Remembering Grenfell .. “this is not the previous generation’s gentrification. The housing crisis in many of our urban areas is not the result of normal real estate market forces. Local gentrification cycles have been “supercharged” by the fact that many cities are now a global destination to park investment capital.”
+1 Wirua – sad as well that the ‘management company’ profited as they killed them through their decisions on the cladding to save money and actually they did not even care just wanted the residents to shut up. And NZ is going down the same path if the people stay silent and let our councils and government make those mistakes.
Yup RNZ is such a suck up to national. They do so knowing this govt is pissweak on what goes on in the media so they carry on as normal.
They’re making the most of it as they have a lightweight minister who has already made rookie errors. Bridges could be viscerated by any half decent journo as he’s said some very stupid things.
He attends knowing it’s a free shot from people appointed under nationals tenure.
So…first we had tooth removal showing have vs have not, now it’s eyesight ffs.
Dr Dean works at both Auckland and Counties Manakau DHBs and said he struggled to reconcile the difference between the two.
“At Auckland there has been some investment in staffing and they’ve now got no people overdue for their follow-ups, whereas we’ve still got just around 4000.
Great at taking money away from the service itself, aka doctors and nurses and into the pockets of middle men shuffling paper in huge quantities at great costs.
Can New Zealand really be Carbon Neutral by 2050 when Climate Crime goes unchecked in the present?
The practice of clearing tropical rainforest for palm plantations has been condemned for its effects on climate change and the habitat of endangered animals like the orangutan.
Fonterra imports PKE, a product made by the palm oil industry for supplementary feed. New Zealand is the world’s largest user, bringing in a quarter of the global supply.
New Zealand carbon neutral by 2050?
Massive climate crimes in the present?
How can these two policies be reconciled?
A Greenpeace investigation released yesterday directly links Fonterra to massive Indonesian deforestation in West Papua.
Will anything be done?
After public outcry two years ago Fonterra agreed to adopt an industry standard to ensure its use of PKE wasn’t leading to deforestation.
Now embarrassingly its main supplier of PKE, Wilmar, has been linked with the mass destruction of rainforest in Papua, Indonesia.
“The international reputation of NZs dairy industry is seriously on the line here and so are the world’s last remaining rainforests.” says Gen Toop, Greenpeace’s sustainable agriculture spokesperson.
Photos taken by Greenpeace International on a recent flyover show an area of forest twice the size of Paris has been destroyed.
As we used to say about nuclear fusion, it is the energy source of the future, and always will be.
New Zealand will be carbon neutral in the future, and always will be, until then…….
Request Timeout
Server timeout waiting for the HTTP request from the client.
Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu) Server at thestandard.org.nz Port 443
What gives?
Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?
“Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?”
We are all having this problem apparently. A result of the recent (two weeks ago?) change of server when the site was down for almost a day.
Lprent did his usual superb job with the changeover but seems there are still a few problems to be sorted – eg names/email details, plus the ‘reply’ function and the ‘search’ function.
No Jenny. I think everybody is having to do the same. The edit function is all to hell as well. Sometimes it allows you to edit and other times it ends up spitting out the comment again so you end up with the same comment appearing twice.
I’ve noted the number of people commenting has dropped. Suspect they can’t be bothered signing in every time.
Thanks for that Anne. I am having that same problem with the edit function, (as well as the other little niggles I moaned about), resulting in some embarrassing typos getting left in. Sorry to hear that others are having this problem too.
Hi Anne. It is not just the signing in that could be causing the drop off in comments that you have noted.
I have had five comments locked out with “Request timeout” error message in the last three days. (three this morning) If this is happening to a lot of other people I imagine that they would find it to be quite dispiriting.
If people go to the trouble of putting their thoughts down in type, they should expect better than this.
I know you are busy lprent, and probably overburdened with trying to make a living. (As we all are). But a little work here, people are drowning.
What I have started doing, is every time one of my comments gets blocked by a Timeout Request, I email a copy of my blocked comment to thestandardnz@gmail.com in the hope that they will let it see the light of day somewhere. So far it hasn’t happened. But sooner or later the backed up log of blocked comments might get someone’s attention. Who knows, they might unblock them, they may not. At least someone is reading them somewhere, I suppose.
South Aucklanders go blind from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy because they wait too long to see a specialist.
Meanwhile central Auckland is awash with private eye clinics – if you have insurance you will be seen in a week or two. The prevention and treatment of AMD has come ahead a long way if you can access it.
Failure to regulate the food environment to lower the incidence of diabetes, urban poverty and a medical profession chasing the big money. The grinning facade of the Key government is lifted again to show the rot underneath
Well, you won’t have to worry about what is going on in the health system any longer.
This CoL Government we have isn’t going to tell you. Do you remember how, when they were in Opposition they demanded that the then, competent National led Government, should be collecting and reporting all sorts of information? Foreign purchases of houses for example and waiting lists and surgical work done at the hospitals for example?
Now it is their baby they are going to hide all their failures.
“Public reporting of District Health Boards’ (DHB) performance of procedures including elective surgeries, cancer treatment times and Emergency Department wait times, has been axed.”
and
“the National Patient Flow project – which measured the number of patients being turned away from the operating table – has not released any updated figures since September last year. That project was launched following intense political pressure from Labour, over surgical unmet need.”
Well they aren’t going to tell us anything now. It would no doubt be extremely embarrassing for “Dr” Clark to have to admit that things are getting rapidly worse. A pity that “Dr” Clark’s degree was “on the work of German/New Zealand refugee and existentialist thinker Helmut Herbert Hermann Rex.” rather than something relevant.
It’s the performance of politicians that interests me, not the so-called ‘performance’ of DHB’s – hapless mugs with one arm tied behind their backs who exist solely as a place where politicians can devolve accountability away from themselves.
“Can’t say I recall that”
I’m not surprised gobby.
Far to many doses of hallucinogenic drugs have done your mind, and your memory, in. Can you even remember your name?
I may be wrong but from memory, I seem to recall that it was said at the time that he was not a LP member but was there with/at the invitation of a member.
“he was not a LP member “.
And if he had been a member at the time he would have received a communication, NOT in writing, along these lines.
“Your resignation from the Labour Party has been accepted. We know you wish to resign and you don’t need to communicate the fact to our office. We have back-dated it two weeks. No correspondence on the subject will be answered. Don’t let the doorknob hit you going out.”
A bill designed to establish & protect net neutrality in California was gutted by corporate Dems and rammed through on a vote that was outside normal procedure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnOX5Hr1gXw
United States working to distablise the democratically elected left of centre Nicauraguan government. Might bring back memories for those who remember the 1980s, Reagan, Oliver North, Iran arms deals and the Contras.
As Nicaragua’s leftist government faces a violent right-wing insurgency, journalist Max Blumenthal discusses with TRNN’s Ben Norton how the regime change machinery bankrolled by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy boasted of “laying the groundwork for insurrection” against President Daniel Ortega
Can you really survive on the living wage in Auckland on $20 p/h? If you are one of the “lucky ones’ who get that ‘affordable’ house at 14 Taniwha Street, Wai O Taiki Bay for $650,000.. how much will it cost.
Mortgage of $650k at current rates of floating ANZ bank is $879 weekly, rates will be $45, insurance of property would be around $30, mortgage repayment insurance will be around $30, power $30, water $25, public transport $33, food $150 – we are already over $1200 a week and the living wage after taxes is about $678…
We have yet to add in if you have a partner, children, a car, want a holiday or savings out of life, emergencies, help for other family members, repairs… then calculate full term child care, school donations, clothes, car, savings, holidays…
Then work out how some enormous amount of people are living below the living wage and they are using $20 as a rate to bring more people into Auckland to solve the labour crisis, which seems like it is as easy as paying more money for the role!
@Gabby that’s the site of the much flouted social housing project! The council and government chose the site… and judging by the homeless, I think they are finding it hard to find other accomodation in Auckland… beggers can’t be choosers… literally.
The other private partnerships are Hobsenville and Kumeu and Warkworth… few to zero public transport options… then they have the petrol taxes on top.
According to this, the development company was going to build 400 houses in 12 months at Tamaki so that means they should be there now, are they?
What do the new Tamaki houses cost, how many people do they house socially, what happened to the former residents and how much are they paying? What is the cost of this useless exercise socially and financially to the taxpayers and the vulnerable?
Probably just stupid poor people Ad, who should know their place. sarc. No protesting allowed as it gets in the way of progress.
Nothing to do with the PPP as usual being a piece of shit and delivering very little at higher prices and longer time frames while cheerleaders at the top, making a bundle out of the state sell offs and government do-nothing officials say nothing to do with them, it’s a private company!
The workers seem to have no problem with getting the $863,000 housing built… for private sale.
I’m not calling for a review, I’m saying stop it in it’s tracks and give the land back. It’s gross misconduct and fraud, if you could not anticipate someone protesting at being evicted when there is few alternate houses of worse quality, taking a while then you are a moron! (Possibly that explains how shoddy and expensive our housing is, the construction industry and council are full of troughing morons looking to cut corners and get a free ride).
Even Penny Bright managed to defeat the council lawyers on many occasions as they don’t seem to even know the law.
I’m not hearing Labour decrying the Tamaki model as being flawed and stopping that model in other areas.
We expect this from National, but many don’t want it from Labour or NZ First or Greens.
I don’t even think National supporters are ok with this type of profiteering of public assets… because it is wrong. They also undermine other developers who don’t get gifted free public land and green lights from council!
9 EASTVIEW ROAD
2 and 3 bedrooms
15 architecturally designed 2 and 3 bedroom homes on freehold title, built with solid precast concrete panels and with quality finishes of brick and weatherboard cladding. Two sides of the development face into the neighbouring park.
From $863,000
What is not commonly known is that the developers got this ex-Housing New Zealand land for free. Only having to pay for the land after they develop it and on sell it.
Even then, the price they pay for for this privatised ex-state asset, which could let us work out their mark up, is “commercially sensitive” information.
How can a public asset be sold without the public being told the price! We know what the price of power was when they privatised it. Sounds like corruption. If they are going to do that, should it be available at public tender???? not that I agree with the sale in the first place, but how they did it, and hiding everything at council level from the million dollar PWC report on the stadium to the secret deals with developers. Auckland council is one big fuck up and the CEO should be first in the firing line.
When I still considered some hope left in the Unitary Plan consultation, I attended a housing workshop talking about Tamaki regeneration. Present and greatly supportive was Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua, who was genuinely excited about the estimated market price of $800,000.
At that meeting, only Penny Bright questioned the positioning of that project as a credible response to the already known housing crisis. She was summarily dismissed for the points she raised about affordability and gentrification. There were a couple of others in the audience who agreed with her, but the panel and the discussion was directed by Auckland Council planners, and Blair.
There is little to rejoice in from the perspective of housing Aucklanders in these kinds of projects, but they are often promoted as problem solvers rather than what they are – mainly residential developments that work within the status quo.
Unitary plan was run by lawyers for developers there was zero interest and open scorn on what the public had to say about what they wanted in their own city.
I’m just thinking, when you get the Singapore thing out of the way, this could be another little earn?
You can provide the ‘programatics’, I/we’ll deal with the ‘electronics’.
I think tho’ we’ll need to construct a ‘team’ going forward.
As I look out the window, I see a new building with Deloites having naming rights. Not too distant is PwC.
Either would of course be acceptable in enabling ticket clipping.
Could be a nice little earn eh? eh? eh? eh? Whaddya say eh?
I’m back from Singapore and I seem to have largely recovered from doing 8 weeks of about 80 hours per week. The temperature drop helped a lot in the recovery.
I’d be happy to help the police recover their old emails. I’ve been doing that kind of thing regularly for decades as people bring their old data in obsolete formats. I guess it depends on the encryption levels being used. But given enough data and a lot of time even that isn’t hard to get through.
But I still don’t really have time. Looks like I will be back to the Singapore site in October to help finish up and there is a lot of work to do between now and then (along with stuff for other sites).
But there is a little place just up the road from me in Auckland that should be able to do it without breaking a stride. The police have their very own forensic computing group who are meant to specialize in that kind of stuff on Great North Road by the Trades Hall. I wonder why they didn’t call on them?
Good morning The AM Show If trump had to change his policy 3 times I say it’s (knot) A win for him.
I say that all recycling companies should be state owned or not for profit companies there are many ways to solve this problem of China not takeing mixed recyclable its understandable one would not no what is in some of the waste plus they want to move there economy to a higher value economy. The main reason the recycling was sent to China was the cheap labour used to sort the different grades of plastic which have a different way to be recycled if we could grade the recycling that turning it into new plastic is easy this could be a non profit employment opportunity we need to recycle OUR on waste here not shipping the our problems over seas.
High fuel prices means less cars on the road less imports of fuel less carbon entering the atmospheric many positive out comes Auckland now has the money to fix its stuffed up waste water systems.
Mark do still want some tissue for the loss of the national party rubbish ruling in favour of the wealthy.
Who would have thought 12 months ago that we would have a government in parliament that care about the common person who cares about the Mokopunas future and who respect and treat tangata all the same. Ka kite ano
This was a positive outcome to OUR elections especially when we had the Prime Minister made a statement that our youth were unemployable wasters in defence of his immigration policy and another mp trying to stir the racist rhetoric about gangs and take human rights away from us why don’t we hear all the positive things tangata whenua do and not just the 00.1 % whom do dumb shit. Ka kite ano
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
The Tribunal had called on Minister for Children Karen Chhour to provide evidence at an urgent inquiry into the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By T.J. Thomson, Senior Lecturer in Visual Communication & Digital Media, RMIT University Midjourney image by T.J. Thomson As more than half of Australian office workers report using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for work, we’re starting to see this technology affect every ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Nicole Sharwood, Injury epidemiologist | Expert Witness, UNSW Sydney Sergey Novikov/Shutterstock Injuries are the leading cause of disability and death among Australian children and adolescents. At least a quarter of all emergency department presentations during childhood are injury-related. Injuries can ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Di Winkler, Adjunct Associate Professor, Living with Disability Research Centre, La Trobe University Shutterstock/Ground PictureMany Australians with disability feel on the edge of a precipice right now. Recommendations from the disability royal commission and the NDIS review were released late ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Salman Shooshtarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Salman Shooshtarian Asbestos has been found in mulch used for playgrounds, schools, parks and gardens across Sydney and Melbourne. Local communities naturally fear for the health of their ...
Family First says that the latest abortion statistics make grim and upsetting reading, with a 25% increase in abortions since the decriminalisation of abortion in March 2020. According to an Official Information Act request received by Right to Life ...
Ipsos New Zealand's inaugural participation in a global study on populism reveals a pervasive sense of societal and economic decline among New Zealanders. MORE DETAILS AND FULL REPORT HERE Ipsos New Zealand's inaugural participation in a global study ...
Witness testified *in exchange for immunity*
We’ve got to stop relying on this type of testimony to secure convictions.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/stories/2018649766/witness-i-tried-to-find-deane-s-body
Remembering Grenfell .. “this is not the previous generation’s gentrification. The housing crisis in many of our urban areas is not the result of normal real estate market forces. Local gentrification cycles have been “supercharged” by the fact that many cities are now a global destination to park investment capital.”
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-06-22/remembering-grenfell-who-are-our-cities-for/
+1 Wirua – sad as well that the ‘management company’ profited as they killed them through their decisions on the cladding to save money and actually they did not even care just wanted the residents to shut up. And NZ is going down the same path if the people stay silent and let our councils and government make those mistakes.
Simon and Suse, having a schmooze. Are we a one party country now?
Yup RNZ is such a suck up to national. They do so knowing this govt is pissweak on what goes on in the media so they carry on as normal.
They’re making the most of it as they have a lightweight minister who has already made rookie errors. Bridges could be viscerated by any half decent journo as he’s said some very stupid things.
He attends knowing it’s a free shot from people appointed under nationals tenure.
So…first we had tooth removal showing have vs have not, now it’s eyesight ffs.
Dr Dean works at both Auckland and Counties Manakau DHBs and said he struggled to reconcile the difference between the two.
“At Auckland there has been some investment in staffing and they’ve now got no people overdue for their follow-ups, whereas we’ve still got just around 4000.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/360402/south-aucklanders-losing-vision-in-long-wait-for-specialists
It appears that there is enough capacity across the total Auckland area to have no waiting list at all.
Another clear indication of the shear idiocy of separate DHB fiefdoms in one town.
The money all comes out of the same tax bucket. Then they fight about who gets the greatest share. Madness.
Great at taking money away from the service itself, aka doctors and nurses and into the pockets of middle men shuffling paper in huge quantities at great costs.
Bound to be Labour’s fault. Just ask Simon.
Can New Zealand really be Carbon Neutral by 2050 when Climate Crime goes unchecked in the present?
New Zealand carbon neutral by 2050?
Massive climate crimes in the present?
How can these two policies be reconciled?
A Greenpeace investigation released yesterday directly links Fonterra to massive Indonesian deforestation in West Papua.
Will anything be done?
As we used to say about nuclear fusion, it is the energy source of the future, and always will be.
New Zealand will be carbon neutral in the future, and always will be, until then…….
Oops, forgot to the link
https://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/press-release/fonterras-link-to-dirty-secret-in-indonesia/
All silent in the Mainstream Media.
They know what to report.
What gives?
Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?
“Is it something to do with the fact, that since my year long ban, the site doesn’t seem to recognise me, and I have had to put in my name and email each time?”
nope – a lot of folk have the same problem.
Me too James…bit weird…bit of a pain
We are all having this problem apparently. A result of the recent (two weeks ago?) change of server when the site was down for almost a day.
Lprent did his usual superb job with the changeover but seems there are still a few problems to be sorted – eg names/email details, plus the ‘reply’ function and the ‘search’ function.
No Jenny. I think everybody is having to do the same. The edit function is all to hell as well. Sometimes it allows you to edit and other times it ends up spitting out the comment again so you end up with the same comment appearing twice.
I’ve noted the number of people commenting has dropped. Suspect they can’t be bothered signing in every time.
Thanks for that Anne. I am having that same problem with the edit function, (as well as the other little niggles I moaned about), resulting in some embarrassing typos getting left in. Sorry to hear that others are having this problem too.
Hi Anne. It is not just the signing in that could be causing the drop off in comments that you have noted.
I have had five comments locked out with “Request timeout” error message in the last three days. (three this morning) If this is happening to a lot of other people I imagine that they would find it to be quite dispiriting.
If people go to the trouble of putting their thoughts down in type, they should expect better than this.
I know you are busy lprent, and probably overburdened with trying to make a living. (As we all are). But a little work here, people are drowning.
What I have started doing, is every time one of my comments gets blocked by a Timeout Request, I email a copy of my blocked comment to thestandardnz@gmail.com in the hope that they will let it see the light of day somewhere. So far it hasn’t happened. But sooner or later the backed up log of blocked comments might get someone’s attention. Who knows, they might unblock them, they may not. At least someone is reading them somewhere, I suppose.
South Aucklanders go blind from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy because they wait too long to see a specialist.
Meanwhile central Auckland is awash with private eye clinics – if you have insurance you will be seen in a week or two. The prevention and treatment of AMD has come ahead a long way if you can access it.
Failure to regulate the food environment to lower the incidence of diabetes, urban poverty and a medical profession chasing the big money. The grinning facade of the Key government is lifted again to show the rot underneath
Well, you won’t have to worry about what is going on in the health system any longer.
This CoL Government we have isn’t going to tell you. Do you remember how, when they were in Opposition they demanded that the then, competent National led Government, should be collecting and reporting all sorts of information? Foreign purchases of houses for example and waiting lists and surgical work done at the hospitals for example?
Now it is their baby they are going to hide all their failures.
“Public reporting of District Health Boards’ (DHB) performance of procedures including elective surgeries, cancer treatment times and Emergency Department wait times, has been axed.”
and
“the National Patient Flow project – which measured the number of patients being turned away from the operating table – has not released any updated figures since September last year. That project was launched following intense political pressure from Labour, over surgical unmet need.”
Well they aren’t going to tell us anything now. It would no doubt be extremely embarrassing for “Dr” Clark to have to admit that things are getting rapidly worse. A pity that “Dr” Clark’s degree was “on the work of German/New Zealand refugee and existentialist thinker Helmut Herbert Hermann Rex.” rather than something relevant.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104976776/hows-your-dhb-doing-govt-does-away-with-national-health-targets
It’s the performance of politicians that interests me, not the so-called ‘performance’ of DHB’s – hapless mugs with one arm tied behind their backs who exist solely as a place where politicians can devolve accountability away from themselves.
competent National led Government wally? Can’t say I recall that.
“Can’t say I recall that”
I’m not surprised gobby.
Far to many doses of hallucinogenic drugs have done your mind, and your memory, in. Can you even remember your name?
Something to think about. A solution, local focus and would be a good fit for a few NZ cities and communities.
The Preston model of community wealth building.
https://cles.org.uk/tag/the-preston-model/
https://blog.p2pfoundation.net/the-preston-model-and-the-eight-basic-principles-of-community-wealth-building/2018/04/03
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/105003464/arrest-after-alleged-sexual-assaults-at-labour-party-youth-camp
Here is hoping he (or she) is named and faces jail time.
I wonder how the person was there in the first place ?
Was he picked by National to create mayhem but has it gone astray as the fellow has been charged?
Thats an interesting theory 😉
I may be wrong but from memory, I seem to recall that it was said at the time that he was not a LP member but was there with/at the invitation of a member.
“he was not a LP member “.
And if he had been a member at the time he would have received a communication, NOT in writing, along these lines.
“Your resignation from the Labour Party has been accepted. We know you wish to resign and you don’t need to communicate the fact to our office. We have back-dated it two weeks. No correspondence on the subject will be answered. Don’t let the doorknob hit you going out.”
I admit, badly set up and then handled, by the party and I am a party member.
However do appreciate that it was subsequently dealt with in a thorough appropriate way……
It will hopefully never happen again at a Labour Youth event…………….
A bill designed to establish & protect net neutrality in California was gutted by corporate Dems and rammed through on a vote that was outside normal procedure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnOX5Hr1gXw
+1 esoteric pineapples
Standard Operating Procedure for the state of California..
A cursory search will sum up the policy path of current state government…
Land of the free..
No!
United States working to distablise the democratically elected left of centre Nicauraguan government. Might bring back memories for those who remember the 1980s, Reagan, Oliver North, Iran arms deals and the Contras.
As Nicaragua’s leftist government faces a violent right-wing insurgency, journalist Max Blumenthal discusses with TRNN’s Ben Norton how the regime change machinery bankrolled by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy boasted of “laying the groundwork for insurrection” against President Daniel Ortega
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3VtYuANMkM
+1 esoteric pineapples
Can you really survive on the living wage in Auckland on $20 p/h? If you are one of the “lucky ones’ who get that ‘affordable’ house at 14 Taniwha Street, Wai O Taiki Bay for $650,000.. how much will it cost.
Mortgage of $650k at current rates of floating ANZ bank is $879 weekly, rates will be $45, insurance of property would be around $30, mortgage repayment insurance will be around $30, power $30, water $25, public transport $33, food $150 – we are already over $1200 a week and the living wage after taxes is about $678…
We have yet to add in if you have a partner, children, a car, want a holiday or savings out of life, emergencies, help for other family members, repairs… then calculate full term child care, school donations, clothes, car, savings, holidays…
Then work out how some enormous amount of people are living below the living wage and they are using $20 as a rate to bring more people into Auckland to solve the labour crisis, which seems like it is as easy as paying more money for the role!
You could live far more cheaply elsewhere savy.
@Gabby that’s the site of the much flouted social housing project! The council and government chose the site… and judging by the homeless, I think they are finding it hard to find other accomodation in Auckland… beggers can’t be choosers… literally.
The other private partnerships are Hobsenville and Kumeu and Warkworth… few to zero public transport options… then they have the petrol taxes on top.
Who used to live at Tamaki and what happened once they were displaced…
Tamaki housing scrap: ‘They’re shifting out the poor’
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/03/tamaki-housing-scrap-they-re-shifting-out-the-poor.html
According to this, the development company was going to build 400 houses in 12 months at Tamaki so that means they should be there now, are they?
What do the new Tamaki houses cost, how many people do they house socially, what happened to the former residents and how much are they paying? What is the cost of this useless exercise socially and financially to the taxpayers and the vulnerable?
Has taken longer because a whole bunch of BANANA (build nothing anywhere near anything) protesters came up and slowed everything down.
Probably just stupid poor people Ad, who should know their place. sarc. No protesting allowed as it gets in the way of progress.
Nothing to do with the PPP as usual being a piece of shit and delivering very little at higher prices and longer time frames while cheerleaders at the top, making a bundle out of the state sell offs and government do-nothing officials say nothing to do with them, it’s a private company!
A lot more disruption to come once HLC get stronger statutory powers.
They protest in Epsom, they protest in Tamaki. Meanwhile workers get on with it.
Go ahead call for another review.
Top work.
The workers seem to have no problem with getting the $863,000 housing built… for private sale.
I’m not calling for a review, I’m saying stop it in it’s tracks and give the land back. It’s gross misconduct and fraud, if you could not anticipate someone protesting at being evicted when there is few alternate houses of worse quality, taking a while then you are a moron! (Possibly that explains how shoddy and expensive our housing is, the construction industry and council are full of troughing morons looking to cut corners and get a free ride).
Even Penny Bright managed to defeat the council lawyers on many occasions as they don’t seem to even know the law.
Just usual National Party B/S couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery ?
I’m not hearing Labour decrying the Tamaki model as being flawed and stopping that model in other areas.
We expect this from National, but many don’t want it from Labour or NZ First or Greens.
I don’t even think National supporters are ok with this type of profiteering of public assets… because it is wrong. They also undermine other developers who don’t get gifted free public land and green lights from council!
Greens/Labour & NZF still mad keen on aerial drops of 1080, NZ use 90% of the world’s production and our usage has gone up by 500% since 2000 ?
I smell a rat somewhere ?
It looks like they built something at Tamaki, but it’s $863,000.
CLASSIC, UNDER THE AFFORDABLE HOMES LINK IS
SORRY – WE COULD NOT FIND THAT!
Please try using the navigation or the search above.
https://www.tamakiregeneration.co.nz/new-home-opportunities/affordable-homes
9 EASTVIEW ROAD
2 and 3 bedrooms
15 architecturally designed 2 and 3 bedroom homes on freehold title, built with solid precast concrete panels and with quality finishes of brick and weatherboard cladding. Two sides of the development face into the neighbouring park.
From $863,000
https://www.creatingcommunities.co.nz/homes
You can buy a section for SUBDIVISION
FENCHURCH STREET
GLEN INNES
Packages from
$479,000
Gosh that’s that free public land, now being unsold for nearly half a million, that’s bringing the prices of housing down as intended!!! sarcasm.
http://www.classicbuilders.co.nz/house-land/fenchurch-street-glen-innes-auckland/
Tamaki Regeneration, or corporate welfare?
What is not commonly known is that the developers got this ex-Housing New Zealand land for free. Only having to pay for the land after they develop it and on sell it.
Even then, the price they pay for for this privatised ex-state asset, which could let us work out their mark up, is “commercially sensitive” information.
Talk about deal of the century.
How can a public asset be sold without the public being told the price! We know what the price of power was when they privatised it. Sounds like corruption. If they are going to do that, should it be available at public tender???? not that I agree with the sale in the first place, but how they did it, and hiding everything at council level from the million dollar PWC report on the stadium to the secret deals with developers. Auckland council is one big fuck up and the CEO should be first in the firing line.
When I still considered some hope left in the Unitary Plan consultation, I attended a housing workshop talking about Tamaki regeneration. Present and greatly supportive was Ngarimu Blair from Ngati Whatua, who was genuinely excited about the estimated market price of $800,000.
At that meeting, only Penny Bright questioned the positioning of that project as a credible response to the already known housing crisis. She was summarily dismissed for the points she raised about affordability and gentrification. There were a couple of others in the audience who agreed with her, but the panel and the discussion was directed by Auckland Council planners, and Blair.
There is little to rejoice in from the perspective of housing Aucklanders in these kinds of projects, but they are often promoted as problem solvers rather than what they are – mainly residential developments that work within the status quo.
Unitary plan was run by lawyers for developers there was zero interest and open scorn on what the public had to say about what they wanted in their own city.
The disillusionment happened fairly early on in the process for me, but I did attend many consultations and processes during that time.
However, you seem to have hit the nail on the head regarding the final result, so you will not hear any contradiction to that statement from me.
@ lprent:
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/06/26/breaking-corrupt-police-response-to-kim-dotcom-has-to-be-read-to-be-believed/
I’m just thinking, when you get the Singapore thing out of the way, this could be another little earn?
You can provide the ‘programatics’, I/we’ll deal with the ‘electronics’.
I think tho’ we’ll need to construct a ‘team’ going forward.
As I look out the window, I see a new building with Deloites having naming rights. Not too distant is PwC.
Either would of course be acceptable in enabling ticket clipping.
Could be a nice little earn eh? eh? eh? eh? Whaddya say eh?
Maybe the police and the security services could use the X-keyscore to spy on themselves, to get this data back.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
Shades of Gina Haspel’s convenient destruction of “enhanced interrogation” video tapes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bINjxfsPedU
I’m back from Singapore and I seem to have largely recovered from doing 8 weeks of about 80 hours per week. The temperature drop helped a lot in the recovery.
I’d be happy to help the police recover their old emails. I’ve been doing that kind of thing regularly for decades as people bring their old data in obsolete formats. I guess it depends on the encryption levels being used. But given enough data and a lot of time even that isn’t hard to get through.
But I still don’t really have time. Looks like I will be back to the Singapore site in October to help finish up and there is a lot of work to do between now and then (along with stuff for other sites).
But there is a little place just up the road from me in Auckland that should be able to do it without breaking a stride. The police have their very own forensic computing group who are meant to specialize in that kind of stuff on Great North Road by the Trades Hall. I wonder why they didn’t call on them?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12077836
Vegans…you have admire their relentless positivity.
That’s almost comical.
I see Winston making a fantastic start to his role as PM
Why do I think this is only the beginning
Come back Ardern!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/06/where-s-winnie-acting-prime-minister-a-no-show-on-the-am-show.html
Good on him………………They are not worth the time esp, Richardson.
Key wouldnt go on radio NZ
+1. Good call by the old codger. Might make them lift their game. I’m being hopeful I know. It’s a big ask.
Good news for the marijuana industry.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/06/fda-approves-first-marijuana-derived-drug-and-it-may-spark-dea-rescheduling/
Zionism = Fascism
http://mondoweiss.net/2018/06/settlers-celebrate-palestinian/
I’d refer you to Bill’s response to my list. Zionism as an ideology, grew out of Liberalism.
https://thestandard.org.nz/godwins-flaw/#comment-1497302
Edit: That was a bloody awful read by the way Jenny. That poor child.
Allahu Akbar
Time for you to go Bashar
Good morning The AM Show If trump had to change his policy 3 times I say it’s (knot) A win for him.
I say that all recycling companies should be state owned or not for profit companies there are many ways to solve this problem of China not takeing mixed recyclable its understandable one would not no what is in some of the waste plus they want to move there economy to a higher value economy. The main reason the recycling was sent to China was the cheap labour used to sort the different grades of plastic which have a different way to be recycled if we could grade the recycling that turning it into new plastic is easy this could be a non profit employment opportunity we need to recycle OUR on waste here not shipping the our problems over seas.
High fuel prices means less cars on the road less imports of fuel less carbon entering the atmospheric many positive out comes Auckland now has the money to fix its stuffed up waste water systems.
Mark do still want some tissue for the loss of the national party rubbish ruling in favour of the wealthy.
Who would have thought 12 months ago that we would have a government in parliament that care about the common person who cares about the Mokopunas future and who respect and treat tangata all the same. Ka kite ano
This was a positive outcome to OUR elections especially when we had the Prime Minister made a statement that our youth were unemployable wasters in defence of his immigration policy and another mp trying to stir the racist rhetoric about gangs and take human rights away from us why don’t we hear all the positive things tangata whenua do and not just the 00.1 % whom do dumb shit. Ka kite ano