During her day-long visit, Ardern met with the district’s three mayors and other leaders in a behind closed doors sit-down to do a bit of stocktake of where things were at in Taranaki. “We spent a bit of time reflecting on some of the initiatives that have been supported in recent times…Parihaka, the waste treatment injection, obviously the announcement of the launch of Ara Ake and then looking ahead to the opportunities that come with the Covid recovery.” This included what support the Government could provide regarding the skills and trade training required to support new work opportunities.
Being able to respond to the needs of the community was one factor Ardern identified as a Labour Party tactic to break National’s stranglehold over seats which encompass the Taranaki region, namely New Plymouth, Whanganui and Taranaki-King Country. She said having candidates who are tapped into their communities and know the issues “makes a really big difference.”
A Labour activist who knocked on my door last week told me their candidate is a community organiser. Well, it worked for Obama.
One thing Labour would champion if it was elected to Government after September’s general election was the Taranaki 2050 roadmap, which she called an “impressive piece of work”.
That's good to know. I attended several of the workshops early in the coalition's term and reported on them here – been waiting for the follow-through.
Leveraging off the work Ara Ake intended to do in creating new forms of energy, Ardern posed the question “why wouldn’t Taranaki be a world leader?.”
Also encouraging to see that she get's how to implement the roadmap:
“It’s yours and you’ve already identified what it is that central Government needs to champion alongside you here and I think that will be its strength as you will never succeed if central Government comes in and identifies what a local community’s priorities should be. But we will succeed if we come in and support and work alongside delivering what it is that you determine is the future of the region.”
Hegel's dialectic, updated into the 21st century: local knowledge & aspirations applied to co-design the plan; implementation via govt supervision. Bottom-up & top-down thinking synthesised via both/and logic. I hope she succeeds in sharing this gnosis so that it becomes general thinking within Labour & the Greens. No sign of National figuring it out…
They have also followed through on a national water body which was announced yesterday. No doubt the opposition will complain that govt shouldn’t be governing during the election period.
The Waipipi Wind Farm will directly employ 150 staff during construction, then three full-time staff during its 30-year operation.
Trucks carrying hubs, blades and towers for the wind farm have been travelling through Taranaki to the site from Port Taranaki over the past few weeks… blades 160 metres long
Uhh, no. Mass media getting technical details wrong again. The turbines might have a swept diameter of 160m, but each blade is a bit less than half that. That's still fkn huge, the total wingspan of an A380 is a bit less than 80m … And the biggest ever recorded blue whale didn't quite break 30m.
edit: the biggest that’s far enough in development that the company is starting to spruik it has 107m blades, but it’s still a ways away from production.
Apart from the fact that Twyford (annoyingly) seems to have done an about-face on his passion for a grade separated CBD to airport metro, the main takeout from this article is that airport to CBD express trains and good local public transport services don’t mix very well. Probably we need to be planning for both.
I really don't understand what benefit light rail has over buses. The footprint of tracks for light rail is bugger-all less than what is needed for bus lanes, and buses have vastly better operational flexibility.
Capacity really. One light rail unit can fit the equivalent of about 4 of the current AT double decker buses. Mostly because everyone has to have a seat on the double deckers due to the low grade ride quality (they lurch around a lot and standing is just dangerous). So as demand (hopefully) increases you need to squeeze more buses onto a finite amount of road space. Eventually you will run out of road. We’re already seeing that at peak times as services from across the isthmus converge on the inner city, the NNR, Mt Eden Rd, Symonds St intersection is an example. Plus we’re running out of street capacity to terminate the services in the city.
Another problem with busses, especially double decker busses is the time to board and un-board the busses. I know people here in Wellington that avoid double decker busses for their commute, because it takes too long to get through the "Golden Mile" with too many stops and longer boarding times.
Trams are usually only one level and have more doors than busses.
A tram system, in my opinion, only makes sense if you have a dedicated tram line. In some areas of Melbourne the tram has to share the road with cars, which is a complete disaster at car congested times.
So the people fearing trams are mainly car drivers and their associations (AA). Because it means taking road space away, often rightfully gives trams right of way at crossings and therefore often have significantly lower commute times than cars.
For what it’s worth station dwell times on the trains in Auckland are way worse than the busses. Though all-door boarding would help on the busses. The main problem though, is once again, safety, the driver can’t move off from the bus stop until they’re sure everyone is safely seated.
Labour's policy was a dedicated light rail corridor before the last election, with light phasing to minimise wait times. Wtf is it now and does the transport minister know?
From the Stuff article quoting Doug Wilson:
"Light rail does, but for most of the route it is going to be mixed with traffic, so travel times are affected and you’re going to have a fairly slow journey to the city,” he said."
Trains are in general one of the most efficient means of transport for freight and passengers. An inherent efficiency advantage is the low friction of steel wheels on steel rails compared especially to rubber tires on asphalt. Efficiency varies significantly with passenger loads, and losses incurred in electricity generation and supply (for electrified systems),[60][61] and, importantly, end-to-end delivery, where stations are not the originating final destinations of a journey.
And passengers per hour by train far exceeds what buses can achieve. Buses, of course, achieve far more than cars.
With trains we're truly seeing economies of scale and high efficiency in the mode of transport. Heavy rail is better their than light and suburban rail is better again.
Twyford might have a point about capacity on the Southern line and extra services from the airport via a spur would slow everything down (I don't know if this is resolvable), but it's really annoying when he says:
A heavy rail spur is only really useful to airport users going to and from the CBD.
That is plainly bullshit. People change trains at stations and have been doing this for nearly two centuries now.
How responsible are the Greens for the Wellington bus mess? A huge part of it will be selling it to the public and cleaning up the mess of this term. Maybe Genter can do it, but I'm not entirely confident.
I’m not sure where the idea has come from that getting between the city and the airport in 30 minutes is so important and it sounds like another case of what I call “airport derangement syndrome”. Almost exactly a year ago I wrote about how there is an over-emphasis put on airport trips with two key reasons being:
Politicians, senior bureaucrats, business leaders, media and other members of the ‘elite’ use Airports far more frequently than the average person – so therefore connections to airports are a much bigger deal for them than for most people.
A very wide variety of people travel to the Airport over the course of a year, compared to other key places. This means that a lot of people experience travel conditions to and from airports, even if they do so quite rarely.
Notably, [the Auckland Transport Alignment Project between local and central govt] ATAP suggested just 4% of trips during the morning peak using light rail would be people travelling/from the airport terminals. More importantly the [light rail] project was considered needed to
address bus capacity constraints in the city centre
improve access to the employment areas, especially those near the airport which would likely be bypassed by a metro system focused on speed to the terminals, and;
to unlock growth opportunities in communities along the route.
However, the purpose of this post was to consider if we could achieve that 30 minute travel time from the city any other way using the network we have planned (or under consideration). …
While agreeing with the general thrust of the piece by Oram I fear he makes one fundamentally incorrect assumption…..that there is a majority seeking a common outcome
I reckon they’ll zoom in and zoom out. It’s a shame that the debate is hijacked by a bunch of biased folk pushing their biased opinions and agenda under the pretence of being sound science. The fact that this branded as COVID-19 Science and Policy Symposium hides that in reality it is propaganda aimed to influence NZ policy. Could be an election stunt by Seymour too. It is free and I wonder who funds this.
In case people haven't sighted Rod Oram's opinion on Tiwai Point's demise here is the link from 19 July. It's well based on wide facts, stuffed with them, and probably The Last Word that anybody should bother reading.
Some people who should know better still keep calling on fellow New Zealanders to save the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
The latest is Winston Peters. He pledges that any future government New Zealand First is part of would support a worker/management buyout. It’s an idea he’s touted since 2011, he reminded us in an article under his name in the Herald on Thursday.
Similarly, Steven Joyce, the National Party’s chief economic strategist for nine years in the Key and English governments, was all for subsidising the smelter to keep it alive in his Herald column last week.
Here, though, is the case the smelter really is dead. The sooner we acknowledge that, celebrate its past and work on Southland’s future the better off we’ll all be – particularly the 1,000 people directly hit by the smelter’s planned closure next August.
Tiwai Point aluminium smelter only has a future if:
We use all the aluminium it produces here, in NZ, for end products. Exporting the aluminium itself simply isn't worth it.
We develop our own bauxite source and refine that so that the smelter can use it.
It's government owned (or self-owned cooperative) and thus doesn't need to produce a profit for bludging shareholders.
Chances of this coming about is pretty close to zero – unfortunately. This seems to be because the governments of NZ have given up on actually developing our economy to utilise our own resources and to only export end products and not the raw resources.
Our podcast was not made for everyone. Everyone is welcome to it, and to learn something from it, but we’re done with gently educating people who should know better. People who lack the basic respect it takes to do the work to understand why things are the way they are for Māori, their fellow New Zealanders.
Interesting to see TOP's keeping on with the dissing the Greens election strategy (this kind of tweeting isn't uncommon from TOP). Not sure what they think is to be gained (attracting swing voters who hate the Greens?), but I guess it makes them a natural partner for National somewhere down the line.
If you go to the ACT website, you’ll see that they devote many of their ‘news releases’ to dissing the Greens too. To me, it just shows that they’re acting [no pun] from a position of weakness and desperation, i.e. when you’ve got nothing (to lose), attack. Cynical and populist politics at its finest.
Disappointing to see Jack Tame giving airtime to the fool James Carville with his ridiculous ideas about Trump stepping down before the election, and asserting that Biden had the "most progressive agenda ever…"
Sadly this guy, who might have provided Jack Tame with an intelligent alternative is dead at 37. Michael Brooks in talking to Robert McChesney asks the single most pertinent question … "is there a way of thinking about a Biden presidency that is constructive while being grounded in the realities of power dynamics…" The answer, as you'd expect, is a mixture.
Time for a Universal Government more like. Based on a world without the corruption of money where people would get their needs met in exchange for working for the betterment of a habitable Planet and a sense of brother/sisterhood.
Byd0nz, a universal government makes it even less possible to prevent corruption, its pretty much an Orwellian scenario.
Nature favors variety or biodiversity if you will, its better for survival.
Esperanto has been used for decades but seem to have not that much of an impact as people usually try to associate within their social structure, local lingo. The experiment of mixing different people has not gone that well in Europe.
A universal income needs to be sooner rather than later discussed as many people will loose their job due to automation. There is a change of how business operate in progress, the outcome most likely similar like the industrial revolution. Those who are right now have a say in the future have a responsibility beyond an individuals preference, political hue or whatever makes them exited. This is about the next generations and their security, be it food, land or resources.
I was quite surprised by the scale of the thing, it's a Clyde sized undertaking. 23 km of hard rock tunnel is getting into it. Some good employment there. Might even see machines 5 & 6 finally installed at Clyde too.
But yeah,
huge step towards 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and a fully carbon zero economy by 2050
Brilliant…but the question has to be asked why they waited until the end of their term to fund the investigation….and it needs to be combined with an upgraded fully electrified nationwide rail network.
Dunno. If Huntly shuts down the remaining two oldest boilers, and there gets to be a push on to convert other coal users to electricity, we're going to be looking for more generation pretty quickly. And now, decisions won't be distorted by the threat of unleashing all of Manapouri's power onto the market, that will have been done and dusted.
That would need a whole different set of price signals to generator investors than we have now. Even strong changes in Ministerial policy can only operate difficult levers through the Electricity Authority, and through browbeating listed shareholders.
The geothermal projects around Taupo are in a much more developed state than anything currently in the South Island. Plus they are closer to Auckland.
Once Manapouri really comes on stream – and takes 6 months to settle – I'd see the geothermal ones as much more likely to proceed.
Maybe we start to see a stable investment playground in late 2022. Maybe.
Investment cases after that, project formation and consenting after that, project procurement and construction after that.
In the party of hair puller John Key, saying being an MP is hard because of long hours away from her children, like many other parents. esp solo working parents. Nope, no sympathy from me, she could have highlighted that while in parliament, tried to change policy so all parents get to spend time with their kids, be more sympathetic to parents on the benefit, esp solo ones. Of course she makes some good points (double standards), but mostly comes across "poor me" & justifying why she cheated.
Ann Tolley validectory speech abridged.
( From Valedictory Statements – New Zealand Parliament).
I came to Parliament with a busload for my first day.
I now have a segway about a Greek phrase, " I am reminded of the meaning of the word "politics". From the Greek "polis", meaning "city", comes the Greek word "politēs", meaning "citizen",… because it is all about citizens.
My speech will show that for years I was shuffled around in Parliament and I was successful. I thank many, many parliamentary people ( many more than citizens mentioned) who helped my success including the VIP transport team.
Now onto some 'people' I remember who are the real highlights of my career… (though I will just call them people because I don't know their names nor what happened to most of them, but they were memorable).
*hundreds and hundreds of parents who contacted me about national standards.
*I remember ” taking PM John Key to the Whakatāne-based academy,( trades) where we met a large group of excited but very focused young people, and two stood out for John and me. They came from way up the coast. They left home at about 5 a.m. to ride—possibly a horse—down to catch the bus to Whakatāne, which was over three hours away.”
*took an enormous risk and OK'd the Rimutaka Prison taking part in Wellington on a Plate with Martin Bosley. I even went out to the prison kitchen talking to a man who… with a real light in his eye….
* I went to another prison for the puppy in prison project. " I remember talking to this enormous man. He was huge. He was covered in tattoos. He was a real fierce-looking dude. He wouldn't meet my eye, because many of them wouldn't, of course. But I .." " Then this great big fierce man bent down and picked up this little puppy, this golden Labrador ball of fluff, and with this gooey look on his face tucked it into his neck and told me that Daisy had scratched at the door to go out to the toilet for the first time the night before."
* I met Tusha Penny." I well remember her recounting the story of a woman whose history of abuse was only really uncovered by agencies. " … " This woman I remember I never met, I never knew her name, but I know we saved her life."
* I met two young people who had been in State care, " finally grabbed the opportunity to address the system that was failing them so badly," but will talk about only one of them.
The first young man's story didn't actually have a happy ending. … He was sullen… I think he'd been with cousins up the coast… " I listened to him…" Sadly, I know that this wasn't enough to make up for everything else that had damaged him."
* Quickly moving along, next minute, it was all good though no matter because, "But one of that group, a bright, intelligent, and determined young woman, took every opportunity to contribute to the redesign process. She came along to Parliament and she sat up here and she watched the lawmaking process when she could, because she was at university studying to be a social worker. I ran into her a year ago at a local school. She had a very successful career." Because she sat up in the gallery and WATCHED.
In the last nearly 12 months, " We didn't manage to negotiate a full code of conduct with consequences ( because of covid or because some had an entitlement to scoff at rules) —.So "seven statements of expectations of behaviour" have now been passed on to the Speaker.
" I sincerely hope everyone in the next Parliament commits to these expectations, because—I tell you what—the public expects nothing less."
With that nod to ' good behaviour being expected only because the citizens are watching ' .
…. "So I say thank you to the National Party and to my caucus colleagues for your friendship and support over the years. As Deputy Speaker—sorry, I can't read."
Colmar Brunton polling now, results expected by Thurs, TV1.
Their last poll in June had National at 38, up 9 (Muller bounce, and it was a bad news week for the government). Probably an exaggerated high, up from an exaggerated low, but it would be funny if they went down again.
Reid Research were polling 3 days ago. These polling companies seem to have a penchant for women between 25 and 45 years. They're not interested in those of us who are well past our prime. Can't think why. 😕
I really like the contribution from the younger TS commenters. They may not always get what a baby bomber is trying to say and I may not always get what a person 20-40 ish is trying to say.
The thing which I really like from age 20 – 40 ish is that they can find a couple of words to explain a behaviour e.g. "love bombing and gaslighting."
Aha, think I am beginning to get it now why so much bad behaviour is occurring in parliament.
Some politicians have the agenda of being spiteful (cutting their nose off to spite their face) toward another MP just to achieve a goal. The spiteful politician does not care what means they use as long as their goal is reached which is to take an opponent out and then wipe their hands as if they did nothing to harm someone.
Dunedin needs to find the tree Pete Hodgson came from. Clark, Curran, Woodhouse and Benson-Pope definitely a mixed bag of talent in terms of success in national politics.
I see prosperity X-tian, and conspiracy nutter most likely to jam out a Stevie Ray Vaughan lick Billy Te Kahika has thrown his lot in with that oh-so X-tian and deeply principled politician Jami-Lee Ross in a desperate attempt to get his NZ Public Party registered. I wonder who swallowed the bigger rat? And what for?
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Yesterday, 5,500 senior doctors across Aotearoa New Zealand voted overwhelmingly to strike for a day.This is the first time in New Zealand ASMS members have taken strike action for 24 hours.They are asking the government tofund them and account for resource shortfalls.Vacancies are critical - 45-50% in some regions.The ...
For years and years and years, David Seymour and his posse of deluded neoliberals have been preaching their “tough on crime” gospel to voters. Harsher sentences! More police! Lock ‘em up! Throw away the key. But when it comes to their own, namely former Act Party president Tim Jago, a ...
Judith Collins is a seasoned master at political hypocrisy. As New Zealand’s Defence Minister, she's recently been banging the war drum, announcing a jaw-dropping $12 billion boost to the defence budget over the next four years, all while the coalition of chaos cries poor over housing, health, and education.Apparently, there’s ...
I’m on the London Overground watching what the phones people are holding are doing to their faces: The man-bun guy who could not be less impressed by what he's seeing but cannot stop reading; the woman who's impatient for a response; the one who’s frowning; the one who’s puzzled; the ...
You don't have no prescriptionYou don't have to take no pillsYou don't have no prescriptionAnd baby don't have to take no pillsIf you come to see meDoctor Brown will cure your ills.Songwriters: Waymon Glasco.Dr Luxon. Image: David and Grok.First, they came for the Bottom FeedersAnd I did not speak outBecause ...
The Health Minister says the striking doctors already “well remunerated,” and are “walking away from” and “hurting” their patients. File photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from our political economy on Wednesday, April 16:Simeon Brown has attacked1 doctors striking for more than a 1.5% pay rise as already “well remunerated,” even ...
The time is ripe for Australia and South Korea to strengthen cooperation in space, through embarking on joint projects and initiatives that offer practical outcomes for both countries. This is the finding of a new ...
Hi,When Trump raised tariffs against China to 145%, he destined many small businesses to annihilation. The Daily podcast captured the mass chaos by zooming in and talking to one person, Beth Benike, a small-business owner who will likely lose her home very soon.She pointed out that no, she wasn’t surprised ...
National’s handling of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis is an utter shambles and a gutless betrayal of every Kiwi scraping by. The Coalition of Chaos Ministers strut around preaching about how effective their policies are, but really all they're doing is perpetuating a cruel and sick joke of undelivered promises, ...
Most people wouldn't have heard of a little worm like Rhys Williams, a so-called businessman and former NZ First member, who has recently been unmasked as the venomous troll behind a relentless online campaign targeting Green Party MP Benjamin Doyle.According to reports, Williams has been slinging mud at Doyle under ...
Illustration credit: Jonathan McHugh (New Statesman)The other day, a subscriber said they were unsubscribing because they needed “some good news”.I empathised. Don’t we all.I skimmed a NZME article about the impacts of tariffs this morning with analysis from Kiwibank’s Jarrod Kerr. Kerr, their Chief Economist, suggested another recession is the ...
Let’s assume, as prudence demands we assume, that the United States will not at any predictable time go back to being its old, reliable self. This means its allies must be prepared indefinitely to lean ...
Over the last three rather tumultuous US trade policy weeks, I’ve read these four books. I started with Irwin (whose book had sat on my pile for years, consulted from time to time but not read) in a week of lots of flights and hanging around airports/hotels, and then one ...
Indonesia could do without an increase in military spending that the Ministry of Defence is proposing. The country has more pressing issues, including public welfare and human rights. Moreover, the transparency and accountability to justify ...
Former Hutt City councillor Chris Milne has slithered back into the spotlight, not as a principled dissenter, but as a vindictive puppeteer of digital venom. The revelations from a recent court case paint a damning portrait of a man whose departure from Hutt City Council in 2022 was merely the ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
That's the conclusion of a report into security risks against Green MP Benjamin Doyle, in the wake of Winston Peters' waging a homophobic hate-campaign against them: GRC’s report said a “hostility network” of politicians, commentators, conspiracy theorists, alternative media outlets and those opposed to the rainbow community had produced ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
National Party MP Hamish Campbell’s ties to the secretive Two By Twos "church" raises serious questions that are not being answered. This shadowy group, currently being investigated by the FBI for numerous cases of child abuse, hides behind a facade of faith while Campbell dodges scrutiny, claiming it’s a “private ...
The economy is not doing what it was supposed to when PM Christopher Luxon said in January it was ‘going for growth.’ Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short from our political economy on Tuesday, April 15:New Zealand’s economic recovery is stalling, according to business surveys, retail spending and ...
This is a guest post by Lewis Creed, managing editor of the University of Auckland student publication Craccum, which is currently running a campaign for a safer Symonds Street in the wake of a horrific recent crash.The post has two parts: 1) Craccum’s original call for safety (6 ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff has published an opinion piece which makes the case for a different approach to economic development, as proposed in the CTU’s Aotearoa Reimagined programme. The number of people studying to become teachers has jumped after several years of low enrolment. The coalition has directed Health New ...
The growth of China’s AI industry gives it great influence over emerging technologies. That creates security risks for countries using those technologies. So, Australia must foster its own domestic AI industry to protect its interests. ...
Unfortunately we have another National Party government in power at the moment, and as a consequence, another economic dumpster fire taking hold. Inflation’s hurting Kiwis, and instead of providing relief, National is fiddling while wallets burn.Prime Minister Chris Luxon's response is a tired remix of tax cuts for the rich ...
Girls who are boys who like boys to be girlsWho do boys like they're girls, who do girls like they're boysAlways should be someone you really loveSongwriters: Damon Albarn / Graham Leslie Coxon / Alexander Rowntree David / Alexander James Steven.Last month, I wrote about the Birds and Bees being ...
Australia needs to reevaluate its security priorities and establish a more dynamic regulatory framework for cybersecurity. To advance in this area, it can learn from Britain’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which presents a compelling ...
Deputy PM Winston Peters likes nothing more than to portray himself as the only wise old head while everyone else is losing theirs. Yet this time, his “old master” routine isn’t working. What global trade is experiencing is more than the usual swings and roundabouts of market sentiment. President Donald ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Nicola Willis continues to sit on her hands amid a global economic crisis, leaving the Reserve Bank to act for New Zealanders who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, and KiwiSaver. ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Reardon, Postdoctoral Researcher, Pulsar Timing and Gravitational Waves, Swinburne University of Technology Artist’s impression of a pulsar bow shock scattering a radio beam.Carl Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav With the most powerful radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, we have observed a twinkling star ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joel Hodge, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University Pope Francis has died on Easter Monday, aged 88, the Vatican announced. The head of the Catholic Church had recently survived being hospitalised with a serious bout of double pneumonia. ...
Of the 1500 new places, 1000 were last week allocated to five housing providers through 'strategic partnerships' to make contracting the homes more efficient. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathleen Garland, PhD Candidate, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University The faces of living and extinct theropod dinosaurs.Left: Riya Bidaye; right: Indian Roller model (NHMUK S1987) from TEMPO bird project – MorphoSource. Bird beaks come in almost every shape and size ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (Climate Science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Shutterstock/EvaL Miko If heat rises, why does it get colder as you climb up mountains? – Ollie, 8, Christchurch, New Zealand That is an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Rindert Algra-Maschio, PhD Candidate, Social and Political Sciences, Monash University Three weeks into the federal election campaign and both major parties have already pledged to spend billions in taxpayer dollars if elected on May 3. But with so many policies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Palazzo, Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney For more than a century, Australia has followed the same defence policy: dependence on a great power. This was first the United Kingdom and then ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Farah Houdroge, Mathematical Modeller, Burnet Institute ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock Needle and syringe programs are a proven public health intervention that provide free, sterile injecting equipment to people who use drugs. By reducing needle sharing, these programs help prevent the spread of blood-borne viruses ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Lucigerma/Shutterstock Caring for a new puppy can be wonderful, but it can also bring feelings of depression, extreme stress and exhaustion. This is sometimes referred to as “the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katherine Kent, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Wollongong StoryTime Studio/ Shutterstock Being a university student has long been associated with eating instant noodles, taking advantage of pub meal deals and generally living frugally. But for several ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health and Medical Humanities, University of Sydney A new state-of-the-art tube fishway technology called the “Fishheart” has been launched at Menindee Lakes, located on the Baaka-Darling River, New South Wales. The technology – part of ...
This Easter Sunday harassment of the victim’s family is part of a deliberate tactic to silence the victims, who were wrongfully duped of their money, efforts and hopes for a better future. ...
Māori own huge areas of land in Aotearoa but as climate change accelerates and carbon markets take hold, many are being backed into a corner.Māori connections to the whenua and ngahere run deep, rooted in whakapapa and sustained through generations. Today, that whenua is at a crossroads – squeezed ...
Comment: Two decades ago, I drove from Germany to Southern Belgium to visit the Commonwealth Memorial at Tyne Cot. The remains of my great grandmother’s brother, Private Robert Macalister, lay there. I didn’t know what to expect.Even in early summer, nine decades later, Passchendaele was blanketed in a thick, low ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As it seeks to gain some momentum for its campaign, the Coalition on Monday will focus on law and order, announcing $355 million for a National Drug Enforcement and Organised Crime Strike Team to fight ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne With less than two weeks to go now until the federal election, the polls continue to favour the government being returned. ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone Israel assassinated a photojournalist in Gaza in an airstrike targeting her family’s home on Wednesday, the day after it was announced that a documentary she appears in would premier in Cannes next month. Her name was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Whittaker, Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University Darryl Fonseka/Shutterstocl What do you think of when it comes to extra terrestrial life? Most popular sci-fi books and TV shows suggest humanoid beings could live on other planets. But when astronomers ...
By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatchpresenter In 1979, Sam Neill appeared in an Australian comedy movie about hacks on a Sydney newspaper. The Journalist was billed as “a saucy, sexy, funny look at a man with a nose for scandal and a weakness for women”. That would probably not fly ...
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Protesters are occupying the site of a proposed fast-tracked coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, near Westport. The 70-strong group, organised by climate activism group 350Aotearoa, says this is just the first of a series of protest actions they are prepared to take against the mining company, Bathurst Resources Ltd., if ...
In an art world context, photography has evolved significantly over the years pushing boundaries in both technique and concept. No longer the poor cousin of painting, but still much more affordable thanks to photographs being sold in numbered editions, an art photograph doesn’t merely capture a moment—artists use the medium ...
Last year, 20,000 observations of Christchurch species were made during the annual City Nature Challenge, a way for anyone to get involved in biodiversity. It’s back again this month. Even in suburbia, even on grey autumn weekends, there is biodiversity. You just need the time to look for it: to ...
Asia Pacific Report Peaceful protesters in Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest city Auckland held an Easter prayer vigil honouring Palestinian political prisoners and the sacrifice of thousands of innocent lives as relentless Israeli bombing of displaced Gazans in tents killed at least 92 people in two days. Organisers of the rally ...
ANALYSIS:By Ben Bohane This week Cambodia marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh to the murderous Khmer Rouge, and Vietnam celebrates the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese forces in April 1975. They are being commemorated very differently; after all, there’s nothing to celebrate in Cambodia. ...
By Gujari Singh in Washington The Trump administration has issued a new executive order opening up vast swathes of protected ocean to commercial exploitation, including areas within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. It allows commercial fishing in areas long considered off-limits due to their ecological significance — despite ...
New Zealand commemoration lead John McLeod said a small team, including members of the NZDF and the NZ Embassy, assisted in the covering up of remains that were exposed. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Nicholls, Senior Research Associate in Media and Communications, University of Sydney Tech giant Google has just suffered another legal blow in the United States, losing a landmark antitrust case. This follows on from the company’s loss in a similar case last ...
Good to see the PM doing follow-through on the coalition's strategy for weaning Taranaki off fossil fuels: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122219979/pm-jacinda-ardern-reflects-on-taranaki-and-its-global-potential
A Labour activist who knocked on my door last week told me their candidate is a community organiser. Well, it worked for Obama.
That's good to know. I attended several of the workshops early in the coalition's term and reported on them here – been waiting for the follow-through.
Also encouraging to see that she get's how to implement the roadmap:
Hegel's dialectic, updated into the 21st century: local knowledge & aspirations applied to co-design the plan; implementation via govt supervision. Bottom-up & top-down thinking synthesised via both/and logic. I hope she succeeds in sharing this gnosis so that it becomes general thinking within Labour & the Greens. No sign of National figuring it out…
They have also followed through on a national water body which was announced yesterday. No doubt the opposition will complain that govt shouldn’t be governing during the election period.
I'm sure the Greens have never thought of that approach Dennis. Thank goodness they have Labour to show them the way.
Renewable energy development in South Taranaki: https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/300061761/waipipi-wind-farm-taking-shape-in-waverley
Overtaking would have been traumatic!! I saw them from the hill above the port. Enormous things, roughly the size & shape of the biggest whales in the ocean, but probably even bigger. Just not so heavy, being mostly air inside. A smaller blade and it's truck tipped over in transit early last month: https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/121692399/truck-carrying-massive-wind-turbine-blade-topples-over-on-sh45?rm=a
… blades 160 metres long …
Uhh, no. Mass media getting technical details wrong again. The turbines might have a swept diameter of 160m, but each blade is a bit less than half that. That's still fkn huge, the total wingspan of an A380 is a bit less than 80m … And the biggest ever recorded blue whale didn't quite break 30m.
https://www.windpowermonthly.com/10-biggest-turbines
edit: the biggest that’s far enough in development that the company is starting to spruik it has 107m blades, but it’s still a ways away from production.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a25956533/ge-largest-wind-turbine/
thought you might enjoy this Dennis,
https://twitter.com/domesticanimal/status/1287116137600135168
Apart from the fact that Twyford (annoyingly) seems to have done an about-face on his passion for a grade separated CBD to airport metro, the main takeout from this article is that airport to CBD express trains and good local public transport services don’t mix very well. Probably we need to be planning for both.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300063919/election-2020-light-vs-heavy-rail-to-determine-future-of-auckland-transport
I really don't understand what benefit light rail has over buses. The footprint of tracks for light rail is bugger-all less than what is needed for bus lanes, and buses have vastly better operational flexibility.
Capacity really. One light rail unit can fit the equivalent of about 4 of the current AT double decker buses. Mostly because everyone has to have a seat on the double deckers due to the low grade ride quality (they lurch around a lot and standing is just dangerous). So as demand (hopefully) increases you need to squeeze more buses onto a finite amount of road space. Eventually you will run out of road. We’re already seeing that at peak times as services from across the isthmus converge on the inner city, the NNR, Mt Eden Rd, Symonds St intersection is an example. Plus we’re running out of street capacity to terminate the services in the city.
Another problem with busses, especially double decker busses is the time to board and un-board the busses. I know people here in Wellington that avoid double decker busses for their commute, because it takes too long to get through the "Golden Mile" with too many stops and longer boarding times.
Trams are usually only one level and have more doors than busses.
A tram system, in my opinion, only makes sense if you have a dedicated tram line. In some areas of Melbourne the tram has to share the road with cars, which is a complete disaster at car congested times.
So the people fearing trams are mainly car drivers and their associations (AA). Because it means taking road space away, often rightfully gives trams right of way at crossings and therefore often have significantly lower commute times than cars.
For what it’s worth station dwell times on the trains in Auckland are way worse than the busses. Though all-door boarding would help on the busses. The main problem though, is once again, safety, the driver can’t move off from the bus stop until they’re sure everyone is safely seated.
Labour's policy was a dedicated light rail corridor before the last election, with light phasing to minimise wait times. Wtf is it now and does the transport minister know?
From the Stuff article quoting Doug Wilson:
"Light rail does, but for most of the route it is going to be mixed with traffic, so travel times are affected and you’re going to have a fairly slow journey to the city,” he said."
Well, there's the efficiency:
And passengers per hour by train far exceeds what buses can achieve. Buses, of course, achieve far more than cars.
With trains we're truly seeing economies of scale and high efficiency in the mode of transport. Heavy rail is better their than light and suburban rail is better again.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Passenger_Capacity_of_different_Transport_Modes.png
Twyford might have a point about capacity on the Southern line and extra services from the airport via a spur would slow everything down (I don't know if this is resolvable), but it's really annoying when he says:
That is plainly bullshit. People change trains at stations and have been doing this for nearly two centuries now.
Let’s just hope the PM has somebody else in mind for the role of Transport Minister after the election.
Genter would be a good choice.
How responsible are the Greens for the Wellington bus mess? A huge part of it will be selling it to the public and cleaning up the mess of this term. Maybe Genter can do it, but I'm not entirely confident.
Do the Greens control either the regional council or the inner city one?
Useful practical post about Akl airport access: https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/06/29/63283/
"It is up to voters in the precious few weeks until the election to push political parties into ambitious action"
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/oram-we-are-ambitious-people
While agreeing with the general thrust of the piece by Oram I fear he makes one fundamentally incorrect assumption…..that there is a majority seeking a common outcome
She sounds nice.
https://twitter.com/keithedwards/status/1287125645634539527
She does doesn't she.
Granny hasn't been taking her meds.
If our border is closed how can ACT/Plan B can invite the international "experts" here? Will they be paying for their own quarantine?
I reckon they’ll zoom in and zoom out. It’s a shame that the debate is hijacked by a bunch of biased folk pushing their biased opinions and agenda under the pretence of being sound science. The fact that this branded as COVID-19 Science and Policy Symposium hides that in reality it is propaganda aimed to influence NZ policy. Could be an election stunt by Seymour too. It is free and I wonder who funds this.
In case people haven't sighted Rod Oram's opinion on Tiwai Point's demise here is the link from 19 July. It's well based on wide facts, stuffed with them, and probably The Last Word that anybody should bother reading.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/oram-how-the-global-aluminium-market-killed-tiwai-point
Some people who should know better still keep calling on fellow New Zealanders to save the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter.
The latest is Winston Peters. He pledges that any future government New Zealand First is part of would support a worker/management buyout. It’s an idea he’s touted since 2011, he reminded us in an article under his name in the Herald on Thursday.
Similarly, Steven Joyce, the National Party’s chief economic strategist for nine years in the Key and English governments, was all for subsidising the smelter to keep it alive in his Herald column last week.
Here, though, is the case the smelter really is dead. The sooner we acknowledge that, celebrate its past and work on Southland’s future the better off we’ll all be – particularly the 1,000 people directly hit by the smelter’s planned closure next August.
What else then? Tesla?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/elon-musk-may-answer-keeping-jobs-bluffs-tiwai-point-smelter-southland-entrepreneur
Elon's such a great employer, and he wouldn't be digging into the government's pockets at all.
Tiwai Point aluminium smelter only has a future if:
Chances of this coming about is pretty close to zero – unfortunately. This seems to be because the governments of NZ have given up on actually developing our economy to utilise our own resources and to only export end products and not the raw resources.
Kia Kaha!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300058729/the-myth-of-mori-exceptionalism
Interesting to see TOP's keeping on with the dissing the Greens election strategy (this kind of tweeting isn't uncommon from TOP). Not sure what they think is to be gained (attracting swing voters who hate the Greens?), but I guess it makes them a natural partner for National somewhere down the line.
https://twitter.com/sparksedit/status/1287164072115363841
If you go to the ACT website, you’ll see that they devote many of their ‘news releases’ to dissing the Greens too. To me, it just shows that they’re acting [no pun] from a position of weakness and desperation, i.e. when you’ve got nothing (to lose), attack. Cynical and populist politics at its finest.
Like bullies, they are drawn to attacking those with the integrity they lack.
TOP leader Geoff Simmons on Q&A this morning (7m clip in story), with ironic headline: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/we-dont-have-sugar-daddy-anymore-opportunity-party-keep-focus-policy-not-personality-politics-post-gareth-morgan
Disappointing to see Jack Tame giving airtime to the fool James Carville with his ridiculous ideas about Trump stepping down before the election, and asserting that Biden had the "most progressive agenda ever…"
Sadly this guy, who might have provided Jack Tame with an intelligent alternative is dead at 37. Michael Brooks in talking to Robert McChesney asks the single most pertinent question … "is there a way of thinking about a Biden presidency that is constructive while being grounded in the realities of power dynamics…" The answer, as you'd expect, is a mixture.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/122223019/coronavirus-police-predict-the-emergence-of-a-new-group-of-criminals-post-covid19
Maybe now is the time to think about Universal Income.
The basic take away there is that deprivation creates crime and that inter-generational deprivation even more so.
It's just about to affect some of the tough on crime mob and others who have sniffed their smelling salts and voted National.
Time for a Universal Government more like. Based on a world without the corruption of money where people would get their needs met in exchange for working for the betterment of a habitable Planet and a sense of brother/sisterhood.
Ankraux uzi Esperanton kiel la unuversan lingvon.
Byd0nz, a universal government makes it even less possible to prevent corruption, its pretty much an Orwellian scenario.
Nature favors variety or biodiversity if you will, its better for survival.
Esperanto has been used for decades but seem to have not that much of an impact as people usually try to associate within their social structure, local lingo. The experiment of mixing different people has not gone that well in Europe.
A universal income needs to be sooner rather than later discussed as many people will loose their job due to automation. There is a change of how business operate in progress, the outcome most likely similar like the industrial revolution. Those who are right now have a say in the future have a responsibility beyond an individuals preference, political hue or whatever makes them exited. This is about the next generations and their security, be it food, land or resources.
Foreignwaka Do you know and use esperanto?
How about
UBI tax free
Inc Taxrate over 100k and 150k and 200k
And a transaction tax to catch the big money movement.
https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/josiecox/2020/07/25/leadership-bropriation-covid-boris-johnson-jacinda-ardern-viral-twitter-video/amp/
Forbes hyping up our PMs leadership skills.
& saw a funny Tweet comparing Adern rattling off the Govts past achievements with Trump repeating "Person man woman camera tv".
Ad will be in heaven. The Labour-led government showing intent on major, environmentally sound, forward thinking infrastructure projects.
The government is doing a great job in the last few days of announcing some major achievements. Serious stuff, and very high quality campaigning.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300066128/government-wants-100-per-cent-green-electricity-by-adding-battery-power-to-hydro-dams
A bit more detail and indication of the scale of what is being proposed, it's pretty big.
https://medium.com/land-buildings-identity-and-values/pumped-hydro-update-ec4538cbdb87
It is huge step towards 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and a fully carbon zero economy by 2050.
I was quite surprised by the scale of the thing, it's a Clyde sized undertaking. 23 km of hard rock tunnel is getting into it. Some good employment there. Might even see machines 5 & 6 finally installed at Clyde too.
But yeah,
Brilliant…but the question has to be asked why they waited until the end of their term to fund the investigation….and it needs to be combined with an upgraded fully electrified nationwide rail network.
Any Minister can do a report.
Hard to see any fresh energy investment for years when Tiwai comes off.
Dunno. If Huntly shuts down the remaining two oldest boilers, and there gets to be a push on to convert other coal users to electricity, we're going to be looking for more generation pretty quickly. And now, decisions won't be distorted by the threat of unleashing all of Manapouri's power onto the market, that will have been done and dusted.
That would need a whole different set of price signals to generator investors than we have now. Even strong changes in Ministerial policy can only operate difficult levers through the Electricity Authority, and through browbeating listed shareholders.
The geothermal projects around Taupo are in a much more developed state than anything currently in the South Island. Plus they are closer to Auckland.
Once Manapouri really comes on stream – and takes 6 months to settle – I'd see the geothermal ones as much more likely to proceed.
Maybe we start to see a stable investment playground in late 2022. Maybe.
Investment cases after that, project formation and consenting after that, project procurement and construction after that.
That makes it a third term thing.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122208708/sarah-dowie-other-women-were-my-harshest-critics
In the party of hair puller John Key, saying being an MP is hard because of long hours away from her children, like many other parents. esp solo working parents. Nope, no sympathy from me, she could have highlighted that while in parliament, tried to change policy so all parents get to spend time with their kids, be more sympathetic to parents on the benefit, esp solo ones. Of course she makes some good points (double standards), but mostly comes across "poor me" & justifying why she cheated.
Dowie said:
"Feminism is about women coming together and celebrating in other women …"
Dowie also said:
"“There are women down here [in the Southern region] that I term ‘the witches’."
Justified cheating is an oxymoron.
I just remembered the "part time PM" bullshit, don't remember Dowie standing up then.
Oh wow – the cray-cray is strong in these ones.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300066166/jamilee-ross-looks-to-te-tai-tokerau-as-he-plots-journey-back-to-parliament
Lest we forget the decampers !
Ann Tolley validectory speech abridged.
( From Valedictory Statements – New Zealand Parliament).
I came to Parliament with a busload for my first day.
I now have a segway about a Greek phrase, " I am reminded of the meaning of the word "politics". From the Greek "polis", meaning "city", comes the Greek word "politēs", meaning "citizen",… because it is all about citizens.
My speech will show that for years I was shuffled around in Parliament and I was successful. I thank many, many parliamentary people ( many more than citizens mentioned) who helped my success including the VIP transport team.
Now onto some 'people' I remember who are the real highlights of my career… (though I will just call them people because I don't know their names nor what happened to most of them, but they were memorable).
*hundreds and hundreds of parents who contacted me about national standards.
*I remember ” taking PM John Key to the Whakatāne-based academy,( trades) where we met a large group of excited but very focused young people, and two stood out for John and me. They came from way up the coast. They left home at about 5 a.m. to ride—possibly a horse—down to catch the bus to Whakatāne, which was over three hours away.”
*took an enormous risk and OK'd the Rimutaka Prison taking part in Wellington on a Plate with Martin Bosley. I even went out to the prison kitchen talking to a man who… with a real light in his eye….
* I went to another prison for the puppy in prison project. " I remember talking to this enormous man. He was huge. He was covered in tattoos. He was a real fierce-looking dude. He wouldn't meet my eye, because many of them wouldn't, of course. But I .." " Then this great big fierce man bent down and picked up this little puppy, this golden Labrador ball of fluff, and with this gooey look on his face tucked it into his neck and told me that Daisy had scratched at the door to go out to the toilet for the first time the night before."
* I met Tusha Penny." I well remember her recounting the story of a woman whose history of abuse was only really uncovered by agencies. " … " This woman I remember I never met, I never knew her name, but I know we saved her life."
* I met two young people who had been in State care, " finally grabbed the opportunity to address the system that was failing them so badly," but will talk about only one of them.
The first young man's story didn't actually have a happy ending. … He was sullen… I think he'd been with cousins up the coast… " I listened to him…" Sadly, I know that this wasn't enough to make up for everything else that had damaged him."
* Quickly moving along, next minute, it was all good though no matter because, "But one of that group, a bright, intelligent, and determined young woman, took every opportunity to contribute to the redesign process. She came along to Parliament and she sat up here and she watched the lawmaking process when she could, because she was at university studying to be a social worker. I ran into her a year ago at a local school. She had a very successful career." Because she sat up in the gallery and WATCHED.
In the last nearly 12 months, " We didn't manage to negotiate a full code of conduct with consequences ( because of covid or because some had an entitlement to scoff at rules) —.So "seven statements of expectations of behaviour" have now been passed on to the Speaker.
" I sincerely hope everyone in the next Parliament commits to these expectations, because—I tell you what—the public expects nothing less."
With that nod to ' good behaviour being expected only because the citizens are watching ' .
…. "So I say thank you to the National Party and to my caucus colleagues for your friendship and support over the years. As Deputy Speaker—sorry, I can't read."
SPEAKER: You're not meant to read anyway!
I'm sure it's much, much,… much more coherent in full.
Aww. Sorry. Nope it wasn't !
Btw much, much much = more
Colmar Brunton polling now, results expected by Thurs, TV1.
Their last poll in June had National at 38, up 9 (Muller bounce, and it was a bad news week for the government). Probably an exaggerated high, up from an exaggerated low, but it would be funny if they went down again.
Reid Research were polling 3 days ago. These polling companies seem to have a penchant for women between 25 and 45 years. They're not interested in those of us who are well past our prime. Can't think why. 😕
They would have a quota and filled it up the older age group quickly because I’m guessing you are more likely to answer your phone.
Yeah… reckon you're right newsense but I get a bit pissy about it sometimes. 🙁
Who/what defines your prime? Do you have only one prime? I reckon it is a marketing ploy (AKA BS).
the longer you live, the more primes you have
I’m almost at my optimus prime.
Mine is on the decline.
Two knee replacements coming up.
That’s no good.
Cheer up, Anne
The rest of you must be pretty good if they think it is worth replacing your knees!
I really like the contribution from the younger TS commenters. They may not always get what a baby bomber is trying to say and I may not always get what a person 20-40 ish is trying to say.
The thing which I really like from age 20 – 40 ish is that they can find a couple of words to explain a behaviour e.g. "love bombing and gaslighting."
Aha, think I am beginning to get it now why so much bad behaviour is occurring in parliament.
Some politicians have the agenda of being spiteful (cutting their nose off to spite their face) toward another MP just to achieve a goal. The spiteful politician does not care what means they use as long as their goal is reached which is to take an opponent out and then wipe their hands as if they did nothing to harm someone.
JLR is set to release more bad news for National.
This is politics it's a dirty business putting laws in place isn't going to change anything but just push more underground.
ie Donations conveniently split into unidentifyable smaller amounts.
Dunedin needs to find the tree Pete Hodgson came from. Clark, Curran, Woodhouse and Benson-Pope definitely a mixed bag of talent in terms of success in national politics.
We need good quality locals not carpet baggers who are rejected up North.
I see prosperity X-tian, and conspiracy nutter most likely to jam out a Stevie Ray Vaughan lick Billy Te Kahika has thrown his lot in with that oh-so X-tian and deeply principled politician Jami-Lee Ross in a desperate attempt to get his NZ Public Party registered. I wonder who swallowed the bigger rat? And what for?
It will be the sadest sadist party
'Murica
https://twitter.com/MoseBuchele/status/1287245156467585024
https://twitter.com/MoseBuchele/status/1287245158044631040
https://twitter.com/Austin_Police/status/1287236449172164609
60.9%!
Might need to make the list a bit longer.
Is it 20 August the cut off for the list?
National needs to shorten their list as it could be embarrassing.
https://www.parliament.nz/electiontimeline/index.html
Oh, crap! There goes the quiet Sunday night 🙁
Dangerous fools.
https://twitter.com/MekaKiwi/status/1287177938069098496