Listening to my morning funnies….aka simons interviews…..
By crikey he claims the nat mp's prefer not to stick around in parliament for too long. I guess he forgot about the likes of Dr custard, big gerry david carter, etc
Strange males. Don Brash, David Farrar, the guy next to me in 4th form Maths, all the last ACT leaders, Gareth Morgan , the political reporter sweating all over the place in 84 who still plays a part. Bruce Jesson, yes, but his heart was gold. Why do they mostly (just remembered Roger Kerr ) jump up for the rich? Maths mostly leaves out the people?
They aren't strange among males. We're all just beauteous try-ons. Or, sea-elephant beach. How near these chaps have come to overturning democracy for their psychoses.
I'm surprised journalists never pull them up on this. National has become very polished at mealy-mouthed lip service to mitigating climate change, while at the same time special-pleading for every single industry that there's no need for this particular sector to have to do anything much just yet. And yet, no journalist asks them the obvious question: "Which industries do you believe need to reduce their carbon emissions, and how quickly?
… no journalist asks them the obvious question: "Which industries do you believe need to reduce their carbon emissions, and how quickly?
No, and they never will.
Most of the journos and reporters who front the TV news and current affairs programmes are 20 to 30 somethings. It's not long since their legs were still under a school desk. They may have picked up on the theory, but have developed no instincts or true understanding of how politics works. They try to make up for it by conjuring up stupid conspiracy theories that no-one of experience would contemplate.
They were also brought up on a diet of neoliberalism which thrives on ideology for ideology's sake and frowns upon political analysis based on reality. As a result I doubt we will ever see these journos asking the insightful questions. It happens now and then, but imo it is more by accident than design.
To do what? To mix and match cargoes and ships going to different places? Fiji is better geographically, and Brisbane is only slightly worse geographically but potentially has much more traffic since it would include the Australian market.
It works really well for Singapore since they are sitting on a natural chokepoint that a surprising proportion of the world's shipping passes through. Us, we're out in the middle of fkn nowhere with bugger-all reason for anybody to coma anywhere near us.
edit: first thought; fix the typo. Second thought; nah, it works as it is.
Sheesh. Spelling it out: if China wants to build trade linkages via NZ as the linked article says, where on our coast would that logically go through I asked? And how does that affect other current discussions, like oh rail to Northport?
If it's actually a genuinely serious proposal, rather than an over-excited brainfart of the moment, then Tauranga makes much more sense. Logistically much better for the majority of what New Zealand would move through such a port and very little extra travelling distance for the ships.
Logistically, Tauranga will take too much expensive and environmentally degrading modification, to take the size of ships required.
Marsden point, with proper rail links from Waikato, and coastal feeders, is the best from the shipping point of view, but the politics mean it will be Auckland.
Eventually ports of Auckland will be moved to an artificial island in deep water.
I expect that will be the logical overseas terminal.
Looking at your original comment Sacha. Shipping is going to become increasingly more important for our consideration. So very topical for forward thinkers. Also thinking about lanes and seasons – how will it be affected by the cyclone seasons, rogue waves and current changes etc. Here is some info for the thinking citizen wishing to understand and possibly participate in decision making.
Politically it could make us more important for China using a route that avoids the northern Pacific. Ships using the Indian Ocean route would go around Australia, in north in the straits between Indonesia and Cape York and then to Brisbane or Whangarei; or along west coast Australia to southern tip like Albany then Melbourne or north Tasmania and then to Whangarei. Australia, being closely aligned to USA may be opposed to our connection to the South Indian Ocean route.
I see that Hawaii is an important port in the north Pacific (a USA state and strategically situated for them). Nothing in the south Pacific crossing from South America towards us and Australia. I'll put links about this on a separate comment for those who want to look at it further.
I was just looking for present shipping lanes and found a great interactive map which may or not be useful for the discussion but it certainly is interesting.
China (& the belt & road) is somewhat a flashpoint for the contradictions of neo-liberal internationalism.
Where as i'd say a natural win win framework of relationships between NZ & China would be more a regional to regional, people to people emphasis in creating a sense of mutually shared ownership to the international relations of the respective regions, which then generate added value and innovation feedback dynanisms in strengthening ties.
An dynamic community growth approach, rather than a Tim Grosser type slap on the back off limits thousand pages of consultancy deals, cooked up in highly rarified small revolving door economys, which are not much good for anything else.
Call me a cynic but in the time it takes to set the terms of reference of the inquiries into ANZ, I'm sure there is ferocious lobbying by the bank and its defenders to exclude anything which is going to damage the bank (and importantly, John Key) too much.
The Bernard Hickey piece yesterday covered this, the flawed idea that regulatory authorities are tasked with both censure and confidence of the banking system at the same time. They can effectively do both.
Kate MacNamara at least seems to have her eye on things.
"You sanction the foreign minister simultaneously with a request for talks," an exasperated Rouhani said and called the sanctions "outrageous and idiotic."
"The White House is afflicted by mental retardation and does not know what to do," Rouhani added.
Have to say I and most of the rest of the world agree with Rouhani on this.
A discussion about the work of a university study looking at the future of Auckland if its BAU. No thinking outside the charmed circle with the unsaid understanding that everyone should lie back and enjoy the machinations resulting from neolib present economics. A scenario of Auckland going from 1 million to 2million in quite a short time. Sigh.
Exciting joined up ideas from Victoria University political thinkers on how we can gain better politics that enable deep thought about our looming problems instead of knee jerk immediacy to ensure positive mention in the media. From Radionz – audio later.
Parliament must hold short-term thinking govts to account: report
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
A new report finds governments are prone to short term thinking, and parliamentary scrutiny of government performance is limited, unsystematic and reactive. The report, by Victoria University's Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and staff of the Office of the Clerk, was based on interviews with a range of respondents, including current and former MPs, who variously described of parliament's oversight as "broken", "weak", "inadequate" and "patchy". Kathryn speaks with co-author and Professor of Public Policy, Jonathan Boston.
QI @ grey. YEsterday I heard JA somewhere on the MSM say something like "things always take longer than expected"
I immediately thought that just accepting that (all the roadblocks and push backs – often from the supposedly apolitical public service), it might be a nice idea to try to understand why that is – especially if you're trying to be transformational. Btw, even if you believe we have an apolitical public service (especially at senior/muddle management level fully equipped with 'the generic manager'), there is a vested interest in preserving the status quo.
Jonathon Boston's team have come up with some good ideas, and whilst we think that logically, there has to be an additional overhead in bureaucracy, my suspicions are that it'd bring about greater openness and accountability, and eventually those pushing an agenda (especially if their will is to preserve that status quo) might give up some of the bullshit and spin – especially amongs that 'generic managerial' class.
What they are suggesting is more independent advice, and more parliamentary scrutiny – from memory, including the performance of that managerial class. And it'd be somewhat different from things like the old Maori Development Commissions, headed by the likes of Tau Henare, or Paul Quinn fame (the man who disenfranchised prisoners), and which regularly used to just pinch policy off Te Puni Kokiri servers and do a bit of re-wording
And I say all that in the belief that democracy is not meant to be easy. I reckon it might actually speed a few things up, if only because it might put a rocket up a few arses and eliminate much of the bs and spin over time with those who are invested in preservation of the status quo
I remember someone I think Education Minister and someone O'Rourke I think saying that she couldn't get in to see Ed Min until about 11 pm at night with briefings to give them because of all the other interests traipsing in first. So you have to have pollies who provide their own crackers, and not rely on their store being topped up by free samples from outside.
We definitely need change and the sort of advice given when we first got offered the panacea of neolib. That advice would act on the in-crowd like being hoist by their own petard, when it came time to deliver them the same medicine they shoved down our throats, better more effective, efficient etc. We have been through their cycle, and like PM Jim Hacker about gongs given out as traditionally, we find that the system has been going for too long, and needs a deep dusting, especially round the pockets.
Even though I'm the first to commend JA and most of her enterage (with some exceptions), and some others in the coalition, we shouldn't forget that most of their adult lives have been spent knowing (more importantly, experiencing) nothing other than a neo-liberal environment. JA will go down in history as being one of NZ's better PMs.
So whilst @Anne and others – even myself, might say much of the public service dysfunction has always existed, the advent of a neo-liberal agenda has industrialised that dysfunction and made it a fucking sight worse – in some cases, almost to the extent it has become normal practice.
(I've seen my share of public servants with political ambitions leaking cabinet papers; others manipulating budgets – getting people to 'split invoices'; still others with cosy little deals with "preferred suppliers"; calling in consultants on the basis of obtaining "independent advice" when those consultants are mates.)
I'd hoped Chippie's PS reform would have been a little higher on the agenda, and when it eventually happens, let's hope there is some consideration of Boston's team's recommendations. (He's not a fool. Nor btw is one of NZ1st's former Vic Uni advisors whose name eludes me atm, even though I used to occasionally share a fag outside Von Zedlitz, ahhhhhh Jonassen! that's it).
I worry for 2023, and even 2020 could turn out to be a bit of a fuckup if we're not careful
So whilst @Anne and others – even myself, might say much of the public service dysfunction has always existed,…
Not strictly true in my case OWT.
Sure there was discrimination on the basis of gender and misogynists were plentiful, but the serious stuff didn't set in until after the PS restructuring of the 80s and 90s.
In the case of the government department I worked for, the director and his senior team were turfed out and managers etc. brought in from outside who didn't have any knowledge of the specialist work we did. Morale plummeted and many long-serving experienced people resigned or took redundancy. The department ended up in a crisis which was resolved by turning it into an SOE and turfing out the new management. They were replaced with people who knew something about the 'product' we produced.
I think you'll probably agree that PS reform is long overdue.
Probably even to the extent that my belief is that no government (of any stripe) can promise 'transformation' (or even kindness) until such time as there is reform.
I could go on, as I know you could. It wouldn't really be of that much use tho'
Maybe you and I should just start providing specific examples. (I don't know about you, but my bottom line was that I'd never agree to any confidentiality agreement, and I never have)
(I don't know about you, but my bottom line was that I'd never agree to any confidentiality agreement, and I never have).
I had a caveat placed on me by 'management' preventing me from talking to anyone. The truth of the matter: they were conducting a rort against another government department (the RNZAF) and I effectively potted them although to be honest I didn't know it at the time. It happened exactly 30 years ago.
Hilarious to think now that it was the Defence Force who were the unsuspecting recipients. No wonder I was targeted.
I'm reminded of Paula Benefit's quip "zip it sweetie". I've zipped it for 30 years.
Teachers agree to settlement but I need a mathematician to help me understand.
"The latest offer for teachers will reinstate pay parity, give a one-off payment of $1500 to full-time teachers, increase pay by an average of 3 per cent over 3 years for all teachers, lift primary teacher base salary by $14,500, and create a new top step of $90,000."
If a teacher is on $70k and gets a 3% increase, then another 3%, then another 3% where is the magic $10,000 teachers were said to be going to get? $10,000 was the number Hipkins kept saying and the media kept repeating. Saying as if the average teacher was to get an extra 10k a year.
I don't get 10k total for three years at 80k per annum either. ??????
This perhaps indicates a need for more and better simple mathematics in schools! And perhaps it was a 10% increase over 3 years and it got morphed into $10,000.
Yes, the media obediently morphed it into $10,000. So easy for the media..
We need journalists better at maths, and with courage to oppose right wing bosses.
I am a secondary teacher. Our last contract expired October 2018. Current offer gives us 3% from July. No backdating, as MPs always get (and we used to many years ago.)
So we have lost in real terms two thirds of the inflation rate. Say 1.5%. Two thirds of that is 1%. So we get in real terms 2%, and that is trusting the official figures about inflation, cost of living, etc. But we wait another year for the next 3%. By that time we have lost another 1.5% in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Total loss of 2.5% since expiry of last contract, which is where the real pay rate should be taken from.
In July 2020 before we get another 3% or whatever, we will be in real terms only ½% better off than we were in October 2018. This is rubbish, and will not stem the flow of young, talented teachers out of the profession. They can earn better elsewhere for less work.
That $10,000 the media put round is plain bullshit.
To prevent this kind of deception, pay increases should be quoted only at yearly rate, and these deceptive 3 or 4 year agreements should be banned.
And we should all regain backpay to expiry date of previous contract, as our cosseted MPs enjoy.
PS – I ignored the one-off payment to union members because a one-off 5% payment counts for little over years, and the union members have lost more than that in union fees over years.
What has been portrayed in the media regarding the increases has played into our Ministers story of how well these greedy teachers have been paid. IMO so that teachers are forced to accept the offer. There has been managed mis information clouding the picture with step increase and increases being combined in the media releases.
And now we have this from Hopkins "We were only willing to put that money on the table because we had an undertaking that that was the final deal, so we'll be sticking to that." Now didn't the unions have to obtain from its members acceptance of the offer ? With Principals not accepting the offer does that mean that the teachers offer has been rescinded ?
If it's a 10% increase over 3 years then that means it's a 10/3% increase per year or 1/30 increase per year
80000+80000*1/30 = 82666.67
82666.67+82666.67*1/30=85422.23
85422.23+85422.23*1/30 = 88269.64
88269.64 + 1500 = 89769.64
So pretty close to $10,000
But “$10k increase” is all worked out on averages – and I would suspect that the average increase would be a lot higher than the median increase – income generally being skewed.
Teachers will be interested in the median increase ("what do I get") whereas govt will be interested in the average increase ("what is this policy going to cost us in total")
Well I took 10% increase over 3 years to mean that by the end of three years, there would have been a 10% increase on the first, base year. So there is room for confusion in the minds of the unknowing.
mpledger – As above, if it is not backdated, it is over 3.66 years for the first 3 years. That affects later years. Redo.
And where are you allowing for inflation?
Microbes in the soil is where the new antibiotics are coming from!! WtB is going to be a good person to give us the dirt on the dirt!
Interesting discussions about the new antibiotics needed on Radionz.
Superbugs. A doctor's fight against antibiotic-resistance
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Our anti-biotics are starting to fail us – with some predictions that in the next quarter of a century there could be more deaths from super bugs than heart disease or cancer. Dr. Matt McCarthy is an infectious disease doctor at Weill Cornell Medical College, a staff physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the author of "Superbugs: The Race To Stop An Epidemic." He's also got first hand knowledge of the hoops you have to go through to get new drugs approved.
I'm more inclined to see phages (bacterial viruses) as the new big thing with regards to fighting bacterial infection.
The dirt on dirt is that we find new things every time we look. The scope for discoveries is enormous. Likewise we've barely a clue what's in plants, fungi, animal proteins and more.
Many fields are opening up as meta-data becomes more timely and affordable to obtain. We can take a soil sample and run a DNA test and pull out pretty much all the species therein – most of which are merely assigned numbers as we're unable to cultivate them yet. So we don't know what they do, what they make or which other species they interact with. Those species we can cultivate display remarkable variance in metabolites they produce. Some of which are antibiotics.
New enzymes, medicines, foods and more will arise from a seemingly infinite (no they're not, we've tried that already with the planet) pool of resources. Resources that are rapidly being depleted as we continue to wage war on the natural world.
Ethical science coupled with nature will take us far. Corporate biotech – a nightmare waiting to happen.
Well we always seem to want to be fighting something. That will give us something to do while we sink back to the chimpanzees hitting each other with rocks as in start of 2001 A space Odyssey. Hal may help; to explain the real world to us seeing we can't work it out for ourselves.
We'll be hooked up in a satellite queue in space soon, while there is space in the waiting lounge, we can put our sticky fingers into the earth and go into inner space. Or we can sit in the eternal waiting lounge as in film Beetlejuice, which shows people looking as vacant as in the normal airport waiting area.
Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon…. “a national suicide of the Palestinians’ current political and cultural ethos is precisely what is needed for peace.”
UCLA professor Saree Makdisi, tweeted, “Imagine The New York Times publishing a piece asking what’s wrong with Blacks, Latinx, Native American or any other community abjectly surrendering to racism, inequality and oppression.”
Israel has taken the Worlds comparative silence on the mass shooting of Palestinians (amongst other things) as a sign that the time is right..lets save the bullets and the general hassel, lets just ask the Palestinians to destroy themselves.
While I agree the choice of words was poor, it is pretty obvious that the current situation is not working for the Palestinians. There was a time when Gaza had an airport and a building boom. That is now two decades in the past.
The constant confrontation with Israel is getting Gaza nowhere. All it does is reinforce the Israeli mentality that they can't deal with the Gaza administration.
You could say the Israelis need to take the first step. In fact it needs to be the Palestinians. Israel can act the way it does for many decades hence. It is much easier for them to cope with the current situation than it is for the Palestinians.
The Palestinians therefore need to think of what they can do that is different from their current stance that will make a difference. It is clear they can't win a war, or increase rocket attacks, or anything of that nature. Israel will always be able to deal with that.
So they need to think of something different. Maybe full statehood is an unattainable dream, at least for the next 2 or 3 decades. What else can they get that will appreciably improve the current situation. In short Palestine needs to find an interim path, that will last the next two or three decades.
Wayne's words of wisdom. "While I agree the choice of words was poor, it is pretty obvious that the current situation is not working for the Palestinians."
A US cheerleader. Palestine's position is untenable thanks to US arming Israel to the teeth. Also Israeli leadership condoning and even advocating violence doesn't help. The continuous land grabs, cutting off of aid… so much history. Now they've US and NZ cheerleaders. FFS.
But, the lad threw a tennis ball.
BOOM!
The bullies of the world need to back down. These so called civilised nations -disgusting shitheels.
Easy way to think about Palestine and Israel, if Palestine gave up its guns and violent aspiration for destruction of Israel, thier support of undemocratic terrorist organisation as thier government there would be peace and progress If Israel gave up its guns there would be a genocide massacre Simple really
Moderators. this is the third time I've asked bewildered to leave me alone. He merely apes what right wing media says and gets smart, it's tedious. He also likes to use my personal information against me. It is a form of cyberstalking and I'm about had enough.
I will stop contributing if I can't come here without this guy thinking it's fair game to try his usual nonsense on.
While you have a few trolls, this one has taken a shine to me.
See below for another example. He thinks the fact I grow kumara is hugely funny.
Ignore commenters who (try to) wind you up. By that, I mean scroll past and literally do not read their comment.
You may have noticed that the same commenter pisses off many regulars here on a regular basis and often receives a vitriolic response in return.
We tend to follow a fairly light-handed approach to moderation here and I certainly don’t do ‘moderation requests’. TS is a place for robust debate and we want to keep it this way. As you know, my tolerance for personal insults and attacks is relatively low but sometimes even that resolves itself, until next time …
It does depend on which commenters are involved, context, how tired I am, and on my general mood. I don’t pretend for one second to be consistent, impartial, or correct at all times, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles here on TS and why I do prefer to warn and appeal to and for self-moderation rather than to ban 🙂
If you provide links I can come to an informed opinion rather than taking your word for it. If it turns out there is a clear case to answer I’ll give out a warning and put them on my ‘watch list’ but unless they incite violence, make personal threats, or launch into vile personal attacks, etc., I won’t block/ban them outright.
It would be sad to see you leave TS but if that’s better for you then I wish you well.
There was a crystal clear directive from TRP a few months ago that using the personal information a commenter might have offered in the past against them, and even using a commenters past comments in arguments against them would not be tolerated.
Let’s have less about Janes bbq then , a mild reference to kumera is hardly crime of the year I go at bleep when he goes at me I don’t troll him I just don’t agree with a lot of his comments and respond in kind in my own style , massive overreaction on his his part I don’t ; want to ruin Bleeps day and he sounds a bit precious I will desist responding to him forthwith re self censorship
you have a sense of humor I think which make me wonder if you are a rightie or just a winder uperer – either way move on – there are plenty to tussle with rather than tussle with someone who doesn't want to be tussled with. – I meant wtb there
Why don't the pair of you just agree to disagree, as I enjoy the comments from BOTH of you. Don't agree with a lot of them but it part and parcel of this site and as Iprent has expressed the site tolerates ROBUST debate. Also it makes my old grey matter work and seek other area's for info, more than can be said about the crap we read, listen to called the MSM
You are missing the point. Israel has the power to act disproportionately. It has done so, and will continue to do so. Because of Israel’s history they are not going to stop doing that.
Most nations are not going to do a BDS on Israel, not with the memory of the Nazi persecution. Neither will left wing protests have any effect. In fact a number of Middle East nations are building links with Israel. The Palestinians are even loosing support of a number of Middle East governments.
Palestine/Gaza can’t win against Israel. These days they can’t even seriously disrupt Israel.
So if Palestine/Gaza wants to change the situation, they are the ones who have to change. Their current strategy has self evidently failed. They are going to have to stop the attacks, they are going to have to accept Israel, they are going to have to change the narrative among their people. Unless they do this, nothing will change. In fact the social and economic fabric of Gaza will continue to get worse.
Israel seems bent on genocide and the rhetoric coming out here leads me to believe no different. I met Israeli soldiers on holiday in Australia. Lovely people – till they started talking about Palestine. Then it was a seething hatred. "Vermin, scum! They need to be extinguished! Indoctrinated from birth by nasty warmongering leadership and an extremely racist state.
While I've dealt with a lot of bullies over the years, I've never developed a tolerance for them.
This 'solution' on offer is typical one sided garbage – here, eat some shit, now say you like it or I'll hit you.
Palestines social and economic fabric has been unravelled for some time now. And every time they start to build a home – guess who fucking bombs it.
Nazi Germany is not an excuse for a new wave of Nazis led by the US trying this bullshit on.
And Hamas Fatah are miss understood angles Come on weepy your smarter than basing an opinion on meeting a couple of Israelites on holiday One bad kumera does not mean you right off the whole crop
I'm not condoning either sides tendencies to violence. It is just seriously one-sided. Part of the reason the Arab world hates Israel (I think that statement's too broad btw) is the company they keep.
Martin Luther Kings is still correct ,,,,, and could be talking about you wayne
““We again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long,”
It should also come as no surprise that you would hold the moral low ground in comparison to the views of Nelson Mandela
In a 1999 speech: "Israel should withdraw from all the areas which it won from the Arabs in 1967, and in particular Israel should withdraw completely from the Golan Heights,
Miko Peled is more informed and more honest than bewildered wayne or neo-con zionists
So, it turns out that the creation of Israel had not, after all, been a haphazard fight in which the Arabs fled their homes due to the directives of their own leaders. It had been a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing by the Jewish militia involving massacres, terrorism, and the wholesale looting of an entire nation.
"While I agree the choice of words was poor"…this is an op-ed in the New York Times, written by the Israeli representative to the United Nations.
His choice of words is very very well thought out, and deemed acceptable by both his Israeli Government bosses, and the Chief Editors of The New York Times.
They all consider it acceptable to ask a Nation and a Race of people to commit 'Cultural and Political Suicide'.
The choice of words is not 'poor'. This isn't some essay written by a 6th form social studies student.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to Culturally and Politically Cleanse themselves.
The Israelis have said it, they have acted on it.
Even more scarily, they seem to have convinced people such as yourself that cultural and political cleansing is the answer.
I still think it is bad words, even more do now that I know they were pre planned.
i am not suggesting poitical or cultural cleansing, just a rethink of the obviously failed current strategy. Maybe something like Hong Kong solution for the next period.
Ex-Nasty Party cabinet minister uses the phrase "pre planned". No doubt in a National caucus meeting such illiteracy would go un-noticed and unremarked.
Yes, I know perfectly well that it was not the correct spelling. It was being done on a phone just before the door closed on a plane. No time to correct it.
Vote in leaders that represent their best interest would be a start Not sure how you negotiate with a party who’s conviction is your destruction and once voted in democratically after Israel gave up gaza strip have never had another election
I think we are both in the same position about what should be done next. How do the Palestinians make meaningful progress toward their aspirations?
Clearly they are not making much now. Especially in Gaza where they are going backwards. Ironically in Gaza there are no Israeli settlers with designs on expropriating territory. The boundaries of Gaza are quite clear. You would think that fact would enable progress. If the Gaza/Palestine attacks stopped so would the (disproportionate) Israeli retaliation. Then the two sides could make progress. A progressive reduction of the blockade, more social and economic development. I imagine statehood would be some ways off, but as a number of self governing places show, there can be effective international recognition. Think Cook Islands, Hong Kong, Bermuda, etc.
Where they expelled from Gaza, I thought it was given up by Israel They could be living a lot better if they dropped the nonsense Note I agree their ideal in claiming lost land back is not possible but irrespective their lives could be a load better than now for themselves and their kids
The Israelis are following a simple template: ghettoisation followed by encroachment (settlements nibbling away here and there, official ones create and illegal expansions ignored). The following step is the 'cleansing' part.
You reckon the Israelis won't do the third step if the Palestinians just act like good little subjugated peons. Maybe. I'm sure some folks thought that in 1937, as well.
Gaza was only placed under restrictions after all the nonsense started, rockets, tunnels, before that I believe flow of goods and people was pretty open both Egypt and Israel side
Hmmm… I suspect that you either just a hypocrite or plain stupid.
So how does that explain the array of checkpoints all of the way through the West Bank? Not only near illegal settlements but also through areas that are wholly Palestinian.
To me that just looks like an method of ghettoisation and a way of making sure that all commerce is stifled in the West Bank outside of the illegal settlements.
What came first the chicken or the egg I know there has always been check points ( I have actually been to Gaza and through the Ramallah gate into Egypt after crossing over from Israel I lived in the Negev quite close to Gaza strip) but the flow and restrictions really ramped up after all the trouble started, Hamas take over following Israel pull out I think you know this Lprent so i will put your first question to me back to you If I am wrong I will go with B
Ashkenazi Jews (i.e. those from Eastern Europe) are the modern Israelis and have not been in Palestine for 5000 years . Sephardic Jews on the other hand do have a place in Palestine, but they are also discriminated against by the majority.
…For a more scientific take on the Jewish origin debate, recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is European. It has also been found that their DNA only has 3% ancient ancestry which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East)…
But some scientists question these conclusions. “While it is clear that Ashkenazi maternal ancestry includes both Levantine [Near Eastern] and European origins—the assignment of several of the major Ashkenazi lineages to pre-historic European origin in the current study is incorrect in our view,” physician-geneticists Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Israel, whose previous work indicated a Near Eastern origins to many Ashkenazi mitochondrial types, wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist. They argue that the mitochondrial DNA data used in the new study did not represent the full spectrum of mitochondrial diversity.
National cabinet members are obliged to lie, and defend the indefensible. Some of the scoundrels continue to lie and defend the indefensible even after they slither out of office.
Israel's commercial relationships with Saudi Arabia – on multiple fronts – is running rings around the Palestinians, so they have little motivation to solve the Palestinian problem. And the Israeli natural gas tie-up with Egypt will sustain common interest for a very long time.
Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are fully motivated to unite with the United States against Iran.
I sure wouldn't wish it on the world, but there's plenty to pull strongly conservative Jewish and Islamic states into common interest against a common foe.
Personally I'm a believer in the one state solution. Israel accepts Palestinians as voters with exactly the same rights as Jewish Israelis including conscription into the armed forces (and get rid of the exemption for ultra-orthodox at the same time). Give everyone exactly the same rights to bear arms. See if the two groups can work out a compromise by attrition of the bigots on both sides.
Eventually that is what will have to happen anyway unless the Israeli government wants to either really give up land or start an extermination that will result in some nukes being dropped on them.
Because of the way that the Israeli government has abrogated their promises and agreements over the years, I don’t think that anyone would actually believe a two party state solution could work that they are involved in. Anyone who tried it would probably wind up like Rabin.
Your solution is not going to happen. Israel has found that its wall for keeping people out has been extremely effective. Israel would much prefer to have a territory that they know is theirs and that does not let anyone they don’t want to get in. Their wall does precisely that.
So from an Israeli perspective it is far better for the Palestinians to be in Gaza and on the West Bank (or at least some of it) and not be able to come into Israel. For the last twenty years that has worked well for Israel. Why would Israel take the risk of upsetting that situation. The reality is that they won’t.
So it is back to a two state solution, but probably not on as good a terms as 20 years ago. Israel can put up with the current situation for many decades hence. It is not genocide, but it also not good for the Palestinians, especially those in Gaza. Will the Palestinians be able to accept that for decades or will they decide to negotiate?
Where do you get your nukes outcome from? Handmade backpacks? Impossible to do without a source of plutonium. Which can only come from a state. And which is traceable to specific reactors. I wouldn’t want to be in the state that did that.
The problem is that because of the wall, settlements, and the way that Israel has treated Gaza and the West Bank – there is no possible settlement on anything like the current basis. It simply isn't a viable state.
There is absolutely no way that any governing body in the occupied territories is going to accept a situation that leaves them as badly off or potentially worse off (see the recent history of Gaza) as they are now – and that is ALL that Israel now has to offer. Their internal politics, because of the weird dynamic that makes the extremes the only viable way to go, is steadily cutting off their options.
The deteriorating status quo that Israel can't have any kind of normal state either. They have to run a budget deficit because of running standing garrisons, effectively be propped up financially and militarily by the US, and run a siege economy always looking with askarance at their own arab citizens. At some point something won't work any more.
Anything can happen to disrupt it. America retreats into isolationism. The extremists in Israel revert further into barbarism and start emulating nazis with death camps (the resemblance between Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto is getting particularly marked). There gets to be a health disaster in Gaza or the West Bank. Or just the real lunatics in Israel start killing just because they can and being cheered on by fuckwits in government
Hell – just the situation that I see now makes me want to sanction Israel. I'd like to kick their embassy out and ban all trade with them. After all the Palestinians are in fact their citizens. If they can’t deal with them humanely – they they’re no better than the apartheid governments that we do sanction.
And I’m wondering where I can find these 6 reports to have a read over on a quiet day.
“We could name six solid Ministry of Transport rail studies and none were reviewed.”
I’ll be out bush for the next 4 to 5 days and unless I’m at one of the two pubs out bush I won’t have Internet to reply to this post or follow up either.
Iran thinks of itself as just another state, but it isn't, it's the most religiously zealous of all nations. Religion, when core to the head of state has always led to war, as religion has no self regulator as it's leader believes they speak for God. Until Iran dislodged its holythanthou leadership it going to remain a pariah. N.Korea at least has a monarchy, Kim fires the nuke, his family goes up in smoke. A holy roller however wins martyrdom. Forget Israel, Saudi Arabia, issues with Iran, stupid deranged religion zealotry at the heart of Iran natural rub up them, for at its core Iran is a global threat to stability.
I request that the management and moderators have a meeting and look at the approach of the blog. You have a set idea that was established a while ago, and it is time to review it. Everything changes these days, and it is necessary to look at processes and see if they are fit for purpose.
It seemed that the blog has matured to something that aims for higher discussion while being good natured, and reflecting people's wide interests, not just political discussion leading to better policy in the country. It is rare to get NZs discussing general important political matters, not just those personally affecting them.
People are encouraged to come and express themselves on Open Mike. Fine. When they start to troll and sneer, they have had that opportunity and they should be given a warning and then told to go for a month without a lot of heart-wrenching. Inviting people to come here but then allowing them to constantly downplay and nitpick every assay at an idea is deadening this site. It is half full of these malicious people who want to throw the spanner in the works of those trying to build community of ideas and policy.
If this is just a place where people can have a game of politics then I have been mistaken trying to put up information that would help to background policy issues. I despise the trolls here, and regard some of them as perverted as bad as sexual predators. Their object is sleazy self-satisfaction and they are here harassing good, sincere people trying to form ideas and policies that will assist all of NZ to a better level of political management. I request that the regular supporters of this blog who want to discuss left wing politics in an analytical but supportive way are allowed to get on with it instead of being hounded by trolls, nipping at heels and messing up the conversations.
I can't understand why the people who actually do the thinking and debating, which has settled to a reasonable level of robustness, do not have any standing in decisions about trolls. If regular commenters complain and wish for a troll to be removed for a period or permanently, that should be the wish of the 'elders' of the site. That would be an adult, mature example of a participatory democracy.
Bad timing Grey, or was it intentional on your part?
Anyone of a ‘thinking nature’ is currently focusing what is going on in the House tonight – far more important than your attempt to take over the TS nest as a supposed 'Greywarbler' (but in reality a 'Shining Cuckoo' in my opinion). I have wondered when you would pitch your 'takeover' but can't really be bothered focusing on it tonight. Remind us some other time Those of us of a 'thinking nature' as you refer to in your endless sactimoneous sermons are otherwise engaged tonight.
Oh, and by the way, that is from one woman in her 70s (me) to another in the same age bracket. IIRC you turned 77 in Feb 2019 a couple of years older than me, but still in the same overall age bracket.
On Tuesday, BERL chief economist Ganesh Nana unveiled a literature review, which concluded "sector wage bargaining holds no fears for New Zealanders".
Opponents often referred to a drop in productivity as a result of collective or sector bargaining, he said.
The report found there was no consistent relationship evident between union activity and productivity.
Relative economic benefits of individual contracts over collective contracts was also inconclusive.
However, there was clear evidence a growing gap between productivity and wage increases was associated with the erosion of collective bargaining.
That last point is the kicker. The mantra from the neo liberal right was deregulate and wages will increase. Deregulate and workers will grow richer. Deregulate and productivity will rise and that will flow down to workers via larger pay packets. Whereas the reality of the NZ economy is that a higher slice of the cake is now claimed by employers and a smaller slice by workers. The % claimed by employers has increased, the % claimed by workers decreased. The gain from productivity have disproportionately flowed to the holders of capital.
Hello I am off to look for grandchildren. And I do not declare my gender. Iam sorry veutoviper but you are out of touch with what is needed to face our future. If I don't get thrown out or any wider positive response to me I will happily leave it to you old people stuck in your groove of superiority and wisdom which is not justified as one looks around at our current state. Pity you didn't apply that wisdom when it was needed to shift us away from the Path of Doom. Now it seems too late for you to learn anything from anyone who you don't regard as a Suitable Authority.
If National causes yet another by-election to be held in Tauranga, not only will it cost the taxpayers another unnecessary $1m for the taxpayers after Simon Bridges called it quits earlier in the year, but National will also pay a big price in terms of its reputation and integrity. A ...
Representing Pakeha Racism: The important thing to remember about Rob Muldoon, and the racist policies with which his name is associated, is that he drew his power from the hundreds-of-thousands of anxious, angry, and yes – racist – Pakeha who voted for him, and that his most effective campaign slogan was: “New Zealand the ...
I remember feeling anxious before making the phone call, although not at anxious I might have expected. But what sticks most in my mind is how the phone call ended. It was the late 1990s. I was deputy editor of the NZ Listener and I had to ring a guy ...
National is dripping “blue blood” again. The revelations over Sam Uffindell’s violent assault indicate that the National Party under Christopher Luxon hasn’t quite shed the toxicity and internal damage of the last few years. The crises besetting the party have recently been well documented in journalist Andrea Vance’s new book ...
Most of us believe in redemption and atonement… But the timing, the nature and the semantics of Sam Uffindell‘s apology for his role in a gang that beat a younger kid (reportedly) with wooden bed legs, has left much to be desired. The victim seems pretty clear about the motivation ...
Yesterday the news broke that newly elected National MP Sam Uffindell was asked to leave private Auckland school King’s College at the end of his fifth form year after being part of a group that viciously beat a younger student one night. There are many elements to this latest political ...
You’ve got to wonder why the National Party knowingly hid information from the public about their newest MP, Sam Uffindell. Surely they must’ve realised that their secret would eventually leak into the public domain. New Zealand is far too small for cover-ups of this kind to be effective.Despite his violent ...
Back in the 1990s, Tony Blair rebranded The British Labour Party as “New Labour”, to try and draw a line under past failures. It’s as if Christopher Luxon is attempting to follow suit, and launch “New National” at the moment – a party that’s fresh-looking, has made some big breaks ...
Back in June Sam Uffindell was elected to parliament in the Tauranga by-election. Turns out he's a bully who beat a kid with a bed-leg at school: The National Party’s newest MP, Sam Uffindell, was asked to leave his exclusive boarding school after viciously beating a younger student late ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Electoral Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 31 August 2022, and can be made at the link above. The bill improves disclosure of party finances, lowering the declaration threshold to $5,000 and requiring parties to disclose their annual financial statements. ...
Laughing With The Poor Folks - Or At Them? Christopher Luxon took rapper LunchMoney Lewis’s lyrics at their face value. “Bills”, as heard by Luxon, is a cri-de-cœur from a hard-working man determined to pull himself and his family up by their own bootstraps. It simply wouldn’t occur to him ...
On the rare occasions when it ever gets asked, the public keeps rejecting tax cuts as such, as a policy priority. It keeps saying it wants tax levels to either stay the same or be increased, so that public services can be maintained, or even (perish the thought) improved. In ...
Europe has been baking in a heatwave, of course. Not so much this part of the world, which benefits by still being in Winter (though let’s just say I am not looking forward to January 2023). Not that it’s been a particularly cold Winter – we haven’t had one ...
The Wagner Group is a private military company – effectively mercenaries. It has been used for the military activity of the Russian Federation in various parts of the world. Currently, it is operating in Ukraine and apparently has a reputation as a very brave and effective force in the ...
I have said this in other forums, but here is the deal: PRC military exercises after Pelosi’s visit are akin to male gorillas who run around thrashing branches and beating their chests when annoyed, disturbed or seeking to show dominance. They are certainly dangerous and not to be ignored, but ...
From July 7 to 26 we tried something new on our Facebook page by sharing one Cranky Uncle cartoon each day for 20 days in a row. There were two reasons for doing this: firstly, we wanted to ensure that at least one post would get published each day while I was ...
Too many commentators on current price pressures have not understood that this time it is very different from the 1970s. Their prescriptions may accelerate inflation.The New Zealand economy is experiencing an external price shock arising from the Covid pandemic and the Ukrainian invasion compounded by related supply chain difficulties. It ...
During the years of the Key government one hardy perennial of political journalism was that whenever the Labour Opposition would suggest a policy alternative to the status quo, the hard bitten response from the Gallery realists would be “But how’re you gonna pay for it?” National in Opposition has been ...
In The Wizard’s Garden: George Dunlop Leslie, 1904IT ALL SEEMS so long ago now, and, to be fair, in human terms, 48 years is a long time. New Zealand was a different country in 1974. Someone unafraid of courting controversy might say it had achieved “Peak Pakeha”. Although the Labour Government of ...
Proximate Cause: Tellingly, it was Helen Clark who was seated close by when, earlier this week, Jacinda Ardern delivered a speech carefully crafted to keep New Zealand’s dairy exports heading China’s way. Photo by PolitikPURISTS WOULD ARGUE that New Zealand’s foreign policy should not be determined by who its Prime Minister ...
We have a new clip out of The Rings of Power. It sees Galadriel and the affectionately nicknamed Gigwit* venturing into dark places in search of evil. At fifty-odd seconds, it also constitutes the longest single piece of show dialogue we have seen thus far. *An acronym. “Galadriel Is ...
Rising To The Challenge: Te Pāti Māori is reassuring the angry and the alienated that in 2023 voting will make a difference. Aotearoa is changing. Pakeha – especially young Pakeha – are changing. The racism is still there, of course, heightened, it would seem, by the prospect of Labour, the ...
"CAGW." A thing? With its provocative title and remarks grounded in respected published research, the perspective Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has caused a few ripples reaching into popular media. "Endgame" and "catastrophic" lean hard in the direction of "pay ...
In the past there's been a few interesting data points about the New Zealand Intelligence Community's desire to covertly manipulate public opinion through media and academic mouthpieces. In 2015 the Council for Civil Liberties revealed the existence of an NZIC "Strategic Communications Group" tasked with persuading the public that spying ...
Inflation is through the roof, and "coincidentally" so is oil company profiteering. UN Secretary-General António Guterres calls it what it is: grotesque: The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described the record profits of oil and gas companies as immoral and urged governments to introduce a windfall tax, using ...
What on earth is going on with the main opposition parties at the moment? Both National and ACT have been making numerous flip-flops and miscommunications, clearly indicating that they aren’t a viable alternative to the current Labour led Government.Of particular note is the duplicitous reasoning given for why they support ...
A ballot for two member's bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Housing Infrastructure (GST-sharing) Bill (Brooke van Velden) Prohibition on Seabed Mining Legislation Amendment Bill (Debbie Ngarewa-Packer) Ngarewa-Packer's bill looks likely to start a shitfight with Labour, and not just because the ...
As you might have noticed, I have an on-going interest in working my way through old and intellectually influential reading material. Occasionally I even share my thoughts on it, which allows me to take a break from my generally-dominant Tolkien analysis. Well, today I thought I would take a ...
Golriz Ghahraman's Electoral (Strengthening Democracy) Amendment Bill will probably face its first reading today. And three months after it was introduced - pissing on the "as soon as practicable" requirement of Standing Order 269 - it has received a section 7 report from Attorney-General David Parker stating that its proposed ...
There's an interesting select committee report out today, from the Petitions Committee on the Petition of Conrad Petersen: The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). The petitioner raises some concerns about the slowness of the IPCA process and its lack of oversight, and suggests some solutions. The committee doesn't seem keen ...
Today is a Member's Day, but likely to be a boring one. There's no general debate today, and instead the House will move right into the third reading of the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill, which will add unelected, inherently conflicted Ngai Tahu representatives to ECan. Then there's ...
That gormlessly glum picture of Christopher Luxon in Samoa graphically tells us what kind of image New Zealand would be projecting abroad if there’s a change of government next year. The glumness is understandable. For months, National and ACT had been dog whistling to the bigots who oppose the creation ...
There is no corruption in New Zealand. At least that’s what authorities want the public to believe. For decades now our system of political finance regulation has been portrayed as highly rigorous, ensuring our politicians cannot be bought. Unfortunately, that’s just not true. Although politicians and officials have claimed tight ...
Pundits have come out of the woodwork to defend the Greens co-leader, after he was stripped of his leadership last week by unhappy party members. The defences have all stuck to basically the same script: Shaw is a successful leader and minister who’s handed the party big victories in politics ...
Meghan Murphy talks with Batya Ungar-Sargon the author of Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy. The book charts the trajectory of journalism in the US as it shifted from being a blue collar occupation producing the penny press for the masses, to a profession for Ivy League university ...
Co-Leaders? The uncomfortable truth is: not the Army, not the Police, not the Spooks, and not even a combination of all three, could defeat the scale and violence of White Supremacist and Māori Nationalist resistance which the imposition of radical decolonisation – or its racism-inspired defeat – would unleash upon ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson and Jeff Masters Torrents of rain that began before dawn on Tuesday, July 26, gave St. Louis, Missouri, its highest calendar-day total since records began in 1873. And the deadly event is just the latest example of a well-established trend ...
Completed reads for July: The Prince, by Niccolo MachiavelliFaust, Part I, by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheFaust, Part II, by Johann Wolfgang von GoetheParadise Lost, by John MiltonParadise Regained, by John MiltonThe NibelungenliedAgricola, by TacitusGermania, by TacitusDialogue on Orators, by TacitusThe Gods of Pegana, by Lord DunsanyTime and the Gods, ...
A couple of weeks ago the High Court exposed a loophole in our electoral donations law, enabling corrupt parties to take in unlimited amounts of secret money and explicitly sell policy to the rich. Pretty obviously, this is unacceptable in a country which wants to call itself a democracy, and ...
This morning, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis managed to get top of the bulletin news coverage by pointing out that some Kiwis living abroad might receive the government’s cost of living payment. Quelle horreur. What is the problem here? Inflation is a global problem, and Kiwis living abroad may be ...
Beyond Fixing? The critical question confronting New Zealanders is whether we any longer have the resources to repair our physical and human infrastructure?WHO WILL MAKE the New Zealand of the next 50 years? We had better hope that, whoever they are, they make a better job of it than those ...
Today’s speech by Jacinda Ardern to the China Business Summit in Auckland was full of soothing words for Beijing. The headline-grabber was Ardern’s comment that ‘a few plans are afoot’ for New Zealand ministers to return to China – and that the Prime Minister herself hopes to return to the ...
Rule-Breaker? It is easy to see why poor James Shaw found himself brutally deposed as the Greens’ co-leader. By seeking the responsibilities of leadership – and exercising them – he violated the first rule of Green Party governance. Then, by accepting the limitations of the Green Party’s electoral mandate (7.8 ...
After the incredibly sad story about the deaths of over 50 Ukrainian POWs in a Ukrainian missile attack on the prison they were housed in (see Over 50 POWs killed. A military accident or a cynical war crime?)I came across the heartwarming story about another Ukrainian POW. It’s about a ...
British mercenary Aiden Aslin, now a prisoner in the Donetsk People’s Republic, expressed real concern that he may die from the Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk. He has experienced many missile attacks that came close to the prison.Is he still alive? Understandably, we are always shocked about the losses ...
Politics is largely reported as theatre: tragedy and comedy, thriller and farce. Andrea Vance captures it all very successfully in Blue Blood. But it is the politics of personality, not of policy – of the impact of government on the people’s wellbeing. Even so, we can see from the book ...
This year the government finally got its clean car feebate scheme into place. But there's a problem: it's been too successful: Transport Minister Michael Wood will shortly review the cost of the fees and rebates in the Government's "feebate" scheme after the runaway success of the policy has meant ...
Given how the pandemic has disrupted the sporting calendar, no-one would begrudge our elite athletes their chance to compete at international level. What with the war in Ukraine and the cost of living, there are also not many ‘good news” stories out there. So… I suppose the strenuous efforts the ...
Everybody Having A Say: Democracy commands us to look outward; it demands our trust; it tells us what is expected of our humanity; it elevates the collective above the self; it celebrates the things we have in common; it defines our morals and values; it calculates what we owe one ...
Even right-wing commentators have, over recent days, and jusrifiably enough, been taking the National leader, Christopher Luxon, to task. They have lambasted him over his soft-shoe shuffle over abortion, for bad-mouthing New Zealand business while he was overseas, and for pretending to be in Te Puke while he was actually ...
So, now we know for sure. The “protesters” who defiled the grounds of parliament and who (according to their own account) intended to create in three of our major cities “maximum disruption and inconvenience” to other citizens, are not interested in democracy – indeed, quite the contrary. Their objective, quite ...
The issue with Christopher Luxon’s social media post talking about his day in Te Puke when he was in Hawaii is it’s fake news. He has since apologised for the mistake. But this doesn’t negate its impact. This mistake, misstep, gaffe or whatever you like to call it, is about ...
Over the last couple of years there has been a disturbing trend of new legislation containing secrecy clauses, which effectively make it illegal for affected government bodies to disclose information under the Official Information Act. Some of these are re-enacting old legislation from the pre- or early-OIA era (in which ...
Allegations of political corruption are once again at the heart of a new High Court trial this week. The trial follows straight on from the “not guilty” verdict for those running the New Zealand First Foundation. And this latest trial is once again about whether wealthy businesspeople and political parties ...
Ukrainian operation to steal Russian military aircraft exposed [English edit] Representatives of the Ukrainian special services offered up to $2 million for hijacking Russian military aircraft, as well as European passports for the pilots and their families. In order to gain trust, Ukrainians shared information they were not allowed ...
Struck Down: As James Shaw saved the pure Greens from themselves in 2017, they resented him. As he secured the Climate Change portfolio for his party, they suspected him. As he achieved cross-party support for crucial climate change legislation, they condemned him. And, as he was white, and male, and ...
If nothing else, some of the media treatment of the Luxon lu’au has reeked of a double standard. If Jacinda Ardern – or any of her Cabinet Ministers – had been holidaying in Hawaii while their social media imagery was depicting them working hard on the public’s behalf in Te ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme is broken. Stuffed with free allocations and rigged with a "cost containment reserve" which floods the market any time prices get "too high" (for a definition of "too high" set in a different world), its basicly served as a machanism to subsidise the production of the ...
Think Big: A democratic-socialist government could remove GST from basic food items. It could re-nationalise and centralise the generation and distribution of electric power, and then retail it to citizens at an affordable price. A democratic-socialist government could nationalise the public transportation system and make it free for everyone. A democratic-socialist government ...
Pure Poison: It is when the fetid atmosphere created by the Right’s toxic accusations and denunciations is at its thickest, that comparisons with the Woke Left spring most easily to mind. If the level of emotion on display, and the strength of the invective used, is inversely related to the ...
New Zealand companies are using their oligopolistic market power to gouge mega profits, driving up inflation. Overseas, such actions have resulted in windfall taxes, which have been used both to drive down inflation, and ameliorate its impacts (while driving down emissions). With New Zealand petrol companies pocketing record margins and ...
Poll Axed: What happened to James Shaw on Saturday, 23 July 2022 exposed the Greens’ minoritarian political culture for all to see. Once voters grasp the enormity of 30 percent of Green delegates to the Green AGM being constitutionally empowered to overrule the wishes of the 70 percent of delegates ...
The Green Party once again calls on the Government to ban bottom trawling on all seamounts following the release of an industry white paper on so-called ‘sustainable’ trawling. ...
Urgent reform is essential to ensure disabled people have equal access to the care and support they need, the Green Party says in response to a new report that challenges politicians to fix the current system. ...
COVID-19 is here to stay and so the Government needs to put in place long-term protection measures, including mandatory ventilation standards, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to overhaul the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme in the wake of revelations of shocking human rights violations. ...
The Green Party is calling for a cross-party commitment to guaranteeing at least a living wage and safe working conditions to people seeking employment, instead of continuing benefit sanctions. ...
The Green Party is once again calling on the Government to announce its support for a moratorium on deep sea mining, and to support a member’s bill going to select committee. ...
The Government must take steps to ensure that the way we build our homes is helping to meet New Zealand’s climate change targets, the Green Party said. ...
The Government’s employment initiatives led by the Ministry of Social Development must guarantee liveable incomes and fair working conditions, the Green Party says. ...
New Zealanders deserve a health system that works for everyone, no matter who you are or where you live. Our Government has a plan to make this a reality, and we’re taking the next steps. We now have thousands more health professionals, such as doctors and nurses, working in New ...
During her time as Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has navigated New Zealand through unprecedented times. Through it all, she’s become known as someone who leads with kindness, compassion and strength, while keeping the wellbeing of Kiwis at the heart of her approach. To celebrate five years of Jacinda leading the ...
Since taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to grow a secure economy for all. ...
The Government must use the opportunity of the Electoral Amendment Bill in Parliament to close the loophole in the political donations regime, the Green Party says. ...
Thanks to political pressure from the Green Party and the more than 900 personal stories of birth injury and trauma delivered to Minister Sepuloni, more injuries have been added to the ACC birth injuries bill. ...
Supporting New Zealanders is at the heart of our approach as a Government, and we’re working hard to tackle the big issues Kiwis are facing. While long term challenges like child poverty won’t be solved overnight, we’re putting in place policies that make a real difference for New Zealanders. Here ...
Delegates at the AGM of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have voted to retain Marama Davidson as Green Party co-leader and to re-open nominations for the other co-leader position. ...
The Tourism Industry Transformation Plan outlines key actions to improve the sector This includes a Tourism and Hospitality Accord to set employment standards Developing cultural competency within the workforce Improving the education and training system for tourism Equipping business owners and operators with better tools and enabling better work ...
Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications Dr David Clark welcomes Google Cloud’s decision to make New Zealand a cloud region. “This is another major vote of confidence for New Zealand’s growing digital sector, and our economic recovery from COVID 19,” David Clark said. “Becoming a cloud region will mean ...
A package of changes to NCEA and University Entrance announced today recognise the impact COVID-19 has had on senior secondary students’ assessment towards NCEA in 2022, says Associate Minister of Education Jan Tinetti. “We have heard from schools how significant absences of students and teachers, as a result of COVID-19, ...
Te Reo Māori tauparapara… Tapatapa tū ki te Rangi! Ki te Whei-ao! Ki te Ao-mārama Tihei mauri ora! Stand at the edge of the universe! of the spiritual world! of the physical world! It is the breath of creation Formal acknowledgments… [Your Highness Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II and Masiofo] ...
The Government’s commitment to combatting firearms violence has reached another significant milestone today with the passage of the Firearms Prohibition Order Legislation Bill, Police Minister Chris Hipkins says. The new law helps to reduce firearm-related crime by targeting possession, use, or carriage of firearms by people whose actions and behaviours ...
Minister for Veterans, Hon Meka Whaitiri sends her condolences to the last Battle for Crete veteran. “I am saddened today to learn of the passing of Cyril Henry Robinson known as Brant Robinson, who is believed to be the last surviving New Zealand veteran of the Battle for Crete, Meka ...
Legislation to repeal the ‘Three Strikes’ law has passed its third reading in Parliament. “The Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Bill ends an anomaly in New Zealand’s justice system that dictates what sentence judges must hand down irrespective of relevant factors,” Justice Minister Kiri Allan said. “The three strikes law was ...
Work is under way on preliminary steps to improve the Government’s support for survivors of abuse in care while a new, independent redress system is designed, Public Service Minister Chris Hipkins says. These steps – recommended by the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry – include rapid payments for ...
Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Online Forum 77 years ago today, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Three days earlier, on the 6th of August 1945, the same fate had befallen the people of Hiroshima. Tens of thousands died instantly. In the years that followed 340,000 ...
An agreement signed today between the New Zealand and United States governments will provide new opportunities for our space sector and closer collaboration with NASA, Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash said. Stuart Nash signed the Framework Agreement with United States Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman. The signing ...
An agreement signed today between New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will strengthen global emergency management capability, says Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty. “The Government is committed to continually strengthening our emergency management system, and this Memorandum of Cooperation ...
New Zealand will remain at the Orange traffic light setting, while hospitalisations remain elevated and pressure on the health system continues through winter. “There’s still significant pressure on hospitals from winter illnesses, so our current measures have an ongoing role to play in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases and ...
Streets will soon be able to be transformed from unsafe and inaccessible corridors to vibrant places for all transport modes thanks to new legislation proposed today, announced Transport Minister Michael Wood. “We need to make it safe, quicker and more attractive for people to walk, ride and take public transport ...
More young minds eyeing food and fibre careers is the aim of new Government support for agricultural and horticultural science teachers in secondary schools, Agriculture and Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The Government is committing $1.6 million over five years to the initiative through the Ministry for Primary ...
Kākāpō numbers have increased from 197 to 252 in the 2022 breeding season, and there are now more of the endangered parrots than there have been for almost 50 years, Conservation Minister Poto Williams announced today. The flightless, nocturnal parrot is a taonga of Ngāi Tahu and a species unique ...
The relationship between Aotearoa New Zealand and Malaysia is to be elevated to the status of a Strategic Partnership, to open up opportunities for greater co-operation and connections in areas like regional security and economic development. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met her Malaysian counterpart Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah today during a ...
With additional trains operating across the network, powered by the Government’s investment in rail, there is need for a renewed focus on rail safety, Transport Minister Michael Wood emphasised at the launch of Rail Safety Week 2022. “Over the last five years the Government has invested significantly to improve level ...
The Foreign Minister has wrapped up a series of meetings with Indo-Pacific partners in Cambodia which reinforced the need for the region to work collectively to deal with security and economic challenges. Nanaia Mahuta travelled to Phnom Penh for a bilateral meeting between ASEAN foreign ministers and Aotearoa New Zealand, ...
Extension of Aotearoa Touring Programme supporting domestic musicians The Programme has supported more than 1,700 shows and over 250 artists New Zealand Music Commission estimates that around 200,000 Kiwis have been able to attend shows as a result of the programme The Government is hitting a high note, with ...
Minister of Defence Peeni Henare will depart tomorrow for Solomon Islands to attend events commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. While in Solomon Islands, Minister Henare will also meet with Solomon Islands Minister of National Security, Correctional Services and Police Anthony Veke to continue cooperation on security ...
The Government is partnering with Ngāi Tahu Farming Limited and Ngāi Tūāhuriri on a whole-farm scale study in North Canterbury to validate the science of regenerative farming, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. The programme aims to scientifically evaluate the financial, social and environmental differences between regenerative and conventional practices. ...
52.5% of people on public boards are women Greatest ever percentage of women Improved collection of ethnicity data “Women’s representation on public sector boards and committees is now 52.5 percent, the highest ever level. The facts prove that diverse boards bring a wider range of knowledge, expertise and skill. ...
I am honoured to support the 2022 Women in Governance Awards, celebrating governance leaders, directors, change-makers, and rising stars in the community, said Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio. For the second consecutive year, MPP is proudly sponsoring the Pacific Governance Leader category, recognising Pacific women in governance and presented to ...
Today Economic and Regional Development Minister Stuart Nash turned the sod for the new Whakatāne Commercial Boat Harbour, cut the ribbon for the revitalised Whakatāne Wharf, and inspected work underway to develop the old Whakatāne Army Hall into a visitor centre, all of which are part of the $36.8 million ...
New Zealanders are not getting a fair deal on some key residential building supplies and while the Government has already driven improvements in the sector, a Commerce Commission review finds that changes are needed to make it more competitive. “New Zealand is facing the same global cost of living and ...
Mana in Mahi reaches a milestone surpassing 5,000 participants 75 per cent of participants who had been on a benefit for two or more years haven’t gone back onto a benefit 89 per cent who have a training pathway are working towards a qualification at NZQA level 3 or ...
The Government has invested $7.7 million in a research innovation hub which was officially opened today by Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Dr Ayesha Verrall. The new facility named Te Pā Harakeke Flexible Labs comprises 560 square metres of new laboratory space for research staff and is based at ...
Unemployment has remained near record lows thanks to the Government’s economic plan to support households and businesses through the challenging global environment, resulting in more people in work and wages rising. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate was 3.3 percent in the June quarter, with 96,000 people classed out ...
Action to address the risks identified in the 2020 climate change risk assessment, protecting lives, livelihoods, homes, businesses and infrastructure A joined up approach that will support community-based adaptation with national policies and legislation Providing all New Zealanders with information about local climate risks via a new online data ...
Māori with mental health and addiction challenges have easier access to care thanks to twenty-nine Kaupapa Māori primary mental health and addiction services across Aotearoa, Associate Minister of Health Peeni Henare says. “Labour is the first government to take mental health seriously for all New Zealanders. We know that Māori ...
A Bill which updates New Zealand’s statistics legislation for the 21st century has passed its third and final reading today, Minister of Statistics David Clark said. The Data and Statistics Act replaces the Statistics Act, which has been in effect since 1975. “In the last few decades, national data and ...
The Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill has passed its first reading in Parliament today, marking a significant milestone to improve the lives of disabled people. “The Bill aims to address accessibility barriers that prevent disabled people, tāngata whaikaha and their whānau, and others with accessibility needs from living independently,” said ...
Kia ora koutou, da jia hao It’s great to be back at this year’s China Business Summit. I would first like to acknowledge Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister Helen Clark, His Excellency Ambassador Wang Xiaolong, and parliamentary colleagues both current and former the Right Honourable Winston Peters, the ...
Narrowing the expenses considered by lenders Relaxing the assumptions that lenders were required to make about credit cards and buy-now pay-later schemes. Helping make debt refinancing or debt consolidation more accessible if appropriate for borrowers The Government is clarifying the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance (CCCFA) Regulations, to ensure ...
The Firearms Prohibition Order Legislation Bill will be passed through all remaining stages by the end of next week, Police Minister Chris Hipkins said. The Justice Select Committee has received public feedback and finalised its report more quickly than planned. It reported back to the House on Friday. “The Bill will ...
The Government has stepped up activity to protect kauri, with a National Pest Management Plan (NPMP) coming into effect today, Biosecurity Minister Damien O'Connor and Associate Environment Minister James Shaw said. “We have a duty to ensure this magnificent species endures for future generations and also for the health of ...
Prime Minister Ardern met with members of Samoa’s Cabinet in Apia, today, announcing the launch of a new climate change partnership and confirming support for the rebuild of the capital’s main market, on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Friendship between Aotearoa New ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for the Indo-Pacific region today for talks on security and economic issues at meetings of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, and during bilateral engagements in Malaysia. “Engaging in person with our regional partners is a key part of our reconnecting strategy as ...
United Nations Headquarters, New York City Thank you, Mr President. Ngā mihi ki a koutou. I extend my warm congratulations to you and assure you of the full cooperation of the New Zealand delegation. I will get right to it. In spite of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the nuclear ...
A major milestone of 10,037 additional public homes has been achieved since Labour came into office, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods confirmed today. “It’s extremely satisfying and a testament to our commitment to providing a safety net for people who need public housing, that we have delivered these warm, ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. This morning, RNZ played the following story: Health stats show 87 people have died in their homes from Covid-19 since March, which references New Zealand’s ...
Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick says she is frustrated that her bill to ban alcohol sponsorship in sports is not receiving the backing of the government, despite the presence of overwhelming evidence. ...
By Gorethy Kenneth of the PNG Post-Courier in Port Moresby In a historic first, the Papua New Guinea Parliament has installed Pangu Pati leader and Tari-Pori MP James Marape by a unanimous majority as the country’s ninth Prime Minister. Immediately, in his address to the House and streamed live to ...
By Geraldine Panapasa, editor-in-chief of Wansolwara Newsin Suva Addressing the training development deficit in the Fiji media industry can stem journalist attrition and improve coverage of election reporting in the country, says University of the South Pacific journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh. Speaking during last week’s launch of the National ...
Buzz from the Beehive Some ministers commemorated historical events in the latest press statements from the Beehive while others pointed to New Zealand’s role in the space age and to technological developments around the digital economy and data storage in the cloud. Three statements were related to events in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karlo Doroc, PhD Candidate in Decision Science, Centre for Brain, Mind and Markets, The University of Melbourne Unsplash/Susan Q Yin Nobel laureate economist Richard Thaler famously quipped: People aren’t dumb, the world is hard. Indeed, we routinely ...
Flexible workshops designed to help students understand the impacts of climate change, and how they can make a difference Keep New Zealand Beautiful, an iconic not-for-profit organisation that this year celebrates its 55 year milestone, has today launched ...
“Numbers are dropping in the New Zealand Defence Force as personnel are faced with poor pay, poor dwellings, and poor leadership from the Minister,” says ACT’s Defence spokesperson Dr James McDowall. “NZDF is experiencing increasing attrition ...
Christopher Luxon says a member of his staff was told about the red flags around candidate Sam Uffindell during the campaign for the Tauranga by-election. ...
Christopher Luxon says member of his staff was told about the red flags around candidate Sam Uffindell during the campaign for the Tauranga by-election ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Huon pine in TasmaniaShutterstock When you think of “conifers”, tall, conical shaped trees often found in public parks or front yards may spring to mind. But ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has written to the Finance and Expenditure Committee on behalf of the more than 65,000 New Zealanders who took the time to submit on the Water Services Entities Bill (Three Waters) through our submission tool. “We learnt ...
The National Party's new president has admitted its candidate selection process could be improved, after its Tauranga MP Sam Uffindell was suspended over bullying allegations. ...
A top US diplomat says New Zealand could eventually become a member of the AUKUS defence alliance, highlighting the country's strategic importance. ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says work has already been done to reset the culture within the party and in improving its candidate selection process. ...
“James Shaw has doubled down on his Government’s assurance that existing land use will continue on Significant Natural Areas (SNAs),” says ACT’s Primary Industries spokesperson Mark Cameron. “Responding to written parliamentary questions from ...
To celebrate 90 years of supporting disabled people into employment opportunities, Workbridge has launched a new book, Taking Charge: The Story of Workbridge. Workbridge has a proud history as an independent disability-owned and led organisation, delivering ...
Kelvin Hastie – best known for starting New Zealand's first predator free community – has announced that he will run for the mayor of Wellington. "What we need now is unity," says Hastie, something that he ignited in the community when ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andy Marks, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Strategy, Government and Alliances, Western Sydney University The 1973 Watergate Committee hearings ran for 51 days. The televised revelations drew a huge audience. The pressure built with slow, devastating intensity, devouring then US President Richard Nixon’s agenda, eventually ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karin Hammarberg, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women’s Health, School of Public Health & Preventive Medicine, Monash University Jeffery Erhunse/Unsplash Egg freezing is promoted as an empowering option for women who want to stop the biological clock and improve their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Penelope Jones, Research Fellow in Environmental Health, University of Tasmania Shutterstock Savanna burning projects in northern Australia provide economic benefits to Indigenous communities and claim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But our research suggests smoke from these projects is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Sciberras, Associate Professor, Deakin University Simeon Frank/Unsplash COVID lockdowns and home schooling seemed never-ending for a lot of families. But there were some silver linings. Our new research published in two papers looked at children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sian Mitchell, Lecturer, Film, Television and Animation, Deakin University Warner Bros Batgirl has become the latest film to be added to a growing list of movies we will never get to see. The US$90 million film had been shot and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Howe, Research Fellow, University of Auckland Getty Images Routine childhood immunisations have dropped so dramatically globally during the COVID-19 pandemic that the World Health Organization and UNICEF are raising the alarm. Internationally, 25 million children in 2021 alone ...
Sam Uffendell should resign or be sacked and a new election held at National's expense. The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party demand the National Party sack newly elected Sam Uffendell and pay for a new election giving the people of Tauranga a fair vote ...
When I was a student at Otago I enjoyed a student lifestyle, which included drinking and, at times, smoking marijuana. While in second year a number of flatmates fell out – and two of the flatmates left midway through the year. I reject any accusation ...
National MP Sam Uffindell has been stood down from the party's caucus while an investigation is carried out into further allegations of bullying raised by RNZ. ...
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk Papua New Guinea’s incumbent leader, James Marape, has been returned to the top job as the country’s ninth prime minister, reports the ABC’s Port Moresby correspondent Natalie Whiting. “Marape was voted in as prime minister unopposed, with unanimous support from all MPs present in the first ...
RNZ News New research details the extent of racism, othering and tokenism faced by Māori and Pacific postgraduate students in Aotearoa New Zealand. The paper, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, was based off responses of 43 Māori and Pacific students in science, technology, engineering, ...
RNZ Pacific Pacific athletes have won a total of 13 medals at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, split among six nations. Samoa won the region’s only gold, through weightlifter Don Opolenge and the nation’s lifters also won three silver medals. They also gained a silver in boxing. Fiji won four ...
The Auditor-General's submission on three waters legislation is a "constructive suggestion", the minister says, and a normal part of the Parliamentary process. ...
The latest political polling shows the centre-right parties pulling ahead of the centre-left—but it may be too soon for the leaders of the National and ACT parties to be thinking they will be forming the next government. The mood of the country has seldom been as dark, chastened as it ...
A former secretary of the National Party says he repeatedly asked then MP Jami-Lee Ross to provide information about the individual donors behind one large donation to the party but the information was not forthcoming. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Encarnacao, Musician, lecturer, Western Sydney University Photo by Roger Allston/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images My default mental image of Olivia Newton-John is from the mid-1970s: long, flowing floral dresses; long, centre-parted light brown hair; big inquisitive eyes; and, when called ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Police direct traffic outside an entrance to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate after the former president said the FBI was conducting a search.Terry Renna/AP “These are dark times ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasim Raja, Research scientist, CSIRO CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Processing/Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Author provided Within 24 hours of accessing the first stage of Australia’s newest supercomputing system, researchers have processed a series of radio telescope observations, including a highly ...
Party People is joined by former National MP Paul Quinn to discuss the Sam Uffindell controversy, the National Party conference, and the latest 1 News / Kantar political poll. ...
Sam Uffindell's constituents in Tauranga appear largely ready to forgive and forget after the revelations of their MP's past as a self-confessed high school bully. ...
The government has passed its bill repealing the three strikes law, which automatically hands maximum sentences to criminals who commit three serious crimes. Justice Minister Kiri Allan says serious and repeat offenders will still be held to account. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan University stocker193/Shutterstock Less than two weeks after the announcement of its acquisition of US healthcare company One Medical, Amazon is continuing its expansion with a US$1.7 billion offer for iRobot, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan University Earlier today, reports began emerging Google was down.
While it has since returned, it once again highlights our dependence on technology service providers and shows how reliant many people ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Angela Brown, Midwifery Program Director , University of South Australia Shutterstock So far, there have been 57 confirmed and probable cases of monkeypox reported by Australian authorities. In July, the Australian government issued a health alert for monkeypox as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Author provided Australia once had vast oyster and mussel reefs, which anchored marine ecosystems and provided a key food source for coastal First Nations people. But after colonisation, Europeans harvested them for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Baker, Professor of Housing Research, University of Adelaide The federal government’s confirmation on Monday that it will set up a National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has not received much media or public attention. But, dollar for dollar, it might be ...
Yesterday Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson decided to write an opinion piece in the NZHerald that tries to justify the Labour Party’s push for apartheid in our country via co-governance. The fact that Willie loudly announced that New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT University Olivia Newton-John was a versatile artist with an appeal that spanned generations, and who played an important role in claiming a space for Australian popular culture on the world stage. She was the ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon is standing by his MP for Tauranga, but says the assault of a smaller boy at boarding school should have been made public. ...
By Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal in Majuro The Marshall Islands lost its covid-free status yesterday when tests confirmed six positive cases in the capital, the first known community transmission since the pandemic started in early 2020. It was not immediately clear the source of the covid-19 ...
By Jairo Bolledo of Rappler in Manila Former Philippines vice-presidential candidate and Laban ng Masa chairperson Walden Bello has been arrested for two counts of alleged cyber libel by the police. Bello, 76, is a globally renowned environmental and social justice activist and academic. Bello’s arrest yesterday was confirmed by ...
By Gorethy Kenneth of the PNG Post-Courier in Port Moresby If there is a glimmer of hope in Papua New Guinea’s violence marred national general elections, then it has to be the elevation of a lone woman to the National Parliament. It took the People’s National Congress (PNC) Governor-elect of ...
RNZ Pacific About 100 people have marched in the New Caledonian capital of Noumea to protest against what they see as government inaction to curb violence against women. The rally was called by the group Women in Anger just days after the latest killing of a woman at the hands ...
RNZ Pacific A Japanese sailor has been stabbed at Bloody Ridge in Solomon Islands during a World War II remembrance ceremony in Honiara. Witnesses say the man, who was part of the Japanese Navy media team, was stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors. Bloody Ridge community chief ...
By Rusiate Baleilevuka of Fijivillage in Suva “We need to scrap or reform the Media Industry Development Act.” This is one of the key recommendations in the National Media Reporting of the 2018 Fijian General Elections Report. Co-author and University of the South Pacific (USP) journalism coordinator, Associate Professor Shailendra ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Maher, Lecturer in Politics, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Dan Himbrechts/AAP The much-debated term “neoliberalism” again entered the political debate last week, with Greens leader Adam Bandt using a National Press Club speech to decry neoliberalism ...
Petition requesting that Parliament urge the Government to expel the ambassador of the Russian Federation and sever diplomatic relations with Russia will be submitted 11 August, 1.30pm for presenting by Dr Gaurav Sharma MP to NZ House of Representatives. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Our Foreign Affairs Minister has announced the relationship between New Zealand and Malaysia is to be elevated to the status of a Strategic Partnership, the Minister of Conservation is clucking about the growth in kākāpō numbers in the 2022 breeding season, the Covid Response Minister has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tara McAllister, Research Fellow, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Getty Images Given most New Zealand universities have goals for increasing Māori and Pacific student and staff numbers, we need to ask why their numbers still remain stubbornly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, Macquarie University Shutterstock There’s nothing like the fresh eggs from your own hens, the more than 400,000 Australians who keep backyard chooks will tell you. Unfortunately, it’s often not just ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. National Party MP for Tauranga, Sam Uffindell. Political Roundup: The Uffindell scandal raises big questions about integrity in National National is dripping “blue blood” again. The revelations over Sam Uffindell’s violent assault indicate that the National Party under Christopher Luxon hasn’t quite shed the toxicity and ...
Last week, a groundbreaking hearing between Students for Climate Solutions and the Minister of Energy and Resources began. The Victoria University group is suing Minister Megan Woods for her decision to grant permits for onshore oil and gas exploration ...
Sam Uffindell says he's not the same person he was 20 odd years ago after his involvement as a teenager in an attack on a younger student came to light. ...
Point of Order a week ago was serving up some commentary on the news that the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will not shut down in 2024 — and could have a long-term future. The question now is whether Meridian Energy, which supplies the bulk of Tiwai Point’s electricity from ...
Local Government NZ (LGNZ) is concerned that some roles won’t be filled, or key roles will go uncontested at this year's local body elections unless more candidates throw their hat in the ring before nominations close on Friday. Last election saw ...
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority has called for public submissions on the proposed amendment to its award-winning Integrated Management Plan 2016. The new section details proposed ecological restoration projects (including the planting of native species and removal ...
Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross told the police he sounded the alarm over a donation to the party because he thought it was dodgy and potentially illegal. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erik Eklund, Professor of History, Australian National University Uranium concentrate, known as yellowcake Nuclear Regulatory Commission/Flickr, CC BY-SA Last week, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton sought to revive the hoary old debate of nuclear power in Australia, announcing an internal review into ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janelle K Johnstone, PhD Candidate, La Trobe University Photo by Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe via Getty Images The iconic Joni Mitchell’s recent surprise performance at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival prompted a world-wide outpouring of love and respect. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucas Cernusak, Associate Professor, Plant Physiology, James Cook University Hasan Almasi / Unsplash Have you ever wondered just how much water plants need to grow, or indeed why they need it? Plants lose a lot of water when they take in ...
Hosking cries into his cornflakes. At least, unlike stablemate David Farrar, he is honest about what's happening within the National Party.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243914
Listening to my morning funnies….aka simons interviews…..
By crikey he claims the nat mp's prefer not to stick around in parliament for too long. I guess he forgot about the likes of Dr custard, big gerry david carter, etc
Wifey parrots Hubby. I wonder if they discuss this at 3am each morning before heading to work?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12243919
Wifey gets closer to the truth though:
Crikey the tories will be spinning out.
Strange males. Don Brash, David Farrar, the guy next to me in 4th form Maths, all the last ACT leaders, Gareth Morgan , the political reporter sweating all over the place in 84 who still plays a part. Bruce Jesson, yes, but his heart was gold. Why do they mostly (just remembered Roger Kerr ) jump up for the rich? Maths mostly leaves out the people?
They aren't strange among males. We're all just beauteous try-ons. Or, sea-elephant beach. How near these chaps have come to overturning democracy for their psychoses.
Looking at National's record of climate denial, which emissions would they actually cut? http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/06/which-emissions-does-national-want-to.html
I'm surprised journalists never pull them up on this. National has become very polished at mealy-mouthed lip service to mitigating climate change, while at the same time special-pleading for every single industry that there's no need for this particular sector to have to do anything much just yet. And yet, no journalist asks them the obvious question: "Which industries do you believe need to reduce their carbon emissions, and how quickly?
… no journalist asks them the obvious question: "Which industries do you believe need to reduce their carbon emissions, and how quickly?
No, and they never will.
Most of the journos and reporters who front the TV news and current affairs programmes are 20 to 30 somethings. It's not long since their legs were still under a school desk. They may have picked up on the theory, but have developed no instincts or true understanding of how politics works. They try to make up for it by conjuring up stupid conspiracy theories that no-one of experience would contemplate.
They were also brought up on a diet of neoliberalism which thrives on ideology for ideology's sake and frowns upon political analysis based on reality. As a result I doubt we will ever see these journos asking the insightful questions. It happens now and then, but imo it is more by accident than design.
Would a seaport at Whangarei be the logical place in NZ between China and South America? https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/392901/new-zealand-ticks-all-boxes-for-pacific-trade-and-travel-hub
To do what? To mix and match cargoes and ships going to different places? Fiji is better geographically, and Brisbane is only slightly worse geographically but potentially has much more traffic since it would include the Australian market.
It works really well for Singapore since they are sitting on a natural chokepoint that a surprising proportion of the world's shipping passes through. Us, we're out in the middle of fkn nowhere with bugger-all reason for anybody to coma anywhere near us.
edit: first thought; fix the typo. Second thought; nah, it works as it is.
"logical place in NZ"
Ahh. So the purpose is to generate lots of expensive consultancy fees and executive management positions … Got it.
Sheesh. Spelling it out: if China wants to build trade linkages via NZ as the linked article says, where on our coast would that logically go through I asked? And how does that affect other current discussions, like oh rail to Northport?
If it's actually a genuinely serious proposal, rather than an over-excited brainfart of the moment, then Tauranga makes much more sense. Logistically much better for the majority of what New Zealand would move through such a port and very little extra travelling distance for the ships.
Logistically, Tauranga will take too much expensive and environmentally degrading modification, to take the size of ships required.
Marsden point, with proper rail links from Waikato, and coastal feeders, is the best from the shipping point of view, but the politics mean it will be Auckland.
Eventually ports of Auckland will be moved to an artificial island in deep water.
I expect that will be the logical overseas terminal.
Looking at your original comment Sacha. Shipping is going to become increasingly more important for our consideration. So very topical for forward thinkers. Also thinking about lanes and seasons – how will it be affected by the cyclone seasons, rogue waves and current changes etc. Here is some info for the thinking citizen wishing to understand and possibly participate in decision making.
Whangarei presumably has a good port. Also Opua was used for years. One company extols the northern advantages. https://www.shiprepair.co.nz/perfect-deep-water-port/
Other: Info about ports and hydrographic risk assessment from LINZ
Factors about Whangarei – Marine Occurrence Report from Transport Accident Incident Commission: https://taic.org.nz/sites/default/files/inquiry/documents/03-211.pdf
Politically it could make us more important for China using a route that avoids the northern Pacific. Ships using the Indian Ocean route would go around Australia, in north in the straits between Indonesia and Cape York and then to Brisbane or Whangarei; or along west coast Australia to southern tip like Albany then Melbourne or north Tasmania and then to Whangarei. Australia, being closely aligned to USA may be opposed to our connection to the South Indian Ocean route.
I see that Hawaii is an important port in the north Pacific (a USA state and strategically situated for them). Nothing in the south Pacific crossing from South America towards us and Australia. I'll put links about this on a separate comment for those who want to look at it further.
Major Pacific 'chokepoints'. http://ontheworldmap.com/oceans-and-seas/pacific-ocean/pacific-ocean-major-ports-map.html
I was just looking for present shipping lanes and found a great interactive map which may or not be useful for the discussion but it certainly is interesting.
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/25/11503152/shipping-routes-map
Another: http://www.shiptraffic.net/2001/04/south-pacific-ocean-ship-traffic.html
Details for cargo ships: http://arimotravels.com/how-long-does-it-take-a-cargo-ship-to-cross-the-pacific/
and – Experience of being a passenger on a cargo ship. http://arimotravels.com/crossing-the-pacific-cargo-ship-travel-experience/
Further on the Whangarei port possibility.
In the Indian Ocean coming down west Australia and along south Australia coast. http://ontheworldmap.com/oceans-and-seas/indian-ocean/indian-ocean-major-ports-map.html
South China sea – https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/South-China-Sea-political-map.htm
Study from Victoria uni. NZ: https://www.victoria.ac.nz/chinaresearchcentre/programmes-and-projects/china-symposiums/china-and-the-pacific-the-view-from-oceania/10-Yu-Changsen-The-Pacific-Islands-in-Chinese-Geo-strategic-Thinking.pdf
2013 study on risk to Australian ports. http://global-cities.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Climate-resilient-ports-series-Risks.pdf
Australian ports at a glance
Map showing bottom of Ocean – trenches etc. https://www.britannica.com/place/Pacific-Ocean
China (& the belt & road) is somewhat a flashpoint for the contradictions of neo-liberal internationalism.
Where as i'd say a natural win win framework of relationships between NZ & China would be more a regional to regional, people to people emphasis in creating a sense of mutually shared ownership to the international relations of the respective regions, which then generate added value and innovation feedback dynanisms in strengthening ties.
An dynamic community growth approach, rather than a Tim Grosser type slap on the back off limits thousand pages of consultancy deals, cooked up in highly rarified small revolving door economys, which are not much good for anything else.
Bold move from Bridges on Collins. Thought the conventional wisdom was to give troublesome caucus members more to do rather than less?
Call me a cynic but in the time it takes to set the terms of reference of the inquiries into ANZ, I'm sure there is ferocious lobbying by the bank and its defenders to exclude anything which is going to damage the bank (and importantly, John Key) too much.
The Bernard Hickey piece yesterday covered this, the flawed idea that regulatory authorities are tasked with both censure and confidence of the banking system at the same time. They can effectively do both.
Kate MacNamara at least seems to have her eye on things.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/113761618/anzs-100000-maintenance-bill-for-former-ceos-luxury-house
What a surprise that Julie Christie's brother is a mouthy shithead. https://thespinoff.co.nz/food/25-06-2019/leo-molloy-mad-dog-of-the-viaduct/
I see he hasn't changed since his days in Palmy.
Doesn't say much for thespinoff that they didn't spin him off. Being famous for being infamous, mining the lowlife NZs.
His nickname on racing forums was/is the 'Poison Dwarf'.
Utter wanker. Twohanded skinbreaker.
Have to say I and most of the rest of the world agree with Rouhani on this.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12243880
Both CTM and NZ Herald: 'Iran's downing of a US drone'. Herald says it twice in this one article.
While the story is newsworthy, the Herald's version of events is biased and laced with propaganda; and really shouldn't be spread.
I thought that Irani gentleman is being very pointed about an obvious but obfuscated truth in a statesman-like way.
Just look at the link photo. Three bully boys putting on their best bully boy act. We're gonna show you who is boss of this world.
Not a lot of difference to this picture except the guns are not on display in the White House photo.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/mafia-three-men-clan-arrived-meeting-366259814
The Ayatollah will be roling.
American's reach is beyond the grave now? That's just too much tech.
Unsung New Zealander (and lovely man) making waves in world fisheries management: http://www.tunapacific.org/2019/06/24/advocate-for-fair-fishing-the-2019-seafood-champion-of-the-world/
Lovely man and wonderful human being.
I thought that might have been about Shane Jones?
I like this fish story – https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/392962/fishhead-freecycle-scheme-gets-leftover-kaimoana-to-porirua-families
"lovely man" should have been a clue 🙂
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018701382/what-will-auckland-s-future-workforce-look-like
A discussion about the work of a university study looking at the future of Auckland if its BAU. No thinking outside the charmed circle with the unsaid understanding that everyone should lie back and enjoy the machinations resulting from neolib present economics. A scenario of Auckland going from 1 million to 2million in quite a short time. Sigh.
Exciting joined up ideas from Victoria University political thinkers on how we can gain better politics that enable deep thought about our looming problems instead of knee jerk immediacy to ensure positive mention in the media. From Radionz – audio later.
Parliament must hold short-term thinking govts to account: report
Photo: VNP / Phil Smith
A new report finds governments are prone to short term thinking, and parliamentary scrutiny of government performance is limited, unsystematic and reactive. The report, by Victoria University's Institute for Governance and Policy Studies and staff of the Office of the Clerk, was based on interviews with a range of respondents, including current and former MPs, who variously described of parliament's oversight as "broken", "weak", "inadequate" and "patchy". Kathryn speaks with co-author and Professor of Public Policy, Jonathan Boston.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018701385/report-parl-must-hold-short-term-thinking-govts-to-account
Lots of meaty discussion here (or for vegetarians – crunchy celery and carrots). Something all politicistas? will want to follow.
QI @ grey. YEsterday I heard JA somewhere on the MSM say something like "things always take longer than expected"
I immediately thought that just accepting that (all the roadblocks and push backs – often from the supposedly apolitical public service), it might be a nice idea to try to understand why that is – especially if you're trying to be transformational. Btw, even if you believe we have an apolitical public service (especially at senior/muddle management level fully equipped with 'the generic manager'), there is a vested interest in preserving the status quo.
Jonathon Boston's team have come up with some good ideas, and whilst we think that logically, there has to be an additional overhead in bureaucracy, my suspicions are that it'd bring about greater openness and accountability, and eventually those pushing an agenda (especially if their will is to preserve that status quo) might give up some of the bullshit and spin – especially amongs that 'generic managerial' class.
What they are suggesting is more independent advice, and more parliamentary scrutiny – from memory, including the performance of that managerial class. And it'd be somewhat different from things like the old Maori Development Commissions, headed by the likes of Tau Henare, or Paul Quinn fame (the man who disenfranchised prisoners), and which regularly used to just pinch policy off Te Puni Kokiri servers and do a bit of re-wording
And I say all that in the belief that democracy is not meant to be easy. I reckon it might actually speed a few things up, if only because it might put a rocket up a few arses and eliminate much of the bs and spin over time with those who are invested in preservation of the status quo
Hi Owt.
I remember someone I think Education Minister and someone O'Rourke I think saying that she couldn't get in to see Ed Min until about 11 pm at night with briefings to give them because of all the other interests traipsing in first. So you have to have pollies who provide their own crackers, and not rely on their store being topped up by free samples from outside.
We definitely need change and the sort of advice given when we first got offered the panacea of neolib. That advice would act on the in-crowd like being hoist by their own petard, when it came time to deliver them the same medicine they shoved down our throats, better more effective, efficient etc. We have been through their cycle, and like PM Jim Hacker about gongs given out as traditionally, we find that the system has been going for too long, and needs a deep dusting, especially round the pockets.
Indeed.
Even though I'm the first to commend JA and most of her enterage (with some exceptions), and some others in the coalition, we shouldn't forget that most of their adult lives have been spent knowing (more importantly, experiencing) nothing other than a neo-liberal environment. JA will go down in history as being one of NZ's better PMs.
So whilst @Anne and others – even myself, might say much of the public service dysfunction has always existed, the advent of a neo-liberal agenda has industrialised that dysfunction and made it a fucking sight worse – in some cases, almost to the extent it has become normal practice.
(I've seen my share of public servants with political ambitions leaking cabinet papers; others manipulating budgets – getting people to 'split invoices'; still others with cosy little deals with "preferred suppliers"; calling in consultants on the basis of obtaining "independent advice" when those consultants are mates.)
I'd hoped Chippie's PS reform would have been a little higher on the agenda, and when it eventually happens, let's hope there is some consideration of Boston's team's recommendations. (He's not a fool. Nor btw is one of NZ1st's former Vic Uni advisors whose name eludes me atm, even though I used to occasionally share a fag outside Von Zedlitz, ahhhhhh Jonassen! that's it).
I worry for 2023, and even 2020 could turn out to be a bit of a fuckup if we're not careful
Oh, if that all happens, the only excuse will be that "National did it too", or even "National were the first to do it".
So whilst @Anne and others – even myself, might say much of the public service dysfunction has always existed,…
Not strictly true in my case OWT.
Sure there was discrimination on the basis of gender and misogynists were plentiful, but the serious stuff didn't set in until after the PS restructuring of the 80s and 90s.
In the case of the government department I worked for, the director and his senior team were turfed out and managers etc. brought in from outside who didn't have any knowledge of the specialist work we did. Morale plummeted and many long-serving experienced people resigned or took redundancy. The department ended up in a crisis which was resolved by turning it into an SOE and turfing out the new management. They were replaced with people who knew something about the 'product' we produced.
Yep @ Anne. I think we're in agreement.
I think you'll probably agree that PS reform is long overdue.
Probably even to the extent that my belief is that no government (of any stripe) can promise 'transformation' (or even kindness) until such time as there is reform.
I could go on, as I know you could. It wouldn't really be of that much use tho'
Maybe you and I should just start providing specific examples. (I don't know about you, but my bottom line was that I'd never agree to any confidentiality agreement, and I never have)
(I don't know about you, but my bottom line was that I'd never agree to any confidentiality agreement, and I never have).
I had a caveat placed on me by 'management' preventing me from talking to anyone. The truth of the matter: they were conducting a rort against another government department (the RNZAF) and I effectively potted them although to be honest I didn't know it at the time. It happened exactly 30 years ago.
Hilarious to think now that it was the Defence Force who were the unsuspecting recipients. No wonder I was targeted.
I'm reminded of Paula Benefit's quip "zip it sweetie". I've zipped it for 30 years.
Teachers agree to settlement but I need a mathematician to help me understand.
"The latest offer for teachers will reinstate pay parity, give a one-off payment of $1500 to full-time teachers, increase pay by an average of 3 per cent over 3 years for all teachers, lift primary teacher base salary by $14,500, and create a new top step of $90,000."
If a teacher is on $70k and gets a 3% increase, then another 3%, then another 3% where is the magic $10,000 teachers were said to be going to get? $10,000 was the number Hipkins kept saying and the media kept repeating. Saying as if the average teacher was to get an extra 10k a year.
I don't get 10k total for three years at 80k per annum either. ??????
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/113780355/live-primary-teachers-union-nzei-negotiate-governments-latest-pay-offer
This perhaps indicates a need for more and better simple mathematics in schools! And perhaps it was a 10% increase over 3 years and it got morphed into $10,000.
Yes, the media obediently morphed it into $10,000. So easy for the media..
We need journalists better at maths, and with courage to oppose right wing bosses.
I am a secondary teacher. Our last contract expired October 2018. Current offer gives us 3% from July. No backdating, as MPs always get (and we used to many years ago.)
So we have lost in real terms two thirds of the inflation rate. Say 1.5%. Two thirds of that is 1%. So we get in real terms 2%, and that is trusting the official figures about inflation, cost of living, etc. But we wait another year for the next 3%. By that time we have lost another 1.5% in real, inflation-adjusted terms. Total loss of 2.5% since expiry of last contract, which is where the real pay rate should be taken from.
In July 2020 before we get another 3% or whatever, we will be in real terms only ½% better off than we were in October 2018. This is rubbish, and will not stem the flow of young, talented teachers out of the profession. They can earn better elsewhere for less work.
That $10,000 the media put round is plain bullshit.
To prevent this kind of deception, pay increases should be quoted only at yearly rate, and these deceptive 3 or 4 year agreements should be banned.
And we should all regain backpay to expiry date of previous contract, as our cosseted MPs enjoy.
PS – I ignored the one-off payment to union members because a one-off 5% payment counts for little over years, and the union members have lost more than that in union fees over years.
What has been portrayed in the media regarding the increases has played into our Ministers story of how well these greedy teachers have been paid. IMO so that teachers are forced to accept the offer. There has been managed mis information clouding the picture with step increase and increases being combined in the media releases.
And now we have this from Hopkins "We were only willing to put that money on the table because we had an undertaking that that was the final deal, so we'll be sticking to that." Now didn't the unions have to obtain from its members acceptance of the offer ? With Principals not accepting the offer does that mean that the teachers offer has been rescinded ?
Primary teachers with a degree (Q3+) as well as a diploma will go up a big step in the pay scale as well as having the pay rise. Others with teaching degree only (Q3) or no degree (trained in earlier days in the former Teachers' Colleges Q1 & Q2) also get big rises. Here's a link showing the progressions:https://campaigns.nzei.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/20190614-Proposed-Terms-of-Settlement-PTCA-1.pdf
If it's a 10% increase over 3 years then that means it's a 10/3% increase per year or 1/30 increase per year
80000+80000*1/30 = 82666.67
82666.67+82666.67*1/30=85422.23
85422.23+85422.23*1/30 = 88269.64
88269.64 + 1500 = 89769.64
So pretty close to $10,000
But “$10k increase” is all worked out on averages – and I would suspect that the average increase would be a lot higher than the median increase – income generally being skewed.
Teachers will be interested in the median increase ("what do I get") whereas govt will be interested in the average increase ("what is this policy going to cost us in total")
Well I took 10% increase over 3 years to mean that by the end of three years, there would have been a 10% increase on the first, base year. So there is room for confusion in the minds of the unknowing.
mpledger – As above, if it is not backdated, it is over 3.66 years for the first 3 years. That affects later years. Redo.
And where are you allowing for inflation?
New Kiwirail investment includes bigger container wagons to take on truckies: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/392851/kiwirail-spend-hundreds-of-new-locomotives-and-wagons
Microbes in the soil is where the new antibiotics are coming from!! WtB is going to be a good person to give us the dirt on the dirt!
Interesting discussions about the new antibiotics needed on Radionz.
Superbugs. A doctor's fight against antibiotic-resistance
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Our anti-biotics are starting to fail us – with some predictions that in the next quarter of a century there could be more deaths from super bugs than heart disease or cancer. Dr. Matt McCarthy is an infectious disease doctor at Weill Cornell Medical College, a staff physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the author of "Superbugs: The Race To Stop An Epidemic." He's also got first hand knowledge of the hoops you have to go through to get new drugs approved.
Audio later.
I'm more inclined to see phages (bacterial viruses) as the new big thing with regards to fighting bacterial infection.
The dirt on dirt is that we find new things every time we look. The scope for discoveries is enormous. Likewise we've barely a clue what's in plants, fungi, animal proteins and more.
Many fields are opening up as meta-data becomes more timely and affordable to obtain. We can take a soil sample and run a DNA test and pull out pretty much all the species therein – most of which are merely assigned numbers as we're unable to cultivate them yet. So we don't know what they do, what they make or which other species they interact with. Those species we can cultivate display remarkable variance in metabolites they produce. Some of which are antibiotics.
New enzymes, medicines, foods and more will arise from a seemingly infinite (no they're not, we've tried that already with the planet) pool of resources. Resources that are rapidly being depleted as we continue to wage war on the natural world.
Ethical science coupled with nature will take us far. Corporate biotech – a nightmare waiting to happen.
Well we always seem to want to be fighting something. That will give us something to do while we sink back to the chimpanzees hitting each other with rocks as in start of 2001 A space Odyssey. Hal may help; to explain the real world to us seeing we can't work it out for ourselves.
We'll be hooked up in a satellite queue in space soon, while there is space in the waiting lounge, we can put our sticky fingers into the earth and go into inner space. Or we can sit in the eternal waiting lounge as in film Beetlejuice, which shows people looking as vacant as in the normal airport waiting area.
Fran O not happy that Peters and Robertson refer to Key as 'Mr Key'…paywalled at NZH..
Fran O'Sullivan: Winston Peters gunning for wrong ANZ scalp ''
I think she's getting a salary top up from one of Key's blind trusts.
Hey if it can't see who it is giving money to, how can I get into the elite queue?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/24/opinion/palestinian-peace-bahrain-conference.html
Israel has taken the Worlds comparative silence on the mass shooting of Palestinians (amongst other things) as a sign that the time is right..lets save the bullets and the general hassel, lets just ask the Palestinians to destroy themselves.
And, apparently, thats just fine.
While I agree the choice of words was poor, it is pretty obvious that the current situation is not working for the Palestinians. There was a time when Gaza had an airport and a building boom. That is now two decades in the past.
The constant confrontation with Israel is getting Gaza nowhere. All it does is reinforce the Israeli mentality that they can't deal with the Gaza administration.
You could say the Israelis need to take the first step. In fact it needs to be the Palestinians. Israel can act the way it does for many decades hence. It is much easier for them to cope with the current situation than it is for the Palestinians.
The Palestinians therefore need to think of what they can do that is different from their current stance that will make a difference. It is clear they can't win a war, or increase rocket attacks, or anything of that nature. Israel will always be able to deal with that.
So they need to think of something different. Maybe full statehood is an unattainable dream, at least for the next 2 or 3 decades. What else can they get that will appreciably improve the current situation. In short Palestine needs to find an interim path, that will last the next two or three decades.
Wayne's words of wisdom. "While I agree the choice of words was poor, it is pretty obvious that the current situation is not working for the Palestinians."
A US cheerleader. Palestine's position is untenable thanks to US arming Israel to the teeth. Also Israeli leadership condoning and even advocating violence doesn't help. The continuous land grabs, cutting off of aid… so much history. Now they've US and NZ cheerleaders. FFS.
But, the lad threw a tennis ball.
BOOM!
The bullies of the world need to back down. These so called civilised nations -disgusting shitheels.
Easy way to think about Palestine and Israel, if Palestine gave up its guns and violent aspiration for destruction of Israel, thier support of undemocratic terrorist organisation as thier government there would be peace and progress If Israel gave up its guns there would be a genocide massacre Simple really
I'm simply not interested in your opinion so stop answering to my posts. Haven't you got any mates?
Still weepy bleepy I see
Don’t like answers to your post, simple fix Don’t post 👍
Moderators. this is the third time I've asked bewildered to leave me alone. He merely apes what right wing media says and gets smart, it's tedious. He also likes to use my personal information against me. It is a form of cyberstalking and I'm about had enough.
I will stop contributing if I can't come here without this guy thinking it's fair game to try his usual nonsense on.
While you have a few trolls, this one has taken a shine to me.
See below for another example. He thinks the fact I grow kumara is hugely funny.
There is no option to block him.
Ignore commenters who (try to) wind you up. By that, I mean scroll past and literally do not read their comment.
You may have noticed that the same commenter pisses off many regulars here on a regular basis and often receives a vitriolic response in return.
We tend to follow a fairly light-handed approach to moderation here and I certainly don’t do ‘moderation requests’. TS is a place for robust debate and we want to keep it this way. As you know, my tolerance for personal insults and attacks is relatively low but sometimes even that resolves itself, until next time …
It does depend on which commenters are involved, context, how tired I am, and on my general mood. I don’t pretend for one second to be consistent, impartial, or correct at all times, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles here on TS and why I do prefer to warn and appeal to and for self-moderation rather than to ban 🙂
Well he keeps following me round and after three attempts to stop it there is not a word spoken to him. So you can keep bewildered and I will go.
It is a pattern of harassment you should be on top of.
Go well, I'm out.
If you provide links I can come to an informed opinion rather than taking your word for it. If it turns out there is a clear case to answer I’ll give out a warning and put them on my ‘watch list’ but unless they incite violence, make personal threats, or launch into vile personal attacks, etc., I won’t block/ban them outright.
It would be sad to see you leave TS but if that’s better for you then I wish you well.
PS the other moderators may see it differently.
See my comment to muttonbird below bleeps before you finally go
Noted, thanks.
There was a crystal clear directive from TRP a few months ago that using the personal information a commenter might have offered in the past against them, and even using a commenters past comments in arguments against them would not be tolerated.
I understand every moderator is different though.
Indeed, we all moderate in different ways, which adds an element of unpredictability and surprise, just like ‘real life’ 😉
Yesterday, I warned another recidivist commenter to leave things of the past in the past. It was his third and last warning.
We all live busy lives and cannot and do not want to micro-manage and/or police the site.
As you know, TRP has not been around for a while.
Let’s have less about Janes bbq then , a mild reference to kumera is hardly crime of the year I go at bleep when he goes at me I don’t troll him I just don’t agree with a lot of his comments and respond in kind in my own style , massive overreaction on his his part I don’t ; want to ruin Bleeps day and he sounds a bit precious I will desist responding to him forthwith re self censorship
@Bewildered, you are obviously a happy supporter racist apartheid of or a complete fucking moron, probably both.
And I love you to Adrian ❤️
you have a sense of humor I think which make me wonder if you are a rightie or just a winder uperer – either way move on – there are plenty to tussle with rather than tussle with someone who doesn't want to be tussled with. – I meant wtb there
Done as per above, I am self censoring any comms with the bleep, not a peep to the bleep from now on 👍
Why don't the pair of you just agree to disagree, as I enjoy the comments from BOTH of you. Don't agree with a lot of them but it part and parcel of this site and as Iprent has expressed the site tolerates ROBUST debate. Also it makes my old grey matter work and seek other area's for info, more than can be said about the crap we read, listen to called the MSM
You are missing the point. Israel has the power to act disproportionately. It has done so, and will continue to do so. Because of Israel’s history they are not going to stop doing that.
Most nations are not going to do a BDS on Israel, not with the memory of the Nazi persecution. Neither will left wing protests have any effect. In fact a number of Middle East nations are building links with Israel. The Palestinians are even loosing support of a number of Middle East governments.
Palestine/Gaza can’t win against Israel. These days they can’t even seriously disrupt Israel.
So if Palestine/Gaza wants to change the situation, they are the ones who have to change. Their current strategy has self evidently failed. They are going to have to stop the attacks, they are going to have to accept Israel, they are going to have to change the narrative among their people. Unless they do this, nothing will change. In fact the social and economic fabric of Gaza will continue to get worse.
Israel seems bent on genocide and the rhetoric coming out here leads me to believe no different. I met Israeli soldiers on holiday in Australia. Lovely people – till they started talking about Palestine. Then it was a seething hatred. "Vermin, scum! They need to be extinguished! Indoctrinated from birth by nasty warmongering leadership and an extremely racist state.
While I've dealt with a lot of bullies over the years, I've never developed a tolerance for them.
This 'solution' on offer is typical one sided garbage – here, eat some shit, now say you like it or I'll hit you.
Palestines social and economic fabric has been unravelled for some time now. And every time they start to build a home – guess who fucking bombs it.
Nazi Germany is not an excuse for a new wave of Nazis led by the US trying this bullshit on.
And Hamas Fatah are miss understood angles Come on weepy your smarter than basing an opinion on meeting a couple of Israelites on holiday One bad kumera does not mean you right off the whole crop
Tunnels and bombs bleepy, tunnels and bombs. The Arab world wants Israel gone and the Palestinian people are their weapon of choice.
I'm not condoning either sides tendencies to violence. It is just seriously one-sided. Part of the reason the Arab world hates Israel (I think that statement's too broad btw) is the company they keep.
Bewilderfuddled – You get out what you put in. Israel has treated Palestinians so badly that Israel now thoroughly deserves Hamas Fatah.
Martin Luther Kings is still correct ,,,,, and could be talking about you wayne
““We again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long,”
It should also come as no surprise that you would hold the moral low ground in comparison to the views of Nelson Mandela
Miko Peled is more informed and more honest than bewildered wayne or neo-con zionists
"While I agree the choice of words was poor"…this is an op-ed in the New York Times, written by the Israeli representative to the United Nations.
His choice of words is very very well thought out, and deemed acceptable by both his Israeli Government bosses, and the Chief Editors of The New York Times.
They all consider it acceptable to ask a Nation and a Race of people to commit 'Cultural and Political Suicide'.
The choice of words is not 'poor'. This isn't some essay written by a 6th form social studies student.
The Israelis want the Palestinians to Culturally and Politically Cleanse themselves.
The Israelis have said it, they have acted on it.
Even more scarily, they seem to have convinced people such as yourself that cultural and political cleansing is the answer.
I still think it is bad words, even more do now that I know they were pre planned.
i am not suggesting poitical or cultural cleansing, just a rethink of the obviously failed current strategy. Maybe something like Hong Kong solution for the next period.
Ex-Nasty Party cabinet minister uses the phrase "pre planned". No doubt in a National caucus meeting such illiteracy would go un-noticed and unremarked.
Yes, I know perfectly well that it was not the correct spelling. It was being done on a phone just before the door closed on a plane. No time to correct it.
I do understand what your position is Wayne, I simply don't agree this is the way forward. I also don't know enough to posit an alternative…
Vote in leaders that represent their best interest would be a start Not sure how you negotiate with a party who’s conviction is your destruction and once voted in democratically after Israel gave up gaza strip have never had another election
I think we are both in the same position about what should be done next. How do the Palestinians make meaningful progress toward their aspirations?
Clearly they are not making much now. Especially in Gaza where they are going backwards. Ironically in Gaza there are no Israeli settlers with designs on expropriating territory. The boundaries of Gaza are quite clear. You would think that fact would enable progress. If the Gaza/Palestine attacks stopped so would the (disproportionate) Israeli retaliation. Then the two sides could make progress. A progressive reduction of the blockade, more social and economic development. I imagine statehood would be some ways off, but as a number of self governing places show, there can be effective international recognition. Think Cook Islands, Hong Kong, Bermuda, etc.
Your suggestion is predicated on the assumption that the Palestinians can do anything to stop the trend towards their total expulsion by the Israelis.
I do not believe that this is the case.
Where they expelled from Gaza, I thought it was given up by Israel They could be living a lot better if they dropped the nonsense Note I agree their ideal in claiming lost land back is not possible but irrespective their lives could be a load better than now for themselves and their kids
The Israelis are following a simple template: ghettoisation followed by encroachment (settlements nibbling away here and there, official ones create and illegal expansions ignored). The following step is the 'cleansing' part.
You reckon the Israelis won't do the third step if the Palestinians just act like good little subjugated peons. Maybe. I'm sure some folks thought that in 1937, as well.
Gaza was only placed under restrictions after all the nonsense started, rockets, tunnels, before that I believe flow of goods and people was pretty open both Egypt and Israel side
Hmmm… I suspect that you either just a hypocrite or plain stupid.
So how does that explain the array of checkpoints all of the way through the West Bank? Not only near illegal settlements but also through areas that are wholly Palestinian.
To me that just looks like an method of ghettoisation and a way of making sure that all commerce is stifled in the West Bank outside of the illegal settlements.
What came first the chicken or the egg I know there has always been check points ( I have actually been to Gaza and through the Ramallah gate into Egypt after crossing over from Israel I lived in the Negev quite close to Gaza strip) but the flow and restrictions really ramped up after all the trouble started, Hamas take over following Israel pull out I think you know this Lprent so i will put your first question to me back to you If I am wrong I will go with B
The Israeli occupation came first.
Welcome to the world of New Zealand politics, Siobhan. This fellow is a notorious dissembler. You're arguing in good faith, he's still a politician.
May be the money they are offering the Palestinians they could offer to the Jews to fuck of to there natural homeland the USA there problem fixed.
Um, I think Jews have been in holy land for about 5000 years there Pete Your letting hatred of Jews and Yanks cloud your judgment
Ashkenazi Jews (i.e. those from Eastern Europe) are the modern Israelis and have not been in Palestine for 5000 years . Sephardic Jews on the other hand do have a place in Palestine, but they are also discriminated against by the majority.
http://theconversation.com/ashkenazic-jews-mysterious-origins-unravelled-by-scientists-thanks-to-ancient-dna-97962
…For a more scientific take on the Jewish origin debate, recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is European. It has also been found that their DNA only has 3% ancient ancestry which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East)…
Study you quote is not conclusive
But some scientists question these conclusions. “While it is clear that Ashkenazi maternal ancestry includes both Levantine [Near Eastern] and European origins—the assignment of several of the major Ashkenazi lineages to pre-historic European origin in the current study is incorrect in our view,” physician-geneticists Doron Behar and Karl Skorecki of the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Israel, whose previous work indicated a Near Eastern origins to many Ashkenazi mitochondrial types, wrote in an e-mail to The Scientist. They argue that the mitochondrial DNA data used in the new study did not represent the full spectrum of mitochondrial diversity.
Its military aid from the usa which allows the extreme actions of ultra zionists to take place.
https://mikopeled.com/category/gaza/
National cabinet members are obliged to lie, and defend the indefensible. Some of the scoundrels continue to lie and defend the indefensible even after they slither out of office.
Israel's commercial relationships with Saudi Arabia – on multiple fronts – is running rings around the Palestinians, so they have little motivation to solve the Palestinian problem. And the Israeli natural gas tie-up with Egypt will sustain common interest for a very long time.
Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are fully motivated to unite with the United States against Iran.
I sure wouldn't wish it on the world, but there's plenty to pull strongly conservative Jewish and Islamic states into common interest against a common foe.
Personally I'm a believer in the one state solution. Israel accepts Palestinians as voters with exactly the same rights as Jewish Israelis including conscription into the armed forces (and get rid of the exemption for ultra-orthodox at the same time). Give everyone exactly the same rights to bear arms. See if the two groups can work out a compromise by attrition of the bigots on both sides.
Eventually that is what will have to happen anyway unless the Israeli government wants to either really give up land or start an extermination that will result in some nukes being dropped on them.
Because of the way that the Israeli government has abrogated their promises and agreements over the years, I don’t think that anyone would actually believe a two party state solution could work that they are involved in. Anyone who tried it would probably wind up like Rabin.
Iprent,
Your solution is not going to happen. Israel has found that its wall for keeping people out has been extremely effective. Israel would much prefer to have a territory that they know is theirs and that does not let anyone they don’t want to get in. Their wall does precisely that.
So from an Israeli perspective it is far better for the Palestinians to be in Gaza and on the West Bank (or at least some of it) and not be able to come into Israel. For the last twenty years that has worked well for Israel. Why would Israel take the risk of upsetting that situation. The reality is that they won’t.
So it is back to a two state solution, but probably not on as good a terms as 20 years ago. Israel can put up with the current situation for many decades hence. It is not genocide, but it also not good for the Palestinians, especially those in Gaza. Will the Palestinians be able to accept that for decades or will they decide to negotiate?
Where do you get your nukes outcome from? Handmade backpacks? Impossible to do without a source of plutonium. Which can only come from a state. And which is traceable to specific reactors. I wouldn’t want to be in the state that did that.
And as a coincidence, Jared Kruschner is on Al Jarezza tonight. Being interviewed in the historic rooms in the White House.
The problem is that because of the wall, settlements, and the way that Israel has treated Gaza and the West Bank – there is no possible settlement on anything like the current basis. It simply isn't a viable state.
There is absolutely no way that any governing body in the occupied territories is going to accept a situation that leaves them as badly off or potentially worse off (see the recent history of Gaza) as they are now – and that is ALL that Israel now has to offer. Their internal politics, because of the weird dynamic that makes the extremes the only viable way to go, is steadily cutting off their options.
The deteriorating status quo that Israel can't have any kind of normal state either. They have to run a budget deficit because of running standing garrisons, effectively be propped up financially and militarily by the US, and run a siege economy always looking with askarance at their own arab citizens. At some point something won't work any more.
Anything can happen to disrupt it. America retreats into isolationism. The extremists in Israel revert further into barbarism and start emulating nazis with death camps (the resemblance between Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto is getting particularly marked). There gets to be a health disaster in Gaza or the West Bank. Or just the real lunatics in Israel start killing just because they can and being cheered on by fuckwits in government
Hell – just the situation that I see now makes me want to sanction Israel. I'd like to kick their embassy out and ban all trade with them. After all the Palestinians are in fact their citizens. If they can’t deal with them humanely – they they’re no better than the apartheid governments that we do sanction.
I’ve seen this press release from this organisation on scoop,
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1906/S00322/rail-is-about-economics-wellbeing-environment.htm
And I’m wondering where I can find these 6 reports to have a read over on a quiet day.
“We could name six solid Ministry of Transport rail studies and none were reviewed.”
I’ll be out bush for the next 4 to 5 days and unless I’m at one of the two pubs out bush I won’t have Internet to reply to this post or follow up either.
Cleangreen
You should know about where the six MoT reports could be found on the literature? Can you give these or a guide to what ExKiwiforces is asking>
Do you know all about the Scoop piece linked above? This is the last line that intrigues him.
'We could name six solid Ministry of Transport rail studies and none were reviewed. Why?'
Iran thinks of itself as just another state, but it isn't, it's the most religiously zealous of all nations. Religion, when core to the head of state has always led to war, as religion has no self regulator as it's leader believes they speak for God. Until Iran dislodged its holythanthou leadership it going to remain a pariah. N.Korea at least has a monarchy, Kim fires the nuke, his family goes up in smoke. A holy roller however wins martyrdom. Forget Israel, Saudi Arabia, issues with Iran, stupid deranged religion zealotry at the heart of Iran natural rub up them, for at its core Iran is a global threat to stability.
Agree and much the same with Palestinians leadership, especially Hamas
Oh for fuck sake the biggest problem in the middle east is the Yanks and the Jews mainly the yanks.
That’s not a logical argument Pete, its a circular reasoning, your predicate is your conclusion
Quite idiotic really, Iran is one of the most stable, democratic countries in the Middle east and you're trying to say it's one of the most dangerous.
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/iran
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/israel
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2018/saudi-arabia
Does not a Minister from the NZ Labour party NOT understand how a union operates.
The union could NOT made such an undertaking. It had to go to a vote by IT's members, and Chris guess what not everyone accepted your offer.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=12244135
"We were only willing to put that money on the table because we had an undertaking that that was the final deal, so we'll be sticking to that.".
True – It appears that Hipkins has little idea.
Foolish of him to speak like that. The PPTA vote has not come in yet. They actually gain so little in real terms that I hope they vote no.
Hipkins now deserves it if it goes that way.
I request that the management and moderators have a meeting and look at the approach of the blog. You have a set idea that was established a while ago, and it is time to review it. Everything changes these days, and it is necessary to look at processes and see if they are fit for purpose.
It seemed that the blog has matured to something that aims for higher discussion while being good natured, and reflecting people's wide interests, not just political discussion leading to better policy in the country. It is rare to get NZs discussing general important political matters, not just those personally affecting them.
People are encouraged to come and express themselves on Open Mike. Fine. When they start to troll and sneer, they have had that opportunity and they should be given a warning and then told to go for a month without a lot of heart-wrenching. Inviting people to come here but then allowing them to constantly downplay and nitpick every assay at an idea is deadening this site. It is half full of these malicious people who want to throw the spanner in the works of those trying to build community of ideas and policy.
If this is just a place where people can have a game of politics then I have been mistaken trying to put up information that would help to background policy issues. I despise the trolls here, and regard some of them as perverted as bad as sexual predators. Their object is sleazy self-satisfaction and they are here harassing good, sincere people trying to form ideas and policies that will assist all of NZ to a better level of political management. I request that the regular supporters of this blog who want to discuss left wing politics in an analytical but supportive way are allowed to get on with it instead of being hounded by trolls, nipping at heels and messing up the conversations.
I can't understand why the people who actually do the thinking and debating, which has settled to a reasonable level of robustness, do not have any standing in decisions about trolls. If regular commenters complain and wish for a troll to be removed for a period or permanently, that should be the wish of the 'elders' of the site. That would be an adult, mature example of a participatory democracy.
Bad timing Grey, or was it intentional on your part?
Anyone of a ‘thinking nature’ is currently focusing what is going on in the House tonight – far more important than your attempt to take over the TS nest as a supposed 'Greywarbler' (but in reality a 'Shining Cuckoo' in my opinion). I have wondered when you would pitch your 'takeover' but can't really be bothered focusing on it tonight. Remind us some other time Those of us of a 'thinking nature' as you refer to in your endless sactimoneous sermons are otherwise engaged tonight.
Oh, and by the way, that is from one woman in her 70s (me) to another in the same age bracket. IIRC you turned 77 in Feb 2019 a couple of years older than me, but still in the same overall age bracket.
A report out from BERL today laying out the benefits of Industry based bargained Collective Agreements.
http://www.union.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Sector-wage-bargaining-Pipiri-2019.pdf
That last point is the kicker. The mantra from the neo liberal right was deregulate and wages will increase. Deregulate and workers will grow richer. Deregulate and productivity will rise and that will flow down to workers via larger pay packets. Whereas the reality of the NZ economy is that a higher slice of the cake is now claimed by employers and a smaller slice by workers. The % claimed by employers has increased, the % claimed by workers decreased. The gain from productivity have disproportionately flowed to the holders of capital.
Hello I am off to look for grandchildren. And I do not declare my gender. Iam sorry veutoviper but you are out of touch with what is needed to face our future. If I don't get thrown out or any wider positive response to me I will happily leave it to you old people stuck in your groove of superiority and wisdom which is not justified as one looks around at our current state. Pity you didn't apply that wisdom when it was needed to shift us away from the Path of Doom. Now it seems too late for you to learn anything from anyone who you don't regard as a Suitable Authority.