Brutal take-down of Jason Walls and 1ZB/NZME by Colin Peacock for Mediawach. This is about his criticism of the funding of and online doco about Dr. Siouxsie Wiles.
Usually I don't mind Walls' commentary but he works for NZME so possibly has to has to provide anti-Labour content as part of his job description.
I listened to the slot with Heather Stupidity-Allan the other day and it was a rather pathetic attempt at a hit job. Seems the whole story has been pulled from publication and Walls wasn't in his usual slot yesterday…
It's probably actionable under liberal libel laws so they've got Jason on CWI watch in a remote valley with no social media access until the dust settles.
"Is it time to rethink our food production" – Absolutely, yes.
"Food production systems are in chaos. Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Agriculture, painted a picture of a system in dire need of innovation, where 89% of farmers couldn’t produce enough to sustain themselves on the land; where food systems had become fragile and where the impact of inputs (for example, gas) were going to become crippling."
The re-imagining of food production systems has been going on for some time. But in NZ, if you have an imagination, be sure to shut up or you will be attacked. Especially here at The Standard, where Fonterra's income makes some weak at the knees.
The article linked describes GE and highly technical systems as the way forward. I think they're simply part of the solution and GE more daft hubris from idiots who've nearly wrecked the place. We've barely harnessed the thousands of edible species we already have – we don't need a fancier cherry…
The first really practical huge difference thing we might do, but wont because rich people are too precious/full of themselves to be useful – transition domestic lawns to food production or low maintenance natives. We already have the workforce – mowing lawns. A wee bit of retraining… But feeding the people and saving diversity, the environment and the planet at the same time isn't really the objective is it – it's getting rich somehow, gouging all you can before it collapses.
When all our kids want is to be gangsters or influencers, rich and (in)famous… Clearly, they just want to escape. It's very broken but we built it and now we defend it like it works… Can we undo it.
It's not just food production needs re-imagining, it's imagining.
Of course, you are correct, DB Brown. What is it, deep down, do you suppose, that suppresses imagination so effectively and prevents us from recreating our world as a better place?
I'm reading "Humankind" by Rutger Bregman at present, so am not inclined to believe that humanity is nasty and greedy by nature, so suspect some pathology or other has taken hold of us (the "us" that is preventing the shift to a better world).
I agree. Yes I was pretty negative toward people. But there seems to be those who care (the great unwashed), and those who detest those who care. I find it increasingly difficult to attribute 'humanity' to corporations or their mouthpieces. Far too many products that are (knowingly) bad for the environment (or health) get sold and the sales get celebrated. And the gaslighting, so well and truly over that, as are our kids.
The pathology is the stupid dreams we sell ourselves. As if richness and fame is in any way comparable to being valuable and truly seen.
We’ve seen how so many of these people behave. They have not ‘arrived’ or ‘made it’ as people.
Everything we see not of nature was imagined at one point. Imagination’s a powerful tool. Maybe it’s been captured by fluff and sound bite?
We need to shift from a rat race to a communal place. We squander HUGE resources warring in media campaigns to sell things to each other. And the object is not to serve customers but to WIN. To repress the other players and monopolize to make the BIG MONEY. It should not be necessary to impose windfall taxes where financial infringement is so enormous it just can't be explained away anymore, yet we're seeing it. And we only see that because people are so squeezed they might riot otherwise.
There's nothing wrong with doing well, just not at the expense of others and the environment. We're in this together but the rat race says we're in it to win. It's wrong-headed, some might say a pathology.
We have what it takes. Will we use our resources to save ourselves, or allow corporations and billionaires to continue their plunder.
Now I'll pivot from my anti-greed/stupidity rant and try talk re-imagining.
We have a pollution problem. In the air, the land, the sea… It seems the by-products or waste steams of our industries are not being accounted for. For many of these industries, their waste stream is actually a resource for another industry, and should we stack a few industries together, we might make a lot less mess, and a lot more products out of the same inputs.
One could use forestry slash to produce power, chemicals and biochar. Then put the biochar in flues and strip out nitrogen being emitted, then use that as fertiliser for carbon capturing trees. Then use the trees products as food, and the waste products for fungi, and their waste products as compost for forestry…
Nature is the teacher for real efficiencies.
You can use faeces and biomass to feed insects that feed poultry and fish that fertilise plants that produce more feed and food then ultimately back to faeces and biomass…
Corporations can re-imagine themselves. Can align instead of compete, can create real stories not puff pieces.
Forestry, agriculture horticulture and aquaculture could work together exploring and adapting to systems that solve each others problems and provide each others inputs.
The pattern of behaviour seems to be, inspiration – manufacture – exploitation; conceive of a Great Idea (domesticate that sheep!) – make a crook and a sling to protect them from wolves and bears – fell some forest to make More Room for the Lucrative Resource.
What we have yet to master, is discretion; how will this pan out, and should we put the brakes on some aspects of it.
Other cultures have shown that applying discretion to behaviours results in long term success and resource maintenance. Ours has not. Now, we must, or face harsh consequences.
Your very good, pragmatic suggestions will be subject to the same escalation and lack of discretion shown to date, yes?
How might you/we ensure that imagination isn't misused as it has been up till now?
"How might you/we ensure that imagination isn't misused as it has been up till now?"
Good system design and regulation against exploitative/extractive practices, including financial extraction.
Design: If aquaculture waste is fertiliser for the hydro outfit, and plant waste is food for the entomology outfit, and insects are food for the aquaculture outfit… it makes no sense to not be working together. Any biomass generated for industry – byproduct or not – should be useful or feeding something, somewhere, and that then feeds something else.
The pressures taken off the natural environment are potentially enormous as we'd require far less inputs to generate the same outputs.
Fish that don't need lots of antibiotics, veg that don't need lots of chemicals, fish and pet food that isn't stripped from the oceans… in this one example.
Of course it's all far easier said than done. But the more systems work with nature, the less work will be required to get a result.
In respect of forestry slash, it turns out that wood and wood decay products in small streams are crucial to heavy metal mitigation in streams where salmon have declined in North America. I expect that it plays a similar role in NZ both for stream quality for galaxiids, and as a base of estuarine food chains.
The problem is reimagining corporate behaviour sufficiently that instead of their reflexive outsourcing of costs and consequences, they proactively try to close their product loops. Aquaculture/aquaponics are good industries for corporates to learn this because the pollution products are both readily traced, and readily repurposed.
The NZ Salmon sites that experienced high mortality in the Sounds last summer have evidently been closed. If we are to have a long term future for aquaculture in NZ, as a site becomes unsuitable for this sub arctic species, another more temperature tolerant species ought to be found to take its place. Yellow belly flounder for example, is a warmer water species, highly palatable, fecund, and somewhat robust. If we don't build a more diverse industry, a couple of warm years will wipe the sector out.
so am not inclined to believe that humanity is nasty and greedy by nature, so suspect some pathology or other has taken hold of us (the "us" that is preventing the shift to a better world).
The classics decided that we were both. That the border between good and evil lay through every human heart as Solzhenitsyn put it.
And sexual competition is the underlying reason why we – and all other species – compete. (And both sexes do it, just in differing styles.) Given that competition has been arguably the prime motive force behind human development, it cannot be discounted or eliminated.
Yet unconstrained competition is excessively destructive and costly. Much of our social norms, structure and value systems are mechanisms to put boundaries and rules in place to moderate it. A society that undermines or even dismantles it's ethical systems, will become over time more competitive, more destructive and ultimately collapse as trust is extinguished.
There is not a binary choice here, we need both positive competition and co-operation to run healthy societies. And that tension plays out not only in our institutions and politics – but within the choices each one of us makes moment to moment.
Do you think, RedLogix, that the gathering Clouds of Consequence can in some way cause each of us to make better choices, moment to moment, as is sorely needed, or will some Great Power (governance system) be required to "encourage" us each to smarten up our individual acts?
I needs go serve Mammon right now, but in short we always have a choice. Fear of the consequences of not doing so will soon enough force the nations into the next evolution of global governance. The era of imperialism is in it's dying thrashing throes.
The era of population growth is ended forcing a fresh round of evolution everywhere – politically, economically and socially. Transitions are rarely comfortable but they cannot be escaped.
If you want to visualise the future, imagine if you could bring your great-grandparents to life for a day, and share with them the fullness of modernity – they would be astonished, delighted and appalled in equal measures. This is how we should regard the future lives of our own children.
I often wonder what my parents (let alone grandparents) would think if they 'returned' to see what the world was like now. They would be in awe of modern technology etc. but horrified by the overall deterioration of the planet and mankind. My father, who foresaw much of what has happened, would be driving everyone silly with his "I told you so".
What is it, deep down, do you suppose, that suppresses imagination so effectively and prevents us from recreating our world as a better place?
Not just deep down, but what we are immerse in. This from Rob Hopkins in his book on What if… which is about imagination and how see the good futures,
As I was thinking about this, I stumbled on a paper by a researcher named Dr Kyung Hee Kim at the College of William and Mary. Analysing more than 250,000 participants between kindergarten and adulthood from the late 1960s to the present, Dr Kim found that while creative thinking and IQ rose concomitantly until 1990, at some point between 1990 and 1998, they parted ways, with creative thinking heading into a ‘steady and persistent’ decline.
Dr Kim attributed the decline to children’s having less time to play, more time spent on electronic devices, greater emphasis on standardised testing and a lack of free time for ‘reflective abstraction’. Her findings were picked up by Newsweek, and suddenly Dr Kim was inundated with invitations to appear on radio and TV.
Hopkins, Rob; Hopkins, Rob. From What Is to What If (pp. 9-10). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Some people want the world to be a better place, over all, for every living thing, even though it means significant change to their present life-styles.
TINA people who are deathly afraid of degrowth or transition
relocalising food production can't be supported within neoliberalism because it would eventually undercut export earnings (shock! horror! some food would be free!!)
dearth of imagination stemming from lack of exposure to other models (and ideological resistance to looking)
most people aren't trained or experienced in systems thinking of the kind needed for transition. Imagine if we taught basic permaculture principles in school.
Love the lawns idea. I think we have to be ready for a fast transition. When the first lockdown was announced, garden centres sold out of seedlings. People get it, it's just that the lure of BAU holds them from acting until they get scared.
Labour didn't classify garden centres as an essential business, which mean all those seedlings coming through went to waste. This is the kind of shit that wouldn't happen if we had more Greens in government. Small shifts that have big flow on effects.
I'd really like to see people supported to garden:
Tool subsidies
classes
R & D for small scale production
systems for growing for others locally
None of that is hard to set up and do, but it does need more support than we have currently.
Or…encourage the poking-in-everywhere, of vegetable seedlings.
Best way to do that, modelling (go you green guerrillas!)
(As for tools, use a stick! The belief that funding is needed and must be used to buy hardware; forks, barrows and hoses, is a false-path, a barrier to success, imo).
I'm all for a range of models. Guerilla gardening is a particular skill set.
I love my garden tools. I could use a stick for many things I do but it would be harder. Making it easy for people seems key, and relatable. But I agree we should support the stick gardeners too!
It does however raise the issue of availability of time. Most people need to work 8hrs a day 5 days a week to keep up with their financial obligations. In a future where more people are gardening to supplement their food requirements, we will also need to have the hours available to do the labour involved in planning preparing maintaining and harvesting this food. The current system enforces employers demands on our time; this structure will need to be rebuilt too.
a good place to start might be job sharing, and 4 day weeks?
Many of the people I know that garden seriously get to work less hours for wages or income because their grocery bills are so much lower. In this sense the gig and PT economy could be appropriated by some people (with obvious exceptions).
There's potential in paying someone (or bartering) to garden on one's section while one is at work. Produce is shared, and the person with the time can make good use of it. Am thinking someone who is unemployed or underemployed teaming with a family where the adults are working full time. The full time workers can also do some of the more enjoyable aspects of garden in their small amount of time.
We need models of how this can work that are easy for people to slot into. eg what kind of agreements to use.
It's definitely possible, 4 day weeks on 40hr salaries is a good start, I think 25hr weeks should be the goal. All of these options would be available to workers in a system that isn't run for the profit of shareholders. Workers need more control over how they do their jobs. We have had incredible growth in productivity over the last 40 years but real wages have decreased and people are working more hours. It's about time that we recoup those profits in increased wages, reduced hours and more autonomy in the workplace.
Good point. That's why we spend the current resources we're spending on lawns on gardens instead. They reckon on average we spend just over $500 p.a. on lawn care (I reckon kiwis spend a bit more). The global lawn industry is estimated to be worth 105B per annum. That's a lot of resources that could be redirected to growing urban food forests and garden patches.
When we're no longer paying for the lawn care, and no longer paying for a reasonable portion of our veg/fruit/herbs… we have those savings to give the lawncare folks meaningful work helping the time poor or garden-disinterested keep their yard in production.
Entirely doable. Garden businesses could coordinate across neighborhoods to set up tremendous food diversity in a relatively small place too.
The rub is in the cooking of fresh foodstuffs – also costly in time. Those who want to could opt to sell what they grow and dine out as they do now (maybe at a place cooking their own produce).
Got a visitor, hope that's not too disjointed, must go…
I wonder if anyone can find out who was CEO of Air New Zealand was when it became a business partner with the dodgy financial fronts of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church?
That's a long service! Must be doing a complete overhaul… new motor, new chassis, bigger brighter wheels. I wonder if he is going to re-appear with a head of hair?
lol Robert. Made me chuckle. Having listened to Willis a couple of times of late, I think Nats have got it wrong. Willis would have been the better choice.
I think it's highly likely Luxon will be replaced before the election.
Sure, people can say "no, not another change", but it would be a worse mistake to persist with somebody so ill-suited for the job, so out of his depth.
If they dump him before the end of the year National can recover easily.
dunno really. People were tweeting about it yesterday and I didn't pay attention. Saw this this morning,
I have great respect for Muller when he fronted up. For whatever reason Luxon's disappearance is, the media should be media-ing and Luxon should have a some explanation, even if its fudged to respect privacy, or whatever. His PR dept is super-skilled in this area. 11 days! https://t.co/lXg9gUCAZT
Matt Robson, formerly Alliance/Progressives, is the only Kiwi on a Ukrainian Government list of people pushing pro Russian propaganda. Can anyone point me to what he was up to?
Matt Robson is an Auckland barrister, and a former Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control and Associate Foreign Minister. He is a member of the Labour Party.
OPINION: As Minister of Disarmament in the 1999-2002 Labour-Alliance Coalition, I had the authority of government to state that New Zealand would not be part of any nuclear armed military bloc.
Furthermore, I was authorised to state that we would pursue an independent foreign policy and we would not march off to almost every war launched by Great Britain and then the United States – our “traditional” allies.
As minister responsible for overseas development aid, I refused to join in the clamour denouncing China’s aid programmes in the Pacific.
Matt's in favour of an independent foreign policy and while not supporting Russia does not view Nato in a benign light
The current Ukrainian administration is apt to see Russian spies and saboteurs everywhere, they're probably right, as many have not taken kindly to being treated as second class citizens.
Its been a great excuse to shut down opposition parties (mostly of the left)and bring all media under the govt umbrella, where pesky alternative views can be crushed indefinitely .Martial law eh, aint it grand?
He is described as a political novice, and had not previously entered political life, so I'm not sure when he would have been in the Socialist Action League.
If he ever was , he's turned his coat.Along with banning the parties , he's gone after trade unions
Now I don't have a real problem with that. All MPs need breaks, even the ones I don't like. But Luxon is so … Luxony!
He tried to give the impression he was in NZ. He zoomed into meetings and made no mention of his location. He didn't lie (AFAIK) he just kept quiet. So he turned a minor story into a bigger one.
It's like his statement (in several media interviews) that he hasn't been to a church in years. People go to churches for all kinds of reasons, weddings, funerals, carol services, your neighbour's niece's violin recital. Nobody would care if Luxon went to a church. But some adviser has said "Don't do the religion thing" and so he doubles down. So stupid.
If he doesn't understand that covering up is always worse than the original story, he's doomed.
Hey look, Te Puke is really warm in winter. The surf is great. I exercised personal responsibility by avoiding the slow train to Hamilton – that knocked 2% off our inflation. I delivered. Someone said 'deliver' was a transitive verb – I said half-priced transitive verbs was bottom feeding. I am super excited. Tomorrow I will not be in Te Puke or many other places. I rang the IMF, they said "are you in Te Puke?" I sang "Didn't my Lord Deliver Daniel" but left out the Daniel bit. A great day -I'm not apologising for my success.
"What a golden opportunity missed to connect with the Pacifica electorate."
Don't think it would occur to the Luxons of this world. They are not of the common garden folk variety like the rest of us. Samoa/Nuie/Tonga/ Cook Is. way too down market for them. (sarc)
National see themselves as vastly superior to the average person. They can't conceive of the possibility they should behave like the rest of us. Subterfuge for them is normal practice. When and if they get caught, they bristle and bat away the attacks as though they are victims not perpetrators and by and large the MSM let them get away with it.
Scomo (recently departed Ozzie PM, also a member of an evangelist church) got caught going to Hawai'i during the Black Summer bush fires 2019/2020 and was also very quiet about it (lied about where he was?). His unannounced disappearance at a critical time contributed to the sense that he was devious and selfish. Is Hawai'i a magnet for the Christian right or simply because it is warmer and drier than wintry NZ?
I have read that Luxon belongs to a small religious group called "The Upper Room".
This group does not use churches. They meet in places like school halls or gyms after hours, and do their religious things there, not in a church
So Luxon's statement that he hasn't been to church for ages is true at one level: he would go to a church only for somebody else's funeral, wedding or baptism. Otherwise he would not go to a church.
It is, of course, only a half-truth. And half-truths can easily constitute a lie.
The phrase 'to go to church' also means to many people 'to be religious'.
If Luxon attends religious meetings without going to a church, he should have had the honesty to say so. Does he see admitting that he belongs to a small religious group that does not use churches as an electoral turn-off?
If he has been attending such meetings, his statement about not having been to church for a long time is to my mind a vile piece of deliberate deceit, aimed at not losing NZ's large block of secular voters.
At a recent joint news conference with the President of Belarus, Putin announced that Russia would transfer Iskander M missiles to Belarus. Those missiles can carry nuclear warheads, and the move is apparently intended to mirror nuclear sharing arrangements the United States has with five NATO allies — Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Turkey.
U.S. nuclear weapons were introduced into Europe in the 1950s as a stopgap measure to defend NATO democracies whose conventional forces were weak. The number of nuclear weapons in those five countries peaked around 7,300 warheads in the 1960s, then dwindled to about 150 today, reflecting NATO’s growing conventional strength and its diminishing estimation of the military usefulness of nuclear weapons.
…..
Even though it has no direct role in the Ukraine war, it’s appropriate for NATO to have a role in encouraging negotiations to end it.
Since NATO is an enormously strong military force — stronger even than Putin’s Russia — and since President Putin has said that the war in Ukraine is in part a response to NATO’s actions, NATO calling for peace negotiations would be fitting and carry some weight.
It would also be in keeping with NATO member states’ obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. NATO leaders meeting in Madrid recently reaffirmed that “The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the essential bulwark against the spread of nuclear weapons and we remain strongly committed to its full implementation, including Article VI [the article that commits nuclear-armed states to pursuing nuclear disarmament].”
…
Bringing both sides back into dialogue will require a dramatic gesture. Therefore, we propose NATO plan and prepare for withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear warheads from Europe and Turkey, preliminary to negotiations. Withdrawal would be carried out once peace terms are agreed between Ukraine and Russia. Such a proposal would get Putin’s attention and might bring him to the negotiating table.
Removing U.S. nuclear weapons from Europe and Turkey would not weaken NATO militarily, since nuclear weapons have little or no actual usefulness on the battlefield. If they are truly weapons of last resort, there is no need to deploy them so close to Russia’s border.
….
NATO’s nuclear arsenal failed to deter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has almost no utility as a weapon of war. But NATO’s nuclear weapons can still be put to good use, not by threatening to launch them and escalate the war, but by withdrawing them to make room for new negotiations and eventual peace.
to make room for new negotiations and eventual peace.
First up, NATO's nuclear arsenal was part of the old cold war strategy to be used should the Warsaw Pact threaten to over run Western Europe. That's unlikely to happen in the 21stC so NATO's nuclear arsenal should probably go.
Second, Ukraine is the victim of Russia's war of imperial conquest, not NATO.
And thirdly, NATO is an alliance. It's not up to the US to breach it's treaty agreement and withdraw the NATO nuclear arsenal because Putin embarked on a genocidal war to eradicate a neighbour. Getting rid of the arsenal requires all 30, soon to be 32, member states to agree about the nature of the alliance. Why would they put their capabilities on the table in the interests of a non-member?
Also, Danes and Danegeld.
btw, should NATO members France and the UK get rid of their own nuclear arsenals months after Poots and co threatened to use theirs?
"I'm not losing sleep over this, I am losing sleep over the rising cost of living, I'm losing a lot of sleep over a failing healthcare system, I'm losing a lot of sleep that only 45 percent of our kids are actually going to school regularly at the moment. They're the big issues we need to be focused on.
He was asked if it was wise to be going on an expensive overseas holiday when New Zealanders were struggling with cost-of-living increases, but he said it was important for people to find time with their families.
"When it's a pretty intense job the last seven months and I think when you work as hard as we do, that to actually get some personal leave with your family for five days is actually really important."
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Back in 2020, the government realised that the industrial allocations in the ETS - supposed to protect large polluters from unfair competition from countries who didn't pay for their carbon - was overallocated. They were giving away too many free credits, resulting in windfall gains to polluters. Having noticed this, ...
Hate to sound “fearful” and “inward”in my thinking, but it seems Covid can’t be beaten simply by a dose of positive thinking and a “can do” Kiwi attitude. The virus doesn’t seem to respect our mindset. The Omicron BA. 4 and BA.5 variants also don’t seem to respect the mRNA ...
One of the results of the current partisanship and ideological motivation of the mainstream media is that the old journalistic skills of objective research and basing articles on evidence have largely disappeared. In many cases, journalists have just become stenographers faithfully parroting and quoting think tanks and anonymous political ...
Is it ironic that the Government is reforming rules around secret political donations in a very secretive way? There has been overwhelming public demand for more openness about how politicians raise their money, but the Government and officials have been less than transparent and very restrictive over the whole submission ...
The Ministry of Justice has released a copy of the public submissions on the Government’s proposed political donation law reforms – see here: OIA 96540 – Edwards 1 July 2022. This information was requested in early April under the Official Information Act, and was finally provided this month. Note the ...
Earlier this year the government held a public consultation on proposed changes to the election donations regime. Naturally, political parties - who have a strong interest in the rules around donations and what they have to disclose - submitted to it. But the Ministry of Justice cooked up a crooked ...
Inflation is Back, in New Zealand as much as in anywhere else. Fuel costs and supply-chain issues and all that – and, yes, the loose monetary policy in 2020 has had an impact too, though it was the right thing to do at the time. 7% inflation in ...
Don Franks was interviewed by Dr Toby Boraman in December 2013 about his time working in the militant Ford car plant in the 1970s. In this installment Don talks about speedup, antiapartheid protests, the Maori land march and different views on Norm Kirk (The interview has been lightly edited. For ...
It’s ordinary people who are suffering the most from the current cost of living crisis. In other words, working people and the poor are paying the price of higher prices. Rising living costs have greater consequences for those in the bottom half of the wealth hierarchy, who are pushed into ...
Back in 2019 our parliament passed the Zero Carbon Act. The Act was modelled on the UK's Climate Change Act, and has a similar scheme of five-yearly budgets, with detailed government plans to meet them. But after initial success, its no longer working out so well in the UK - ...
Copenhagen Was Worth A Mass* The Danish Social-Democratic Party leader, Mette Frederiksen, greeted by supporters during her successful 2019 general election campaign.THINK OF DENMARK – go on, think of Denmark. What springs to mind? Lego? The Little Mermaid? Squishy little segments of surprisingly tasty cheese? Bacon? Slaughtered Minks? How many of ...
The well-known, and well-respected, international journalist John Pilger describes the war between Ukraine and Russia as “above all, a war of propaganda.” He says that nothing in the western press about this war can be trusted implicitly. That the reader or viewer must ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob Henson with contributions from Jeff Masters Relentless heat that’s been plaguing much of Europe this summer is now making a run for the United Kingdom, which appears likely to experience the hottest temperatures in its long history of record keeping on or ...
Unrepentant Scrapper: Any normal candidate would have run a mile from Guy Williams – rightly fearing the humiliation the comedian would be straining every muscle to inflict upon his hapless victim. But, Leo Molloy is not a normal candidate. The former jockey, qualified veterinarian, highly successful businessman, restauranteur and philanthropist ...
The brief fist bump between Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Mohammad bin Salman was the most memorable image from the US President’s journey last week to the Middle East. To many, it was a humiliating sign of American impotence. Fist bump the hand of the Crown Prince ...
Joe Biden’s controversial fist-bump with Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudi crown prince, may help New Zealand to forge its own new direction in the Middle East. The US president’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia showed that despite real concerns over human rights, the Middle East’s strategic importance in ...
Enough is enough! Ian Foster must go – and if he doesn’t do so of his own accord (as he should do), he must be pushed. That became apparent in the first minute of the match, when it became clear that neither the coach nor the team had learned any ...
A human rights groups in Germany is calling for international solidarity for two Tamils who have been on trial for collecting funds for the Tamil Tigers (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) a decade ago. The defendants Nathan Thambi and Anandarajah position is that the LTTE were not terrorists, rather a legitimate ...
The ongoing decline in market income inequality stopped in the 1980s. Since then it has been stable, while 1990 public policy actively increased disposable income inequality.Thomas Piketty has a reputation for (literally and figuratively) weighty tomes. His 2013 best seller – 2.5 million copies – Le Capital au XXIe Siècle ...
It’s July in Dunedin – grey winter skies, plague-carrying pedestrians, and omnipresent, soul-destroying damp. Which means it’s time for my review of the freshly released two-and-a-half minute trailer for The Rings of Power. (Technically released at 12:30 a.m. on 15th July here, but I decided to sleep on it ...
The Labour Government has managed to get one major issue right this week, at least in an electoral sense. The Government has been under pressure to deal with escalating public concerns about crime and gang activity. On Wednesday the newly appointed law and order duo of Chris Hipkins and Kiri ...
Point Of No Return: One minute the ordinary citizen is pausing amidst the familiar rush of daily chores to try and make sense of an alarming headline, and the next minute there’s the sound of machine-gun fire in the streets. Because most people simply cannot imagine the collapse of the ...
Political Sledging: On Sky News Australia, conservative columnist and commentator, Rita Panahi, coined the not-so-kind "Performative Caring" alternative to Jacinda Ardern's trade-mark promotion of "Kindness". There will be plenty on this side of the Tasman happy to pick up the Australian Right's all-too-accurate political sledge.SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA has reformulated Jacinda ...
It seems very odd that RNZ thought it was worth breaking into its normal programming yesterday in order to provide Christopher Luxon with a platform from which to try and explain away his latest outbreaks of foot-in-mouth disease. Can we now assume that any time that National wants a media ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Roger Karapin The crises the U.S. is facing regarding global warming and representative democracy are similar in some ways. Both have been serious problems for several decades, but have taken on new urgency in the past five years. In both, the Republican Party ...
Insufficiently Woke? It is difficult to read the leaked review which sank Professor Richard Jackson's bid to become a co-director of the Centre for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism as anything other than evidence of the ongoing and destructive conflict between the Professor and the Tiriti-centred, iwi-directed, bi-culturally-driven commissars of ...
Yesterday’s match between the Maori All Blacks and Ireland confirmed the sad state of New Zealand rugby. The contrast (and skills gap) between the two teams was at times painfully obvious and reinforced the conclusions which had to be drawn from last week’s test match. In both matches, the locals ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling in the West Virginia v. EPA, as detailed by Lexi Smith on this site, substantially curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate climate pollutants. Though the language of the decision itself appears to be narrow– limiting the extent of ...
Innocent until...? "Loss" in the dollars and cents sense of the insurance industry stemming from our accidental, too-rapid instigation of climate change are already a feature of our present. We can look to multiple attribution studies of hydrometeorological anomalies (aka "destructve floods") to confirm this. Multiple projections conducted by a ...
For a Government and Prime Minister apparently “with no substance apart from a talent for photo ops” it seems as if an awful lot of substance has, in fact, been achieved abroad. Multiple Prime Ministers have failed to get a reasonable deal for New Zealanders on pathways to ...
Brendon O’Neil on Spiked looks at the poison of cancel culture and the attack on Macy Gray When today’s radicals were fresh-faced youths, reading their Gramsci and putting up their Malcolm X posters, I wonder if they could ever have imagined that their proudest achievement in the year 2022 would ...
New Zealand has once again been ranked the second-most peaceful nation in the world. When it comes to the Asia-Pacific region and the Southern Hemisphere, New Zealand is at the top of the peace rankings. This is according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, which recently released its annual ...
If the government wants to violate the Bill of Rights Act, does it need to actually justify it, and what happens if it doesn't? That's basicly the issue in question today in the Supreme Court, where activists of the Make it 16 campaign are challenging the voting age. The ...
On Monday, RNZ reported on the results of testing CO2 levels in various places, which showed that Auckland buses had CO2 levels of 5737ppm, making them effectively covid-filled sewers (CO2 is a proxy for exhaled air, which in the current situation is a proxy for covid). As with school classrooms, ...
History Man: Does David Seymour have a case? Does history confirm that National campaigns from the right when it’s in opposition, only to govern from the left when it’s in government? The answer to this question is ….. complicated.DAVID SEYMOUR is on to something with History. Shrewd use of the past can ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Lexi Smith The Supreme Court’s closely watched decision in West Virginia v. EPA held that the EPA exceeded its statutory authority in attempting to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act through the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The six conservative justices ruled against EPA, the ...
Don Franks was interviewed by Dr Toby Boraman in December 2013 about his time working in the militant Ford car plant in the 1970s. In this third installment Don tells of a fight against sexual harassment of women. (The interview has been lightly edited. For citations please acknowledge the interviewer ...
In recent months, China has been widely portrayed as a major strategic threat to the Pacific region, yet the Pacific states themselves beg to differ. Pacific leaders insist that climate change is a far more pressing existential threat. A month ago, Fiji’s defence minister Inia Seruiratu made that point very ...
Watching the All Black debacle against Ireland yesterday was a painful experience. And Silver Lake must be having second thoughts about their investment. The obvious reaction from All Black supporters is that something has to change. How could such good players perform so badly as a team? But how do ...
The war in Ukraine is dragging on and many people have lost interest in it. But those who want to follow the progress of the war, and possibly speculate on how it will finish, must find it hard to find objective information. Like all wars, there is so much fake ...
Jonathan Freedland uses the fall of Boris Johnson to continue to fight two wars that any sane, non-obsessed man would have put behind him. In an article titled Everything Tainted By Johnson's Lies Needs To Be Undone, he first decides 2022 is CLEARLY the most opportune time to have another ...
Stuck at 68% The Policy Institute of King's College, London this week provides us a report from our government/NGO section, Public perceptions on climate change (pdf). The authors survey citizens of six European Union countries. A key finding is a bit disturbing: despite the scientific consensus on anthropogenic (human caused) climate ...
Thanks to political pressure from the Green Party and the more than 900 personal stories of birth injury and trauma delivered to Minister Sepuloni, more injuries have been added to the ACC birth injuries bill. ...
Supporting New Zealanders is at the heart of our approach as a Government, and we’re working hard to tackle the big issues Kiwis are facing. While long term challenges like child poverty won’t be solved overnight, we’re putting in place policies that make a real difference for New Zealanders. Here ...
Every New Zealander deserves a healthy, affordable place to call home. We have a comprehensive plan to make it happen, and we’re making good progress. Here's the latest on how we're supporting Kiwis into homes: ...
The Government is allowing wealthy individuals to ‘purchase’ residency while entrenching a system that keeps low-waged workers on a precarious and temporary status, the Green Party says. ...
The Election Access Fund established by a Green Party members’ bill opened for submissions this week, showing positive progress towards more accessible elections. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to pass legislation to increase pay transparency, saying it is an urgent step that needs to be taken in response to shocking new evidence that most of the pay gap for Pacific, Māori, and other ethnic minorities cannot be explained. ...
The Government must lift student incomes now, says the Green Party, as new evidence shows thousands of students are living in poverty, with many struggling to pay rent and put food on the table. ...
The Green Party is on board with the extension of half-price public transport, but once again calls on the Government to go further and make public transport free - for good. ...
Evidence published today showing that acute alcohol use is a factor in more than a quarter of suicides in New Zealand is a shocking wakeup call and politicians must respond, the Green Party says. ...
Banning deep-sea mining is more urgent than ever following the news that a New Zealand Crown Research Institute, NIWA is set to support what could easily become a damaging mining project in the Pacific Ocean. ...
Following pressure from the Green Party, the Government has announced that medical masks will be available free for everyone, with N95 masks free for those most at-risk. ...
We’ve announced the next steps in our work to tackle crime and gangs – because all New Zealanders deserve to live in communities that are safe. These new practical tools build on our strong law and order record, which includes delivering New Zealand’s largest ever Police service, targeting illegal firearms, ...
We need action to address the underlying causes of crime, not more of the same simplistic solutions that we know do not work and risk harming communities, the Green Party says. ...
For the cost of cutting taxes to petrol for three months, the Government could have ensured the future of a transformational increase to passenger rail services between Wellington, the Wairarapa and Manawatū, says the Green Party. ...
Since taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to grow a secure economy for all. ...
The Green Party has written to the Prime Minister on the eve of the Pacific Islands Forum calling on the Government to support a moratorium on deep sea mining. ...
It’s our birthday this week! For more than a century, we’ve remained committed to supporting New Zealanders and securing a better future for all. As we mark 106 years of the New Zealand Labour Party, here’s a look at how our work has made a difference for New Zealanders and ...
Myanmar Executions: Minister of Foreign Affairs Statement to the House Mr Speaker On Monday 25 July, Myanmar’s state-run newspaper announced the execution of four people, including political figures – Phyo Zeya Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu - known as Ko Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. The four were ...
Three new residence pathways: Straight to residence Work to residence Highly paid - 'twice the median wage’ Straight to residence pathway will be ready for people to apply for from 5 September 2022. Work to Residence and Highly Paid pathways will be available for people to apply in September ...
With the first of three monthly Government Cost of Living payments due to be made on Monday, Revenue Minister David Parker is urging people to make sure Inland Revenue has their bank account details. From 1 August, Inland Revenue will pay three monthly instalments each of about $116 into the ...
The Government has today opened the Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund, the first stage of a new approach to cultural sector funding designed to support strategic, sector-led initiatives, that will have lasting benefits for arts, culture, and heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand. “The opening today of the Te Tahua Whakamarohi i ...
Significant progress is being made towards the Government’s goal of eliminating family violence and sexual violence, Minister Davidson confirmed today at the first ever annual hui to take stock of the work underway to ensure all children, families and whānau can thrive in safe homes and communities. Speaking to more ...
Construction of relief homes is underway for Westport residents affected by flooding with the first houses expected to be delivered to site next month and families moving in from October, Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. Buller District Council has granted land-use consent for the Temporary Accommodation Village to ...
Climate Change Minister James Shaw has welcomed recommendations from He Pou a Rangi – Climate Change Commission (the Commission) on Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) settings. “For the ETS to do its job and drive real emissions cuts, it’s vital we have the right settings in place to ensure a fair ...
Free trade with the United Kingdom is a step closer with the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement Legislation Bill having its first reading in Parliament today, Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “We’re continuing steady progress toward ratifying this historic free trade agreement (FTA) and having its benefits ...
Our goal of becoming free of the devastating harm caused by tobacco has today moved a step closer as the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill passed its first reading. “We have more regulations in this country on the safety of a sandwich than a cigarette, this ...
The Bill to create a new public media entity, Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media, had its first reading in Parliament today. “The Bill brings in the changes needed to make sure that our public media will keep delivering for future generations. “With increasing levels of misinformation around the world, a ...
Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for engagements in his finance portfolios and to support New Zealand’s athletes at the Commonwealth Games in the United Kingdom. He will attend the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham from the evening of August 2. Before that he will travel to Paris for meetings with political, sport ...
Improvements to processes for electing councils at the next local government elections in 2025 have been introduced to Parliament. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the legislation covers decisions about Māori wards, the number of councillors at Auckland Council, more consistent rules for a coin toss if an election result ...
Kei te whanake tonu te Kāwanatanga i ngā mahi tautoko i te iwi Māori ki te tiaki i ngā mātauranga Māori e noho mōrearea nei, kia whakahaumarutia ngā mātauranga taketake i ngā pānga o te mate korona. “Kei te whakatakotoria haerehia te tūāpapa tiaki i te mātauranga Māori me tōna ...
The Government is continuing to take action to support Māori to safeguard at-risk mātauranga from the ongoing threat of COVID-19, through the extension of the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme. “We’re continuing to lay the foundations for a better future by prioritising the protection of mātauranga Māori and its ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has condemned the executions of four people, including pro-democracy activists and opposition leaders, in Myanmar. “Aotearoa New Zealand has a strong and long standing opposition to the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances,” said Nanaia Mahuta. “This was a barbaric act by ...
The New Zealand Defence Force will support Pacific Island partners through a range of maritime security and other support in the next three months, Minister of Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Pacific is who we are as well as where we are. The challenges our region faces are New ...
Tēnā koutou katoa Tenei te mihi ki a koutou Kua tae mai i runga i te kaupapa o te ra Ara ko Te Royal New Zealand College of GPs hui Tēnā tatou katoa Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. I acknowledge Samantha Murton, President of the Royal ...
Associate Health Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Aupito William Sio has congratulated the Premier of Niue, Dalton Tagelagi who is visiting Aotearoa New Zealand this week, for the tremendous success of Niue’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. Niue has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 99 percent ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Premier Dalton Tagelagi signed a new Statement of Partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand and Niue during talks in Wellington, today. The leaders reaffirmed the close friendship, forged through shared people and constitutional ties. The new Statement of Partnership reflects our long-term cooperation on priority areas ...
Speech to Local Government New Zealand, 21 July 2022 Tēnā koutou katoa. I am pleased to be here today to discuss the reform of the resource management system with you and in particular to update you on governance and decision making in the new system. This speech is one ...
June Quarter Benefit statistics released today show the number of people receiving a Main Benefit continues to fall. “There are 3,717 fewer people on a Main Benefit compared to March 2022,” Carmel Sepuloni said. “However, while we are still seeing a good number of people move off benefit and into ...
Seven centres first to get Government housing infrastructure funding, enabling over 8,000 more new homes to be built New homes to be enabled in Rotorua, Ōmokoroa, Kaikōura, Ōtaki, Napier, Gisborne and New Plymouth 28 further projects undergoing due diligence and negotiations for allocation from $1 billion Infrastructure Acceleration Fund ...
The biggest polluters will have to do more to help meet climate targets because of changes the Government is making to decade-old settings that have allocated far too many free climate pollution credits to New Zealand’s largest emitters, Climate Change Minister James Shaw announced today. “Tackling climate change is a ...
The Government has taken a further important step in improving Kiwis’ preparedness in the event of a tsunami with the launch of Aotearoa’s first nationwide tsunami evacuation map, says Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty. “All of New Zealand’s coastline is at risk of tsunami which means most of us ...
Kia ora koutou katoa and thank you for the invitation to speak to you all today. I would like to acknowledge Local Government New Zealand President Stuart Crosby, and Chief Executive Susan Freeman-Greene, and our host, Mayor Grant Smith of Palmerston North City Council. I also acknowledge all elected members ...
E mara a Riki, ko koe tērā i tu mai i mua ra, hei pou matakana mo mātou te hunga noho taone, arā ko Tamaki Makaurau. Nāu ano i mātua mai te haumarutanga o ta tātou whānau, hapori, hapū me ngā iwi, arā ko te mauria mai o ngā whare ...
A new Active Investor Plus visa category is created to attract high-value investors. The new visa will replace the existing Investor 1 and Investor 2 visa categories. Eligibility criteria includes a minimum $5 million investment and encourages greater economic benefit to New Zealand companies by capping passive investment in ...
Measures to further protect New Zealand’s economy from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) continue as the Government focuses on strengthening biosecurity settings, Biosecurity and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said today. “Biosecurity New Zealand will this week begin using foot mats with disinfecting chemicals for arrivals from Indonesia to step onto in a ...
Niuean Premier Hon. Dalton Tagelagi will visit Aotearoa New Zealand this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. Premier Tagelagi will be officially welcomed to New Zealand on Thursday 21 July. During his visit to Wellington he will undertake a number of official engagements, including meetings with the Prime Minister, ...
Good morning. It’s great to be here again and speak with you. The past few months have been momentous for climate policy in New Zealand. As you know, the Government has now set New Zealand’s emissions budgets for the first three budget periods, and have released our ambitious package of ...
First home buyers and renters are set to benefit from measures getting underway to support more new affordable homes for people and their whānau, says Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. “Since we came into Government, we have been hitting the housing crisis we inherited with initiatives to get new housing ...
Every Council in New Zealand will receive at least $350,000 of additional funding to ensure they have the resourcing necessary to implement the Three Waters reforms, Associate Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty announced today. The Government has set aside a $44 million fund to assist Councils with the costs ...
Four appointments have been made to the Consumer Advocacy Council, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs announced today. The four appointees are: Desiree Mahy (Tūhoe); currently the Manukura (Chair) of Te Hou Ora Whanau Services, a Director of Thankyou Payroll Limited, a Director of Pāmu and a Trustee of the ...
Health Minister Andrew Little has opened a new purpose-built mental health and intellectual disability facility in Porirua today, marking another milestone in the Government’s billion dollar investment in mental health services and facilities. Manawai, the National Individualised Service Unit (ISU), was built to support a small number of people with ...
The Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods is celebrating today’s launch of two firsts for energy decarbonisation in the transport sector in New Zealand; an electric milk tanker and a hydrogen truck, made possible with the help of Government funding. New Zealand’s (and possibly the world’s) first electric milk ...
Young people from across Aotearoa New Zealand will take centre stage in the capital as Youth members of Parliament (MPs), Youth Press Gallery members, and the Youth Clerk at the two-day Youth Parliament event in Wellington. Youth Parliament is an opportunity for young people from across Aotearoa New Zealand to ...
The latest inflation figures reflects the volatile and uncertain global environment though New Zealand is well positioned to respond and help households and businesses through this difficult time. The Consumer Price Index released by Stats NZ today showed a 1.7 percent increase in prices over the June quarter, taking the ...
Petrol excise duty cut by 25 cents a litre for more than five months until 31 January 2023 Road User Charges reduced by the equivalent until 31 January 2023 Half price public transport fares ...
Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta today announced the appointment of three commissioners to Mana Kāwanatanga ā Rohe | Local Government Commission. The appointed commissioners are: Brendan Duffy, Chair Bonita Bigham Sue Bidrose The Local Government Commission was initially established in 1947 to consider proposals for local government reorganisation. Over time, ...
Attorney-General David Parker announced today the appointment of five lay members of the High Court under the Commerce Act 1986. Lay members assist the Court in cases involving appeals from decisions of the Commerce Commission and in other matters under the Commerce Act, and play a key role in ensuring ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Goodall, Emeritus Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University This week’s announcement that Stan Grant will be permanent host of the ABC’s Q&A follows widespread speculation about the future of the program. On some estimates, ratings have fallen by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Professor, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University When Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, James Carville, scrawled, “the economy, stupid” on a sign in 1992, he merely wanted the campaign volunteers to stick to their presidential candidate’s talking points. After Clinton became ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Toole, Associate Principal Research Fellow, Burnet Institute Australia’s elimination strategy during the first two years of the COVID pandemic was one of the most effective in the world. Through a combination of early border closures, widespread testing and meticulous contact tracing, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Norman Duke, Professor of Mangrove Ecology, James Cook University Norman Duke, Author providedEnvironmental scientists see flora, fauna and phenomena the rest of us rarely do. In this series, we’ve invited them to share their unique photos from the field. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Frew, Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Southern Queensland Getty Under your feet lies the most biodiverse habitat on Earth. The soil on which we walk supports the majority of life on the planet. Without the life in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Shiels, Lecturer – School of Art, RMIT University Ethel Spowers, School is out, 1936, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 1976 Review: Spowers & Syme, Geelong Gallery. In their pioneering coloured linocut prints, Ethel Spowers (1890-1947) and Eveline Syme ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Headwinds buffeting the economy – notably high inflation and a global slowdown – have led to a significant downgrade of Australia’s economic growth forecasts, compared with the pre-election estimates. Treasurer Jim Chalmers will tell ...
By Claudia Tally in Port Moresby After 36 hours of unrest, fear and anxiety, Port Moresby city woke up yesterday morning to a quiet start under the watchful eyes of the police and military personnel as tensions slowly faded. Kicking off to a slow start, shops and business houses opened ...
The National Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama has visited Guava village in the heartland of the Panguna mine in Central Bougainville to pay his respects to the resting place of Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) leader Francis Ona. It was the first time President Toroama had visited Guava in 25 years after ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Plans are underway to help Tokelauans stuck abroad, mostly in New Zealand and Samoa, to return home. The general manager for the office of the Taupulega (council of elders) of the atoll of Nukunonu, Asi Pasilio, said borders had been shut for more than ...
RNZ News Opposition National Party leader Christopher Luxon says there are more important issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand than the controversy over a party social media post while he was holidaying in Hawai’i. He has admitted he was holidaying in Hawai’i last week despite his social media posts suggesting he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The upsurge in inflation has revived old debates about what causes it. Until recently, it has been an article of faith among both businesses and union leaders that inflation ...
On Thursday 28 July at 3pm, Parliament will hold a one-hour special debate on the petition of Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand (CABNZ), Leave no-one behind – Campaign to address digital exclusion. Parliament’s decision to hold a special debate signifies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Shutterstock Inflation jumped from 5.1% to a new long-term high of 6.1% in the June quarter, a rate matched only by short-lived jump caused by the ...
Four days after James Shaw was ejected from the role, Green MP Teanau Tuiono has spoken: He has not decided whether to put his name forward for the party co-leadership. ...
The government ultimately wants to introduce high-trust funding similar to the Covid-19 response for dealing with family and sexual violence, the minister says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Lucas Coch/AAP Earlier today, the federal government introduced its hotly awaited climate change bill to parliament. Despite the attention and controversy it’s attracted, the proposed legislation – as it stands ...
New Zealand’s transformation from a country that was doing well by world standards, to a deeply divided society that is in decline. We were told back in 2017, by Jacinda Ardern, that her government is the most open and transparent government we have ever ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Freya Shearer, Research Fellow, Epidemic Decision Support, The University of Melbourne During the pandemic we have all become familiar with a lot of epidemiological concepts. One that was introduced to us early in 2020 is the “basic reproductive number”, or R0. ...
Buzz from the Beehive New legislation has been a feature of press statements from the Beehive over the past 24 hours or so. Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta introduced a Bill aimed at improving processes for electing councils at the local government elections in 2025 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Senior Lecturer, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide Shutterstock Does your cat kick litter all over the floor? What does this mean and how can you stop it? Despite being skilled predators, cats are also ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lecturer of Computing & Security, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock This week Amazon announced plans to fork out US$3.9 billion (A$5.6 billion) to acquire US healthcare company One Medical. One Medical reportedly provides primary care on a membership ...
Our report Matters arising from our audits of the 2021-31 long-term plans was presented to the House of Representatives today. Councils’ long-term plans are the main way for them to describe the services they plan to provide, the community outcomes they ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria O’Sullivan, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, and Deputy Director, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University Shutterstock Disturbing footage emerged this week of a chess-playing robot breaking the finger of a seven-year-old child during a tournament in Russia. ...
The Climate Change Commission wants the government to change the rules for the way emissions are priced, with current settings incentivising tree planting instead of actual cuts to damaging gases. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreea S. Calude, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of Waikato Shutterstock Social media has the reputation of being spontaneous, rushed, prone to typos and ungrammatical sentences, and generally a linguistic disaster. And some of it is. However, analysis of Twitter ...
National, 27.07.22 - The Cancer Society welcomes the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill, introduced by Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall in Parliament last night. Following the reading, submissions ...
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Brutal take-down of Jason Walls and 1ZB/NZME by Colin Peacock for Mediawach. This is about his criticism of the funding of and online doco about Dr. Siouxsie Wiles.
Usually I don't mind Walls' commentary but he works for NZME so possibly has to has to provide anti-Labour content as part of his job description.
I listened to the slot with Heather Stupidity-Allan the other day and it was a rather pathetic attempt at a hit job. Seems the whole story has been pulled from publication and Walls wasn't in his usual slot yesterday…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018850576/criticism-of-mini-doco-funding-hits-a-dead-end
It's probably actionable under liberal libel laws so they've got Jason on CWI watch in a remote valley with no social media access until the dust settles.
"Is it time to rethink our food production" – Absolutely, yes.
"Food production systems are in chaos. Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of Agriculture, painted a picture of a system in dire need of innovation, where 89% of farmers couldn’t produce enough to sustain themselves on the land; where food systems had become fragile and where the impact of inputs (for example, gas) were going to become crippling."
The re-imagining of food production systems has been going on for some time. But in NZ, if you have an imagination, be sure to shut up or you will be attacked. Especially here at The Standard, where Fonterra's income makes some weak at the knees.
The article linked describes GE and highly technical systems as the way forward. I think they're simply part of the solution and GE more daft hubris from idiots who've nearly wrecked the place. We've barely harnessed the thousands of edible species we already have – we don't need a fancier cherry…
The first really practical huge difference thing we might do, but wont because rich people are too precious/full of themselves to be useful – transition domestic lawns to food production or low maintenance natives. We already have the workforce – mowing lawns. A wee bit of retraining… But feeding the people and saving diversity, the environment and the planet at the same time isn't really the objective is it – it's getting rich somehow, gouging all you can before it collapses.
When all our kids want is to be gangsters or influencers, rich and (in)famous… Clearly, they just want to escape. It's very broken but we built it and now we defend it like it works… Can we undo it.
It's not just food production needs re-imagining, it's imagining.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300645545/is-it-time-to-rethink-our-approach-to-food-production
Of course, you are correct, DB Brown. What is it, deep down, do you suppose, that suppresses imagination so effectively and prevents us from recreating our world as a better place?
I'm reading "Humankind" by Rutger Bregman at present, so am not inclined to believe that humanity is nasty and greedy by nature, so suspect some pathology or other has taken hold of us (the "us" that is preventing the shift to a better world).
I agree. Yes I was pretty negative toward people. But there seems to be those who care (the great unwashed), and those who detest those who care. I find it increasingly difficult to attribute 'humanity' to corporations or their mouthpieces. Far too many products that are (knowingly) bad for the environment (or health) get sold and the sales get celebrated. And the gaslighting, so well and truly over that, as are our kids.
The pathology is the stupid dreams we sell ourselves. As if richness and fame is in any way comparable to being valuable and truly seen.
We’ve seen how so many of these people behave. They have not ‘arrived’ or ‘made it’ as people.
Pablo Picasso said, "Everything you can imagine, is real".
Others say, be careful what you wish for.
A genuinely good man once said you can’t handle the Truth!
Everything we see not of nature was imagined at one point. Imagination’s a powerful tool. Maybe it’s been captured by fluff and sound bite?
We need to shift from a rat race to a communal place. We squander HUGE resources warring in media campaigns to sell things to each other. And the object is not to serve customers but to WIN. To repress the other players and monopolize to make the BIG MONEY. It should not be necessary to impose windfall taxes where financial infringement is so enormous it just can't be explained away anymore, yet we're seeing it. And we only see that because people are so squeezed they might riot otherwise.
There's nothing wrong with doing well, just not at the expense of others and the environment. We're in this together but the rat race says we're in it to win. It's wrong-headed, some might say a pathology.
We have what it takes. Will we use our resources to save ourselves, or allow corporations and billionaires to continue their plunder.
Now I'll pivot from my anti-greed/stupidity rant and try talk re-imagining.
We have a pollution problem. In the air, the land, the sea… It seems the by-products or waste steams of our industries are not being accounted for. For many of these industries, their waste stream is actually a resource for another industry, and should we stack a few industries together, we might make a lot less mess, and a lot more products out of the same inputs.
One could use forestry slash to produce power, chemicals and biochar. Then put the biochar in flues and strip out nitrogen being emitted, then use that as fertiliser for carbon capturing trees. Then use the trees products as food, and the waste products for fungi, and their waste products as compost for forestry…
Nature is the teacher for real efficiencies.
You can use faeces and biomass to feed insects that feed poultry and fish that fertilise plants that produce more feed and food then ultimately back to faeces and biomass…
Corporations can re-imagine themselves. Can align instead of compete, can create real stories not puff pieces.
Forestry, agriculture horticulture and aquaculture could work together exploring and adapting to systems that solve each others problems and provide each others inputs.
Just imagine.
Very good, pragmatic suggestions.
The pattern of behaviour seems to be, inspiration – manufacture – exploitation; conceive of a Great Idea (domesticate that sheep!) – make a crook and a sling to protect them from wolves and bears – fell some forest to make More Room for the Lucrative Resource.
What we have yet to master, is discretion; how will this pan out, and should we put the brakes on some aspects of it.
Other cultures have shown that applying discretion to behaviours results in long term success and resource maintenance. Ours has not. Now, we must, or face harsh consequences.
Your very good, pragmatic suggestions will be subject to the same escalation and lack of discretion shown to date, yes?
How might you/we ensure that imagination isn't misused as it has been up till now?
"How might you/we ensure that imagination isn't misused as it has been up till now?"
Good system design and regulation against exploitative/extractive practices, including financial extraction.
Design: If aquaculture waste is fertiliser for the hydro outfit, and plant waste is food for the entomology outfit, and insects are food for the aquaculture outfit… it makes no sense to not be working together. Any biomass generated for industry – byproduct or not – should be useful or feeding something, somewhere, and that then feeds something else.
The pressures taken off the natural environment are potentially enormous as we'd require far less inputs to generate the same outputs.
Fish that don't need lots of antibiotics, veg that don't need lots of chemicals, fish and pet food that isn't stripped from the oceans… in this one example.
Of course it's all far easier said than done. But the more systems work with nature, the less work will be required to get a result.
In respect of forestry slash, it turns out that wood and wood decay products in small streams are crucial to heavy metal mitigation in streams where salmon have declined in North America. I expect that it plays a similar role in NZ both for stream quality for galaxiids, and as a base of estuarine food chains.
The problem is reimagining corporate behaviour sufficiently that instead of their reflexive outsourcing of costs and consequences, they proactively try to close their product loops. Aquaculture/aquaponics are good industries for corporates to learn this because the pollution products are both readily traced, and readily repurposed.
The NZ Salmon sites that experienced high mortality in the Sounds last summer have evidently been closed. If we are to have a long term future for aquaculture in NZ, as a site becomes unsuitable for this sub arctic species, another more temperature tolerant species ought to be found to take its place. Yellow belly flounder for example, is a warmer water species, highly palatable, fecund, and somewhat robust. If we don't build a more diverse industry, a couple of warm years will wipe the sector out.
so am not inclined to believe that humanity is nasty and greedy by nature, so suspect some pathology or other has taken hold of us (the "us" that is preventing the shift to a better world).
The classics decided that we were both. That the border between good and evil lay through every human heart as Solzhenitsyn put it.
And sexual competition is the underlying reason why we – and all other species – compete. (And both sexes do it, just in differing styles.) Given that competition has been arguably the prime motive force behind human development, it cannot be discounted or eliminated.
Yet unconstrained competition is excessively destructive and costly. Much of our social norms, structure and value systems are mechanisms to put boundaries and rules in place to moderate it. A society that undermines or even dismantles it's ethical systems, will become over time more competitive, more destructive and ultimately collapse as trust is extinguished.
There is not a binary choice here, we need both positive competition and co-operation to run healthy societies. And that tension plays out not only in our institutions and politics – but within the choices each one of us makes moment to moment.
Do you think, RedLogix, that the gathering Clouds of Consequence can in some way cause each of us to make better choices, moment to moment, as is sorely needed, or will some Great Power (governance system) be required to "encourage" us each to smarten up our individual acts?
I needs go serve Mammon right now, but in short we always have a choice. Fear of the consequences of not doing so will soon enough force the nations into the next evolution of global governance. The era of imperialism is in it's dying thrashing throes.
The era of population growth is ended forcing a fresh round of evolution everywhere – politically, economically and socially. Transitions are rarely comfortable but they cannot be escaped.
If you want to visualise the future, imagine if you could bring your great-grandparents to life for a day, and share with them the fullness of modernity – they would be astonished, delighted and appalled in equal measures. This is how we should regard the future lives of our own children.
Well said RL.
I often wonder what my parents (let alone grandparents) would think if they 'returned' to see what the world was like now. They would be in awe of modern technology etc. but horrified by the overall deterioration of the planet and mankind. My father, who foresaw much of what has happened, would be driving everyone silly with his "I told you so".
Not just deep down, but what we are immerse in. This from Rob Hopkins in his book on What if… which is about imagination and how see the good futures,
Hopkins, Rob; Hopkins, Rob. From What Is to What If (pp. 9-10). Chelsea Green Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Who (if anyone) might benefit from having a population lose its ability to imagine …?
Everyone wants the world to be a better place, as long as it is a better place that suits them.
Some people want the world to be a better place, over all, for every living thing, even though it means significant change to their present life-styles.
the big obstacles I see:
Love the lawns idea. I think we have to be ready for a fast transition. When the first lockdown was announced, garden centres sold out of seedlings. People get it, it's just that the lure of BAU holds them from acting until they get scared.
Labour didn't classify garden centres as an essential business, which mean all those seedlings coming through went to waste. This is the kind of shit that wouldn't happen if we had more Greens in government. Small shifts that have big flow on effects.
I'd really like to see people supported to garden:
None of that is hard to set up and do, but it does need more support than we have currently.
Or…encourage the poking-in-everywhere, of vegetable seedlings.
Best way to do that, modelling (go you green guerrillas!)
(As for tools, use a stick! The belief that funding is needed and must be used to buy hardware; forks, barrows and hoses, is a false-path, a barrier to success, imo).
I'm all for a range of models. Guerilla gardening is a particular skill set.
I love my garden tools. I could use a stick for many things I do but it would be harder. Making it easy for people seems key, and relatable. But I agree we should support the stick gardeners too!
Paku has designed some fantastic gardening tools for kids, modeled on traditional Māori agricultural tools. paku.nz
All great ideas, food sovereignty is the goal.
It does however raise the issue of availability of time. Most people need to work 8hrs a day 5 days a week to keep up with their financial obligations. In a future where more people are gardening to supplement their food requirements, we will also need to have the hours available to do the labour involved in planning preparing maintaining and harvesting this food. The current system enforces employers demands on our time; this structure will need to be rebuilt too.
a good place to start might be job sharing, and 4 day weeks?
Many of the people I know that garden seriously get to work less hours for wages or income because their grocery bills are so much lower. In this sense the gig and PT economy could be appropriated by some people (with obvious exceptions).
There's potential in paying someone (or bartering) to garden on one's section while one is at work. Produce is shared, and the person with the time can make good use of it. Am thinking someone who is unemployed or underemployed teaming with a family where the adults are working full time. The full time workers can also do some of the more enjoyable aspects of garden in their small amount of time.
We need models of how this can work that are easy for people to slot into. eg what kind of agreements to use.
It's definitely possible, 4 day weeks on 40hr salaries is a good start, I think 25hr weeks should be the goal. All of these options would be available to workers in a system that isn't run for the profit of shareholders. Workers need more control over how they do their jobs. We have had incredible growth in productivity over the last 40 years but real wages have decreased and people are working more hours. It's about time that we recoup those profits in increased wages, reduced hours and more autonomy in the workplace.
Good point. That's why we spend the current resources we're spending on lawns on gardens instead. They reckon on average we spend just over $500 p.a. on lawn care (I reckon kiwis spend a bit more). The global lawn industry is estimated to be worth 105B per annum. That's a lot of resources that could be redirected to growing urban food forests and garden patches.
https://www.method.me/blog/lawn-care-industry-stats/
When we're no longer paying for the lawn care, and no longer paying for a reasonable portion of our veg/fruit/herbs… we have those savings to give the lawncare folks meaningful work helping the time poor or garden-disinterested keep their yard in production.
Entirely doable. Garden businesses could coordinate across neighborhoods to set up tremendous food diversity in a relatively small place too.
The rub is in the cooking of fresh foodstuffs – also costly in time. Those who want to could opt to sell what they grow and dine out as they do now (maybe at a place cooking their own produce).
Got a visitor, hope that's not too disjointed, must go…
I wonder if anyone can find out who was CEO of Air New Zealand was when it became a business partner with the dodgy financial fronts of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church?
Just asking questions.
Probably a loaded question but this will help
Rob Fyfe 2005 – 2012
Christopher Luxon 2012 – 2019
Greg Foran 2020- now
Audio link to RNZ report, well worth the listen as Air NZ (and others) grovel for dirty church dollars.
It seems Luxon was hiding out in Te Puke when he was really having a little chin-wag (with Key perhaps) in Hawaii.
Called in to get further instructions from the 'Smiling Assassin' maybe.
But why the need to be deceptive about it?
Oops – meant to be a reply to weka below.
"“We made a mistake, we own up to it and front it,” Luxon said, on Tuesday afternoon."
"Finance Minister Grant Robertson said all politicians needed a break, "it's just a matter of being up front with people about that".
“A post that says you're in Te Puke on a particular day, published on a day when you're actually in Hawaii is misleading.”"
You're good, I'll Grant you that!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129387029/national-party-leader-christopher-luxon-says-social-media-post-while-on-holiday-was-mistake
twitter is saying Luxon has been awol for 11 days. Anyone got solid information on this?
In for servicing?
That's a long service! Must be doing a complete overhaul… new motor, new chassis, bigger brighter wheels. I wonder if he is going to re-appear with a head of hair?
Whose?
lol Robert. Made me chuckle. Having listened to Willis a couple of times of late, I think Nats have got it wrong. Willis would have been the better choice.
Willis is waiting…
I think it's highly likely Luxon will be replaced before the election.
Sure, people can say "no, not another change", but it would be a worse mistake to persist with somebody so ill-suited for the job, so out of his depth.
If they dump him before the end of the year National can recover easily.
Getting instructions from Hawaii
Not at Key's mansion, that's a red herring.
It's the clubrooms at the golf course.
Red Herring? Not likely. Probably just Tabasco sauce.
AWOL? As in Todd Muller type AWOL?
dunno really. People were tweeting about it yesterday and I didn't pay attention. Saw this this morning,
google search for Luxon, then the news tab yields very few recent results.
Hes just been on te news ,trying to explain why his fb feed has made it look like hes been in nz while he was in fact in Hawaii
just watched it, he didn't look very relaxed for someone who's just had a week in Hawaii.
Nor tanned. Probably shady in the bunker.
Matt Robson, formerly Alliance/Progressives, is the only Kiwi on a Ukrainian Government list of people pushing pro Russian propaganda. Can anyone point me to what he was up to?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300564314/sleepwalking-to-war-nz-is-back-under-the-nuclear-umbrella
This Matt Robson?
Matt Robson is an Auckland barrister, and a former Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control and Associate Foreign Minister. He is a member of the Labour Party.
OPINION: As Minister of Disarmament in the 1999-2002 Labour-Alliance Coalition, I had the authority of government to state that New Zealand would not be part of any nuclear armed military bloc.
Furthermore, I was authorised to state that we would pursue an independent foreign policy and we would not march off to almost every war launched by Great Britain and then the United States – our “traditional” allies.
As minister responsible for overseas development aid, I refused to join in the clamour denouncing China’s aid programmes in the Pacific.
Matt's in favour of an independent foreign policy and while not supporting Russia does not view Nato in a benign light
The current Ukrainian administration is apt to see Russian spies and saboteurs everywhere, they're probably right, as many have not taken kindly to being treated as second class citizens.
Its been a great excuse to shut down opposition parties (mostly of the left)and bring all media under the govt umbrella, where pesky alternative views can be crushed indefinitely .Martial law eh, aint it grand?
https://www.leftvoice.org/president-zelenskyy-bans-opposition-parties-in-ukraine/
https://deadline.com/2022/03/ukraine-president-vologymyr-zelensky-combines-all-national-tv-channels-to-combat-alleged-misinformation-1234982814/
Didn't Zelenskyy ban a number of far right political parties?
(not very pro-fascist of him)
No , the ones he banned are considered russophoilic or left wing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Ukraine
He is described as a political novice, and had not previously entered political life, so I'm not sure when he would have been in the Socialist Action League.
If he ever was , he's turned his coat.Along with banning the parties , he's gone after trade unions
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/ukraine-democratic-socialists-challenge-zelenskys-attack-workers-political-parties
Wasn't he in the Socialist Action League at one stage? Or was it one of the other collections? Definitely not the SUP.
Luxon now admits he was on holiday in Hawai'i.
Now I don't have a real problem with that. All MPs need breaks, even the ones I don't like. But Luxon is so … Luxony!
He tried to give the impression he was in NZ. He zoomed into meetings and made no mention of his location. He didn't lie (AFAIK) he just kept quiet. So he turned a minor story into a bigger one.
It's like his statement (in several media interviews) that he hasn't been to a church in years. People go to churches for all kinds of reasons, weddings, funerals, carol services, your neighbour's niece's violin recital. Nobody would care if Luxon went to a church. But some adviser has said "Don't do the religion thing" and so he doubles down. So stupid.
If he doesn't understand that covering up is always worse than the original story, he's doomed.
Staying in Key's batch.
Going to church regularly.
I bet.
I mean, this is actually a rejected comedy script. Except it's real.
Today I'm in Te Puke …
I would laugh if it weren't for one thing: the certain reaction if Ardern did anything like this. Resign, Jacinda!
Hey look, Te Puke is really warm in winter. The surf is great. I exercised personal responsibility by avoiding the slow train to Hamilton – that knocked 2% off our inflation. I delivered. Someone said 'deliver' was a transitive verb – I said half-priced transitive verbs was bottom feeding. I am super excited. Tomorrow I will not be in Te Puke or many other places. I rang the IMF, they said "are you in Te Puke?" I sang "Didn't my Lord Deliver Daniel" but left out the Daniel bit. A great day -I'm not apologising for my success.
Te Puke? It's a small island in the Hawaiian chain, right?
What a golden opportunity missed to connect with the Pacifica electorate.
I wonder why he didn't go to (and make a big play of) one of Samoa/Nuie/Tonga/Cook Is for his family break.
Suggests there is more to the Hawaiian break after all – meeting the MAGA crowd perhaps?
Don't think it would occur to the Luxons of this world. They are not of the common garden folk variety like the rest of us. Samoa/Nuie/Tonga/ Cook Is. way too down market for them. (sarc)
Luxon: "did not think his social media was misleading."
Curious!
Everybody else did!
Watch this clip of Luxon trying to explain. His body language – and his language – is toe-curling.
Rabbit, meet headlights
Does he believe that stonewalling works?
In the face of the evidence?
National see themselves as vastly superior to the average person. They can't conceive of the possibility they should behave like the rest of us. Subterfuge for them is normal practice. When and if they get caught, they bristle and bat away the attacks as though they are victims not perpetrators and by and large the MSM let them get away with it.
They seek him here, they seek him there. – the turquoise Pimpernel needs rescuing.
I noticed Luxon's nose twitch a few times in the clip. Any idea what this is a sign of? Too much brown nosing maybe?
He looked restless and somewhat uncomfortable. Perhaps he went to Hawai'i to consider his leadership position.
Scomo (recently departed Ozzie PM, also a member of an evangelist church) got caught going to Hawai'i during the Black Summer bush fires 2019/2020 and was also very quiet about it (lied about where he was?). His unannounced disappearance at a critical time contributed to the sense that he was devious and selfish. Is Hawai'i a magnet for the Christian right or simply because it is warmer and drier than wintry NZ?
Scion of Merica, isn't it?
I have read that Luxon belongs to a small religious group called "The Upper Room".
This group does not use churches. They meet in places like school halls or gyms after hours, and do their religious things there, not in a church
So Luxon's statement that he hasn't been to church for ages is true at one level: he would go to a church only for somebody else's funeral, wedding or baptism. Otherwise he would not go to a church.
It is, of course, only a half-truth. And half-truths can easily constitute a lie.
The phrase 'to go to church' also means to many people 'to be religious'.
If Luxon attends religious meetings without going to a church, he should have had the honesty to say so. Does he see admitting that he belongs to a small religious group that does not use churches as an electoral turn-off?
If he has been attending such meetings, his statement about not having been to church for a long time is to my mind a vile piece of deliberate deceit, aimed at not losing NZ's large block of secular voters.
I for one would like clarification.
National claims they are a broad church.
One that admits women
I agree. If it's avoidance of something he thinks will be uncomfortable for him, we all need to know.
Another timely tweet from Jason Hickel:
Worth a read for the humour
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/129372427/the-buck-stops-down-there-at-the-all-blacks
😀😀I shared that on FB on the basis that even the non rugby types would appreciate it.
oh well, that was / is an interesting read.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3565996-nuclear-strategy-and-ending-the-war-in-ukraine/
First up, NATO's nuclear arsenal was part of the old cold war strategy to be used should the Warsaw Pact threaten to over run Western Europe. That's unlikely to happen in the 21stC so NATO's nuclear arsenal should probably go.
Second, Ukraine is the victim of Russia's war of imperial conquest, not NATO.
And thirdly, NATO is an alliance. It's not up to the US to breach it's treaty agreement and withdraw the NATO nuclear arsenal because Putin embarked on a genocidal war to eradicate a neighbour. Getting rid of the arsenal requires all 30, soon to be 32, member states to agree about the nature of the alliance. Why would they put their capabilities on the table in the interests of a non-member?
Also, Danes and Danegeld.
btw, should NATO members France and the UK get rid of their own nuclear arsenals months after Poots and co threatened to use theirs?
btw. should Nato members France and UK …………yes, they should.
You might want to acquaint your self with this movie. It is quite something, really.
nothing since has changed.
Ukraine's unilateral denuclearising worked out well. For Russia.
They should go indeed. But they cannot go while Russian leadership is immature enough to build their dreams on conquest.
Let me guess, you would then not mind having a few of these Nato nukes stationed here in NZ you know as a deterred for the immature Chinese?
I wish it were true, but
NATOUSA isn't interested in peace.NATO admits it wants 'Ukrainians to keep dying' to bleed Russia, not peace
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/nato-admits-it-wants-ukrainians-to-keep-dying-to-bleed-russi
Our proud 4th estate doing its thing:
He was asked if it was wise to be going on an expensive overseas holiday when New Zealanders were struggling with cost-of-living increases, but he said it was important for people to find time with their families.
"When it's a pretty intense job the last seven months and I think when you work as hard as we do, that to actually get some personal leave with your family for five days is actually really important."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/471633/luxon-s-hawaii-holiday-belies-te-puke-social-media-post
For sure…in Te Puke/Hawaii : )