” Peters says it was a much shorter version of the video he’d been showing at earlier rallies and besides, his rhetoric had changed, he was now much more benign about New Zealand”
That’s not true though is it Barry. You’re not even a journalists asshole.
You leave the country thinking they’re still targets because political vendettas for cash and clickbait is all you have to offer.
Thanks MS. The desktop version on my smartphone is extremely sensitive when scrolling and the cursor defaults to the name box when a reply is activated. Not a biggie but catches you out if unwary
Last night, it rained and rained and rained; a fine and steady fall that kept on and on.
Today, I’m making blackboards from plywood and paint; green in fact, but made for the purpose. We’re keen to keep the presentations at the permaculture hui low-tech, so with only chalk and a board for the presenter, there’ll be no Death-by-Powerpoint!
Ha excellent Robert… like most technologies there is some myth at play… like putting together a power point thing is faster than blackboard and chalk?? I don’t think so. In the same way cash is faster than eftpos… a hard copy diary is quicker than scrolling thru a screen… like pretty much anything ….
much ‘technology’ is a myth. In fact, much of it isn’t even technology, it’s just the same old pasted together in electronics instead. It’s nothing new, just formatted differently.
the other myth around ‘technology’ is that its claimed faster speed makes our lives better …. I don’t think so …. it just makes our lives speedier …
That’s often the case, vto, in my experience. I’m planning to have the menu for each evening meal written on slate! I collected hundreds of slates from the roof of an old building here years ago and now will be their moment in the sun 🙂
The simple act of helping others pulled me out of my head and own worries and back to Earth. I highly recommend reaching out to your community if you are still struggling to emerge from your shock and grief.
I have been expert at avoiding cameras for some time. They filmed my back for one second. Still good at avoiding cameras. There may be a career for me in paparazzi training for celebs.
Interesting to compare the architecture of the mosque and Mitre10 Mega.
Great initiative too and incidentally an effective way to work-around council rules for planting on berms. They ain’t gonna complain 🙂
“How do you respond to a deadly mass shooting if you are a gun rights advocate?
First, “Say nothing.” If media queries persist, go on the “offence, offence, offence”. Smear gun-control groups. “Shame them” with statements such as – “How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward your political agenda?” ”
I’d call this (above, Al Jazeera, NRA playbook) a MUST READ.
What I’m seeing in the youtube and other comments sections from ill informed pro-trumper types and trolls is a common script. I figured this came from the media. It does. And this media is generated by professional spin doctors in or aligned with the NRA.
A false narrative designed to sell guns. And as we’ve seen alongside it, another darker narrative emerging, the spreading of chaos.
This chaos sells fear, and more guns, and keeps us distracted from the political/corporate skulduggery of Disaster Capitalists. You can learn about Disaster Capitalism from Naomi Klein.
“I think it’s a basic principle of journalism to follow the money” – Naomi Klein.
Trump politics …. Benjamines for the big boys ….. money for war … hate on the foreign
and poor.
“In the last two or three years, encouraged and legitimized by candidate and then President Donald Trump, anti-Semitism has been on the rise alongside virulent racism, extreme misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia. Trump praised the “fine people” among the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Nazi sympathizers who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia”
“For the second time this year, Donald Trump has retweeted a message from an apparent neo-Nazi, raising troubling questions about his judgment and the ideology of some of his supporters.”
a speech Trump had given a few days earlier — praising the (apocryphal) methods of a U.S. general in dispensing with Muslim opponents in the Philippine-American War — was still playing on conservative radio. “He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pig’s blood,” he’d told the crowd. “And he had his men load their rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: ‘You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened.’ ”
Then a Heroic young Muslim woman Ilhan Omar steps out of line …. repeatably
“Omar shook up the Washington foreign policy establishment by challenging veteran warmonger and genocide denier Elliot Abrams, he of Iran-Contra and El Salvador death squads infamy, …” “about his new role as the Trump administration’s point man on Venezuela.”
And both sides turned on her when she dared discus the real foreign power in US politics …” in response to this tweet “Would love to know who Ilhan thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” Omar tweeted again “AIPAC.”
”
“President Trump got his jabs in on Saturday: “We have people in Congress that hate our country,” he said, before implying that these people were immigrants. Given that Omar is one of only 14 immigrant members of Congress, and Trump then called her out by name in a tweet two days later, the allusion was none too subtle. None of the Congress members who have accused Omar of anti-Semitism has voiced a word criticizing the president for such dog-whistle xenophobia”
The Democrats joined in … worried about their Benjamins .
“Congressional Democrats are attempting to discipline Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for speaking critically about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — and more generally in defense of Palestinian rights — after smearing her as “anti-Semitic.” This comes at the same time that Omar, one of the only Muslim representatives in Congress, has been targeted for death threats and Islamophobic propaganda likening her to those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.”
Ilhan Omar is a friend to all who believe in human rights … for all….. she speaks truth to power.
Its a shame a poster here joined in the attempted smearing of her as an anti Semite yesterday ….. and worse.
I can’t vote for her …. but we should all support her cause of tolerance and respect for all humans…..
“NAOMI KLEIN, Ilan Pappé, Ronnie Kasrils, Sarah Jaffe, Rebecca Vilkomerson and many more say: We are Jews who stand with Representative Ilhan Omar.”
A good read about the intersection of issues and personalities from the perspective of a door-knocker.
When political volunteers are knocking on doors, they’re not hawking a bag of issues. They are representing a human being, to voters who want people in power who understand people like them.
That’s quite a different perspective than assuming the nation is full of swing voters just waiting for the low-tax, low-ambition centrist of their dreams. But it’s also far distant from the claim that America is full of passionate Leftist non-voters who have waited years for the revolutionary platform that will pull them to the polls.
I see the Trots has had a bit of a rectal spray over at Bowelly Rd about Davidson and Ghahraman starting up some kind of anti-racism effort. I’ve had a very brief search for more info and come up empty, anyone got any more info? Thanks.
Yes, I returned to NZ in March 99. So yes, I’ve got a moderately interested outsider’s awareness of Anderton and the Alliance ructions.
Right now though, I’m more interested in finding out more about what The Trots is painting as a substantial organised effort from Ghahraman and Davidson that so far I’ve seen and heard nothing about. Or maybe The Trots is trying to puff up something that simply isn’t there.
Those years from late 1980s to late ’90s are Trotter’s ideological and emotional home. The hard left do splinter under shalliw fault lines , so the warning is real if overstated.
Green discipline through the Royal Commission will be tough as it intersects over their Carbon Zero negotiations. Tough to suck it up, but suck it up they must.
“Green discipline through the Royal Commission will be tough as it intersects over their Carbon Zero negotiations. Tough to suck it up, but suck it up they must.”
I must be daft. That sentence makes no sense to me at all.
There are no schoolchildren in parliament.
Nor do schoolchildren vote.
Nor do they report into the mainstream media.
In fact they have very little political effect at all.
A Royal Commission into the intelligence services is going to be cutting deep into the hard core of the most conservative parts of the public service. It will be cutting into Andrew Little as well since he’s defending them. And the hard left within the Greens from Davidson and Gharaman are making their views clear about what they want from such a Royal Commission already.
The Carbon Zero bill and the climate commission’s powers are under hot contest from National at the moment. You would have noticed the commentary from them surely.
What you are pointing to is your ability to be swayed by sweet saccarine emotion about the political impact of children, but no idea about the forces at play coming up in Wellington.
It is perfectly evident why you don’t learn anything at all.
“The Carbon Zero bill and the climate commission’s powers are under hot contest from National at the moment.”
Surely not!
You say Davidson and Gharaman are the HARD left? How hard are we talking?
Would it be foolish to challenge them to an arm wrestle?
Could they arm wrestle the Royal Commission while James does his Climate Change thing?
You said it yourself, I am “swayed by sweet saccarine emotion about the political impact of children, but no idea”
And you wrote – a poem? A nursery rhyme?
‘There are no schoolchildren in parliament.
Nor do schoolchildren vote.
Nor do they report into the mainstream media.
In fact they have very little political effect at all.’
Even the children are getting organised against BAU these days. Some folks will do anything to pretend it aint so.
I’ve even heard it on good authority there was a baby in the UN.
Hand in hand with John Key she used inflammatory “Jihadi bride” labeling … which conjurers the image … and fear of Muslim female terrorists / suicide bomber s.
Very shitty and reckless considering the NZ Muslim community had no ” Jihadi brides” …
Because she did not resign and do the runner like Key .,… She should be sacked for her reckless and shitty attack …. before we even get onto her failure to protect.
“Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said Key and Kitteridge had “misled the nation”.
She called on the pair to apologise to Muslim women.
“This is John Key using spy agencies, yet again, for his own political purposes. He misled New Zealanders into thinking that there were large numbers of Muslim women leaving New Zealand to go to Islamic State.
“That is not true.”
She said the claims were “denigrating” for an already vulnerable community.
Turei said she though Key made the statement, to make it easier for a review into spy agency laws to recommend boosting SIS and GCSB powers. ”
The first thing We should be reviewing is who gets the sack ,,,,followed by disengaging from that white supremacist warmongers club we are in…. stop riding on the coat tails of the ‘ ‘master nation’ … cease keeping an eye on those lesser people, who do not obey …. ‘ the masa ‘.
Being in Masa s little lynch mob of 5 … brings nothing but shame and dishonor upon us .
We are New Zealand …. we kill three year olds and call them Taliban.
Masa don’t mind though …. nits make lice, is his exceptional motto .
I’m looking for what prompted The Trots to spray out
…Davidson and Ghahraman should, therefore, ask themselves what Labour’s reaction will be if its internal polling shows their New-Zealand-Is-A-Profoundly-Racist-Society campaign is causing the Greens to haemorrhage votes in a fatal fashion?
While they’re at it, they should probably also ask themselves what use National and Act are likely to make of their We-Are-All-Guilty campaign. Do they really think the right of New Zealand politics is going to refuse to take advantage of the anger and disgust generated by what many (perhaps most) voters will characterise as a cheap-and-nasty attempt to capitalise politically on a terrible and unprecedented tragedy? Do they not see that what they are doing, and clearly intend to go on doing, is helping the Right to get back in the game?…
Davidson’s comments you’ve just linked to are frankly somewhat generic and anodyne, given the circumstances (sorry). So are Davidson’s and Ghahraman’s speeches on the Greens website (sorry again). They don’t look to me anywhere close to controversial enough to prompt what The Trots wrote.
This terrorist attack and mass murder of New Zealand Muslims has revealed some of the most beautiful displays of tragic love , saddness and lack of hostility that one could ever hope to encounter in the whole of humanity.
From your link ….
“People just came.
And every single person was made to feel welcome and loved by the mosque, no matter what they were wearing.
Our Muslim hosts were at pains to ensure people could find shade, that people could sit who needed to sit, that we were given water and food. They wanted us all to feel included because they sensed that for some, it was awkward and we just didn’t know what to do.
Every single person that had come had done so in good faith and with love in their hearts for the tragedy that took our country’s breath away. ”
I’ve linked a lot to the 50 lives thread in twitter which displays the same elevation of human spirit and goodness …. and lack of hate in the face of such ugly violence which stole and maimed their beautiful loved ones.
So sad and so beautiful ,,,,,,,, I’ve been humbled to tears.
Such is the contrast between our Muslim brother and sisters conduct …. and the deranged hate spewing conduct of usa online Lynch mobs
That sterotypes are shattered and reversed …. the good guys ( usa ) are sick ugly killers of the master race type
I’m paranoid fake Muslim accounts, created and run by neo con or zionist trolls … may make false ” die kaffir ” type posts … because our Muslims are not making them.
Money from weapons and war will be lost ….. if we recognize them as humans … who are just like us .
For those who think I am over egging it ,….. check out the usa sickness directed at a young Muslim woman /
Andre that’s really offensive about Chris Trotter, I presume, and about political matters from you. If it reflects the state of your mind it is factual, and puts in doubt your ability to offer reasoned opinions.
Would you care to salvage The Trots’ honour by pointing to what Ghahraman and Davidson have said and/or done to justify what he said about them? He didn’t provide any examples, and I had a look and didn’t find anything.
If there isn’t good substantiation for his attacks on Davidson and Ghahraman, then what he’s said is really fucking offensive and damaging. Even if there is substantiation, it was lazy and rude of him not to provide links to it in his piece.
Andre, I understand where you are coming from. My understanding is that the Auckland vigil last weekend became somewhat political with some people walking out etc as they felt it was too soon for some of the things said. In terms of links here is a link to one Herald article on this aspect which does not provide much detail and it was also updated a day later:
Thanks veutoviper. I can’t see how any of the things in those reports could possibly be stretched to make grounds for what The Trots wrote.
For what it’s worth, I value the facts and perspective you bring. But I know it can also be hard work. Please, look after yourself, and if looking after yourself includes trips back here, I for one will be reading what you have to say.
veutoviper, Your contributions are always welcome. You have been missed. I am walking with a walking stick. On my way to independence. Please keep fit.x
I fear patricia bremner that someone has upset veutoviper. I could be wrong, but we have a few people here whose style is confronting, arrogant and sometimes downright rude. I reference the one who calls himself “Sam” as an example.
I suspect TS has lost quite a few top line commenters (like vv) due to having been on the receiving end of unnecessarily offensive remarks about their contributions.
This is just Trotter hearing opinions he disagrees with and blowharding it into a “campaign” by the people who’ve dared to express their opinion – in this case, a proposed “New-Zealand-Is-A-Profoundly-Racist-Society campaign” and “We-Are-All-Guilty campaign.”
Go searching for these “campaigns” the Green MPs are running and all you find is a couple of quotes.
Marama Davidson said:
“New Zealand was founded on the theft of land, language and identity of indigenous people. This land we are standing on is land we were violently removed from to uphold the same agenda that killed the people in the mosques yesterday.”
And Golriz Ghahraman said:
“The truth is that this happened here, and it began with hate speech, allowed to spread here online. History has taught us that hate speech is a slippery slope to atrocity,” she said.
“The truth is that we as politicians, and I mean on all sides of this House, are also responsible.”
“There sit among us those who have for years fanned the flames of division in here and out there. Blamed migrants for our housing crisis.
“There sits among us here [those] who deliberately spread hysteria about the UN Migration Compact,” Ghahraman said.
“We’ve pandered to the gratuitous racism by shock jocks on breakfast shows to raise our own profile,” she said.
Ghahraman said the Christchurch mosque gunman’s plans for Friday’s shootings went unchecked by authorities.
“White supremacy was not seen as a pressing threat, even as some in the Muslim community were.
“Although this man happened to have not been born in New Zealand, we do need to acknowledge the truth that his ideology does exist in pockets here. Our ethnic communities, refugees, and tangata whenua have been telling us this for years. They’ve been reporting this for years.
“I know it as my daily truth as a politician. I receive all the barrage of hate online. I receive the threats – the death threats, the rape threats, and the threats of gun violence, online.
“Every minority in New Zealand knows this as a little bit of our truth. So now we have to pause and listen.”
That’s it, folks. Two opinions by two MPs is Trotter’s imagined “campaign” that’s going to tear the Green Party apart. To quote the great Johnny Rotten, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Ah. Thank you. If that’s all The Trots is basing his piece on, then I stand by the first sentence of my comment at 7, and merely regret I didn’t word it more strongly.
This is surely a good thing for Europe, giving as it does improved access to the huge and increasingly wealthy Chinese market. Fears about being swamped by cheap Chinese goods that will further destroy European manufacturers is overstated.
Increasingly, in the years ahead, China will no longer be the cheap source of everything. That is already fast being eclipsed by India and various African nations. And of course the China Empire (for an empire it certainly is) will face its own nightmare in Xinjiang and Xizang, with Xinjiang quite likely facing a future like Chechnya .
Yeah mate, I’m in the same boat as well as I’m waiting for some news out Ronnie’s office IRT DCP and DCP funding under this government which was meant to have out late last yr, but was push back to March of this year.
Next big ticket items are the C130 and B757 replacement, especially the C130’s as they officially run out of hrs in the next 3-4 yrs and Lockheed won’t support the C130’s after that as well as they would be in uncharted territory. The Boeing’s have another 5- 10 yrs on them before they either need a MLU/LEP or replacement which would be cheaper over the medium to long term than a MLU/ LEP.
The Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel and the possible FOB/ New Permanent Naval base in either in the Dunedin area or in Bluff.
There was something else as well, but I can’t remember what it was atm.
Example #5281 of why Mitch McConnell is actually a bigger problem than the gibbering baboon flinging its faeces at the Oval Office walls. He has the power to just block almost anything he doesn’t like from even being looked at by the Senate.
I have said it before, and will say it again – the USA is headed for another civil war, after which a Gilead-style theocracy with a pure free market economy will be imposed.
Walked by the local mosque on the way home just now. Said hello to the cop with the gun which turned into both of us commiserating about the fact that he had to be there at all holding said gun- “this isn’t NZ” he said. Another member of the public suddenly appeared with a coffee for him in appreciation for the job he’s having to do. A member of the mosque going in greeted us both then started chatting with the cop, they were on first name terms with each other.
I took away from that the fact that even though we are currently having to see openly armed uniformed police that they are- for now- still approachable, and let us approach them. Far from what I experienced in Europe and London, especially in the wake of one attack there where one wouldn’t dare even say hello. I only hope that ability to approach doesn’t go.
These white supremacist groups have a proven track history of violence. Yet compare the reaction of the authorities to Tame Iti and Tuhoe – complete overreaction when it came to the latter and a blind eye for the former.
Also, the murder and beheading of a Korean backpacker ten years ago.
The difference is that Simon Bridges is opportunistically using this tragedy to give the security forces increased powers of repressive mass surveillance.
New Zealand’s only surviving Japanese WWII veteran
At the age of 95 makes a powerful statement against racism and fascism.
…..after hearing the news about the mass shooting in Christchurch, he couldn’t sleep.
“I stayed awake quite a lot at the night. I didn’t sleep too well ever since. I thought it was so sad. You can feel the suffering of other people,” Mr Sato said.
….Mr Sato heard about the vigils and memorial events around the country following the tragic shootings in Christchurch, so he wanted to check out a mosque in Pakuranga which was not far away from his house. It was the start of a long journey for him.
He left home in Howick at around 10am, took a bus to Pakuranga, where he saw many flowers and messages. Then he decided to go into the city centre.
Alt-right propagandists like Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, write real heroes like John Sato out of their fascist narrative, he disturbs their notions of white exceptionalism and white virtue.
[The terrorist], just like Andre Brevik before him, who killed 14 year old New Zealand born girl Sharidyn Svebakk and 76 other young people, think of themselves as heroes.
Against the real example of heroes like John Sato, [the terrorist] and Andre Brevik, and their fascist enablers, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, are revealed as the horribly obscene and twisted individuals they are.
Kia ora Newshub let’s hope there is not to much damage to the whenua in the west coast from big weather event they have just had.
The Gorlyvale organizational is tax free they have multiple millions dollars farms and businesses there people have about 6 children on average and they get 1200 a week from winz plus they get business grants but the money goes into a central pool so the people who are running the outfit can use the money to minupulate our government policy’s to suit them there business empire is expanding very fast. They minupulate there people will the media one ex person died in a motor bike accident it plastered all over the media. The story about the man who killed his family in a truck crash is being blocked they payed Google to make the surch come up at page 1000.
Brian’s not perfect but he is improving a lot of tangata lives he doesn’t play games with his tangata lives like the latter.
More Maori need to take advantage of the charitable taxes system as Maori can use it for relief of poverty culture or religion. I want to set up a charitable trust but I could not get the help to set it up.
Hone good on you for raising funds for Nothland rugby league. Well they did pillage and plander North America.
Mark did you clean your glasses the poverty for Maori is not just up north. I drive through a lower class place I see 5 cars per house 5 small cabins on each street a tab bottle store fishnchip shop loan sharks shop. Drive through a wealth place I see one car per huge house 2 people per house no shops like above for miles.
What happening in the Ruby world is a struggle for control of the organisation I say no more. Ka kite ano
We must look after all tane mahuta beautiful creatures tangata future welbeings are closely linked to a all living things .We are the Guardians of all Papatuanuku and her creatures we should have a culture that strives to improve the servivel of all creatures for our decendints mokopunas its not ROCKET SCIENCE its common sence
Wild bees and hoverflies lost from a quarter of the places they were found in 1980, study shows
I love it this stupid man hunt by the unjustified system is showing all the Whanau that New Zealand is a police state the spy’s the police the whole unjustice system is being used by the 00.1 % to use abuse and control the 99.9% of people they are the biggest cheating COURPT CROOKS IN NZ.
I love education the Whanau about the realities of this system. Ka kite ano P.S THAT’S ECO MAORI MAHI
DECEIT I have said the wealthy laught and say the poor common people are hounest We will never admite to OUR Wrongs hence jenny shiply and her rich m8 are going back to court to rip the poor people off with the unjustice SYSTEM even if it causes the tradies to go Broke. Kia kaha whanau
Since December, Māori nationalists have been named as threats in prison, and iwi have been spied on by a government agency.
“It’s also important that the government seek to address the racial profiling that has been going on for many years,” Mr Tukaki said. KA KITE ANO links below
I keep checking the sandflys in this game they are playing with MINE AND MY WHANAU life they get the shitts and get there m8 to try and underarm bowl me but they keep playing into my HAND ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
I see that little has been give the spy’s what they want. I was waiting for the call for cops to ware guns I say NO why because there will be more brown people shot and killed by THEM.
I Hope Ngapuhi get what they want and get putia to build a bright future for their Mokopuna.
It is sad about that pepei has died at little Waihi that is a symptom of oppression colonialism that’s a fact Maori treasure OUR MOKOPUNA.
I Tau toko our nurses for rallying for the hospitals to provide a safe work place.
It would be nice if Maori could have axcess to better tools to make TV content that will draw in the viewers.
It gives Eco Maori a sore face when I hear that waka arma is receiving a big growth in tamariki partake in the awesome sport Ka kite ano P.S I see alot of tangata whenua onscreen need to get a new set of clothes as the ones they are wearing are getting to big as they lose weight Kia kaha
Kia ora The AM Show.
duncan you are listening to your ational doom and gloom m8s about the NZ economy they think that they are the only ones who can run a good economy when the facts show they make a big mess it’s all there to find our economy is one of the best in the WORLD .
Lloyd may stepping down if brexit go ahead YEA IGHT just another shifty tories move.
The price of houses does not have to go down for the Mokopunas to have more affordable housing it just has to flat line. We need Kiwi build there might be houses for sale but there a very little available to RENT. The government needs to build more state housing ASAP.
That’s good Facebook has made the good choice to ban White Supremacist hopefully all hate groups from its platforms
Yes its would be more secesful when some of the world conservatory groups work together to try and slow down the amount of species approaching extinction the old saying many hands make light work that works with knowledge to.
The reason we have such high numbers of cyps children is the fabulous policy’s ational has run over the last 9 years give to the wealthy take from the poor. Family support for wealth paye tax cuts and consumson tax GST up and now our Humane government that’s in charge now has a BIG MESS to clean up. I say we should not let the spy’s get easier axcess to our Data like they will be using the Christchurch desaster to get more power and a Big NO to the cops wearing guns in the street I agree with the TECH guy on Breakfast Show TV 1.
Ka kite ano P.S I know you 2 don’t know anything about being HUMBLE weres the ational flags they don’t have a clue about being humble
Whanau it makes me laugh all these puppets the sandflys use to try and intimidat ECO MAORI There are Heaps of them . The brown ones are a bit slow they haven’t worked out they are being played and used to suppress their OWN CULTURE I am on a mission to boost Maori Mana and cultures .
THE white ones well I have all ready given my opinion on them it’s not good.
But I can SEE that my TRUE character is getting out to Tangata and tangata whenua that makes me happy because it backs up my argument that the sandflys have a PERSONAL VANDETA against me it’s not about serviceing the law its just people with to much power that are using it for their his Gisborne mans own EGO. KA KITE ANO
Kia ora Newshub I got the first comments on the Solomon I oil spill desaster wrong multi tasking with the Mokopuna said it was a Australia island issue Big businesses will/are running riot in small governed nation like the Solomon Islands. Big countrys need to help them out., ”I”Mike it’s te tangata te tangata te tangata that count when enough pressure is applied by the majority te 00.1 % have to listen Facebook baning white supremacist KA PAI.
There is a big mess on the west coast of the south island to clean up.
Tangata do need to put more thought into there retirement savings and planning I encourage everyone I meet to join Kiwi Saver.
Looks like the Wellington bus service a joke. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News manakua honey and the honey business has a hard time with the counterfit products been so easily to make like he said blending clover honey with manakua honey and selling it as 100% manakua honey not only that rice liquid sugar is hard to be distgush from the real thing.
Because lung cancer is a big problem for Tangata Whenua the health system is not trying it’s best to help us WORSE We pay heaps of taxes and get nothing in return WTF. The Pacific Sister looks cool. I did forget that men are nurses to they all need to feel safe at work the reason they are not taking keeping them safe is quite simpley the class system rasing it head. Ka kite ano
Being A Dick: Ignoring the restrictions of Level-4 is a way of signalling one's membership of the vast idiot fraternity of “You can’t tell me what to do!” More than that, however, it is a way of working out the fear of the Covid-19 virus that these men feel, but ...
The pandemic has shown us how effective our public service is. They've pulled together a massive policy response, from a lockdown to economic support to healthcare to planning how to keep everything running when this is over, and done it in next to no time. They are heroes, who have ...
New Zealand is now officially halfway through its first 4-week lockdown period. The good news is that it seems to be working - people staying at home has reduced the potential for the virus to spread, and we've had steadily decreasing numbers of new cases over the last few days ...
In 1968 Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter coined the phrase “Peter Principle” as a contribution to the sociology of organisations. It explains that in complex organizations people rise to the level of their own incompetence. That is, they get promoted so long as they meet or exceed the specified criteria for ...
The practice and business of music has been one of the sectors most gravely impacted by the virus sweeping the world. The emphatic nature of our government's response, necessary as it was, has slammed the industry and the people who work in it.There are New Zealand artists – Nadia Reid, ...
. . April 8: Day 14 of living in lock-down… The good news first: the downward trajectory of new cases appears to be a real thing. In the last four days, since Sunday, new infections have been dropping: Sunday: 89 new cases Monday: 67 Tuesday: 54 Today (Wednesday): 50 The ...
The anti-fluoride movement wants to restrict your reading to “just four studies.” They actively ignore or attempt to discredit other relevant studies. Image credit:Censorship in media. For earlier articles in this series see: ...
Not Now, Not Ever, Never! The problem with Labour's leading activists is that there is never a good time for democratic socialism. Never. They are like Saint Augustine who prayed to the Almighty: “Lord, give me chastity and self-control – but not yet.” In the case of Labour "junior officers", however, ...
We are seeing what has been termed “a greater challenge than the crash of 2008” by a growing number of economists and more rational, sane commentators, because whilst that was a shocking exposure of the levels to which hubris had sunk, right down to the blank cheque given those who ...
I am a Kiwi living in Jersey City, New Jersey. Jersey City is the second-largest city in the state and is located directly across the Hudson River from downtown Manhattan. Locals call it New York’s sixth borough. More than 350,000 New Jersey citizens, including myself, commute to New York daily ...
It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, we need to get out of the house, and so our bubble sets off on a bike ride around our local neighbourhood, Cambridge Park. The bikes come out of the garage, and, being really certain we have a front door key, close the garage door ...
. . April 7: Day 13 of living in lock-down… and unlucky for those who are superstitious. A day when there was a ray of sunshine from an otherwise bleak day of worrying signs. Today, as RNZ reported; Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield reported 54 new confirmed and probable cases ...
So far, universal basic income policies, which see people given a regular income without any conditions, have been trailed only on a small scale. But now, Spain is introducing one nationwide as a response to the pandemic: Spain is to roll out a universal basic income (UBI) “as soon as ...
Paul Connet, head of the anti-fluoride propaganda group, Fluoride Action Network, claims that the IQ of children bottle-fed in fluoridated areas drops by 9 points. But he misrepresented the research. There is no observable effect. For earlier articles in this series see: Part 1: Anti-fluoridation propaganda now relies on only ...
The Queen’s coronavirus broadcast, with its overtones of Winston Churchill and Vera Lynn, prompted me to reflect on the tribulations my parents’ generation suffered during the Second World War – and I imagine that those parallels, given her own wartime experience, were very much in the Queen’s mind as she ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Dr Christina Schädel Across vast swaths of the northern hemisphere’s higher reaches, frozen ground holds billions of tonnes of carbon. As global temperatures rise, this “permafrost” land is at increasing risk of thawing out, potentially releasing its long-held carbon into the atmosphere. Abrupt permafrost ...
Back in February, the Marlborough District Council increased the mount it charges for LGOIMA requests. I used the LGOIMA to poke into this, and it seems the case for increased charges is unjustified: the supposed increase in request volumes it rests on is an artefact of the Council suddenly deciding ...
. . April 6: Day 12 of living in lock-down… Another day of a near-empty Park N Ride carpark; . . And another day of near-empty Wellington streets; . . . Light traffic on the motorway. No apparent increase in volume. Commercial vehicles sighted; a gravel-hauling truck; McAuley’s Transport; a ...
Imagination By-Pass: Had the Communications Minister, Kris Faafoi (above) taken a firm stand with Bauer, reminding them of their obligations to both their staff and the wider New Zealand public, then a much more favourable outcome may well have ensued. He should have made it clear to the Bauer board ...
We all know that Simon Bridges has, at the best of times, an intermittent relationship with the truth. However you would think that during a pandemic and economic crisis the current opposition leader would pull his head in and start to do the right thing.Obviously leading by example should be ...
Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Dr. Richard Wood and Dr. Laura Jackson Generally, we think of climate change as a gradual process: the more greenhouse gases that humans emit, the more the climate will change. But are there any “points of no return” that commit us to irreversible ...
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...
Nick Wilson,1 Ayesha Verrall,1,2 Len Cook,3 Alistair Gray,3 Amanda Kvalsvig,1 Michael Baker,1 (1epidemiologists, 2infectious disease physician, 3statisticians)In this blog, we raise ideas for how New Zealand might optimise testing to both identify cases in the community as part of the COVID-19 elimination strategy, and to confirm when the virus ...
Maybe you’ve seen the graph that says those countries where everyone wears a mask are the ones that have managed to keep Covid-19 under control? The first thing to say about that claim is that those countries also did lots of other things, too – they acted fast, with intense ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... North Atlantic's capacity to absorb CO2 overestimated, study suggestsResearch into ocean’s plankton likely to lead to ...
The Treaty on Open Skies is one of the most effective mechanisms for preventing war curently in force. By letting countries make surveillance flights over each others' territory, it eliminates fears that they are secretly preparing for war. So naturally, the US is planning to withdraw from it: The Trump ...
. . April 5: Day eleven of living in lock-down… My one day of rest for the week, and an opportunity to mow my lawns – which I’d been delaying for about three weeks. (On the plus side, the damp micro-climate in my back yard yielded three lovely fresh mushrooms ...
As far as anyone can say, New Zeaand still has a general election scheduled for September 19 this year. The election will be accompanied by two referenda, one of which will ask voters:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?The official campaign period for the cannabis referendum begins ...
The vast majority of tributes to the Listener hearken back to its glory days, with little reflection on the magazine as it was at its end.I wrote for it, for half the Listener’s life; I have known personally all the editors except the first (mythical) three. From 1978 to 2014 ...
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ...
. . April 4: Day 10 of living in lock-down… I wake up to a fine Saturday morning which normally would be like an early Christmas. But it’s Day 10 of Level 4 Lock Down. What will my fellow New Zealanders be doing on a day like this – staying ...
Some time during the night we went over the 850,000 views mark. We might have had our millionth view by the end of this year – certainly by early next year. Most of the people involved in Redline spent years and years producing various small left-wing papers and selling them ...
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...
One of the key voices in this extraordinary time in which we live is that of University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker. Philip Matthews did an an excellent job this weekend of capturing the way he became the man for this moment in a profile for The Press.But one ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...
Redline received this article from the KOE a Marxist party in Greece Our friends in the KOE describe here the mounting crisis in Greece and tensions on the Turkish border. As desperate people flee from their homelands which have been ruined after decades of imperialist wars and interventions the people ...
As the first week of Level Four lockdown unfolded, mounting questions grew as to just what was (and was not) allowed under its “rules”. Partly these were driven by some apparently contradictory messagesfrom different authority figures and explanations carried in the media. Partly they reflected a somewhat sketchy legal basis ...
. . April 3: Day 9 of living in lock-down… Another late-start to my work day. Everything is temporarily upended as clients are shuffled around so we can minimise our “bubble” by reducing the number of people we help. One of my colleagues has been removed from his clients; his ...
In order to meet our 2050 carbon target and do our bit to avoid making the Earth uninhabitable, New Zealand needs to decarbonise our economy, replacing fossil fuels with electricity in the energy, industrial and transport sectors. The good news is that it will mean cheaper power for all of ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of a pretty flower, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a cute animal video. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 2: Day eight of living in lock-down… Today, my work day starts late. Our rosters and clients have been dramatically changed, lessening (theoretically) the number of people in our work “bubble”. If just one of us catches covid19 the impact could be considerable as Grey Base Hospital ...
As Aotearoa enters week two of lockdown, it’s clear we’re all still working out what our “bubbles” look like and how to stay in them to stop the spread of Covid-19. New to the government’s Covid-19 website is some good guidance for people living in apartment blocks. Recent decades have ...
“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin Don’t we all know that feeling now.
Prospect Magazine alerted me to this particularly apt quote. It is a much more evocative quote than Hemingway’s “gradually then suddenly” which is also doing ...
Yesterday was the day the consequences of the lockdown suddenly got very real for many. Firms have been closing and laying people off since the outset of the quarantine but this has mostly been happening out of the public eye. The mass closure of a number of iconic New Zealand ...
Brian Williamson1, Prof Nick Wilson2 (1Economic consultant, UK; 2University of Otago Wellington)In this blog, we outline how a win-win social contract could be forged to address the major dimensions of response to the COVID-19 pandemic when using a mitigation strategy: the particular need to protect older people from high ...
Resuming Normal Service: The Republican Party's nominee for in 1920, Warren Harding, promised the American people: “not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration”. If she wishes to remain our prime minister, then Jacinda Ardern will offer New Zealanders the same.HOW EDUCATED AMERICA snickered when the ...
No Free Society Without A Free And Functioning News Media: If we are to surrender our civil rights to the broader cause of defeating Covid-19, then foreign corporations must, likewise, surrender their right to inflict immense economic and cultural harm on New Zealanders simply because it improves their bottom line.I’M ...
by Daphna Whitmore A third of the world is under lockdown and a clear assessment of this measure to curb the spread of COVID-19 is urgently needed. With any high-stakes decisions it has to be asked what are we dealing with here? Are the measures warranted? Will they achieve their ...
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
While New Zealand is at Alert Level 4, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up to date with all the latest developments of the Government's COVID-19 response. It's been a shortened week because of Easter, so we're bringing you our weekly wrap a day early. ...
Earlier this week, the Prime Minister informed the nation that the Easter Bunny (and the Tooth Fairy!) were deemed essential workers. However, she made it clear that, due to the restrictions we are all facing at COVID-19 Alert Level 4, the Easter Bunny may find it tricky to get to ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark today announced that New Zealand will provide a further package of assistance to Vanuatu, to support the response to Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Tropical ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand will enter into transit arrangements with a range of countries to make it easier for each other’s citizens to get home. “There are millions of people around the world stranded ...
From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has striven to provide calm, clear and consistent communication, including daily press conference updates from the Prime Minister. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says getting New Zealanders back home and other travellers out of the country is "a nightmare for our embassies, consuls, and staff around the world".Speaking to NewstalkZB's Mike Hosking, the Foreign Minister said that he gave a clear message to people travelling overseas that they ...
The domestic travel ban has been lifted for stranded foreign tourists trying to get to international airports to fly home, after the Coalition Government announced a plan to help the tens of thousands of foreigners stranded here. Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Winston Peters spoke with RNZ's Susie Ferguson said foreign ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters believes the country is rediscovering its resilience and self-reliance through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.He says he is heartened that the mass majority of New Zealanders are following lockdown rules and that the government looking at the future, including paying to keep much ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has announced that urgent maintenance of turf and care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will soon be able to go ahead under Level 4 restrictions. “The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead ...
E tangi ana a Taranaki iwi, e tangi ana te ao Māori, otirā e tangi ana te motu. Mōu katoa ngā roimata e riringi whānui ana, mōu katoa ngā mihi. E te kaikōkiri i te reo Māori, e Te Huirangi, takoto mai. Takoto mai me te mōhio ko ngā ...
Today is day 15 of Alert Level 4 lockdown. And at the halfway mark I have no hesitation in saying, that what New Zealanders have done over the last two weeks is huge. In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, ...
All driver licences, WoFs, CoFs, and some vehicle certifications, that expired on or after 1 January 2020 will be valid for up to six months from 10 April 2020, Transport Minister Phil Twyford has announced. “People shouldn’t have to worry about getting fined for having an expired document if driving ...
The Government has today released the report from the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright. Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission Grant Robertson says the Government wants to learn from people’s experiences following the Canterbury earthquakes and other recent natural disasters. “Dame Silvia’s report documents ...
The Government has extended by two weeks till April 27 the amount of time priority groups, such as health workers and those aged over 65, have to get their flu vaccine before it is made available to the wider public. This year’s vaccination campaign is a key component of the ...
Communities stepping up to help New Zealanders stay at home to break the transmission of COVID-19 and save lives have received Government support, said Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “Delivering groceries for the elderly who can’t shop online, providing data packs for low income families to keep them connected, and being ...
Across New Zealand 120 sites are taking samples to be tested for COVID-19. 68 community based assessment centres (CBACs) have been established to take samples from people with COVID-19 symptoms. Alongside this, 52 other centres including designated general practices, swabbing centres, and mobile clinics are now testing people for ...
The Ministry of Education is working with partners to develop a package of options so that students can learn at home when Term 2 begins on 15 April, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. Supports are also being prepared for households with children under five, to help parents and whānau ...
Māori Television to begin educational te reo programmes Ki te Ao Mārama – a new online learning space Thousands of hard copy learning packs ready for distribution Helpdesk and advice service for kōhanga, kura and wharekura Television, the internet and hard copy learning packs are some of the ways whānau ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced an initial package of support to help the people and the Government of Vanuatu respond to the impact of Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Our Pacific neighbours have been hit by a Category 5 Cyclone at the same time as dealing with the economic impacts ...
Tourism New Zealand to lead work reimagining the way tourism operates in post-COVID-19 world. Ministers to review International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy investment plan. The Government, industry and business are working together to develop a plan for how tourism will operate in a post-COVID-19 world, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis ...
More New Zealanders are taking up the chance to work in horticulture as the sector keeps New Zealanders fed and in jobs during the COVID-19 Alert Level 4 lockdown. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our ...
The Provincial Development Unit is working through applications and projects to see where Provincial Growth Fund money can be repurposed for initiatives deemed more critical to fighting the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. “We need to be throwing everything we have at ...
The Government’s wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out. “We’re supporting businesses to pay wages, and stay connected with their workers so that we are all in a better ...
The Government is stepping up efforts to help protect New Zealand’s Pacific communities in the fight against COVID-19. Cabinet has agreed that $17 million will be allocated to support a COVID-19 Pacific Response Package, which will: Support Pacific health and disability services facing increased demand; Ramp up public health messaging ...
“Yesterday evening the Health Minister advised me of his trip to a beach during the lockdown and offered his resignation,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses. “But right now, my priority is our ...
Last night as part of my preparation for the Epidemic Response Committee, I provided the Prime Minister with a complete picture of my activity outside my home during Alert Level 4. That included the fact that on the first weekend of the Alert Level 4 lockdown I drove my family ...
A range of support is being rolled out across New Zealand to help people look after their mental health during COVID-19 Health Minister David Clark said this morning. “COVID-19 has brought a lot of uncertainty into our lives and many of us will be feeling some level of distress or ...
The New Zealand Government has made arrangements to charter a flight for New Zealanders stranded in Peru to depart the country, following agreement with the Chilean government to allow the necessary transit through Chile, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. “Like many travellers around the world at the moment, ...
Hospital preparations for COVID-19 are well advanced says Health Minister David Clark. “Hospitals across New Zealand are repurposing buildings and training staff to get ready for COVID-19 patients. This gives me confidence that we are well prepared for any potential increase in COVID-19 patients needing hospital level care,” said David ...
The Government will be introducing legislation to make changes to the Companies Act to help companies facing insolvency due to COVID-19 to remain viable and keep New Zealanders in jobs. The temporary changes include: Giving directors of companies facing significant liquidity problems because of COVID-19 a ‘safe harbour’ from insolvency ...
The Government’s plan to cushion the blow of COVID-19 by supporting incomes, jobs and businesses, and position the economy to recover has been backed by another international report. International credit rating agency Moody’s today reaffirmed its highest Aaa credit rating on New Zealand, saying the economy is expected to remain ...
The Government has stepped in to support vital air links to our offshore islands, the Chatham Islands, Great Barrier Island and Motiti Island, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. “As part of our $600 million support package to minimise the impacts of COVID-19 on the aviation sector, the Government has ...
National sports organisations have been given certainty of funding to ensure they can remain viable through the COVID-19 pandemic, Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “The global spread of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on sport and recreation in New Zealand, including the cancellation or postponement of ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Kayne Peters leaves his Auckland home to spend the lockdown in his whanau bubble in the King Country and help look after those most in need. Ka mate kainga tahi. Ka ora kainga rua. “One dwelling place is overcome, but the second is secure” This whakatauki or proverb well describes ...
The natural isolation of small Pacific islands set in the huge Pacific Ocean could prove to be the defining factor if these vulnerable nations manage to remain free of Covid-19. There is every reason to be optimistic if these small nations can keep rigid restrictions in place. Of course, the ...
How will we know when we’ve been successful in stopping Covid-19 within New Zealand? Farah Hancock reports. As the country moves into its third week of lockdown and the daily number of cases continues to drop, how can we be certain it's safe to move levels and how will we ...
Are we nearly in the clear? It's too early to tell and we can't take anything for granted, says Professor Nicholas Agar of Victoria University of Wellington. Our nation’s fight against Covid-19 seems to be going well. As a Kiwi, I’m enjoying the global applause for our “go hard and ...
The government yesterday announced it would step up its arrivals policy to mandate hotel quarantine or ‘managed self-isolation’ for all returning New Zealanders – people like Andrew Todd, who describes what it’s like to live in a Covid-19 quarantine zone.Four weeks ago, I was living in Canada, earning a meagre ...
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom shares posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game. This week, gymnasts put their own spin on the toilet paper challenge, the Black Sticks captain gets her pet in on lockdown training, and a triathlete ...
If you’re out on the road this weekend, be prepared to be stopped – and not just by the police. Kayne Peters reports on the official and unofficial roadblocks springing up all over the motu. Iwi across the country have stepped up efforts to secure their borders ahead of Easter ...
The Covid-19 challenge for disabled people is two-fold: keeping them safe, and ensuring disability support continues to be available to them. What's the plan for this? asks Samuel Murray. While we are rightfully focused on eliminating Covid-19, we need a specific plan that addresses the needs of both the disability ...
Although New Zealand-based e-commerce companies like TradeMe are toeing the line on non-essential sales, Facebook Marketplace remains a wild west where buying and selling hasn't stopped, Marc Daalder reports Want a pair of high-heeled Converse shoes to wear during lockdown? How about a cashmere scarf or new jigsaw puzzle? You're ...
Halfway through the lockdown, government restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus seem to be taking hold. But the latest suite of measures show the Prime Minister is awake to the dangers of overconfidence, Sam Sachdeva writes “This is going to be a marathon.” Jacinda Ardern’s choice of metaphor to ...
Christchurch’s arterial routes, and the air around them, are being transformed by the lockdown. David Williams takes a look As the days shorten, the nightly commute comes ever closer to sunset. That would normally mean thousands of cars lining up at busy Christchurch intersections, sending plumes of carbon monoxide into ...
A doctor's note from novelist Eileen Merriman, a haematologist at North Shore hospital. At the hospital where I work is a critically ill patient infected with Covid-19 in our intensive care unit – younger than me, with no pre-existing medical conditions. And today I overhead a couple of doctors discussing ...
Responding to sudden, shocking change requires a double lens, writes Fiona Farrell.Read more from the Lockdown letters here.My granddaughter has been making a newspaper. The Daily Chirp. It’s very small, as befits a newspaper designed for birds, but it contains news (a worrying rise in Tweet-19), “Adds” for birdseed medicine ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Remember how last year’s Easter felt bizarre because the country was in election-mode? How normal that seems, now everything is surreal, with the nation “holidaying” in this peculiar, unpleasant limbo. As we contemplate the grimness ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Michelle Grattan talks with MPs Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Victoria), Fiona Martin (Reid, NSW), Clare O’Neil (Hotham, Victoria) and Helen Haines (Indi, Victoria) about how they do their job during the pandemic. They discuss the operation ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nic Geard, Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne; Senior Research Fellow, Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne Following the emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19, several countries have succeeded in bringing local outbreaks under ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin Today’s chart shows the per capita level of testing performed in a number of countries. While the highest testing rate shown is Norway, we should note that Iceland has tested over eight percent of its population; too high to show on this chart. A ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has recorded just 29 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, but the prime minister says a decision on changing the alert level will only be made two days before the lockdown ends. It is the fourth day in a row there ...
The Guardian’s Pacific Project disaster video.By the Pacific Project Tropical Cyclone Harold lashed the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, ripping off roofs and downing telecommunications, before moving towards Fiji and Tonga. The powerful cyclone made landfall on Monday in Sana province, an island north of Vanuatu’s capital Port ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elyse Methven, Lecturer in Law, University of Technology Sydney The message to everyone during the coronavirus pandemic is to stay at home and only leave if you really need to for, say, food, health care or exercise. Police now have powers to ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Pat MacFie from Manaaki.This week we have another special podcast highlighting some of ...
NZ First leader Winston Peters today said he wants the election held on November 21, Radio NZ reported. He says he believes the health system would be under the pump in September with the winter flu season and the country potentially still dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. Prime Minister ...
New Zealand Rock Lobster (crayfish) are once again heading to China with the first small consignment being airfreighted last week. It was one of the first primary industry sectors in New Zealand to be affected by Covid-19, and as we now know, the sledgehammer that hit this industry was just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Bloomfield, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Notre Dame Australia Lockdown measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 should actually help cut the cases of flu this year. That’s because keeping people apart to reduce the spread of coronavirus ...
New modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini projects the impact of the lockdown, and what our next steps could be, Marc Daalder reports New figures from a team of mathematicians and scientists modelling the way Covid-19 could affect New Zealand indicate the lockdown has significantly dampened the spread of the virus. ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest retail spending data and the Reserve Bank's call for banks to step up as market-makers for corporate and local government bonds. In their latest daily 'Bernard Zooms out to lunch with Jarrod' video, Bernard Hickey and Jarrod ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Georgie Russell, Senior Lecturer, Deakin University This Easter will be especially challenging, with family isolation and many parents under financial strain, or other stressors. So, many parents will be looking to restore some sense of “normality” by welcoming the Easter bunny into ...
The Beths’ live-streamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see Kiwis live streaming for the next week.Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet ...
New Conservative Leader Leighton Baker has lived in and around the Waimakariri district since 1992 and is revelling in the opportunity to represent the electorate in Parliament after the 2020 general election. “Waimakariri is a diverse district with a strong ...
“Hard-hit councils, who oversee half this country’s public infrastructure, require financial support from central government that is tied to shared priorities through Urban Growth Partnerships,” says Paul Blair CEO of Infrastructure New Zealand. ...
Airways may close seven of its regional air traffic control towers because of a collapse in traveller numbers. The services under review are provided at Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill Airport as well as the airfield flight information services provided at Kapiti Coast Airport and Milford Sound ...
Proposals to expand the role of local councils into climate change mitigation under the Resource Management Act would add confusion, complexity and duplication, according to the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) and ...
As New Zealand enters its third week of Covid-19 lockdown, a just released set of modelling provides a flare of light at the end of the tunnel, reports Toby Manhire.On a day that the active case number decreased, it finds that “While New Zealand case numbers remain low, tracing, testing, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachael L. Brown, Director of the Centre for Philosophy of the Sciences and Lecturer at the School of Philosophy, Australian National University As they released the modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic behind Australia’s social isolation policies this week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison ...
The latest in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersThese posts collate the most recent statistics and present them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jim Tognolini, Director, Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment, University of Sydney Following a meeting with states and territories, federal education minister, Dan Tehan said year 12 students were a priority, and were being sent a clear signal: “There will be no ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is calling for an equal extension to all licencing regimes, following the Government’s announcement today offering motorists a six-month licencing grace period. COLFO says that like motorists, licenced ...
Dear Minister Jones, Firstly, let me introduce myself. My name is Adrian. I am an employee in the forestry industry, a Future Forester, a graduate of Canterbury University and, albeit very small, a forest owner. ...
As countries in Europe plan a tightrope walk back out of lockdown, the World Health Organisation warns it is too early to relax strict suppression measures in the fight against Covid-19, writes Peter Bale Two weeks into New Zealand's aggressive and early lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, voices ...
Consumers dramatically changed their spending patterns last month because of Covid-19 and the government ordered lockdown. Official numbers show overall retail spending using electronic cards fell a record seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent on the previous month. Stats NZ senior manager Sue Chapman said spending on eating out and accommodation plunged ...
A new $200,000 business subsidy package is being launched in Christchurch to help those affected by Covid-19. The ChristchurchNZ business support subsidy will offer eligible businesses up to $1000 each to seek professional advice. The scheme - funded by ChristchurchNZ, the city's economic development agency, will support small to medium ...
Large retailers have been quick to apply for government wage subsidies during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Warehouse has received $67.7 million to cover the labour costs of the shutdown of its Red Shed, Torpedo, Noel Leeming, and Warehouse Stationery chains, which between them employ about 11,000 staff. "The receipt of ...
A new report Quantifying the wellbeing costs of Covid-19 by the New Zealand Initiative shows how an economic hit of about 6.1% of GDP would be justified if it meant saving 33,600 lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. The figures, compiled by research fellow ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dougal Sutherland, Clinical Psychologist, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington The COVID-19 pandemic has forced millions of people to live under strict lockdown conditions, but the psychology of human behaviour predicts they will find it harder to stick to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Smillie, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne The coronavirus pandemic has caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world and pushed major economies into a tailspin. Beyond those impacts, almost all of us will face psychological challenges – trying to maintain ...
We asked Tony Baird, of Newsroom foundation supporter Vodafone NZ, to provide some insights into how New Zealanders have been using online and their smartphones during the first fortnight of lockdown. At Vodafone NZ, we entered new territory in this lockdown as New Zealanders have been turning to their smartphones and devices ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has launched a new campaign to temporarily reduce the remuneration of politicians, senior bureaucrats, and council bosses to match those voluntary and involuntary efforts in the private sector where pay is being ...
Analysis by Keith RankinWhat is Mercantilism?Keith Rankin. Mercantilism is the form of public policy that was dominant in Europe – especially Northern Europe – in the ‘early modern’ period; meaning in the period loosely between 1500 and 1800 (sixteenth to eighteenth centuries). In a political sense it ...
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says legislative changes to driver licensing and vehicle certification requirements coming into effect tomorrow (10 April) will help drivers and vehicle owners safely navigate through the COVID-19 lockdown period and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Woolaston, Lawyer, Queensland University of Technology Never before have we seen how the human use of wildlife can yield such catastrophe, as we have with COVID-19. The current available evidence indicates COVID-19 was first transmitted in a wildlife market in Wuhan. ...
In a week alone there was an increase of about 10,000 people now relying on welfare to get by. As the number of benefit recipients rapidly increases as a result of COVID-19, Auckland Action Against Poverty is calling on the Government to urgently lift benefits ...
CEAC stands alongside Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, WWF-New Zealand, Generation Zero, EDS and Ecologic letter to Jacinda Ardern calling on the Government to transform the New Zealand economy to tackle climate change, save native species, improve freshwater ...
Better Public Media welcomes the announcement that the Ministry of Education will fund Television New Zealand and Māori Television to provide up to six hours daily of educational content for our children and students, beginning next week. It is ...
It’s OK if you don’t come out of lockdown with abs.We are living through the worst global pandemic since the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the beginning of an economic calamity that has already claimed the jobs of millions of workers the world over. Hospitals are full, schools are closed and many countries are in ...
One thing is abundantly clear, when this lock down is over, many tourism related businesses will be reliant on Domestic Tourism to stay afloat. But what will that mean from a Freedom Camping point of view? While it has been true, that many towns ...
The Government has announced that all incoming travellers will be quarantined away from their homes and families for a 14 day period, after a public campaign that received widespread support The Government has bowed to a public campaign led by epidemiologists and the National Party to have all returning New Zealanders ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening.The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...
New Zealand is has joined the ranks of countries experiencing a wave of sabotage attempts against mobile networks as false claims about 5G go viral, Marc Daalder reports Spark, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Rural Connectivity Group have all experienced threats or actual attempts of sabotage of cell towers in recent ...
Air traffic control closure sends COVID-19 shockwaves through regional airports Seven regional airports are shocked that Airways NZ, the national air traffic management organisation, wants to discuss the removal of air traffic control at their facilities ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants an election on November 21st. Peters told RNZ he fought for that originally as it's his long held position that summer elections are better. ...
The national lockdown was justifiable to protect the nation's intensive care capacity. But any prolonged lockdown and border closure will cause economic issues that lead to broader, indirect problems for our health and wellbeing, writes Professor Grant Guilford. In a caring society it is right that we do our utmost ...
She’s not a teacher or a fluent speaker – she just wants to practise with you. Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Yesterday we were counting things, today we’re counting people. We have different ways of counting each because people aren’t ...
A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning. “Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence. One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori ...
Women’s Rights Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo is encouraging women to seek help immediately if they find themselves in an abusive situation during the COVID-19 isolation. Often, people who were already in an abusive situation will likely ...
COMMENTARY:By Georgie Bright, Australia associate director of Human Rights Watch Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the fragile health system in Papua New Guinea was underfunded and overwhelmed, with high rates of malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes among its population of more than eight million. Access to hospitals is extremely ...
New home owners will pay tens of thousands of dollars more on their mortgage if they accept a six-month mortgage 'holiday' option. That’s money going to the banks. But should lender and borrower be sharing the pain? There’s always a nagging worry about holidays. They are fun while they last, but ...
An Auckland bus driver tells Leonie Hayden what it’s like to operate under alert level four, and the struggle to secure a safer work environment.Mike moved to New Zealand in 2001. “I’m a Kiwi now,” he says, “and a die-hard unionist.” He’s employed by a large New Zealand bus company ...
The 1pm briefing has become appointment viewing. But it is no substitute for transparent, timely information, even in such extraordinary times, writes Newshub investigations reporter Michael Morrah in this post originally published on Newshub.Like all journalists in New Zealand right now, I’ve been covering stories day after day, all of ...
The Chair of the Earthquake Commission, Sir Michael Cullen, has welcomed Dame Silvia Cartwright’s Report of the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission, released today. “The Report lays out clearly the challenges faced by EQC in responding to ...
With 14 days before the lockdown period is - for now - set to end, big questions remain about how the country is going to be able to stamp out flareups of Covid-19. ...
Open mike 26/03/2019 
56 mins ago
The pandemic has shown us how effective our public service is. They've pulled together a massive policy response, from a lockdown to economic support to healthcare to planning how to keep everything running when this is over, and done it in next to no time. They are heroes, who have ...15 hours ago
In 1968 Canadian sociologist Laurence Peter coined the phrase “Peter Principle” as a contribution to the sociology of organisations. It explains that in complex organizations people rise to the level of their own incompetence. That is, they get promoted so long as they meet or exceed the specified criteria for ...16 hours ago
The practice and business of music has been one of the sectors most gravely impacted by the virus sweeping the world. The emphatic nature of our government's response, necessary as it was, has slammed the industry and the people who work in it.There are New Zealand artists – Nadia Reid, ...17 hours ago
. . April 8: Day 14 of living in lock-down… The good news first: the downward trajectory of new cases appears to be a real thing. In the last four days, since Sunday, new infections have been dropping: Sunday: 89 new cases Monday: 67 Tuesday: 54 Today (Wednesday): 50 The ...19 hours ago
The anti-fluoride movement wants to restrict your reading to “just four studies.” They actively ignore or attempt to discredit other relevant studies. Image credit: Censorship in media. For earlier articles in this series see: ... 23 hours ago
52 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Sensitivity of ice flow to uncertainty in flow law parameters in an idealized one-dimensional geometry (open access) Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Will heat stress take its toll on milk production in China? Uncoupled El Niño ...1 day ago
We are seeing what has been termed “a greater challenge than the crash of 2008” by a growing number of economists and more rational, sane commentators, because whilst that was a shocking exposure of the levels to which hubris had sunk, right down to the blank cheque given those who ...2 days ago
It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, we need to get out of the house, and so our bubble sets off on a bike ride around our local neighbourhood, Cambridge Park. The bikes come out of the garage, and, being really certain we have a front door key, close the garage door ...2 days ago
The Queen’s coronavirus broadcast, with its overtones of Winston Churchill and Vera Lynn, prompted me to reflect on the tribulations my parents’ generation suffered during the Second World War – and I imagine that those parallels, given her own wartime experience, were very much in the Queen’s mind as she ...2 days ago
We all know that Simon Bridges has, at the best of times, an intermittent relationship with the truth. However you would think that during a pandemic and economic crisis the current opposition leader would pull his head in and start to do the right thing.Obviously leading by example should be ...3 days ago
Connett promotes Riddell et al (2019) as one of the only four studies one needs to read about fluoridation. But he misunderstands and misrepresents the findings of this study. Image credit: Fluoride Action ... 3 days ago
Last month I wrote my blog on covid-19 pointing out the in our pre Alert Level 4 days that a subject no one had heard here months ago was now dominating the media. An amazing feature of this crisis is how quickly it has swept every other issue aside worldwide. ...4 days ago
As the world economy slides rapidly towards deep recession there are growing calls for a Universal Benefit coming from some leftists and rightists. Now Finance Minister Grant Robertson is saying it is on the table. This article by a French party Workers Struggle provides analysis of various forms of universal ...5 days ago
This is the advice from the very top of the anti-fluoride movement – Paul Connett, director of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Don’t worry about reading up on all the scientific information “You only have ... 5 days ago
Comfortably, in the very first round, with an impressive 56% of the votes.I wonder, did members of the Shadow Cabinet start tweeting their resignations during Starmer's victory speech, or is that only a trick the right pull?It is odd how all the talk of how the next leader "needs to ...5 days ago
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation today about the decline in daylight New Zealand has been experiencing over the previous few months. She said “As many of you will notice, our attempts to stem the dwindling of the daylight over the last few months have been completely ...6 days ago
We must root out the traitors among us! ...7 days ago
I haven’t done a huge amount in the last few days. I’m reading The Poppy War and I’ve sort of poked at a couple of games – I started SOMA but I’m a wimp and I quit while in the first room after the brain scan. I might try it ...1 week ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 1 week ago
While New Zealand is at Alert Level 4, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up to date with all the latest developments of the Government's COVID-19 response. It's been a shortened week because of Easter, so we're bringing you our weekly wrap a day early. ...13 hours ago
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs Hon. Ron Mark, Minister of Defence Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark today announced that New Zealand will provide a further package of assistance to Vanuatu, to support the response to Tropical Cyclone Harold. “Tropical ...17 hours ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...2 weeks ago
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson has announced that urgent maintenance of turf and care for plants in non-plantation nurseries will soon be able to go ahead under Level 4 restrictions. “The Government has agreed that urgent upkeep and maintenance of biological assets will be able to go ahead ...16 hours ago
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...11 mins ago
Kayne Peters leaves his Auckland home to spend the lockdown in his whanau bubble in the King Country and help look after those most in need. Ka mate kainga tahi. Ka ora kainga rua. “One dwelling place is overcome, but the second is secure” This whakatauki or proverb well describes ...2 hours ago
The natural isolation of small Pacific islands set in the huge Pacific Ocean could prove to be the defining factor if these vulnerable nations manage to remain free of Covid-19. There is every reason to be optimistic if these small nations can keep rigid restrictions in place. Of course, the ...2 hours ago
How will we know when we’ve been successful in stopping Covid-19 within New Zealand? Farah Hancock reports. As the country moves into its third week of lockdown and the daily number of cases continues to drop, how can we be certain it's safe to move levels and how will we ...3 hours ago
Are we nearly in the clear? It's too early to tell and we can't take anything for granted, says Professor Nicholas Agar of Victoria University of Wellington. Our nation’s fight against Covid-19 seems to be going well. As a Kiwi, I’m enjoying the global applause for our “go hard and ...3 hours ago
Every Friday of lockdown, LockerRoom shares posts from Kiwi sportswomen who've caught our eye with novel ways of keeping on top of their game. This week, gymnasts put their own spin on the toilet paper challenge, the Black Sticks captain gets her pet in on lockdown training, and a triathlete ...3 hours ago
If you’re out on the road this weekend, be prepared to be stopped – and not just by the police. Kayne Peters reports on the official and unofficial roadblocks springing up all over the motu. Iwi across the country have stepped up efforts to secure their borders ahead of Easter ...3 hours ago
The Covid-19 challenge for disabled people is two-fold: keeping them safe, and ensuring disability support continues to be available to them. What's the plan for this? asks Samuel Murray. While we are rightfully focused on eliminating Covid-19, we need a specific plan that addresses the needs of both the disability ...3 hours ago
Although New Zealand-based e-commerce companies like TradeMe are toeing the line on non-essential sales, Facebook Marketplace remains a wild west where buying and selling hasn't stopped, Marc Daalder reports Want a pair of high-heeled Converse shoes to wear during lockdown? How about a cashmere scarf or new jigsaw puzzle? You're ...3 hours ago
Halfway through the lockdown, government restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus seem to be taking hold. But the latest suite of measures show the Prime Minister is awake to the dangers of overconfidence, Sam Sachdeva writes “This is going to be a marathon.” Jacinda Ardern’s choice of metaphor to ...3 hours ago
Christchurch’s arterial routes, and the air around them, are being transformed by the lockdown. David Williams takes a look As the days shorten, the nightly commute comes ever closer to sunset. That would normally mean thousands of cars lining up at busy Christchurch intersections, sending plumes of carbon monoxide into ...3 hours ago
A doctor's note from novelist Eileen Merriman, a haematologist at North Shore hospital. At the hospital where I work is a critically ill patient infected with Covid-19 in our intensive care unit – younger than me, with no pre-existing medical conditions. And today I overhead a couple of doctors discussing ...3 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Education Minister Dan Tehan has warned non-government schools that if they fail to open for the next term they will face losing funding. He said on Thursday that “as part of the funding requirement” a ...8 hours ago
State housing provider Kāinga Ora is phoning 6000 tenants to apologise after many received letters saying their rent would go up. ...14 hours ago
NZ First leader Winston Peters today said he wants the election held on November 21, Radio NZ reported. He says he believes the health system would be under the pump in September with the winter flu season and the country potentially still dealing with the impacts of Covid-19. Prime Minister ...15 hours ago
New Zealand Rock Lobster (crayfish) are once again heading to China with the first small consignment being airfreighted last week. It was one of the first primary industry sectors in New Zealand to be affected by Covid-19, and as we now know, the sledgehammer that hit this industry was just ...15 hours ago
New modelling from Te Pūnaha Matatini projects the impact of the lockdown, and what our next steps could be, Marc Daalder reports New figures from a team of mathematicians and scientists modelling the way Covid-19 could affect New Zealand indicate the lockdown has significantly dampened the spread of the virus. ...16 hours ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr about the latest retail spending data and the Reserve Bank's call for banks to step up as market-makers for corporate and local government bonds. In their latest daily 'Bernard Zooms out to lunch with Jarrod' video, Bernard Hickey and Jarrod ...16 hours ago
New Conservative Leader Leighton Baker has lived in and around the Waimakariri district since 1992 and is revelling in the opportunity to represent the electorate in Parliament after the 2020 general election. “Waimakariri is a diverse district with a strong ...16 hours ago
Airways may close seven of its regional air traffic control towers because of a collapse in traveller numbers. The services under review are provided at Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill Airport as well as the airfield flight information services provided at Kapiti Coast Airport and Milford Sound ...16 hours ago
As countries in Europe plan a tightrope walk back out of lockdown, the World Health Organisation warns it is too early to relax strict suppression measures in the fight against Covid-19, writes Peter Bale Two weeks into New Zealand's aggressive and early lockdown to combat the spread of Covid-19, voices ...17 hours ago
Consumers dramatically changed their spending patterns last month because of Covid-19 and the government ordered lockdown. Official numbers show overall retail spending using electronic cards fell a record seasonally adjusted 3.9 percent on the previous month. Stats NZ senior manager Sue Chapman said spending on eating out and accommodation plunged ...17 hours ago
A new $200,000 business subsidy package is being launched in Christchurch to help those affected by Covid-19. The ChristchurchNZ business support subsidy will offer eligible businesses up to $1000 each to seek professional advice. The scheme - funded by ChristchurchNZ, the city's economic development agency, will support small to medium ...17 hours ago
Large retailers have been quick to apply for government wage subsidies during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Warehouse has received $67.7 million to cover the labour costs of the shutdown of its Red Shed, Torpedo, Noel Leeming, and Warehouse Stationery chains, which between them employ about 11,000 staff. "The receipt of ...17 hours ago
We asked Tony Baird, of Newsroom foundation supporter Vodafone NZ, to provide some insights into how New Zealanders have been using online and their smartphones during the first fortnight of lockdown. At Vodafone NZ, we entered new territory in this lockdown as New Zealanders have been turning to their smartphones and devices ...18 hours ago
The Government has announced that all incoming travellers will be quarantined away from their homes and families for a 14 day period, after a public campaign that received widespread support The Government has bowed to a public campaign led by epidemiologists and the National Party to have all returning New Zealanders ...19 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. The following charts are based on numbers shared at the daily press conference. These may vary from the full day's numbers released in the Ministry of Health's spreadsheet ...19 hours ago
New Zealand is has joined the ranks of countries experiencing a wave of sabotage attempts against mobile networks as false claims about 5G go viral, Marc Daalder reports Spark, 2degrees, Vodafone and the Rural Connectivity Group have all experienced threats or actual attempts of sabotage of cell towers in recent ...19 hours ago
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters wants an election on November 21st. Peters told RNZ he fought for that originally as it's his long held position that summer elections are better. ...19 hours ago
The national lockdown was justifiable to protect the nation's intensive care capacity. But any prolonged lockdown and border closure will cause economic issues that lead to broader, indirect problems for our health and wellbeing, writes Professor Grant Guilford. In a caring society it is right that we do our utmost ...20 hours ago
A news item by Māni Dunlop, Māori News Director, has been posted on the RNZ website under the heading Government urged to put Māori at forefront of Covid-19 planning. “Forefront” means the position of greatest importance or prominence. One implication to be drawn from the headline, therefore. is that Māori ...20 hours ago
New home owners will pay tens of thousands of dollars more on their mortgage if they accept a six-month mortgage 'holiday' option. That’s money going to the banks. But should lender and borrower be sharing the pain? There’s always a nagging worry about holidays. They are fun while they last, but ...20 hours ago
Barry Soper is a piece of shit liar.
” Peters says it was a much shorter version of the video he’d been showing at earlier rallies and besides, his rhetoric had changed, he was now much more benign about New Zealand”
That’s not true though is it Barry. You’re not even a journalists asshole.
You leave the country thinking they’re still targets because political vendettas for cash and clickbait is all you have to offer.
I got to get back into some morning meditation. I have every right to be annoyed at Soper and other journos as:
These are the people with a voice; they should also bear a responsibility to truth.
But I’m still sounding kneejerk, too quick off the mark.
Rain in South and heading North.
Take care out there and have a wonderful Tuesday.
We the bleeple. Loved your second comment and agreed with your first.
Soper can not help putting the boot into Winston again, dementia has really set in with this old white coote ?
Racist, homophobic, transphobic.
Real peice of work aren’t you? Especially with your super duper cool guy handle.
Winston is older and dodderier than soper
Edit : not sure why I’m in moderation?
[Looks like you changed your name slightly. I have deleted the “i” at the end. Now released – MS]
Thanks MS. The desktop version on my smartphone is extremely sensitive when scrolling and the cursor defaults to the name box when a reply is activated. Not a biggie but catches you out if unwary
Soper needs to change the colour of his pills me thinks ?
Last night, it rained and rained and rained; a fine and steady fall that kept on and on.
Today, I’m making blackboards from plywood and paint; green in fact, but made for the purpose. We’re keen to keep the presentations at the permaculture hui low-tech, so with only chalk and a board for the presenter, there’ll be no Death-by-Powerpoint!
Ha excellent Robert… like most technologies there is some myth at play… like putting together a power point thing is faster than blackboard and chalk?? I don’t think so. In the same way cash is faster than eftpos… a hard copy diary is quicker than scrolling thru a screen… like pretty much anything ….
much ‘technology’ is a myth. In fact, much of it isn’t even technology, it’s just the same old pasted together in electronics instead. It’s nothing new, just formatted differently.
the other myth around ‘technology’ is that its claimed faster speed makes our lives better …. I don’t think so …. it just makes our lives speedier …
a 2c rant
That’s often the case, vto, in my experience. I’m planning to have the menu for each evening meal written on slate! I collected hundreds of slates from the roof of an old building here years ago and now will be their moment in the sun 🙂
Nice. Can’t beat the touch and feel of something earthen. …
The simple act of helping others pulled me out of my head and own worries and back to Earth. I highly recommend reaching out to your community if you are still struggling to emerge from your shock and grief.
I have been expert at avoiding cameras for some time. They filmed my back for one second. Still good at avoiding cameras. There may be a career for me in paparazzi training for celebs.
Interesting to compare the architecture of the mosque and Mitre10 Mega.
Great initiative too and incidentally an effective way to work-around council rules for planting on berms. They ain’t gonna complain 🙂
Haha. What a choice observation.
We had armed Police looking on so I reckon we’ll be ok – or not a leg to stand on!
I’m really liking the permie folks I’m meeting up here, some I’ve known previously in the rock and roll industry. Who’d a thought, permie rockers!
I’m a lot less hangry sounding in real life 😉
Who’s the bloke with the tats on his arms; was he an organiser? I seem to recognise him.
Damian? Terrible at names but I did get it. He’s wanting to come onto the PDC next year. From Waihi. Nice guy.
I’ve joined this mens dance club …. as music …. and bit of dance is good for the body and soul.
The blokes in it all have a good sence of humor ….. but if you step on toes three times …. they time out you for 10 mins on the back wall 🙂
I’m the one with the beard 😉
Great timing by Al Jazeera: ‘How to sell a massacre: NRA’s playbook, revealed’.
Here’s the link to Al Jazeera’s piece.
“How do you respond to a deadly mass shooting if you are a gun rights advocate?
First, “Say nothing.” If media queries persist, go on the “offence, offence, offence”. Smear gun-control groups. “Shame them” with statements such as – “How dare you stand on the graves of those children to put forward your political agenda?” ”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/sell-massacre-nra-playbook-revealed-190325111828105.html
Evidently gun shooting and deaths have gone down in recent years someone was telling me ?
Y’know, you could actually develop some research skills of your own.
But now that you’ve sprayed some random reckons, actual facts are needed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States#/media/File:1999-2016_Gun-related_deaths_USA.png
I’d call this (above, Al Jazeera, NRA playbook) a MUST READ.
What I’m seeing in the youtube and other comments sections from ill informed pro-trumper types and trolls is a common script. I figured this came from the media. It does. And this media is generated by professional spin doctors in or aligned with the NRA.
A false narrative designed to sell guns. And as we’ve seen alongside it, another darker narrative emerging, the spreading of chaos.
This chaos sells fear, and more guns, and keeps us distracted from the political/corporate skulduggery of Disaster Capitalists. You can learn about Disaster Capitalism from Naomi Klein.
“I think it’s a basic principle of journalism to follow the money” – Naomi Klein.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoul
Does displaying the shocking event of last week, to promote your re-election, count as ghoulish behaviour?
+ 100%
Haven’t seen it yet, will watch it tonight.
Trump politics …. Benjamines for the big boys ….. money for war … hate on the foreign
and poor.
“In the last two or three years, encouraged and legitimized by candidate and then President Donald Trump, anti-Semitism has been on the rise alongside virulent racism, extreme misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia and homophobia. Trump praised the “fine people” among the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and Nazi sympathizers who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia”
“For the second time this year, Donald Trump has retweeted a message from an apparent neo-Nazi, raising troubling questions about his judgment and the ideology of some of his supporters.”
a speech Trump had given a few days earlier — praising the (apocryphal) methods of a U.S. general in dispensing with Muslim opponents in the Philippine-American War — was still playing on conservative radio. “He took 50 bullets, and he dipped them in pig’s blood,” he’d told the crowd. “And he had his men load their rifles, and he lined up the 50 people, and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said: ‘You go back to your people, and you tell them what happened.’ ”
Then a Heroic young Muslim woman Ilhan Omar steps out of line …. repeatably
“Omar shook up the Washington foreign policy establishment by challenging veteran warmonger and genocide denier Elliot Abrams, he of Iran-Contra and El Salvador death squads infamy, …” “about his new role as the Trump administration’s point man on Venezuela.”
And both sides turned on her when she dared discus the real foreign power in US politics …” in response to this tweet “Would love to know who Ilhan thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” Omar tweeted again “AIPAC.”
”
“President Trump got his jabs in on Saturday: “We have people in Congress that hate our country,” he said, before implying that these people were immigrants. Given that Omar is one of only 14 immigrant members of Congress, and Trump then called her out by name in a tweet two days later, the allusion was none too subtle. None of the Congress members who have accused Omar of anti-Semitism has voiced a word criticizing the president for such dog-whistle xenophobia”
The Democrats joined in … worried about their Benjamins .
“Congressional Democrats are attempting to discipline Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for speaking critically about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — and more generally in defense of Palestinian rights — after smearing her as “anti-Semitic.” This comes at the same time that Omar, one of the only Muslim representatives in Congress, has been targeted for death threats and Islamophobic propaganda likening her to those who carried out the 9/11 attacks.”
Ilhan Omar is a friend to all who believe in human rights … for all….. she speaks truth to power.
Its a shame a poster here joined in the attempted smearing of her as an anti Semite yesterday ….. and worse.
I can’t vote for her …. but we should all support her cause of tolerance and respect for all humans…..
“NAOMI KLEIN, Ilan Pappé, Ronnie Kasrils, Sarah Jaffe, Rebecca Vilkomerson and many more say: We are Jews who stand with Representative Ilhan Omar.”
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/28/exclusive-ilhan-omar-speaks-out-on-her-twitter-scandal-anti-semitism-and-a-progressive-foreign-policy/
A good read about the intersection of issues and personalities from the perspective of a door-knocker.
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/3/25/18275868/2020-presidential-election-midterms-democrats-candidate-progressive-base
I see the Trots has had a bit of a rectal spray over at Bowelly Rd about Davidson and Ghahraman starting up some kind of anti-racism effort. I’ve had a very brief search for more info and come up empty, anyone got any more info? Thanks.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/03/those-who-do-not-learn-lessons-of.html
Were you in NZ during the early Clark PM years?
Yes, I returned to NZ in March 99. So yes, I’ve got a moderately interested outsider’s awareness of Anderton and the Alliance ructions.
Right now though, I’m more interested in finding out more about what The Trots is painting as a substantial organised effort from Ghahraman and Davidson that so far I’ve seen and heard nothing about. Or maybe The Trots is trying to puff up something that simply isn’t there.
Those years from late 1980s to late ’90s are Trotter’s ideological and emotional home. The hard left do splinter under shalliw fault lines , so the warning is real if overstated.
Green discipline through the Royal Commission will be tough as it intersects over their Carbon Zero negotiations. Tough to suck it up, but suck it up they must.
“Green discipline through the Royal Commission will be tough as it intersects over their Carbon Zero negotiations. Tough to suck it up, but suck it up they must.”
I must be daft. That sentence makes no sense to me at all.
Royal Commission politics will be hard-right.
Carbon Zero bill politics is hard left.
Greens want green policy gains, but may be tempted by anti-Security policy gains.
They can’t get both. Esp after the post -attack climate.
I don’t feel I’ve learned anything at all.
A royal commission is hard right politics?
Preventing/mitigating climate change is hard left politics?
I think you are completely out of touch.
You could ask some schoolchildren what’s up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_strike_for_climate
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/102276176/us-students-stage-school-walkouts-to-protest-gun-violence
There are no schoolchildren in parliament.
Nor do schoolchildren vote.
Nor do they report into the mainstream media.
In fact they have very little political effect at all.
A Royal Commission into the intelligence services is going to be cutting deep into the hard core of the most conservative parts of the public service. It will be cutting into Andrew Little as well since he’s defending them. And the hard left within the Greens from Davidson and Gharaman are making their views clear about what they want from such a Royal Commission already.
The Carbon Zero bill and the climate commission’s powers are under hot contest from National at the moment. You would have noticed the commentary from them surely.
What you are pointing to is your ability to be swayed by sweet saccarine emotion about the political impact of children, but no idea about the forces at play coming up in Wellington.
It is perfectly evident why you don’t learn anything at all.
“The Carbon Zero bill and the climate commission’s powers are under hot contest from National at the moment.”
Surely not!
You say Davidson and Gharaman are the HARD left? How hard are we talking?
Would it be foolish to challenge them to an arm wrestle?
Could they arm wrestle the Royal Commission while James does his Climate Change thing?
You said it yourself, I am “swayed by sweet saccarine emotion about the political impact of children, but no idea”
And you wrote – a poem? A nursery rhyme?
‘There are no schoolchildren in parliament.
Nor do schoolchildren vote.
Nor do they report into the mainstream media.
In fact they have very little political effect at all.’
Even the children are getting organised against BAU these days. Some folks will do anything to pretend it aint so.
I’ve even heard it on good authority there was a baby in the UN.
i’ve even heard it on good authority there was a baby in the UN.
Good authority suggests that you do not expose babies to high levels of radiation 40-70 times the ground readings
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2018/06/15/what-is-e-rad/
Well the member for Mt Albert has one of the lowest youth enrollments in the country.
https://www.elections.org.nz/research-statistics/enrolment-statistics-electorate?name=Mt+Albert
They’re just holding of to build suspense.
You mean the 54% Mt Albert 18 – 24 group vs their national average of 63%.
Don’t look at central Auckland and Nikki Kaye’s 21% of this group enrolled though. Or your wildly off topic point sounds a bit naff.
Kittridge should be sacked …. seeing she does not have the decency to resign.
” A young New Zealand Muslim who believes she was profiled as a “jihadi bride” says comments by the SIS and the Prime Minister about women travelling to Iraq and Syria are scaremongering. ” https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373631/i-m-not-a-jihadi-bride
Hand in hand with John Key she used inflammatory “Jihadi bride” labeling … which conjurers the image … and fear of Muslim female terrorists / suicide bomber s.
Very shitty and reckless considering the NZ Muslim community had no ” Jihadi brides” …
Because she did not resign and do the runner like Key .,… She should be sacked for her reckless and shitty attack …. before we even get onto her failure to protect.
“Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said Key and Kitteridge had “misled the nation”.
She called on the pair to apologise to Muslim women.
“This is John Key using spy agencies, yet again, for his own political purposes. He misled New Zealanders into thinking that there were large numbers of Muslim women leaving New Zealand to go to Islamic State.
“That is not true.”
She said the claims were “denigrating” for an already vulnerable community.
Turei said she though Key made the statement, to make it easier for a review into spy agency laws to recommend boosting SIS and GCSB powers. ”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/77967537/reports-new-zealand-jihadi-brides-all-left-from-australia
The first thing We should be reviewing is who gets the sack ,,,,followed by disengaging from that white supremacist warmongers club we are in…. stop riding on the coat tails of the ‘ ‘master nation’ … cease keeping an eye on those lesser people, who do not obey …. ‘ the masa ‘.
Being in Masa s little lynch mob of 5 … brings nothing but shame and dishonor upon us .
We are New Zealand …. we kill three year olds and call them Taliban.
Masa don’t mind though …. nits make lice, is his exceptional motto .
This?
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-03-2019/as-aroha-ripples-across-nz-let-us-pledge-never-to-go-back-to-the-way-we-were/
I’m looking for what prompted The Trots to spray out
Davidson’s comments you’ve just linked to are frankly somewhat generic and anodyne, given the circumstances (sorry). So are Davidson’s and Ghahraman’s speeches on the Greens website (sorry again). They don’t look to me anywhere close to controversial enough to prompt what The Trots wrote.
+ 100 Marty
This terrorist attack and mass murder of New Zealand Muslims has revealed some of the most beautiful displays of tragic love , saddness and lack of hostility that one could ever hope to encounter in the whole of humanity.
From your link ….
“People just came.
And every single person was made to feel welcome and loved by the mosque, no matter what they were wearing.
Our Muslim hosts were at pains to ensure people could find shade, that people could sit who needed to sit, that we were given water and food. They wanted us all to feel included because they sensed that for some, it was awkward and we just didn’t know what to do.
Every single person that had come had done so in good faith and with love in their hearts for the tragedy that took our country’s breath away. ”
I’ve linked a lot to the 50 lives thread in twitter which displays the same elevation of human spirit and goodness …. and lack of hate in the face of such ugly violence which stole and maimed their beautiful loved ones.
So sad and so beautiful ,,,,,,,, I’ve been humbled to tears.
Such is the contrast between our Muslim brother and sisters conduct …. and the deranged hate spewing conduct of usa online Lynch mobs
That sterotypes are shattered and reversed …. the good guys ( usa ) are sick ugly killers of the master race type
I’m paranoid fake Muslim accounts, created and run by neo con or zionist trolls … may make false ” die kaffir ” type posts … because our Muslims are not making them.
Money from weapons and war will be lost ….. if we recognize them as humans … who are just like us .
For those who think I am over egging it ,….. check out the usa sickness directed at a young Muslim woman /
Trigger warning … Trigger Warming … Trigger warning
clicking on the ” people talking about this ” … will take you to a very ugly angry place
Andre that’s really offensive about Chris Trotter, I presume, and about political matters from you. If it reflects the state of your mind it is factual, and puts in doubt your ability to offer reasoned opinions.
Would you care to salvage The Trots’ honour by pointing to what Ghahraman and Davidson have said and/or done to justify what he said about them? He didn’t provide any examples, and I had a look and didn’t find anything.
If there isn’t good substantiation for his attacks on Davidson and Ghahraman, then what he’s said is really fucking offensive and damaging. Even if there is substantiation, it was lazy and rude of him not to provide links to it in his piece.
Andre, I understand where you are coming from. My understanding is that the Auckland vigil last weekend became somewhat political with some people walking out etc as they felt it was too soon for some of the things said. In terms of links here is a link to one Herald article on this aspect which does not provide much detail and it was also updated a day later:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12215680
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12215860
A few more possibles here in this search
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1LDJZ_enNZ499&biw=1024&bih=724&tbs=qdr%3Aw&ei=MI-ZXOGeJJj_rQGVtYjwDQ&q=auckland+vigil+walkout&oq=auckland+vigil+walkout&gs_l=psy-ab.12…0.0..12121…0.0..0.0.0…….0……gws-wiz.Dc29IlWJGNE
I will leave my comments at that as I basically left here at the end of Feb.
Thanks veutoviper. I can’t see how any of the things in those reports could possibly be stretched to make grounds for what The Trots wrote.
For what it’s worth, I value the facts and perspective you bring. But I know it can also be hard work. Please, look after yourself, and if looking after yourself includes trips back here, I for one will be reading what you have to say.
veutoviper, Your contributions are always welcome. You have been missed. I am walking with a walking stick. On my way to independence. Please keep fit.x
I fear patricia bremner that someone has upset veutoviper. I could be wrong, but we have a few people here whose style is confronting, arrogant and sometimes downright rude. I reference the one who calls himself “Sam” as an example.
I suspect TS has lost quite a few top line commenters (like vv) due to having been on the receiving end of unnecessarily offensive remarks about their contributions.
Seems reasonable to me. Trotter no like those mayorees and other ‘identity people’.
This is just Trotter hearing opinions he disagrees with and blowharding it into a “campaign” by the people who’ve dared to express their opinion – in this case, a proposed “New-Zealand-Is-A-Profoundly-Racist-Society campaign” and “We-Are-All-Guilty campaign.”
Go searching for these “campaigns” the Green MPs are running and all you find is a couple of quotes.
Marama Davidson said:
“New Zealand was founded on the theft of land, language and identity of indigenous people. This land we are standing on is land we were violently removed from to uphold the same agenda that killed the people in the mosques yesterday.”
And Golriz Ghahraman said:
“The truth is that this happened here, and it began with hate speech, allowed to spread here online. History has taught us that hate speech is a slippery slope to atrocity,” she said.
“The truth is that we as politicians, and I mean on all sides of this House, are also responsible.”
“There sit among us those who have for years fanned the flames of division in here and out there. Blamed migrants for our housing crisis.
“There sits among us here [those] who deliberately spread hysteria about the UN Migration Compact,” Ghahraman said.
“We’ve pandered to the gratuitous racism by shock jocks on breakfast shows to raise our own profile,” she said.
Ghahraman said the Christchurch mosque gunman’s plans for Friday’s shootings went unchecked by authorities.
“White supremacy was not seen as a pressing threat, even as some in the Muslim community were.
“Although this man happened to have not been born in New Zealand, we do need to acknowledge the truth that his ideology does exist in pockets here. Our ethnic communities, refugees, and tangata whenua have been telling us this for years. They’ve been reporting this for years.
“I know it as my daily truth as a politician. I receive all the barrage of hate online. I receive the threats – the death threats, the rape threats, and the threats of gun violence, online.
“Every minority in New Zealand knows this as a little bit of our truth. So now we have to pause and listen.”
That’s it, folks. Two opinions by two MPs is Trotter’s imagined “campaign” that’s going to tear the Green Party apart. To quote the great Johnny Rotten, “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”
Ah. Thank you. If that’s all The Trots is basing his piece on, then I stand by the first sentence of my comment at 7, and merely regret I didn’t word it more strongly.
Silk Road to Golan Heights, Chinese Sovereign Rights!
Italy takes a shine to China’s New Silk Road
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47640196
Call for EU veto as Germany eyes Italy’s China deal warily …
[Search domain http://www.thelocal.it/20190324/call-for-eu-veto-as-germany-eyes-italys-china-deal-warily%5D https://www.thelocal.it/20190324/call-for-eu-veto-as-germany-eyes-italys-china-deal-war
Italy signs massive deal with China despite cautions from …
[Search domain http://www.rt.com/news/454577-italy-china-silk-road/%5D https://www.rt.com/news/454577-italy-china-silk-road/
This is surely a good thing for Europe, giving as it does improved access to the huge and increasingly wealthy Chinese market. Fears about being swamped by cheap Chinese goods that will further destroy European manufacturers is overstated.
Increasingly, in the years ahead, China will no longer be the cheap source of everything. That is already fast being eclipsed by India and various African nations. And of course the China Empire (for an empire it certainly is) will face its own nightmare in Xinjiang and Xizang, with Xinjiang quite likely facing a future like Chechnya .
Now that the Royal Commission and commemorative events are in train, could this government start doing the pre-budget announcements proper please?
Yes, time to go down the pub and write them on the back of a beer coaster, same as they did with policy pre-election!
Yeah mate, I’m in the same boat as well as I’m waiting for some news out Ronnie’s office IRT DCP and DCP funding under this government which was meant to have out late last yr, but was push back to March of this year.
Next big ticket items are the C130 and B757 replacement, especially the C130’s as they officially run out of hrs in the next 3-4 yrs and Lockheed won’t support the C130’s after that as well as they would be in uncharted territory. The Boeing’s have another 5- 10 yrs on them before they either need a MLU/LEP or replacement which would be cheaper over the medium to long term than a MLU/ LEP.
The Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel and the possible FOB/ New Permanent Naval base in either in the Dunedin area or in Bluff.
There was something else as well, but I can’t remember what it was atm.
Some more good news on KiwiRail, with more workers being hired at the Hutt and Hillside workshops.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/385578/kiwirail-hunts-for-skilled-staff-after-influx-of-work
Must find my latest copy of the Rail Observer for more tit bits of news on KiwiRail to post.
Run over a cyclist and kill them and you walk away.
Fleece people of their money and they lock you up quick smart and keep you in as long as possible.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111546503/nzs-largest-ever-ponzi-fraudster-deemed-too-risky-to-be-released-from-prison
Example #5281 of why Mitch McConnell is actually a bigger problem than the gibbering baboon flinging its faeces at the Oval Office walls. He has the power to just block almost anything he doesn’t like from even being looked at by the Senate.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-block-democrats-mueller-report-public_n_5c9947cde4b0f7bfa1b56bc5
Trump will get a 4 point spike, rule it over the MSM, and keep his base electrified.
Dems have to do the work.
The prick is going to try to settle some scores over Mueller’s probe.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-25/trump-says-people-behind-mueller-probe-will-be-looked-at
https://deadline.com/2019/03/trump-blacklists-swalwell-brennan-blumenthal-nadler-tv-news-producers-1202582393/
I have said it before, and will say it again – the USA is headed for another civil war, after which a Gilead-style theocracy with a pure free market economy will be imposed.
The logic of the politics of hate
Trump’s original campaign for the US Presidency was marked by him leading chants of “Lock ’em Up”. Referring to his political enemies.
I don’t think his next election campaign will be any different.
The difference this time; following his re-election President Trump will act on his threats.
Walked by the local mosque on the way home just now. Said hello to the cop with the gun which turned into both of us commiserating about the fact that he had to be there at all holding said gun- “this isn’t NZ” he said. Another member of the public suddenly appeared with a coffee for him in appreciation for the job he’s having to do. A member of the mosque going in greeted us both then started chatting with the cop, they were on first name terms with each other.
I took away from that the fact that even though we are currently having to see openly armed uniformed police that they are- for now- still approachable, and let us approach them. Far from what I experienced in Europe and London, especially in the wake of one attack there where one wouldn’t dare even say hello. I only hope that ability to approach doesn’t go.
Lets hope so Kay, though people like you stopping to say hello would certainly help, thanks from me.
+ 1 and thanks from me too
Though their political minded senior officers might be oportunisticly tempted to make this a permanent thing.
Many front line police resent having to be armed with guns.
These white supremacist groups have a proven track history of violence. Yet compare the reaction of the authorities to Tame Iti and Tuhoe – complete overreaction when it came to the latter and a blind eye for the former.
Also, the murder and beheading of a Korean backpacker ten years ago.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/674037/Murdered-Korean-backpackers-body-found
There was limited publicity over this murder at the time, far less than had the culprits been Muslim or non-white extremists.
Simon Bridges has it right for a change, when he calls out the failure of the intelligence agencies to focus on white supremacist organisations, and this time it is Andrew Little who has it completely wrong:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12215908
The difference is that Simon Bridges is opportunistically using this tragedy to give the security forces increased powers of repressive mass surveillance.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/03/time-to-revisit-cyber-mass-surveillance-simon-bridges.html?ref=ves-nextauto
Immigrant Nation
Kiwi Hero, John Sato, 95.
New Zealand’s only surviving Japanese WWII veteran
At the age of 95 makes a powerful statement against racism and fascism.
Alt-right propagandists like Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, write real heroes like John Sato out of their fascist narrative, he disturbs their notions of white exceptionalism and white virtue.
[The terrorist], just like Andre Brevik before him, who killed 14 year old New Zealand born girl Sharidyn Svebakk and 76 other young people, think of themselves as heroes.
Against the real example of heroes like John Sato, [the terrorist] and Andre Brevik, and their fascist enablers, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux, are revealed as the horribly obscene and twisted individuals they are.
Long live John Sato, real Kiwi hero
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/9217315/Anders-Behring-Breiviks-Norway-shooting-spree-relived-in-chilling-detail.html
[Edited to remove the terrorist’s name. Comments that use the name will be held in mod or just trashed. TRP]
Kia ora Newshub let’s hope there is not to much damage to the whenua in the west coast from big weather event they have just had.
The Gorlyvale organizational is tax free they have multiple millions dollars farms and businesses there people have about 6 children on average and they get 1200 a week from winz plus they get business grants but the money goes into a central pool so the people who are running the outfit can use the money to minupulate our government policy’s to suit them there business empire is expanding very fast. They minupulate there people will the media one ex person died in a motor bike accident it plastered all over the media. The story about the man who killed his family in a truck crash is being blocked they payed Google to make the surch come up at page 1000.
Brian’s not perfect but he is improving a lot of tangata lives he doesn’t play games with his tangata lives like the latter.
More Maori need to take advantage of the charitable taxes system as Maori can use it for relief of poverty culture or religion. I want to set up a charitable trust but I could not get the help to set it up.
Hone good on you for raising funds for Nothland rugby league. Well they did pillage and plander North America.
Mark did you clean your glasses the poverty for Maori is not just up north. I drive through a lower class place I see 5 cars per house 5 small cabins on each street a tab bottle store fishnchip shop loan sharks shop. Drive through a wealth place I see one car per huge house 2 people per house no shops like above for miles.
What happening in the Ruby world is a struggle for control of the organisation I say no more. Ka kite ano
We must look after all tane mahuta beautiful creatures tangata future welbeings are closely linked to a all living things .We are the Guardians of all Papatuanuku and her creatures we should have a culture that strives to improve the servivel of all creatures for our decendints mokopunas its not ROCKET SCIENCE its common sence
Wild bees and hoverflies lost from a quarter of the places they were found in 1980, study shows
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/26/widespread-losses-of-pollinating-insects-revealed-across-britain
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
I love it this stupid man hunt by the unjustified system is showing all the Whanau that New Zealand is a police state the spy’s the police the whole unjustice system is being used by the 00.1 % to use abuse and control the 99.9% of people they are the biggest cheating COURPT CROOKS IN NZ.
I love education the Whanau about the realities of this system. Ka kite ano P.S THAT’S ECO MAORI MAHI
DECEIT I have said the wealthy laught and say the poor common people are hounest We will never admite to OUR Wrongs hence jenny shiply and her rich m8 are going back to court to rip the poor people off with the unjustice SYSTEM even if it causes the tradies to go Broke. Kia kaha whanau
Since December, Māori nationalists have been named as threats in prison, and iwi have been spied on by a government agency.
“It’s also important that the government seek to address the racial profiling that has been going on for many years,” Mr Tukaki said. KA KITE ANO links below
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/385543/maori-council-backs-royal-commission-of-inquiry-into-terror-attacks
I keep checking the sandflys in this game they are playing with MINE AND MY WHANAU life they get the shitts and get there m8 to try and underarm bowl me but they keep playing into my HAND ka kite ano
Many thanks to my tipuna
Kia ora Te ao Maori News.
I see that little has been give the spy’s what they want. I was waiting for the call for cops to ware guns I say NO why because there will be more brown people shot and killed by THEM.
I Hope Ngapuhi get what they want and get putia to build a bright future for their Mokopuna.
It is sad about that pepei has died at little Waihi that is a symptom of oppression colonialism that’s a fact Maori treasure OUR MOKOPUNA.
I Tau toko our nurses for rallying for the hospitals to provide a safe work place.
It would be nice if Maori could have axcess to better tools to make TV content that will draw in the viewers.
It gives Eco Maori a sore face when I hear that waka arma is receiving a big growth in tamariki partake in the awesome sport Ka kite ano P.S I see alot of tangata whenua onscreen need to get a new set of clothes as the ones they are wearing are getting to big as they lose weight Kia kaha
Kia ora The AM Show.
duncan you are listening to your ational doom and gloom m8s about the NZ economy they think that they are the only ones who can run a good economy when the facts show they make a big mess it’s all there to find our economy is one of the best in the WORLD .
Lloyd may stepping down if brexit go ahead YEA IGHT just another shifty tories move.
The price of houses does not have to go down for the Mokopunas to have more affordable housing it just has to flat line. We need Kiwi build there might be houses for sale but there a very little available to RENT. The government needs to build more state housing ASAP.
That’s good Facebook has made the good choice to ban White Supremacist hopefully all hate groups from its platforms
Yes its would be more secesful when some of the world conservatory groups work together to try and slow down the amount of species approaching extinction the old saying many hands make light work that works with knowledge to.
The reason we have such high numbers of cyps children is the fabulous policy’s ational has run over the last 9 years give to the wealthy take from the poor. Family support for wealth paye tax cuts and consumson tax GST up and now our Humane government that’s in charge now has a BIG MESS to clean up. I say we should not let the spy’s get easier axcess to our Data like they will be using the Christchurch desaster to get more power and a Big NO to the cops wearing guns in the street I agree with the TECH guy on Breakfast Show TV 1.
Ka kite ano P.S I know you 2 don’t know anything about being HUMBLE weres the ational flags they don’t have a clue about being humble
Whanau it makes me laugh all these puppets the sandflys use to try and intimidat ECO MAORI There are Heaps of them . The brown ones are a bit slow they haven’t worked out they are being played and used to suppress their OWN CULTURE I am on a mission to boost Maori Mana and cultures .
THE white ones well I have all ready given my opinion on them it’s not good.
But I can SEE that my TRUE character is getting out to Tangata and tangata whenua that makes me happy because it backs up my argument that the sandflys have a PERSONAL VANDETA against me it’s not about serviceing the law its just people with to much power that are using it for their his Gisborne mans own EGO. KA KITE ANO
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kia ora Newshub I got the first comments on the Solomon I oil spill desaster wrong multi tasking with the Mokopuna said it was a Australia island issue Big businesses will/are running riot in small governed nation like the Solomon Islands. Big countrys need to help them out., ”I”Mike it’s te tangata te tangata te tangata that count when enough pressure is applied by the majority te 00.1 % have to listen Facebook baning white supremacist KA PAI.
There is a big mess on the west coast of the south island to clean up.
Tangata do need to put more thought into there retirement savings and planning I encourage everyone I meet to join Kiwi Saver.
Looks like the Wellington bus service a joke. Ka kite ano
Kia ora Te ao Maori News manakua honey and the honey business has a hard time with the counterfit products been so easily to make like he said blending clover honey with manakua honey and selling it as 100% manakua honey not only that rice liquid sugar is hard to be distgush from the real thing.
Because lung cancer is a big problem for Tangata Whenua the health system is not trying it’s best to help us WORSE We pay heaps of taxes and get nothing in return WTF. The Pacific Sister looks cool. I did forget that men are nurses to they all need to feel safe at work the reason they are not taking keeping them safe is quite simpley the class system rasing it head. Ka kite ano