TULSI2020: In the hours following the 1st debate, while millions of Americans searched for info about Tulsi, Google suspended her search ad account w/o explanation. It is vital to our democracy that big tech companies can’t affect the outcome of elections https://t.co/n7Y7y2dQZ9
Here are five disturbing findings from my research, which adheres, I believe, to the highest possible scientific standards inall respects:1.In 2016, biased search results generated by Google’s search algorithml ikely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton(whom I supported). I know this because I preserved more than 13,000 election-related searches conducted by a diverse group of Americans on Google, Bing, and Yahoo in the weeks leading up to the election, and Google search results –which dominate search in the U.S. and worldwide –were significantly biased in favor of Secretary Clinton in all 10 positions on the first page of search results in both blue states and red states. I know the number of votes that shifted because Ihave conducted dozens of controlled experiments in the U.S. and other countries that measure precisely how opinions and votes shift when search results favor one candidate, cause, or company. I call this shift “SEME” –the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. My first scientific paper on SEME was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS) in 2015 (https://is.gd/p0li8V)(Epstein & Robertson, 2015a) and has since been accessed or downloaded from PNAS’s website more than 200,000 times. SEME has also been replicated by a research team at one of the Max Planck Institutes in Germany
Abandoned at birth by his father Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin searches for his life's purpose. With the help of some friends, Bitcoin rises from total obscurity to become a Batman–esque hero of the people who fights against the corrupt banking system that oppresses everyone.
In the pilot episode, Bitcoin awakens to a chaotic world following the 2008 financial crisis. With only a few words to his young child, Satoshi disappears, leaving Bitcoin with more questions than answers. Fortunately, a benevolent ice cream truck owner (Jones) takes Bitcoin under his wing in a search to find his father.
Bitcoin is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people delude themselves that it has value. In tangible terms, it's purely a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity.
Our present financial system is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people [in pivotal positions manipulate it and in the confidence in its value by many] assure themselves that it has value.
In the end, the value of a state-issued currency is made tangible by that state having powers of compulsion over its citizens. So in that sense, yes, the backing is utterly reliant on the confidence of its citizens. That confidence can be lost, Zimbabwe and Venezuela being notable recent examples. But it takes a fairly cataclysmic societal upheaval to decimate the value of a state-issued currencly. Whereas a ponzi-scheme con game like crypto-currency could collapse from something as ephemeral as the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along.
Your point is made…but 'the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along' sounds just the idea of having a floating currency as the remarkable idea brought by the emissary from the Finsec riding on his magic wand that solved the problem of states trying to hold a stable currency against those who doubted its equivalency. So we decide on the unstable currency dependent on the 'next shiny idea' of the Alex's out there.
And in their persecution and murder of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria, Isis – which included Muslims from around the world – may not have been specifically aided by the local population; but while Arabs tried to protect their neighbours, others systematically looted their homes and property after Isis had slaughtered or deported the owners. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/holocaust-armenia-genocide-shoah-nazi-germany-turkey-ottoman-a9020601.html
And Don't hold back on fascist fighting …. 32 secs
If anybody deserves a holocaust …it would have to be those fascists …. 1min 32 secs :0
A regime huckster putting words in the mouths of his opponents.
Putting words in the mouths of others, hardly amounts to giving a balanced account.
Allah must never forgive anyone who shows mercy towards the Alawites, screams the opposition activists of Syria”
Faisal Qasim
From this beginning Faisal Qasim goes on to demolish the sectarian straw man argument of his own creation.
Despite Syria being a majority Sunni Muslim country, (and naturally the make up of the majority of the opposition reflect this reality). there have been and are Alawites and Christians who have been in the opposition even in leading positions.
Fadwa Soliman the famed Actress and political activist from Homs who became the most nationally recognised face of the opposition was from a notable Alawite family.
Homs was completely destroyed and depopulated by the regime's genocidal aerial bombardment. To escape this aerial genocide Fadwa Soliman along with tens of thousands of other citizens of Homs was forced to flee the rebel city and become a refugee.
Fadwa Soliman died in exile in France in 2017.
Reason, to finish, will ask you one simple question, it is a question I have always asked regime apologists like yourself.
I have lost track of the number of times I have asked it. And not once since I first posed it, have I ever received a single response from you, or any of the other pro-regime apologists who infest this site
To expose the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself Reason, I will again ask this question and challenge you to give an answer.
Jenny … … the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
You ignored in Wayne Mapp like fashion … the serious part of my post
And in their persecution and murder of Christians and Yazidis in Iraq and Syria,,,,,
Homs … “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to their graves!”
Amnesty International have stated that Raqqa was the worst example of total destruction and indifferent killing of civilians in either Iraq or Syria …. done by your fascist fighters … the good guys.
I've already told you who started it .,.. who is to blame … so your being dishonest yet again.
the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
Reason
Indeed he was a loon, just as you say. Faisal Qasim a sort of Arabic shock jock whose show has had 'guests' brawling in front of the cameras. Qasim had been criticised in the past for his habit of hand picking such unrepresentative loons to make his straw man arguments.
In this case a man who lives in Lebanon unknown in Syria, representative of no group or organisation in Syria or Lebanon, or anywhere else who makes no claim of being connected to any group or organisation and who speaks for nobody but himself. A 'loon' quite happy no doubt with his appearance fee to spout his lunacy.
I am sure you could find some loon like this in Lebanon if you specifically went and looked for them.
On another note. I have never used the term Assadist which I consider trite.
Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest.
I notice Reason that just like every other Assad apologist before you, you haven't answered the question.
Why is that?
Do you think it is a trick question?
I am sure you can argue all day long about false flags and crisis actors and faked videos and the rebels gassing their own people to make the Assad regime look bad.
But it is hard to make such arguments in the face of evidence of a whole city destroyed.
As I said your refusal to answer this simple question exposes the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself.
The truth is we know what we have to do and we can't do it, yet. They are killing us all for money – get that? money – a figment of our imagination.
These 10 companies produced 54.5 million tonnes of CO2 – more than two thirds of NZ's total emissions. Combined, they produced an estimated 54.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, roughly two-thirds of the national total.
That is very clearly put marty mars, but of course such a statement can be as easily applied to the person in the old toyota corolla or the new suv who whizzes past those of us on the road who walk everywhere …
or had the fireplace going last night …
aren't we all complicit by way of our daily actions?
In the case of the fuel companies, it's because the emissions are attributed to the company, not to the fuel buyer that actually burns it and emits the CO2.
Old cars must have a lesser carbon footprint than new because the making and materials would probably be amortised over say ten years, and then be about nil, only running and fuel costs then, and recycled parts often – so a lot of good can come from old cars.
Our lives and the economy have been built around oil-driven cars. What would it have been like if the steam-driven cars had succeeded? There would have been a contest for water, but most of what was used would have come down in rain somewhere wouldn't it?
The Stanley Steamer may have been the answer, killed off by better funded more aggressive Ford. The motor manufacturers had the bit between the teeth, figuratively, and didn't like anyone introducing different ideas to the public, even shatter-proof safety glass, note Tucker.
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924. The cars made by the company were colloquially called Stanley Steamers, although several different models were produced.
It would be hard to dislike Jonathan Pie as he always presents my point of view in technicolour.
Then the selection that came up after his rant showed Stephen Fry – I am not sure whether he is for or against Brexit, but I would be likely to vote for him if there were just the two – Johnson and Fry for choice. And Fry's make chocolate too don't they – a winning name then. He is more fun than Boorish. And I think he said that his family was Hungarian, so you get diversity straight away to match and perhaps top Boris – Boris has Turkish delight as his sweet spot I think.
Thanks Grey. What makes it more fun, is that those bits were probably unscripted. What a clever chapStephen is. There was a set where he took the hypocrisy of the church to task. Bowled 'em all for a duck.
Clever, funny and possibly principled too. Though that should not be held against him if sizing him up for a politician! Got to have a larf occasionally.
What did poor old Boris Becker do to be connected to this?
His personal life may have been just as turbulent as that of the other Boris but I hardly think he is responsible for Brexit. Let's just remember him as a really great tennis player.
The Coalition of Kindness gives not a shit about disability.
The fact that disabled New Zealanders are neglected and abused (sometimes to death) under the care of Ministry of Health providers matters not.
The recent announcement regarding the end of discrimination of family carers providing assessed supports was nothing but a PR stunt that failed to convince commenters here on the day, and it is now confirmed by our state broadcaster that the numbers simply don't add up.
New delegations for the associate Ministers of Health have been announced and responsibility for the Health Promotion Agency/Te Hiringa Hauora (HPA) has shifted from Hon Jenny Salesa to Hon Peeni Henare.
The full list of responsibilities is:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Peeni Henare
Responsibility for policy and service delivery realting to:
Māori health equity
the Health Promotion Agency
blood and organ donation (including the New Zealand Blood Service)
diabetes
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Jenny Salesa
Reponsibility for policy and service delivery relating to:
Pacific health equity
problem gambling
healthy school environments
health of older people
tobacco
ethics committees
special patients
the Health Quality and Safety Commission
HealthCERT and quality assurances (including Radiation Safety)
Disability Support Services
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Responsibility for policy and service delivery relating to the following areas (with the exeption of remuneration issues, which are retained by the Minister of Health):
climate change and health
population health (built environments)
women's health (including maternity services, breast and cervical cancer screening, and the health aspects of abortion)
sexual health
family and sexual violence
public health (including immunisation, but excluding drinking water)
other initiatives as agreed from time to time.
I despair. I really do.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
So would I but let's not hold our breath waiting. Disabled persons in NZ are now officially at the bottom of the food chain. I would go as far as to say below hardened violent criminals for the simple reason that they don't get ignored by politicians and the media, especially at election time. We just don't exist.
Let's see how many of them vote for the EOLC Bill. I can actually envisage some of them spinning it that allowing the sick and disabled the choice is upholding human rights.
Disability seems to be listed under Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
As for not adding up, the $22.8M.p.a. seems to be slightly under the halfway point of Easton's projection of costs including the new families ($19.4-27.8M.p.a.). Which is reasonable for a budget allocation.
Needs assessments do need an overhaul, though. Vote Green to get it done.
Disability is at the bottom of the list of Jenny Salesa's responsibilities.
The new allocation of funding is only just enough to raise the hourly rate of those already being paid under the discriminatory Funded Family Care.
Those of us who could conceivably paid for the assessed supports we are providing will have to settle for a mere fraction of what has been allocated.
Had I the time McFlock I'd point you in the direction of numerous reports generated with government funding that describe only to clearly the legion of failings of the NASC assessment process. As if it is accurate to describe it as a "process" as that implies some sort of plan, or consistency, or structure.
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation. And if it happens that there is a shortfall, you and the Greens will lobby to get more funding allocated and backpaid, no?
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation.
Well, McFlock…why do you think that the local building inspector has to sign off on the foundations of a building before the walls and roof can go up?
In fact, if they did allow the build to proceed with dodgy foundations they'd be liable, surely?
(Or maybe not, since accountability is a dirty word these days.)
My initial optimism that Sunday (Sunday?! to make a major announcement on a bleeding Sunday!…who does that???) was subdued by the knowledge that repeated Ministers from successive governments have been totally and utterly impotent in the face of the often malevolence shown by the Ministry of Health towards disabled people who choose (or have no other option) to have a family member providing their assessed supports. And the MOH bureaucrats have a particular level of contempt towards family carers.
Putting this right could be ridiculously simple once the longstanding issue of inadequate and inconsistent NASC assessments has been sorted.
But this government is too chickenshit to demand that the Ministry of Health DSS makes this work an absolute priority.
Or/and this government truly do believe that disability support deserves it's place and the bottom of the Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
Building inspectors don't assume that the place will fall down before they receive the plans.
But they're the wrong functionary in the building analogy, anyway. People build a new home aim for a value of say $500,000. But that's just an estimate. They'll try to bring it in on budget, but if it comes out to be more expensive, there's usually a certain leeway in their cost estimate to absorb a bit more expense. It might be $497k, but they might push to $580k or more.
What they don't do is get all dismayed about the project because the plans costed out the dwelling but the driveway isn't included. They will ask about the cost of that detail, but it's not a portent of project doom.
McFlock. I can see this is not your particular area of knowledge or expertise so I'll try and explain.
The Ministry of Health Disability Support Services has this database (called SOCRATES) they set up back in…2007 or so.. which in 2013 was finally persuaded to regurgitate some actual, well,data.
Up until then, and Brian Easton (blessings upon him and his kin) made mention of this in his 2008 brief of evidence to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for Atkinson, actual numbers of people enrolled with each area NASC were sketchy to say the least.
Those enrolled who had high and very high support needs (as assessed by the NASC) they could only make the wildest of guesses.
The numbers with high and very high support needs who were costing the Ministry NOTHING to support because an unpaid family carer was doing those tasks unpaid, they had very little idea…but…strangely enough by the time Crown Law had done their work, their economist's guestimate ($17-593 million) the upper figure of (and why don't we round that up) $600 million is the one that stuck. Big, scary costings based on guesses of what the actual numbers were.
Easton was much closer, and until I get a reply back from MOH DSS as to where the number "640" originated (if you haven't been keeping up that is the number of extra family carers Ardern has promised to pay) I won't be able to be more accurate in my estimates.
But looking at the data from Socrates, it could very well be that of the MOH DSS clients wanting or needing family to provide some or all of their assessed supports 640 extra might not be far off the mark.
It would be much easier if Socrates actually kept count of not only the Support Needs Allocation for the MOH DSS clients but also the actual funding used by each client. Because, believe it or not, it doesn't. Or so they claim.
So, McFlock…what I'm trying to get through to you ( and anyone else even remotely concerned that I am damning the Ministry and its tamed Ministers presumptively) that this is well on the way to being yet another Ministry of Health Disability Support Services cock up. And while they just might fool some with their brilliant impression of a virgin on his wedding night floundering around in the dark, they are not fooling me.
They have the data and they have the numbers and they will have a very good idea of how much it is going to cost to bring about justice.
So either the ministry advisors are misleading the government and setting them up to look like numpties with their Sunday afternoon announcements, or, the Ministers, including Ardern, are well aware it simply wasn't going to float but thought we were all (including Easton) too thick to notice.
And seriously McFlock…you'd wait until the keys were handed over to draw attention to the fault in the slab?
Look, I get the "fifteen times bitten, I know what to expect" routine.
But if all those 640 families get one full time support allocation at the top pay rate, the system will run out of funding in months. If it's part time funding at lower scales on average, the current funding might actually be adequate. If funding isn't adequate, it'll likely run out just before the election – which would almost guarantee a quick boost.
This is why I prefer "pretense of kindness" governments. They at least have to back it up if they get too specific.
I'd wait until the slab was poured before assuming there's a fault.
Home transfers to overseas people in Central Auckland peaked at 321 transfers (22 per cent) in the June 2018 quarter, shortly before the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 was passed, restricting the sale of residential land.
Of these, 153 homes were transferred to overseas people with Chinese tax residency in the June 2018 quarter – falling to 48 in the June 2019 quarter.
Across New Zealand, there were 183 home transfers to people who didn't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa in the June 2019 quarter versus 1116 in the same quarter last year. Total home transfers numbered 37,695 and of those 0.5 per cent went to overseas buyers. A year earlier, total home transfers numbered 39,627 and 2.8 per cent went to overseas buyers.
A ban on foreign buyers took effect from October 22 last year and prevents most people who don't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa from buying residential property in New Zealand.
Under the revamped act, there are exemptions for those who buy new apartments in certain developments, who add to New Zealand's housing supply, and for Australian and Singaporean citizens.
A bunch of gripes about royalty – Prince Charles doesn't sit up and beg like one of his Mother's corgis might. It hasn't always been good to host royalty, as noted from past centuries. Prince Charles is not PC about his duties to visit, smile at the peeps and now sends trucks carrying the entire bedroom suite including orthopaedic bed for himself and Camilla. If he has to put himself about the nation, he is an old man, and he tries to do it to his standard of comfort not that of the hosts, and probably has learned that from past experience.
The country's leading building product assurance scheme is in disarray after another major company pulled out of it.
The CodeMark review questions competency and technical expertise of companies that issue certificates.
The government's CodeMark scheme provides product approvals that cannot be challenged by councils during building consenting, but the scheme has now lost three of its seven certifiers, and these three have issued almost 70 percent of all certificates.
The latest to go is also the biggest, CertMark of Queensland, which issued 63 certificates, or a third of the total 183 CodeMarks.
It's a blow that the Building Industry Federation, which represents thousands of products suppliers, believes might prove fatal.
(This reflects that under neolib government is unable to keep control of its projects, its services, how they are run, whether they get value for money, etc.)
I heard a report on the Provincial Growth Fund this morning. One of its objects was to get work for NZs unemployed (get the nevvies off the couch) yet by the time it gets contracted out in frequent iterations, the gummint don't know what's going on.
RNZ also requested under the OIA the number of migrant workers being employed in these jobs through the fund, but the Provincial Development Unit (PDU) does not keep these figures.
PDU head Robert Pigou said they did not monitor who were actually getting the jobs once the money got to those projects.
"We don't keep track and the contracts don't require applicants to provide us with the details of where they're getting their workforce from.
"In many cases the applicants might be a local organisations like the district council and they would then go and contract with a third party."
Bloody neolib is not working well for citizens. However I did hear Michael Bassett waffling on this morning as head of Auckland Chamber of Commerce. M. Bassett is one of the Hounds that ushered in the neolib system and sold the stupid Unionists down the river as redundant munters of our small economy. Adopting the fancy new USA economic system was just what the wealthy ordered, giving them the chance for a plutocratic lifestyle in a peasant farmer country, that would always be struggling but why should they be held down by our size and isolation?
Principals fear Government learning support plan lacks long-term funding…
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Heath McNeil said while the intent of the action plan was important, many of its goals were "we wills" subject to getting more funding down the line.
We've got boards of trustees now that are forced into topping up ministry funding by tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, every year out of their operational budgets … We've just had a significant number of our students with needs have teacher aide funding cuts, pretty drastic ones, in the last three months."
McNeil points to other aims of the action plan, including reducing waiting times for early intervention.
"But the timeframe for that is six-and-a-half years with no real targets," he said.
I have a cunning plan. Pig disease in China – African Swine Flu (is that racist?) – is decimating their herds, flocks, whatever. Apparently it has been spread by feeding them meat scraps.
We used to feed pigs from the whey of our milk. Why don't we start doing that again and have pig meat that is 100% pure of ASF? At the same time we reduce the bloody factory dairy farms carrying stock numbers by a certain amount each year for the next three years. Then we will have a dynamic duo of healthy cows and pigs, and less disease from stacked stock with no room to move and live their normal lives.
Our frenzied dash after every dollar has led us to have cramped quarters in our own sour pens. A healthy appreciation of what life is about for animals and ourselves, the superior species, may be the saving of us for healthy real food. I can see the dreamy ads quite now, and if they are based on truth for once, we will be winners.
A pattern of repeated representations from senior NZ politicians to their Australian counterparts about this issue is emerging.
Deportations a growing source of tension
The Australian and New Zealand governments have been at odds over this issue since the legislation changes were introduced in 2014…
But this harsh deportation policy isn't the only issue creating strain in the relationship. New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees imprisoned in Australian offshore detention centres has been refused a number of times, most recently last week.
Morrison's apparent lack of willingness to take Ardern's concerns about deporting New Zealand offenders more seriously confirms a noticeable hardening in Australia's approach…
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton: "where people are sexually offending against children, for example, we've had a big push to try to deport those paedophiles."
Fair enough, most Australians may think.
But Dutton's remarks are highly misleading. The overwhelming majority of the people being deported are not paedophiles.
In fact, many people being deported from Australia under the "character test" have extensive family ties in Australia and have spent very little time in New Zealand, having arrived in Australia as children.
Losing contact with family
Deportees we've interviewed for as-yet unpublished research* had experienced significant trauma because of this process, and a common theme in our research is grief from the loss of contact with children and other loved ones.
Stories of families being torn apart and children being raised by only one parent were particularly distressing for them to recount.
*Professor Patrick Keyzer heads La Trobe University's law school. Dave Martin is a PhD candidate, La Trobe University
(Sounds nasty N..i behaviour from the Australian government. Not all Australians adopt this vicious mentality to NZs thank goodness.)
There were hopes for a change of government, and a show of principled behaviour, fairness and having a heart but the Australians have one approach for their citizens and apparently a prejudice against NZs which is totally unjustified, considering how we have been disadvantaged as a country from their government actions.
.
As the number of deportees has mounted, so too has the death toll. In the past three years, at least four New Zealand citizens have died in Australian custody or immediately following deportation, and researchers believe there are almost certainly more. The New Zealand government has no estimate of the total number of deaths, and Minister of Justice Andrew Little says his office is powerless to force a change in Australian law. “We don’t have any control over what the Australians do. We don’t have a great deal of leverage.”
Advocates in both countries say Australia’s actions are in direct contravention of United Nations conventions against torture, and in several cases even children have been locked in isolation or detained with adults, forcing tense political standoffs.
More than 15,000 New Zealand citizens are expected to be deported in the next ten years; a flood of exiles, many with no connection to this country, never allowed to go home.
National cut back on training for young mothers and other young people, so the vocational training institutions have to cut back. Then we can blame them when there are no trained people for jobs and we just have to – sob, sob – get immigrant labour in. A race to the bottom for NZ Inc. Will the last person out please turn off the light. Oh don't worry the light fitting has gone phut already.
I'm breaking my recent resolution not to return to The Standard because this particular subject is too important to leave unremarked. I can't post this item where it really belongs (The Guardian) because they're so snowed under lately with BTL comments, they have to close them off within about 5 minutes of the OP's piece going up.
I'm starting to see some ominous parallels with the 1917 Russian revolution. We have here a group that barely commands a majority in its own party (think: Bolsheviks v Mensheviks), but which knows exactly what it wants, concentrates relentlessly on its objectives, and is in the process of seizing a degree of power unprecedented in modern Britain. Like Lenin, they have realised that a small, active, tightly focused organisation is going to be more effective than a larger, diffuse one whose members don't have common goals.
The timing from their point of view couldn't be better – Parliament in recess for the next six weeks, so nothing to hold this Executive to account till early September. I predict we will see in that period a huge spate of activity by Cabinet and the ministries and departments of state. It will all be within the bounds – just – of existing legislation, but hitherto accepted agreements about what is "done" and "not done" will be ripped to shreds, just as we've been seeing in the USA.
There'll be no need to formally control the press because Rupert "Moloch" will do it for them and pump out endless propaganda about the necessity for it all. And then, shortly after Parliament resumes, they'll engineer some single-issue "crisis" and call a general election in search of a formal mandate to resolve it – and, by-the-by, cement their grip on what remains of the country.
Deluded fantasy on my part? Oh I hope so, I do hope so.
Yes Obi Knobi. Boris isn't as silly as he looks I think. As you say it's a worry.
And why don't you want to comment here? That would be interesting to know – or do you feel there isn't freedom of speech and thought allowed here to talk about it? I think it is important to say. What have you got to lose? I am sorry in advance, if I have offended you.
I'm not offended, Grey. I just got sick and tired of seeing about 90% of BTL comments devoted to petty point-scoring and denigration of anyone who didn't happen to share the particular point of view of the poster. I'd better things to do with my time than wading through that sort of drivel.
Vulnerable mothers desperately need access to more residential homes so they can keep their babies instead of watching them being taken into state care, an Insight investigation has found.
Last year, 281 babies were taken from their mothers within three months of birth, up from 247 in 2016…
But there are only five residential homes nationwide that offer a safe environment for women and their babies and support mothers to be good parents.
These homes can only offer 24 places for vulnerable mothers and their children at any one time.
Does anyone think this is the right way to support new families, and treat parents and children who should be encouraged to bond and build the security and continuity that keeps children happy and trusting in parents?
Moving into a residential home was not an option for Mel*, who ended up in a Women's Refuge safe house at the start of this year, after another hiding from her ex-partner.
(Mel protests against Oranga Tamariki uplifts after her children were taken into state care. Photo: RNZ / Leigh Marama McLachlan)
She spent the week there before Oranga Tamariki took her one-year-old and three-month-old daughters over safety issues.
"I was compliant with Oranga Tamariki through that whole week, going into meetings," Mel said.
"That Friday they told me to come into the office at 5pm, when they had closed. They threw a bit of paper at me saying, 'You've got a minute to say goodbye to your kids'.
This seems… odd. It seems to be more a bureaucratic bias against prescriptive curruculae rather than intentional suppression (although suppression will be the outcome).
I always figured that there were basics that needed to be taught, and that was dictated by the ministry so local nutbars couldn't teach utter bullshit. Apparently I luckily just went ot a progressive school that taught physics, evolution, and some aspects of colonisation (rather than just the bible, intelligent design, and a flat earth with no history outside of europe).
It does seem weird to me that there isn't at least some minimum requirement of coveragewithin the curriculum – does the science curriculum require teachers to teach the basic equations like "F=ma", or is that all just traditionally done out of the kindness of teachers' hearts?
That idiot who drove a roller and smashed other people cars with it needs his head read something wrong up there .
This Government is talking to the whenua protesters Ma te wa.
Simon ain't plastic like shonky is .
Can't all the customers of Wallis group just separate the pork out of there meat waste and find a new market for there waste pork no drama there I say.
There is more to trees and plant life than people know or believe The Kauri stump being kept alive by other trees giving it vital nutrients very interesting.
This Government is trying to figure out a solution to the whenua protesters problems the last lot would have tried to shut it down to many tangata whenua there now to . It is a difacult thing to get to the bottom of who is correct in the whenua issue . My tipuna had a Maori Land court case that lasted 40 years and still it's not sorted the correct owners only got 5 shears out of 500 the shears went to the crowns stool pigeon Eco Maori is going to be re starting that case Ma Te Wa.
national scrapped the cancer agency and now they are trying to capitalize on their own MESS Paddy.
Eco Maori thinks all the help that our Pacific cousins can get from Aotearoa and China is needed to help them cope with climate change.Its cool that our government is investing in saving that rear bird .
Donna mahi is good for the wairua its sad that the system has a age discrimination I think its should change to encourage the elderly get mahi.
Alex it was freezing in bayview Hawksbay yesterday morning and today but where Eco Maori resides Te Ra was shining bright and warm also Te Ra had my solar powered system running strong.
Paina you lost your voice I did a few months ago it took about 2 months to come back it was sad times for Eco Maori.
Rania Smith te tangata knows the TRUTH about the historical significance of Ihumatoo.
I agree that tangata whenua need to have a bigger hand in the stakes of tamariki in the states care. I have made a few statements that to care for someone correctly one has to have aroha for that person so Maori need to be included in the care of these poorest tamariki.
I tau toko the Hawaiian who are protesting that 30 meter high telescope on their sacred mountain they have every right to sue That is what will stop that telescope being built but like tangata whenua O Aotearoa they will have limited resources.
You two national supporters love any story that is negative about our Labour lead Coalition Governments Aotearoa economy is fine when compared to other countries and whats happening around Papatuanuku
Sorry about you been robbed point your finger at your national m8 they made the poor people poorer hence more robberies.
Chris the disabled people needs of access ramps needs to be catered for by these organizations. We have a hard time getting transportation for one of our love ones whom is disabled.
I can see this canser drug issue being privately pushed buy the Big drug companies. Talking about doubling Pharmacs budget the drug companies will be rubbing their hands together thinking about their PROFITS they are going to get from this campaign. Its all about Te mone .
I disagree a business man like shonky only set the country up for the wealthy people hence we have a major housing crisis thanks to shonky a run down health system and education system the roads were ignored he was cutting all the state organizations budgets hence the big mess our Coalition Government has to clean up.
Measles has been quite prominent in Aotearoa as of late the prisoner's who have measles its been a problem Papatuanuku wide.
Condolences to the people who lost their loveones in the Korean nightclub bar balcony accident.
All the best in your new journey of retiring from international Polo you made Aotearoa shine bright with your starlight Sir Mark Tod Im sure you will have heaps of other things to keep you busy.
I would rather live with kiore that be a kiore .
Mike I know what that is like my machinery being tampered with my machinery has strange things happen like my Eco Maori Truck having lose nuts on the ball joints tyers going down for no logical reason I know all those ball joints nuts were tight because I changed the ball joints my self guessing who the tamper is.
Condolences to the whanau who lost love ones in the Kiangroa Bay of plenty car and truck crash.
Its good to see that time have changed now Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa is commanding more respect and we are receiving it .
At Winston my whanau were Mana whenua and still we didn't get our correct shears in our whenua.
Thats a awesome knitted flag that te Wahine made I Eco Maori is a suporter for equality for Wahine.
Some people need to learn not to bite the hands that care for them the most or would Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa prefer to have a government like national making common people lives very hard to paddle there waka te waka is actually going backwards with a national government be careful Whanau we might get burned by your actions.
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ...
Yesterday the Greater Wellington Regional Council unanimously declared a climate emergency. They've also set themselves a goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, though this only applies to their direct emissions. Still, its a good step, and as usual it invites the question: where is Parliament? When are we going ...
That's the only way to describe the government's plans for a Parliamentary Budget Office to allow opposition parties to get an independent costing of their policies. When the idea was first floated back in 2016 as an office within Treasury, I thought that wasn't independent enough and argued that it ...
Today is a Member's day, and after the third reading of Hamish Walker's KiwiSaver (Oranga Tamariki Guardians) Amendment Bill, Parliament will be continuing the committee stage of David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill. The bigots have put up another pile of amendments in an effort to delay or wreck ...
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...
by Philip Ferguson This weekend just past marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the most famous of the great 1960s music festivals. It was held over the weekend (Friday-Monday) of August 15-18, 1969. Woodstock was a highpoint of the US ‘counter-culture’, and also the beginning of its end. When exploring the ...
It looks like the government has won over the public on its vehicle feebate scheme:A feebate scheme that would transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from buyers of higher-emission cars into the pockets of people buying EVs and other more fuel-efficient vehicles has been winning favour with submitters, the Government ...
When people suggest lowering the voting age, others argue that the young are too uneducated or silly to exercise the duties of citizenship. Australian John Quiggin has just blown that argument out of the water:Looking at the array of ignorant and vindictive old men attacking Greta Thunberg and other young ...
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...
Back in May, Destiny Church leaders Brian and Hannah Tamaki launched another political party. Despite consisting entirely of followers of their religion, they grandly called it "Coalition New Zealand", in a vain effort to suggest it was something broader. But when they applied for registration, submitters opposed the name, as ...
The following article is excerpted and translated from two articles in recent issues of Lutte de Classe (Class Struggle), the magazine of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the revolutionary workers group active in France. We don’t necessarily agree with everything in it – for instance, the 1956-62 war for independence involved rather more revolutionary forces than ...
The Pacific is on the front line of climate change, and if we don't cut emissions quickly, some countries are literally going to be underwater. Because of this, small Pacific states had tried to use this week's Pacific Islands Forum meeting to get Pacific countries to agree to ending coal ...
To Limit Another's Rights Is To Limit One's Own: Is it too much to expect senior members of our Government to be capable of explaining that we protect the rights of human-beings precisely because not even the most depraved act can cancel-out the fact that its perpetrator is also a ...
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...
This section builds on Part 1 of this series to provide a theoretical basis for the final instalment (part 3 – to come). Self-determination: law or resurgence — or both? International law promotes the principal of equal treatment and self-determination, which includes peoples’ rights to freely pursue their social, cultural and ...
Everyone was outraged yesterday to learn that the Christchurch shooting accused had been able to send mail from prison to his Nazi fans, apparently pushing more hate. "How could this possibly happen", people asked. Simple: because New Zealand is a civilised country, and so we let prisoners send and receive ...
If we are to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, we need to rapidly decarbonise our transport fleet. The good news: its starting to happen:The number of electric vehicles on New Zealand's roads have nearly tripled in the past two years. There are currently 15,453 registered electric vehicles (EVs), up ...
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...
Most economists agree that a currently slowing economy could do with some stimulus – and they would also agree that there is no shortage of infrastructure projects which could be brought to productive fruition with help from that stimulus. In view of the current practice of sub-contracting economic policy decisions ...
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ...
AN OPEN LETTER FOR SIGN ON BY ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ACROSS THE WORLD, ALLIED IN THE FIGHT AGAINST INEQUALITY. This letter was released at the UN Political Forum on 9 July, where the Sustainable Development Goal on inequality was reviewed. The purpose of the letter is to call out the ...
We asked a young gay science student and critic of trans ideology and the trans activists’ assault on women’s and gay rights to outline his views on Redline. Thanks to him for his article. by Cian Ó Catháin Gender identity ideology (Gender ID) is ripping through western society at full ...
The Environment Committee is currently hearing submissions on the Zero Carbon Bill, and Stuff is reporting on the submissions. Today, they're covering yesterday they heard from "NZ" Steel:NZ Steel has told MPs it may be forced to close with the loss of thousands of jobs if changes aren't made to ...
Students are striking against climate change on September 27. And this time, they're asking everyone to join them:Students are taking to the streets, beaches and parks on 27 September, and we're inviting everyone to join us. That's right, this is an intergenerational issue, and you're all invited to put pressure ...
Peter McKenzie has a piece on Newsroom this morning about how local body politics is awash with property developer cash. 70% of all the donations in the 2016 Wellington mayoral election came from property developers. And its pretty obvious what they want in exchange:That’s particularly important in local government, according ...
Source: Unknown, twitter user Recently, I wrote a (relatively) short paper titled as above, to explore what self-determination could like in a practical sense. Maybe I’m a bit of an international trade truther or something, but I absolutely believe trade is at the heart of achieving peace and self-determination. Since ...
In the 1960s, after I had graduated with a first-class Oxford postgraduate law degree, I joined the British Foreign Office as the top entrant of my year. There, I worked for a couple of years on European affairs and was eventually posted to the Embassy in Brussels. After this exposure ...
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...
I heard a 45 minute interview with Monica Lewinsky talking to TED’s Chris Anderson on BBC Radio 4 over the weekend, and have listened to it another two times out walking. I recommend it. Highly. Man, I am so impressed with how this woman has integrated her life experiences and ...
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, The Coddling of the American Mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure, London, Penguin, 2019, 352pp; reviewed by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind is a timely book, whose ...
When the Justice Committee reported back on the Administration of Justice (Reform of Contempt of Court) Bill, free speech advocates breathed a sigh of relief. As originally introduced, the Bill reitered the ancient offence of "scandalising the court" - basicly, a special sedition law protecting judges from criticism. The select ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. Since then - crickets. Which raises the obvious question: are they actually going to do this, ...
Back in March, the Ministry of Justice conducted a public consultation exercise on whether to hold a review of the Official Information Act. 285 people submitted on it. Now, Stuff has trawled through those submissions, and the case for reform is strong:The Justice Ministry asked Kiwis what they thought was ...
National's prisoner voting ban has gone down as one of the worst laws in New Zealand history. Passed after a farcical debate (including this farcial speech from ACT MP Hilary Calvert), it has subsequently been found to be inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act by the High Court, Court ...
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...
by Daphna Whitmore US social psychologist and author Jonathan Haidt spoke on 1 August in Auckland to a crowd of around one thousand people. He is best known for his bookThe Coddling of the American Mind which examines the new climate of trigger warnings and acute sensitivity of Gen Z. ...
What an extraordinarily depressing experience it is to be compelled to watch, at 12,000 miles distance, the contortions and machinations of the British political class as they set about their determined attempt to overturn the decision taken by the British people that they wish to leave the European Union. The ...
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...
by Don Franks Way back when British guitar virtuoso Joe Brown was a beginning session guy he got to back a visiting American artist. Young Joe was an able technician but had yet to learn some points of professionalism. Part way through “Five foot high and rising” Joe tired of ...
Since scientists started studying climate change, they have warned that it will reduce food production. And now, its happening:The climate crisis is damaging the ability of the land to sustain humanity, with cascading risks becoming increasingly severe as global temperatures rise, according to a landmark UN report compiled by some ...
The Abortion Legislation Bill just passed its first reading, 94-23. Its a far bigger margin than I expected, even allowing for the Winston factor, and it reflects the overwhelming support there is in this country for reform. but that support isn't a new thing - it has existed for literally ...
The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Referendums Framework Bill. The Bill does what it says on the label - establishes a framework for referenda. Things you may want to address in your submission: Whether the bill should apply only at the 2020 election, or whether it should ...
The Thompson and Clark / MBIE spying scandal continues to result in fallout, this time in the form of a report on the implementation of MBIE's "Operation Exploration", its internal operation to enforce the infamous Anadarko Amendment which criminalised protests against the oil industry. MBIE's enforcement operation was tainted by ...
So, Winston Peters is defending his last-minute demand for a referendum on abortion by claiming he was "blindsided" by the bill. Really? The bill is a government bill. It has been working through the cabinet approval process since December last year. As part of that process, NZ First was consulted, ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...
Last week, the ongoing democracy protests in Hong Kong saw a pro-Hong Kong student assaulted at the University of Auckland. The Chinese consulate in Auckland followed this up with a press release "express[ing] its appreciation to the students for their spontaneous patriotism" - effectively condoning the assault and inciting further ...
Only those who close their eyes and minds to the evidence can still be in any doubt that we are facing a climate change crisis. The evidence is conclusive that the world is not only getting inexorably hotter, but also that the rising temperatures are creating a number of other ...
Rural communities are wailing about forestry conversions "taking land out of production" and putting it into locking up carbon. Its driven purely by economics: there's more money and lower costs in carbon than in sheep or beef, and if carbon prices rise, there'll be more net money than dairy even. ...
This week, the government introduced its (underwhelming) Abortion Legislation Bill. And despite having negotiated the text of the bill through the coalition process, Winston Peters is now suggesting that he will demand a referendum on it:NZ First leader Winston Peters has hinted that his party may only support the Government's ...
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...
Last night the police dramatically incresed their numbers at Ihumātao, shoving over protestors and threatening them with arrest. Despite police talk about the need to maintain "public order" and prevent a "breach of the peace", there appeared to be absolutely no justification for this: the protest camp is, was, and ...
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...
An application was filed in the Employment Relations Authority in Wellington today, seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation from removing the President from office. ...
The Government’s commitment to support literacy and numeracy training in the workplace is a strong signal from Government on recognising the importance of upskilling, reskilling and increasing productivity alongside their commitment to address the challenges ...
“The infrastructure sector sees a major role for the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission/Te Waihanga in lifting the nation’s sagging infrastructure performance,” says Paul Blair, incoming CEO of Infrastructure NZ. ...
The AA is calling on the Government to bring forward critical highway projects while time is spent properly developing the plans for a rapid transit system in Auckland. ...
Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, DHBs spent $280 million treating patients due to adverse drug reactions, reveals the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union in its latest briefing paper on health productivity . ...
The Pay Equity Coalition Auckland (PECA) is pleased the gender pay gap has decreased slightly. Statistics released today show the gap is now 11.9%, nearly 2 percent less than last year. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to make sure they pass on any information they have to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques before submissions close tomorrow (Friday). ...
The big electricity companies consider solar energy “disruptive” and want pricing to suppress it. In contrast, advocates of local energy say that solar, energy efficiency, and other local energy solutions are the cheapest ways to reduce carbon emissions. ...
The Earthquake Commission and Shine Lawyers are delighted to announce that EQC has reached an agreement with the Gibling family, agreeing to cover the cost of repairs of remaining earthquake damage on their property. ...
Four months into the inquiry, the Royal Commission is gathering significant information and continues to receive valuable submissions from the public, from current and former State servants, experts and community groups. ...
While Fish & Game New Zealand is pleased to see Federated Farmers Environment Spokesperson Chris Allen say that 'we all want good, fresh water', he conveniently overlooks some key facts. ...
What: Wellington demo “Save the Amazon Forest/Salve a Amazônia!” When: Friday, 6 September 2019 from 12:30-13:30 Where: Embassy of Brazil in Wellingtona ...
Rt Hon Trevor Mallard, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives, welcomes the visit of His Excellency Eduardo Ferro Rodrigues, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Portugal. ...
A cross political Mental Health and Addictions Wellbeing group will be launched on Wednesday 28 August hosted by Sir John Kirwan and Moe Milne (ONZM) who have both been at the forefront of our country’s often difficult conversations about mental ...
Confirmation that the government will be progressing an independent Parliamentary Budget Office is great news for democracy and transparency, Federated Farmers says. ...
At first glance, Simon Bridges’ strident opposition to the government’s proposal to establish an independent office to cost political parties’ election spending plans looks childish and petty. ...
Euthanasia-Free NZ is appalled that Parliament spent so little time debating Part 2 of the End of Life Choice Bill and voted to leave it full of holes. ...
Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance and its nationwide sister group the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Auckland Mayor Phil Goff for his comments today that John Tamihere would need the Government’s support to ...
A ‘one size fits all’, inflexible and punitive regulatory regime for water quality just gets backs - and costs - up and most importantly will not work, Federated Farmers says. ...
Mediation yesterday between secondary principals and the government has resulted in a deal that the principals' negotiating team is recommending to its members. ...
Clubs New Zealand welcomes the decision of Justice Minister Andrew Little to put forward a bill amending the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to allow all licensed premises to remain open for Rugby World Cup matches. ...
The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has ordered a review looking at labelling of added sugars in food and drinks. An option under investigation is ‘a pictorial approach applied to sugary beverages / sugar-sweetened beverages’ ...
Labour market data released by Statistics New Zealand today indicates that a gender pay gap persists in New Zealand, despite improvement in some areas. ...
In the midst of the 6th Great Extinction Event the coalition, STOP Trashing Our Planet is urging voters to take full responsibility for the legacy we are leaving our children. ...
LGNZ will carefully consider the proposed National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD) to assess if it meets the Government’s aim of enabling urban development or simply adds more red tape to the planning process. ...
Statistics out today from the Government show that the gender wage imbalance, or gap, in the average wage is 11.9%, a strong 2 percentage point improvement from 13.9% last year. The gender pay imbalance in the median wage is 9.3%. ...
Newstalk ZB Drive host and Herald on Sunday columnist Heather du Plessis-Allan is taking on the challenge of keeping 2019 Auckland Mayoral contenders Phil Goff and John Tamihere in line and on point in tonight’s live NZ Herald Newstalk ZB debate. ...
After twenty years Napier residents have endured heavy sleep and health disruptive noise and air pollution from freight trucks gridlock operations to and from the Napier port and other regions. ...
The EMA says much is riding on the board and chief executive of the new National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) announced by Infrastructure Minister Hon Shane Jones today, with a difficult task ahead to deliver on its purpose. ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the introduction of workplace standards by the State Services Commission that make it clear public services should expect positive and safe workplaces. ...
The Financial Services Federation (FSF) - the voice of responsible lenders and leasing companies - and FinCap - working with consumers facing financial hardship - are signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) this Thursday 22 August in Auckland. It will ...
Wellington, 20 August 2019 — Lawyers for Vulnerable New Zealanders (LVNZ) has lent its support to the amendments proposed by MP Chris Penk to better protect vulnerable people from being coerced to end their lives under the End of Life Choice Bill, currently ...
The Government’s decision to establish and independent Parliamentary Budget Office, outside of Treasury, is a taxpayer victory and will improve democracy, says the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union . Taxpayers' Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “It's ...
The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the cost-benefit analysis prepared by Ministry of Transport and used to advise Ministers on the Government’s Clean Car Standard and ‘Feebate’ policies has serious flaws which undermine justifications for the ...
The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomes new proposals for prison reform put forward by the Minister of Corrections and non-government organisations recently. ...
The New Zealand Maori Council has called on the nation to address all forms of racism and not to shy away from an honest conversation about where it’s taking hold. The call comes after the Nelson Club decided to keep a member after his comments became ...
Wellington (20 August 2019): The New Zealand Initiative enthusiastically welcomes the Coalition Government’s announcement of an Independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw ...
Drs Say No agree with Chris Penk’s amendment to protect vulnerable patients from coercion, although the organisation still maintains that no safe euthanasia legislation can ever be drafted and continues to urge MPs to defeat the End of Life Choice Bill. ...
The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says the Northland Regional Corrections Facility is persisting with policies that are preventing it from achieving its full potential. ...
The second national hui in the Māori-led Inquiry into Oranga Tamariki concluded yesterday ahead of schedule after a capacity audience formally ratified the terms of reference that determines the scope and purpose of the independent investigation ...
Forest & Bird says WWF-NZ's plan for protecting Māui dolphins is based on testing unproven methods on a species that is almost extinct, and is urging the Government to reject the proposal. ...
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lewis Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Applied Mathematics, University of Adelaide I swear by Hypatia, by Lovelace, by Turing, by Fisher (and/or Bayes), and by all the statisticians and data scientists, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Just when we thought Australia was getting serious about shifting priorities away from the Middle East to its own neighbourhood, the prime minister has announced another Middle East step up. Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Paris Georgia co-founders Paris Mitchell Temple and Georgia Cherrie.This week’s podcast features a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer, who has died aged 73 of cancer, leaves a political and personal legacy as a man of courage, conviction and congeniality. The support that Fischer as National Party leader ...
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge.The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin.While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, ...
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects.Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Jensz, Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last. Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ...
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Tara Ward taste-tests the best hot chips in the country. Everyone loves a hot chip because they’re a) hot, and b) a chip, but there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad chip experience. A ...
Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers. ...
Strict word limits for Māori translations of local body election candidate profiles is a form of "institutional racism" and should be changed, a candidate says. ...
ACT Party leader David Seymour's voluntary euthanasia bill has cleared another stage in Parliament with a suite of changes aimed at securing support. ...
A finalist for New Zealander of the Year for her work with Māori smokers is at war with academics because her research is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Guyon Espiner reports. ...
Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis Auckland Māori exodus after 2014The 2018 census has had such a low compliance rate, that it really acted as a large convenience sample (therefore a biased sample) of the New Zealand population. (See my Census Survey from March 2018.) Despite the assurances we are getting, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Housing Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): Lecturing councils won’t work for Labour either Marc Daalder (Newsroom): ‘Nice pointers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Flowers, Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders University As the abortion decriminalisation bill gradually makes its way through the NSW parliament, opponents have been increasingly drawing on their long relationship with the right-to-life movement in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation With the advent of online ancestry DNA testing, and advancements in genetic screening for various medical aliments, we’re able to know more than ever about the genes that make us who we are. But is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Galligan, Associate professor, University of Southern Queensland If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au.How was maths discovered? Who made up the numbers and rules? – Bianca, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Borroz, PhD candidate in international business and comparative political economy, University of Auckland India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has settled into lunar orbit, ahead of its scheduled Moon landing on September 7. If it succeeds India will join a very select club, now ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Twyford and Parker propose new urban development policy statement, Tamihere unveils transport plans, and Māori King issues challenge on child abuse.For a lead today, a nudge towards one of those deeply dense announcements that could end up having a huge ...
Just like its National predecessor, this Labour-led Government is trying to lecture councils into growing the 'right' kinds of cities without giving them the funding tools or help to do it. ...
Part three of our debate on the state of New Zealand fiction continues as Chris Else, whose opening essay was strongly rebutted last week by Catherine Robertson, returns to put the boot in once more. ...
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs.Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Hardingit’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the ...
A group is currently holding seminars around NZ which appear to be based on misinformation about vaccines. Dr Helen Petousis-Harris fact checks some of their claims. ...
The Football Ferns are at a crossroads - they need to move on from simply being "competitive" to make a serious impression on the world football stage. ...
Countless stories from women who have a right to be safe on campus still go unanswered, writes Kate Hannah, deputy director equity and inclusion, Te Pūnaha MatatiniDespite the hashtags and the headlines, universities in New Zealand seem to have largely avoided facing up to their own “#MeToo moment”. It is ...
The government’s plan to avoid another ‘fiscal hole’ fiasco has an unlikely fan: the chief economist of the corporate think tank New Zealand Initiative. Eric Crampton explains what else it could do.Have you ever driven past one of those stores that mostly sells blinds but calls itself ‘Not Just Blinds’ ...
Over the course of the local elections period, The Spinoff will be publishing primers on some of the most interesting races around the country. Today, Alex Braae casts his eyes over the Otago Regional Council contest.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The SpinoffMembers. For more about ...
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that Australia will lend military support to protect shipping in the Middle East. The commitment has been long expected, with Australia sending a frigate, an aircraft and some headquarters staff as part ...
Open mike 26/07/2019 
A new study claims to find that a mother’s exposure to fluoridated water during pregnancy may decrease the IQ of male children – but is it correct? (Photo: Getty Images) Anti-fluoride campaigners are promoting ... 25 mins ago
Donald Trump seems to be eager to start a war with Iran, and naturally Australia is yapping at its heels like a good little vassal. The UK also asked New Zealand to get involved, but fortunately, we had a good excuse: we simply didn't have the toys available:Britain asked New ...5 hours ago
Television advertising has a huge impact on our lives. Even if we don’t recognise that, we know it has to be true, since otherwise why would advertisers spend so much on it? Its significance, however, is greater than simply the influence it has on what we purchase and consume. It ...1 day ago
by Jan Rivers More than 30 years ago a Commission of Inquiry was held in New Zealand to investigate, amongst other things, whether women with cervical cancer were aware that they had been part of a research project and whether they were properly informed of the treatment options ...2 days ago
Everyone Wants To Be Fuhrer: When fascist groups are discussed, the image conjured-up in the minds of most New Zealanders is one of pathetic misfits. This negative impression is reinforced by the latter’s idiotic embrace of the swastika. Even in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the baleful legacy ...2 days ago
In the previous two posts, I laid out the context and set the theoretical framework to answer a question: whether indigenous economies should take the LEAP. This final part outlines ways to conceive of practicing mana motuhake within the existing legal system by carving out special jurisdictions that enable Indigenous ...4 days ago
Fully Informed? Labour’s 2017 promises raised expectations that were little short of revolutionary. Unfortunately, they were never adequately shaken through the fiscal sieve. The hard economic work was not done – and it shows. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s critics have long complained that her grasp of the way the New ...4 days ago
You cannot expect to pound communities into the ground day after day, year after year, decade after decade and just expect them to take it lying down. There’s a point at which the place will explode. And we’re faced with some very big ructions on both sides of the Atlantic ...6 days ago
6 days ago
Going Down? Once truth and propaganda become fused in the minds of one’s followers, debate and discussion become redundant. If one’s opponents are all outrageous liars, then engaging with them in any way is pointless. Rather than waste its time, a political party should, instead, target all its messages at ...6 days ago
We need to fundamentally reframe our systems settings to address the drivers causing and underpinning inequality; structural change in systems especially financial. The Equality Network Hui was held in Wellington on 27 June 2019. The hui covered important topics such as child poverty; a living wage; taxation; public health; mental ...1 week ago
The views-per-page for some of my recent postings:Depressing, isn't it? Provide thoughtful and wise commentary on the mainstream of British politics and no-one notices. Make a passing reference to Tommy DICKHEAD Robinson in a thread title and you get hundreds of views. Write something about anti-Semitism and you get another ...1 week ago
The government has announced plans to move the Treaty of Waitangi and other taonga to a new site. Great news! So where are they going? Right next to the old one:The new plan will see a new 22,000-square-metre archive built on the former site of Defence House - the former ...1 week ago
Back in June, StatsNZ went public about a project to track population data on an hourly level by using people's cellphones. It wasn't as bad as it initially looked - they were receiving no individual data, only counts by suburb - but there was still a huge consent problem, so ...1 week ago
I did an interview on the TVNZ Breakfast Show about the situation in Hong Kong. I tried to frame the issue as a collective action problem between two sides with very different end games. The video is here. Because of time constraints we could not discuss the fact that the ...1 week ago
Image Credit: Wild Rose College A new study reporting the ranges of values for kidney and liver parameters in a healthy population is being actively misrepresented by anti-fluoride campaigners. The Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) latest ... 1 week ago
Alone, Alone. All, All Alone: Will it be a good or a bad thing, when humanity’s bright blue spacecraft is stricken by the civilisation-destroying problem of Climate Change, that no Huston Control will be standing-by to rescue the crew?“WE HAVE A PROBLEM, HUSTON.” These were the words used by the ...1 week ago
Divided Loyalties: Can the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, be relied upon? That’s what the boys and girls at Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon needed to be reassured about. Because, from the perspective of Washington, it’s looking more and more like Jacinda Ardern and her Labour Party comrades are getting ready ...1 week ago
This handy Queer Theory Glossary is from thetranswidow.com In case you’ve had trouble keeping up with the spate of new queer theory terms, here’s a handy glossary for your reference. Queer – A straight person with an interesting haircut. Non-binary/genderqueer – A chubby young female, typically 16-28, who has ...2 weeks ago
The winter grazing issue is becoming a highly sensitised one that I hope will not become so politicised that it delays solutions and results in the suicides of some very stressed farmers.Winter grazing has hit the headlines after a determined campaign, including the release of a video of some very ...2 weeks ago
The Green Part has been accused of lack of transparency in two recent situations. The first was the claimed media lockdown during Green's annual conference and the second was Julie Ann Genter's refusal to release a letter she had sent to Phil Twyford.I do get frustrated when journalist's succumb to ...2 weeks ago
Blowing-Up The House: Is Winston Peters planning to put himself at the head of all those New Zealanders who refuse to countenance the Coalition Government caving-in to the Ihumatao protesters? The most effective way of doing this would be to issue Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with an ultimatum. If she ...2 weeks ago
Opportunities to dodge tax are shrinking with the completion of a new tax agreement with Switzerland, Revenue Minister Stuart Nash announced today. Mr Nash and the Swiss Ambassador David Vogelsanger have today signed documents to update the double tax agreement (DTA). The previous DTA was signed in 1980. “Double tax ...2 weeks ago
The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) is urging firearms owners to pass on information to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques now that the period for submissions has been extended to 27 September. ...2 hours ago
National MP Nick Smith has lodged a serious accusation against Parliament's Speaker calling him "biased" after once again being booted out of the debating chamber. ...20 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sunanda Creagh, Head of Digital Storytelling Last weekend, hundreds of thousands of people again took to the streets in Hong Kong to protest against the government – the 11th straight weekend of demonstrations that began in June over a proposed extradition bill. ...28 mins ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Scott Hamilton, Strategic Advisory Panel Member, Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, University of Melbourne Australia’s primary federal renewable energy target – to have 33 terawatts of renewable energy by 2020 – has essentially been achieved. There is much uncertainty as to what is ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Keogh, ARC DECRA Fellow, Queensland University of Technology In the last three months, the Australian Classification Board has “refused classification” for at least four video games – effectively banning them in Australia. The latest is zombie-survival shooter DayZ. Despite being previously ...2 hours ago
Government agencies are taking an unconventional approach to family violence solutions. ...2 hours ago
Sky Network Television has bought the rights to put its name on Wellington's Westpac Stadium. ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle The Heart Foundation now recommends full-fat milk, cheese and yoghurt or reduced-fat options as part of its updated dietary advice released yesterday. This moves away from earlier advice that recommended only reduced-fat ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The Victorian government has announced it is seeking heritage listing for parts of the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne. We heard this news on Wednesday as we sat under a grandfather ...4 hours ago
A flood and a botched insurance job has left a Howick couple out of their home for almost two years. But it's a story with some strange twists. ...5 hours ago
One part telenovela, one part family drama, one part addictive love story. Sam Brooks reviews Jane the Virgin, the great show with an unfortunate name that should be your next Netflix binge.The following piece contains very mild spoilers for Jane the Virgin.While watching the last season of Jane the Virgin, ...6 hours ago
Before Zumba, before Just Dance, before it was cool again to move in public group settings, there was Jump Jam. Madeleine Chapman reflects.Jump Jam entered the lives of New Zealand kids in 2001, a year filled with historic cultural movements. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 2001; ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Jensz, Research associate professor, University of Münster Donald Trump is not the first US President to make an offer of buying Greenland from Denmark – but he might be the last. Home of some 56,000 people and around 80% covered by ...7 hours ago
Live updates: Around 150 are taking part in the hīkoi to the PM's electorate office from Ihumātao in a bid to get her to visit the site. ...7 hours ago
We review the entire country and culture of New Zealand, one thing at a time. Today, Tara Ward taste-tests the best hot chips in the country. Everyone loves a hot chip because they’re a) hot, and b) a chip, but there’s nothing more disappointing than a bad chip experience. A ...8 hours ago
Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers. ...8 hours ago
A finalist for New Zealander of the Year for her work with Māori smokers is at war with academics because her research is funded by tobacco giant Philip Morris. Guyon Espiner reports. ...10 hours ago
Air New Zealand's full-year profit has hit headwinds as higher fuel costs and slower passenger growth hit its earnings. ...10 hours ago
Keith Rankin’s Chart Analysis
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prudence Flowers, Lecturer in US History, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Flinders University As the abortion decriminalisation bill gradually makes its way through the NSW parliament, opponents have been increasingly drawing on their long relationship with the right-to-life movement in ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Hansen, Chief of Staff, The Conversation With the advent of online ancestry DNA testing, and advancements in genetic screening for various medical aliments, we’re able to know more than ever about the genes that make us who we are. But is ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda Galligan, Associate professor, University of Southern Queensland If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. How was maths discovered? Who made up the numbers and rules? – Bianca, age 12, Strathfield, Sydney. ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Baumann, Casual Academic, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney University Many of us do not need to hear any more warnings from the IPCC, David Attenborough or climate activists like Greta Thunberg. We have seen enough to be convinced ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicholas Borroz, PhD candidate in international business and comparative political economy, University of Auckland India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has settled into lunar orbit, ahead of its scheduled Moon landing on September 7. If it succeeds India will join a very select club, now ...12 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Twyford and Parker propose new urban development policy statement, Tamihere unveils transport plans, and Māori King issues challenge on child abuse.For a lead today, a nudge towards one of those deeply dense announcements that could end up having a huge ...13 hours ago
Just like its National predecessor, this Labour-led Government is trying to lecture councils into growing the 'right' kinds of cities without giving them the funding tools or help to do it. ...13 hours ago
Part three of our debate on the state of New Zealand fiction continues as Chris Else, whose opening essay was strongly rebutted last week by Catherine Robertson, returns to put the boot in once more. ...13 hours ago
This morning the five shortlisted songs for the 2019 Silver Scroll Award were announced. Here, exclusively for The Spinoff, the finalists discuss each other’s nominated songs.Tom Scott of Avantdale Bowling Club on ‘The Barrel’ by Aldous Hardingit’s such a beautiful stunt to witness. breaking just before the cliff edge. the ...14 hours ago
Concerns about the rugby team’s name emerged when it was conceived, Crusaders’ management tells sponsors. ...14 hours ago
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias announces the coolest writer's residency in New Zealand. ...14 hours ago
A group is currently holding seminars around NZ which appear to be based on misinformation about vaccines. Dr Helen Petousis-Harris fact checks some of their claims. ...14 hours ago
The Football Ferns are at a crossroads - they need to move on from simply being "competitive" to make a serious impression on the world football stage. ...14 hours ago
Unravelling who's to blame for our rocketing petrol prices. ...15 hours ago
By Michael Andrew Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years. A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his ...21 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camellia Webb-Gannon, Lecturer, University of Wollongong Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny). Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas ...24 hours ago
The Government's new urban development initiative will do nothing if councils don't receive more funding, mayors say. ...1 day ago
Oh dear. Details matter …
https://www.vox.com/2019/7/25/8930035/trump-altered-presidential-seal
Infantroopen … lawmarkers … and in the replies, today's greatest observation: "Trump's ass looks like a pet door for Lindsey Graham"
Oh dear the fix is on.
Here are five disturbing findings from my research, which adheres, I believe, to the highest possible scientific standards inall respects:1.In 2016, biased search results generated by Google’s search algorithml ikely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton(whom I supported). I know this because I preserved more than 13,000 election-related searches conducted by a diverse group of Americans on Google, Bing, and Yahoo in the weeks leading up to the election, and Google search results –which dominate search in the U.S. and worldwide –were significantly biased in favor of Secretary Clinton in all 10 positions on the first page of search results in both blue states and red states. I know the number of votes that shifted because Ihave conducted dozens of controlled experiments in the U.S. and other countries that measure precisely how opinions and votes shift when search results favor one candidate, cause, or company. I call this shift “SEME” –the Search Engine Manipulation Effect. My first scientific paper on SEME was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS) in 2015 (https://is.gd/p0li8V)(Epstein & Robertson, 2015a) and has since been accessed or downloaded from PNAS’s website more than 200,000 times. SEME has also been replicated by a research team at one of the Max Planck Institutes in Germany
https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Epstein%20Testimony.pdf
Uh oh Poission , that kind of news does not give comfort to righteous Democrat minds
And for that reason I think you'll find that the Russians directed that research.Google is as pure as the driven snow
The story of Bitcoin
From TDV newsletter:
The plot goes like this…
Abandoned at birth by his father Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin searches for his life's purpose. With the help of some friends, Bitcoin rises from total obscurity to become a Batman–esque hero of the people who fights against the corrupt banking system that oppresses everyone.
In the pilot episode, Bitcoin awakens to a chaotic world following the 2008 financial crisis. With only a few words to his young child, Satoshi disappears, leaving Bitcoin with more questions than answers. Fortunately, a benevolent ice cream truck owner (Jones) takes Bitcoin under his wing in a search to find his father.
Bitcoin is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people delude themselves that it has value. In tangible terms, it's purely a certificate of gratuitously wasted electricity.
Meh. Currency is what you make it.
Reasons to use bitcoin #93 Everyone should have a Swiss Bank Account in their pocket
https://www.reasonstousebitcoin.com/shop/t-shirt/reason-93/
Cryptocurrency is a vapourware ponzi scheme, it *will* burn you sooner or later
The Wild West Of Crypto Hacks
Our present financial system is the ultimate example of something whose only value is that a few people [in pivotal positions manipulate it and in the confidence in its value by many] assure themselves that it has value.
In the end, the value of a state-issued currency is made tangible by that state having powers of compulsion over its citizens. So in that sense, yes, the backing is utterly reliant on the confidence of its citizens. That confidence can be lost, Zimbabwe and Venezuela being notable recent examples. But it takes a fairly cataclysmic societal upheaval to decimate the value of a state-issued currencly. Whereas a ponzi-scheme con game like crypto-currency could collapse from something as ephemeral as the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along.
Your point is made…but 'the next shiny economics-fashion idea coming along' sounds just the idea of having a floating currency as the remarkable idea brought by the emissary from the Finsec riding on his magic wand that solved the problem of states trying to hold a stable currency against those who doubted its equivalency. So we decide on the unstable currency dependent on the 'next shiny idea' of the Alex's out there.
Alex cartoon Telegraph Peattie & Taylor
Syria Speaks
Tonight Auckland
Think you are an expert on Syria?
Think that the Assad regime is an anti-imperialist bastion?
Don't think that the Syian people have any right to defend themselves from a monstrous tyranny?
Think again?
Hear Syrians give their side of the story
The Peace Place
22 Emily Place
7pm
This Hui originally organised for the 15th of June, the anniversary of the start of the revolution against the Assad dynastic regime.
Despite the online death threats against this event this event.
Show the fascists that we will not be cowed.
Remember to put a good work in for the christians
And Don't hold back on fascist fighting …. 32 secs
If anybody deserves a holocaust …it would have to be those fascists …. 1min 32 secs :0
Peace be with you …
Hi Reason, hardly a credible source.
A regime huckster putting words in the mouths of his opponents.
Putting words in the mouths of others, hardly amounts to giving a balanced account.
From this beginning Faisal Qasim goes on to demolish the sectarian straw man argument of his own creation.
Despite Syria being a majority Sunni Muslim country, (and naturally the make up of the majority of the opposition reflect this reality). there have been and are Alawites and Christians who have been in the opposition even in leading positions.
Fadwa Soliman the famed Actress and political activist from Homs who became the most nationally recognised face of the opposition was from a notable Alawite family.
Homs was completely destroyed and depopulated by the regime's genocidal aerial bombardment. To escape this aerial genocide Fadwa Soliman along with tens of thousands of other citizens of Homs was forced to flee the rebel city and become a refugee.
Fadwa Soliman died in exile in France in 2017.
Reason, to finish, will ask you one simple question, it is a question I have always asked regime apologists like yourself.
I have lost track of the number of times I have asked it. And not once since I first posed it, have I ever received a single response from you, or any of the other pro-regime apologists who infest this site
To expose the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself Reason, I will again ask this question and challenge you to give an answer.
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
Jenny … … the video part of my post . was just a loon having a rave …. about killing fascists … he calls them Alawites … you call the Assadists … Same people.
You ignored in Wayne Mapp like fashion … the serious part of my post
Homs … “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to their graves!”
Amnesty International have stated that Raqqa was the worst example of total destruction and indifferent killing of civilians in either Iraq or Syria …. done by your fascist fighters … the good guys.
I've already told you who started it .,.. who is to blame … so your being dishonest yet again.
Indeed he was a loon, just as you say. Faisal Qasim a sort of Arabic shock jock whose show has had 'guests' brawling in front of the cameras. Qasim had been criticised in the past for his habit of hand picking such unrepresentative loons to make his straw man arguments.
In this case a man who lives in Lebanon unknown in Syria, representative of no group or organisation in Syria or Lebanon, or anywhere else who makes no claim of being connected to any group or organisation and who speaks for nobody but himself. A 'loon' quite happy no doubt with his appearance fee to spout his lunacy.
I am sure you could find some loon like this in Lebanon if you specifically went and looked for them.
On another note. I have never used the term Assadist which I consider trite.
Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest.
Jenny …. "Putting words in other people’s mouths is lazy and dishonest."
lazy, dishonest …and forgetful in your case jenny.
I notice Reason that just like every other Assad apologist before you, you haven't answered the question.
Why is that?
Do you think it is a trick question?
I am sure you can argue all day long about false flags and crisis actors and faked videos and the rebels gassing their own people to make the Assad regime look bad.
But it is hard to make such arguments in the face of evidence of a whole city destroyed.
As I said your refusal to answer this simple question exposes the intellectual dishonesty and cowardice of regime apologists like yourself.
So I will ask you again, and defy you to answer
Who did this?
And is it not evidence of genocide?
The truth is we know what we have to do and we can't do it, yet. They are killing us all for money – get that? money – a figment of our imagination.
That is very clearly put marty mars, but of course such a statement can be as easily applied to the person in the old toyota corolla or the new suv who whizzes past those of us on the road who walk everywhere …
or had the fireplace going last night …
aren't we all complicit by way of our daily actions?
Interesting how many of them are Energy sector companies.
In the case of the fuel companies, it's because the emissions are attributed to the company, not to the fuel buyer that actually burns it and emits the CO2.
The same goes for the ag sector. Farmers get blamed instead of the people eating the meat and vegies ,cheese and milk etc
The difference is the ag sector actually does the emitting, much more than the final consumer. Well, if you exclude the bean-eating vegans, that is.
🙁 The most common sharks that are killed for squalene are…Basking sharks, Soupfin sharks, Bluntnose sixgill sharks.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/sharks-news-cosmetics-squalene-health/
Old cars must have a lesser carbon footprint than new because the making and materials would probably be amortised over say ten years, and then be about nil, only running and fuel costs then, and recycled parts often – so a lot of good can come from old cars.
Our lives and the economy have been built around oil-driven cars. What would it have been like if the steam-driven cars had succeeded? There would have been a contest for water, but most of what was used would have come down in rain somewhere wouldn't it?
The Stanley Steamer may have been the answer, killed off by better funded more aggressive Ford. The motor manufacturers had the bit between the teeth, figuratively, and didn't like anyone introducing different ideas to the public, even shatter-proof safety glass, note Tucker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preston_Tucker
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_48
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/classic-cars/a30105/an-ultra-rare-3-million-tucker-48-was-discovered-in-an-ohio-barn/
Preston Tucker's car company was responsible for 51 cars being built. Of those, we know that 47 "Tucker '48s" have survived and we know where all of them are.
Another inventive gasoline-driven car maker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Duryea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Motor_Carriage_Company
(Twins Francis E. Stanley (1849–1918) and Freelan O. Stanley (1849–1940) founded the company)
The Stanley Motor Carriage Company was an American manufacturer of steam-engine vehicles; it operated from 1902 to 1924. The cars made by the company were colloquially called Stanley Steamers, although several different models were produced.
The Stanleys had earlier developed improved dry plate photographic plates. They sold that invention to a chap called Eastman!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Edgar_Stanley
Ah, Boris Becker's bollocks!
Stark relief. Huh.
It would be hard to dislike Jonathan Pie as he always presents my point of view in technicolour.
Then the selection that came up after his rant showed Stephen Fry – I am not sure whether he is for or against Brexit, but I would be likely to vote for him if there were just the two – Johnson and Fry for choice. And Fry's make chocolate too don't they – a winning name then. He is more fun than Boorish. And I think he said that his family was Hungarian, so you get diversity straight away to match and perhaps top Boris – Boris has Turkish delight as his sweet spot I think.
Thanks Grey. What makes it more fun, is that those bits were probably unscripted. What a clever chapStephen is. There was a set where he took the hypocrisy of the church to task. Bowled 'em all for a duck.
Clever, funny and possibly principled too. Though that should not be held against him if sizing him up for a politician! Got to have a larf occasionally.
What did poor old Boris Becker do to be connected to this?
His personal life may have been just as turbulent as that of the other Boris but I hardly think he is responsible for Brexit. Let's just remember him as a really great tennis player.
It is Official.
The Coalition of Kindness gives not a shit about disability.
The fact that disabled New Zealanders are neglected and abused (sometimes to death) under the care of Ministry of Health providers matters not.
The recent announcement regarding the end of discrimination of family carers providing assessed supports was nothing but a PR stunt that failed to convince commenters here on the day, and it is now confirmed by our state broadcaster that the numbers simply don't add up.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395170/new-families-joining-funded-family-care-scheme-may-miss-out-on-fair-pay
And to confirm exactly where disability sits on the list of priorities…
https://www.hpa.org.nz/news/new-delegations-for-the-associate-ministers-of-health-announced
New delegations for the associate Ministers of Health have been announced and responsibility for the Health Promotion Agency/Te Hiringa Hauora (HPA) has shifted from Hon Jenny Salesa to Hon Peeni Henare.
The full list of responsibilities is:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Peeni Henare
Responsibility for policy and service delivery realting to:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Jenny Salesa
Reponsibility for policy and service delivery relating to:
Associate Minister of Health: Hon Julie Anne Genter
Responsibility for policy and service delivery relating to the following areas (with the exeption of remuneration issues, which are retained by the Minister of Health):
I despair. I really do.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
Stay strong Rosemary, don't let the bastards get you down.
I would sincerely love to hear from the loyal Coalition Flagwavers on this issue…
So would I but let's not hold our breath waiting. Disabled persons in NZ are now officially at the bottom of the food chain. I would go as far as to say below hardened violent criminals for the simple reason that they don't get ignored by politicians and the media, especially at election time. We just don't exist.
Let's see how many of them vote for the EOLC Bill. I can actually envisage some of them spinning it that allowing the sick and disabled the choice is upholding human rights.
It's the only way such voting could be spun…
All so very progressive.
Gotta wonder what the issues are which will mobilise the mainstream…
Too hard basket…don't care….something more sinister…combination…
The eugenics folks didn't hide.
I suspect a number of psycho/sociopaths on the list of ministerial advisors.
Isn't that a job requirement?
Treatment of vulnerable human beings around the place , home and abroad should not be accepted.
As you say, the EOL vote will expose them…
To what end it would matter remains to be seen…
This govt were always going to let many people down…predictably.
So long as the darkness is in control…little of nothing meaningful is going to change…
Disability seems to be listed under Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
As for not adding up, the $22.8M.p.a. seems to be slightly under the halfway point of Easton's projection of costs including the new families ($19.4-27.8M.p.a.). Which is reasonable for a budget allocation.
Needs assessments do need an overhaul, though. Vote Green to get it done.
Disability is at the bottom of the list of Jenny Salesa's responsibilities.
The new allocation of funding is only just enough to raise the hourly rate of those already being paid under the discriminatory Funded Family Care.
Those of us who could conceivably paid for the assessed supports we are providing will have to settle for a mere fraction of what has been allocated.
Had I the time McFlock I'd point you in the direction of numerous reports generated with government funding that describe only to clearly the legion of failings of the NASC assessment process. As if it is accurate to describe it as a "process" as that implies some sort of plan, or consistency, or structure.
Call Hanlon, because I still can't decide.
(I did vote Green)
The list of portfolios is not necessarily hierarchical. That is your assumption.
[edit] argh shit yeah fair call the allocation is enough to cover existing recipients.
Although I still think the assumption that any additional recipients from the new rule won’t be covered is a rough call.
Brian Easton is not overly optimistic, and I'll take his word over that of some overpaid spindoctor.
For a few brief moments there McFlock those Miserly of Health bureaucrats and their tamed Ministers had most of the people fooled with their bullshit.
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation. And if it happens that there is a shortfall, you and the Greens will lobby to get more funding allocated and backpaid, no?
Well, until people are actually turned down for funding it's all just speculation.
Well, McFlock…why do you think that the local building inspector has to sign off on the foundations of a building before the walls and roof can go up?
In fact, if they did allow the build to proceed with dodgy foundations they'd be liable, surely?
(Or maybe not, since accountability is a dirty word these days.)
My initial optimism that Sunday (Sunday?! to make a major announcement on a bleeding Sunday!…who does that???) was subdued by the knowledge that repeated Ministers from successive governments have been totally and utterly impotent in the face of the often malevolence shown by the Ministry of Health towards disabled people who choose (or have no other option) to have a family member providing their assessed supports. And the MOH bureaucrats have a particular level of contempt towards family carers.
Putting this right could be ridiculously simple once the longstanding issue of inadequate and inconsistent NASC assessments has been sorted.
But this government is too chickenshit to demand that the Ministry of Health DSS makes this work an absolute priority.
Or/and this government truly do believe that disability support deserves it's place and the bottom of the Jenny Salesa's list of responsibilities.
Building inspectors don't assume that the place will fall down before they receive the plans.
But they're the wrong functionary in the building analogy, anyway. People build a new home aim for a value of say $500,000. But that's just an estimate. They'll try to bring it in on budget, but if it comes out to be more expensive, there's usually a certain leeway in their cost estimate to absorb a bit more expense. It might be $497k, but they might push to $580k or more.
What they don't do is get all dismayed about the project because the plans costed out the dwelling but the driveway isn't included. They will ask about the cost of that detail, but it's not a portent of project doom.
McFlock. I can see this is not your particular area of knowledge or expertise so I'll try and explain.
The Ministry of Health Disability Support Services has this database (called SOCRATES) they set up back in…2007 or so.. which in 2013 was finally persuaded to regurgitate some actual, well,data.
Up until then, and Brian Easton (blessings upon him and his kin) made mention of this in his 2008 brief of evidence to the Human Rights Review Tribunal for Atkinson, actual numbers of people enrolled with each area NASC were sketchy to say the least.
Those enrolled who had high and very high support needs (as assessed by the NASC) they could only make the wildest of guesses.
The numbers with high and very high support needs who were costing the Ministry NOTHING to support because an unpaid family carer was doing those tasks unpaid, they had very little idea…but…strangely enough by the time Crown Law had done their work, their economist's guestimate ($17-593 million) the upper figure of (and why don't we round that up) $600 million is the one that stuck. Big, scary costings based on guesses of what the actual numbers were.
Easton was much closer, and until I get a reply back from MOH DSS as to where the number "640" originated (if you haven't been keeping up that is the number of extra family carers Ardern has promised to pay) I won't be able to be more accurate in my estimates.
But looking at the data from Socrates, it could very well be that of the MOH DSS clients wanting or needing family to provide some or all of their assessed supports 640 extra might not be far off the mark.
It would be much easier if Socrates actually kept count of not only the Support Needs Allocation for the MOH DSS clients but also the actual funding used by each client. Because, believe it or not, it doesn't. Or so they claim.
So, McFlock…what I'm trying to get through to you ( and anyone else even remotely concerned that I am damning the Ministry and its tamed Ministers presumptively) that this is well on the way to being yet another Ministry of Health Disability Support Services cock up. And while they just might fool some with their brilliant impression of a virgin on his wedding night floundering around in the dark, they are not fooling me.
They have the data and they have the numbers and they will have a very good idea of how much it is going to cost to bring about justice.
So either the ministry advisors are misleading the government and setting them up to look like numpties with their Sunday afternoon announcements, or, the Ministers, including Ardern, are well aware it simply wasn't going to float but thought we were all (including Easton) too thick to notice.
And seriously McFlock…you'd wait until the keys were handed over to draw attention to the fault in the slab?
Look, I get the "fifteen times bitten, I know what to expect" routine.
But if all those 640 families get one full time support allocation at the top pay rate, the system will run out of funding in months. If it's part time funding at lower scales on average, the current funding might actually be adequate. If funding isn't adequate, it'll likely run out just before the election – which would almost guarantee a quick boost.
This is why I prefer "pretense of kindness" governments. They at least have to back it up if they get too specific.
I'd wait until the slab was poured before assuming there's a fault.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12253024
Only 75 Auckland homes sold to overseas buyers in past 3 months; Chinese activity collapses
Home transfers to overseas people in Central Auckland peaked at 321 transfers (22 per cent) in the June 2018 quarter, shortly before the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2018 was passed, restricting the sale of residential land.
Of these, 153 homes were transferred to overseas people with Chinese tax residency in the June 2018 quarter – falling to 48 in the June 2019 quarter.
Across New Zealand, there were 183 home transfers to people who didn't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa in the June 2019 quarter versus 1116 in the same quarter last year. Total home transfers numbered 37,695 and of those 0.5 per cent went to overseas buyers. A year earlier, total home transfers numbered 39,627 and 2.8 per cent went to overseas buyers.
A ban on foreign buyers took effect from October 22 last year and prevents most people who don't hold NZ citizenship or a resident visa from buying residential property in New Zealand.
Under the revamped act, there are exemptions for those who buy new apartments in certain developments, who add to New Zealand's housing supply, and for Australian and Singaporean citizens.
A bunch of gripes about royalty – Prince Charles doesn't sit up and beg like one of his Mother's corgis might. It hasn't always been good to host royalty, as noted from past centuries. Prince Charles is not PC about his duties to visit, smile at the peeps and now sends trucks carrying the entire bedroom suite including orthopaedic bed for himself and Camilla. If he has to put himself about the nation, he is an old man, and he tries to do it to his standard of comfort not that of the hosts, and probably has learned that from past experience.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12014916 Prince Charles to visit New Zealand: Here's his remarkable travel demands revealed.
I wonder what The Don demands?
I wonder what The Don demands?
Waterworks displays. Allegedly.
The mind boggles…
And spanking. Using a rolled-up magazine with his face on the cover. Allegedly.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1907/S00146/uncertainty-for-codemark-future-after-certifier-departures.htm
Phil Pennington, Reporter
The country's leading building product assurance scheme is in disarray after another major company pulled out of it.
The CodeMark review questions competency and technical expertise of companies that issue certificates.
The government's CodeMark scheme provides product approvals that cannot be challenged by councils during building consenting, but the scheme has now lost three of its seven certifiers, and these three have issued almost 70 percent of all certificates.
The latest to go is also the biggest, CertMark of Queensland, which issued 63 certificates, or a third of the total 183 CodeMarks.
It's a blow that the Building Industry Federation, which represents thousands of products suppliers, believes might prove fatal.
(This reflects that under neolib government is unable to keep control of its projects, its services, how they are run, whether they get value for money, etc.)
I heard a report on the Provincial Growth Fund this morning. One of its objects was to get work for NZs unemployed (get the nevvies off the couch) yet by the time it gets contracted out in frequent iterations, the gummint don't know what's going on.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/395273/locals-getting-jobs-through-pgf-not-tracked-by-officials
Sectors like forestry, which have been allocated funding through the PGF, have already indicated they want to hire more migrant workers to meet their obligations.
RNZ also requested under the OIA the number of migrant workers being employed in these jobs through the fund, but the Provincial Development Unit (PDU) does not keep these figures.
PDU head Robert Pigou said they did not monitor who were actually getting the jobs once the money got to those projects.
"We don't keep track and the contracts don't require applicants to provide us with the details of where they're getting their workforce from.
"In many cases the applicants might be a local organisations like the district council and they would then go and contract with a third party."
Bloody neolib is not working well for citizens. However I did hear Michael Bassett waffling on this morning as head of Auckland Chamber of Commerce. M. Bassett is one of the Hounds that ushered in the neolib system and sold the stupid Unionists down the river as redundant munters of our small economy. Adopting the fancy new USA economic system was just what the wealthy ordered, giving them the chance for a plutocratic lifestyle in a peasant farmer country, that would always be struggling but why should they be held down by our size and isolation?
Michael *Barnett*, different guy than the evil one who screwed local govt law.
Oh. The name – and I jumped 'that high'. I'll settle down now.
Another happy clappy Coalition Grand Announcement that withers more than a little under close scrutiny from those at the coalface.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-plan-and-funding-strengthen-learning-support
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12252962
Principals fear Government learning support plan lacks long-term funding…
Auckland Primary Principals' Association president Heath McNeil said while the intent of the action plan was important, many of its goals were "we wills" subject to getting more funding down the line.
We've got boards of trustees now that are forced into topping up ministry funding by tens of thousands, in some cases hundreds of thousands, every year out of their operational budgets … We've just had a significant number of our students with needs have teacher aide funding cuts, pretty drastic ones, in the last three months."
McNeil points to other aims of the action plan, including reducing waiting times for early intervention.
"But the timeframe for that is six-and-a-half years with no real targets," he said.
Read the Action Plan here…https://conversation.education.govt.nz/assets/DLSAP/Learning-Support-Action-Plan.PDF
God forbid we give these New Zealanders any senses of security.
SSDD
I have a cunning plan. Pig disease in China – African Swine Flu (is that racist?) – is decimating their herds, flocks, whatever. Apparently it has been spread by feeding them meat scraps.
We used to feed pigs from the whey of our milk. Why don't we start doing that again and have pig meat that is 100% pure of ASF? At the same time we reduce the bloody factory dairy farms carrying stock numbers by a certain amount each year for the next three years. Then we will have a dynamic duo of healthy cows and pigs, and less disease from stacked stock with no room to move and live their normal lives.
Our frenzied dash after every dollar has led us to have cramped quarters in our own sour pens. A healthy appreciation of what life is about for animals and ourselves, the superior species, may be the saving of us for healthy real food. I can see the dreamy ads quite now, and if they are based on truth for once, we will be winners.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/395298/untreatable-pig-disease-puts-pressure-on-pork-industry
How are our Kiwis getting on in Oz or perhaps Oz's concentration camps?
26/7/2019 The victims of Australia's deportation policy – they're Kiwis https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12252700
A pattern of repeated representations from senior NZ politicians to their Australian counterparts about this issue is emerging.
Deportations a growing source of tension
The Australian and New Zealand governments have been at odds over this issue since the legislation changes were introduced in 2014…
But this harsh deportation policy isn't the only issue creating strain in the relationship. New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees imprisoned in Australian offshore detention centres has been refused a number of times, most recently last week.
Morrison's apparent lack of willingness to take Ardern's concerns about deporting New Zealand offenders more seriously confirms a noticeable hardening in Australia's approach…
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton: "where people are sexually offending against children, for example, we've had a big push to try to deport those paedophiles."
Fair enough, most Australians may think.
But Dutton's remarks are highly misleading. The overwhelming majority of the people being deported are not paedophiles.
In fact, many people being deported from Australia under the "character test" have extensive family ties in Australia and have spent very little time in New Zealand, having arrived in Australia as children.
Losing contact with family
Deportees we've interviewed for as-yet unpublished research* had experienced significant trauma because of this process, and a common theme in our research is grief from the loss of contact with children and other loved ones.
Stories of families being torn apart and children being raised by only one parent were particularly distressing for them to recount.
*Professor Patrick Keyzer heads La Trobe University's law school. Dave Martin is a PhD candidate, La Trobe University
This is what we thought in 2016.
2/8/2016 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/82670283/kiwis-biggest-group-being-held-in-australian-detention-centres–new-report
Locking Kiwis up in Australian detention centres and sending them back across the ditch could be part of a policy to "purify" the country, says Labour MP Kelvin Davis.
(Sounds nasty N..i behaviour from the Australian government. Not all Australians adopt this vicious mentality to NZs thank goodness.)
There were hopes for a change of government, and a show of principled behaviour, fairness and having a heart but the Australians have one approach for their citizens and apparently a prejudice against NZs which is totally unjustified, considering how we have been disadvantaged as a country from their government actions.
.
12/5/2019 https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112551906/13-15-focus-oz-election-what-would-a-labor-government-mean-for-kiwis- Kiwis living in Australia hopeful for change of government so they get a better deal
27/2/2019 https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/383475/special-treatment-considered-for-kiwis-in-australian-immigration-appeals
17/1/2019 https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2019/01/more-than-100-kiwis-in-hunger-strike-at-australian-detention-centres.html
3/1/2019 https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/01/kiwis-in-australian-detention-centres-face-being-moved-from-families-lawyer.html
15/10/2018 https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/15-10-2018/tasman-deathtrap-the-brutal-human-toll-of-australias-deportation-policy/ (This feature was made possible thanks to reader contributions via the Spinoff Longform Fund. Click here to support our investigative journalism.)
As the number of deportees has mounted, so too has the death toll. In the past three years, at least four New Zealand citizens have died in Australian custody or immediately following deportation, and researchers believe there are almost certainly more. The New Zealand government has no estimate of the total number of deaths, and Minister of Justice Andrew Little says his office is powerless to force a change in Australian law. “We don’t have any control over what the Australians do. We don’t have a great deal of leverage.”
Advocates in both countries say Australia’s actions are in direct contravention of United Nations conventions against torture, and in several cases even children have been locked in isolation or detained with adults, forcing tense political standoffs.
More than 15,000 New Zealand citizens are expected to be deported in the next ten years; a flood of exiles, many with no connection to this country, never allowed to go home.
3/9/2018 https://www.magic.co.nz/home/archivedtalk/on-demand/the-am-show/2018/09/the–easy–solution-to-kiwis-in-detention-centres—go-home—-j.html ('Go home' – Jason Morrison)
6/4/2018 https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/australian-government-finally-reveals-number-kiwis-locked-up-christmas-island-detention-centre
25/9/2015 Key: Nearly 200 Kiwis in Australian detention centres https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11518766
National cut back on training for young mothers and other young people, so the vocational training institutions have to cut back. Then we can blame them when there are no trained people for jobs and we just have to – sob, sob – get immigrant labour in. A race to the bottom for NZ Inc. Will the last person out please turn off the light. Oh don't worry the light fitting has gone phut already.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395296/weltec-and-whitireia-to-cut-up-to-70-teaching-jobs
I'm breaking my recent resolution not to return to The Standard because this particular subject is too important to leave unremarked. I can't post this item where it really belongs (The Guardian) because they're so snowed under lately with BTL comments, they have to close them off within about 5 minutes of the OP's piece going up.
Anyway, refer to the following:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/25/power-brexit-boris-johnson-radical-conservative-party
I'm starting to see some ominous parallels with the 1917 Russian revolution. We have here a group that barely commands a majority in its own party (think: Bolsheviks v Mensheviks), but which knows exactly what it wants, concentrates relentlessly on its objectives, and is in the process of seizing a degree of power unprecedented in modern Britain. Like Lenin, they have realised that a small, active, tightly focused organisation is going to be more effective than a larger, diffuse one whose members don't have common goals.
The timing from their point of view couldn't be better – Parliament in recess for the next six weeks, so nothing to hold this Executive to account till early September. I predict we will see in that period a huge spate of activity by Cabinet and the ministries and departments of state. It will all be within the bounds – just – of existing legislation, but hitherto accepted agreements about what is "done" and "not done" will be ripped to shreds, just as we've been seeing in the USA.
There'll be no need to formally control the press because Rupert "Moloch" will do it for them and pump out endless propaganda about the necessity for it all. And then, shortly after Parliament resumes, they'll engineer some single-issue "crisis" and call a general election in search of a formal mandate to resolve it – and, by-the-by, cement their grip on what remains of the country.
Deluded fantasy on my part? Oh I hope so, I do hope so.
Yes Obi Knobi. Boris isn't as silly as he looks I think. As you say it's a worry.
And why don't you want to comment here? That would be interesting to know – or do you feel there isn't freedom of speech and thought allowed here to talk about it? I think it is important to say. What have you got to lose? I am sorry in advance, if I have offended you.
I'm not offended, Grey. I just got sick and tired of seeing about 90% of BTL comments devoted to petty point-scoring and denigration of anyone who didn't happen to share the particular point of view of the poster. I'd better things to do with my time than wading through that sort of drivel.
This would be such a good idea. Can't someone adopt this poor little overlooked idea and give it a good secure home properly funded.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/394741/more-residential-homes-could-stop-oranga-tamariki-uplifts
Vulnerable mothers desperately need access to more residential homes so they can keep their babies instead of watching them being taken into state care, an Insight investigation has found.
Last year, 281 babies were taken from their mothers within three months of birth, up from 247 in 2016…
But there are only five residential homes nationwide that offer a safe environment for women and their babies and support mothers to be good parents.
These homes can only offer 24 places for vulnerable mothers and their children at any one time.
Does anyone think this is the right way to support new families, and treat parents and children who should be encouraged to bond and build the security and continuity that keeps children happy and trusting in parents?
Moving into a residential home was not an option for Mel*, who ended up in a Women's Refuge safe house at the start of this year, after another hiding from her ex-partner.
(Mel protests against Oranga Tamariki uplifts after her children were taken into state care. Photo: RNZ / Leigh Marama McLachlan)
She spent the week there before Oranga Tamariki took her one-year-old and three-month-old daughters over safety issues.
"I was compliant with Oranga Tamariki through that whole week, going into meetings," Mel said.
"That Friday they told me to come into the office at 5pm, when they had closed. They threw a bit of paper at me saying, 'You've got a minute to say goodbye to your kids'.
Ministry of education doesn't want to make the Land wars a compulsory part of the NZ curriculum.
This seems… odd. It seems to be more a bureaucratic bias against prescriptive curruculae rather than intentional suppression (although suppression will be the outcome).
I always figured that there were basics that needed to be taught, and that was dictated by the ministry so local nutbars couldn't teach utter bullshit. Apparently I luckily just went ot a progressive school that taught physics, evolution, and some aspects of colonisation (rather than just the bible, intelligent design, and a flat earth with no history outside of europe).
"Mar 30 2016"
Fuck. That'll teach me to take news off FB lol.
Seems to be a lot of that going around this year. Been caught out myself.
All credit to Stuff, they seem to periodically report someone raising the issue.
Here's Hipkins repeating the "no" last year.
It does seem weird to me that there isn't at least some minimum requirement of coveragewithin the curriculum – does the science curriculum require teachers to teach the basic equations like "F=ma", or is that all just traditionally done out of the kindness of teachers' hearts?
Shit, I'll be sounding like a baby boomer soon…
Kia Ora Newshub.
That idiot who drove a roller and smashed other people cars with it needs his head read something wrong up there .
This Government is talking to the whenua protesters Ma te wa.
Simon ain't plastic like shonky is .
Can't all the customers of Wallis group just separate the pork out of there meat waste and find a new market for there waste pork no drama there I say.
There is more to trees and plant life than people know or believe The Kauri stump being kept alive by other trees giving it vital nutrients very interesting.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
This Government is trying to figure out a solution to the whenua protesters problems the last lot would have tried to shut it down to many tangata whenua there now to . It is a difacult thing to get to the bottom of who is correct in the whenua issue . My tipuna had a Maori Land court case that lasted 40 years and still it's not sorted the correct owners only got 5 shears out of 500 the shears went to the crowns stool pigeon Eco Maori is going to be re starting that case Ma Te Wa.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
Kia Ora Newshub.
national scrapped the cancer agency and now they are trying to capitalize on their own MESS Paddy.
Eco Maori thinks all the help that our Pacific cousins can get from Aotearoa and China is needed to help them cope with climate change.Its cool that our government is investing in saving that rear bird .
Donna mahi is good for the wairua its sad that the system has a age discrimination I think its should change to encourage the elderly get mahi.
Alex it was freezing in bayview Hawksbay yesterday morning and today but where Eco Maori resides Te Ra was shining bright and warm also Te Ra had my solar powered system running strong.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Paina you lost your voice I did a few months ago it took about 2 months to come back it was sad times for Eco Maori.
Rania Smith te tangata knows the TRUTH about the historical significance of Ihumatoo.
I agree that tangata whenua need to have a bigger hand in the stakes of tamariki in the states care. I have made a few statements that to care for someone correctly one has to have aroha for that person so Maori need to be included in the care of these poorest tamariki.
I tau toko the Hawaiian who are protesting that 30 meter high telescope on their sacred mountain they have every right to sue That is what will stop that telescope being built but like tangata whenua O Aotearoa they will have limited resources.
Ka kite ano
Piripi that group of Native American and Canadian tribes paddling together looks like Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa waka paddlers awesome.
Kia Ora Newshub.
You two national supporters love any story that is negative about our Labour lead Coalition Governments Aotearoa economy is fine when compared to other countries and whats happening around Papatuanuku
Sorry about you been robbed point your finger at your national m8 they made the poor people poorer hence more robberies.
Chris the disabled people needs of access ramps needs to be catered for by these organizations. We have a hard time getting transportation for one of our love ones whom is disabled.
I can see this canser drug issue being privately pushed buy the Big drug companies. Talking about doubling Pharmacs budget the drug companies will be rubbing their hands together thinking about their PROFITS they are going to get from this campaign. Its all about Te mone .
I disagree a business man like shonky only set the country up for the wealthy people hence we have a major housing crisis thanks to shonky a run down health system and education system the roads were ignored he was cutting all the state organizations budgets hence the big mess our Coalition Government has to clean up.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
Kia ora Newshub.
Measles has been quite prominent in Aotearoa as of late the prisoner's who have measles its been a problem Papatuanuku wide.
Condolences to the people who lost their loveones in the Korean nightclub bar balcony accident.
All the best in your new journey of retiring from international Polo you made Aotearoa shine bright with your starlight Sir Mark Tod Im sure you will have heaps of other things to keep you busy.
I would rather live with kiore that be a kiore .
Mike I know what that is like my machinery being tampered with my machinery has strange things happen like my Eco Maori Truck having lose nuts on the ball joints tyers going down for no logical reason I know all those ball joints nuts were tight because I changed the ball joints my self guessing who the tamper is.
Ka kite ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Condolences to the whanau who lost love ones in the Kiangroa Bay of plenty car and truck crash.
Its good to see that time have changed now Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa is commanding more respect and we are receiving it .
At Winston my whanau were Mana whenua and still we didn't get our correct shears in our whenua.
Thats a awesome knitted flag that te Wahine made I Eco Maori is a suporter for equality for Wahine.
Some people need to learn not to bite the hands that care for them the most or would Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa prefer to have a government like national making common people lives very hard to paddle there waka te waka is actually going backwards with a national government be careful Whanau we might get burned by your actions.
Ka kite ano