear David would be to get headlines in the Herald. Oh dear. He has.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/act-party-criticises-pm-jacinda-ardern-for-not-supporting-local-community-after-stabbing/6ZWMISM6TZHX3BC672R6ITRS5A/
I thought that Jacinda visited shops and spoke to the locals in Sandringham the day after the murder according to a TV news item that I caught the end of. Seymour is a dickhead BTW.
According to this article – she hasn't been (Ardern gives her reasons – but there is no claim that she's already visited the community)
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/11/25/ardern-rejects-seymours-criticism-of-her-not-being-in-sandringham/
Apparently the people of the Chatham Islands should have suffered instead:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/11/auckland-dairy-stabbing-david-seymour-denounces-jacinda-ardern-s-chatham-islands-trip-as-givealittle-page-launched-for-victim-s-family.html
I expected Seymour to use the incident to play a vile game. It was vile thinking he would?
He did not disappoint. The reason that he does it and his particular mode of fomenting negativity and hate flourishes is that it's not called for what it is.
Aeromine Industries in Texas has developed bladeless wind energy solution that makes no sound. It can be linked to existing solar energy systems.
Sounds great? Can't link as found it on my cell phone.
I know everyone has whinge hysteria mode turned up to the max – I can see the political vultures like Sunny Kaushal and David Seymour sitting on the powerlines in Fowlds Ave from my house – but from my positive RAT test to the delivery of anti-viral pills took less than two hours, whilst after registering my test result I got calls from my GP and PMO nurse within 24 hours. All free. The system does work if you want it to.
Get well Sanctuary.
Nightime temperatures in Ukraine are below -0c and videos are emerging of entire squads of Russian mobiks huddled together out in the open or in their dugouts either dead or so hyperthermic they're unable to move.
Little wonder Poots has boosted spending on domestic security.
https://twitter.com/NoYardstick/status/1595244723865804801
Could someone please explain what this black friday is all about? Are we really so dumb that we allow ourselves to get sucked into this American commercial bullshit?
Yes apparently so. We have already tucked into our Thanksgiving dinners…….what you don't celebrate Thanksgiving? For shame. /sarc
As I said last night Black Friday used to be any Friday that fell on the 13th of the month – when you didn't walk under a ladder with a black cat in your arms, or step on the cracks in the pavement, perhaps I have that a bit mixed up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)
Typical US fashion, excuse the cynicism, it is all about shopping, money and retail.
Oh yes, I remember the ladder thing. Everyone scrupulously avoided walking under the ladders. It was a good lurk to stop people being hurt from falling ladders. 😉
I thought it was the black cat walking across in front of you which was supposed to bring bad luck. Poor harmless pussy. 🙂