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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A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how ...
There’s a fear that highlighting menopause will undermine women, especially at work. But what have centuries of secrecy achieved for us? Are you sick of hearing about menopause? Kim Hill is. The living legend of Aotearoa broadcasting told actor Robyn Malcolm (also a legend) on her Saturday Morning show on RNZ ...
Dunedin city council has reached an agreement to save Foulden Maar from commercial mining. The maar is the site of a crater lake from 23 million years ago with the diatomite of the lake preserving fossils and a climate record covering 100,000 years from that period. It is fantastic news for Otago University ...
The Bus and Coach Association supports the Government’s decision to continue half-price fares on public transport services. The fare reduction was set to expire on 31 March 2023, but will now continue to 30 June 2023. “Half-price fares have cost ten-times ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Hipkins’ bread and butter reshufflePolitical scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Chris Hipkins hires a lobbyist to run the BeehiveNew Zealand Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, speaking when Minister of Education, at NZEI Te Riu Roa strike rally on the steps of the New Zealand Parliament, 15th August 2018. Image; Wiki Commons. New Zealand is ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance todayCO-GOVERNANCE, WAITANGI, THREE WATERS Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Blowing Off The Froth: Why Chris Hipkins Must Ditch ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brian Tweed, Senior lecturer, Massey University Shutterstock/Renata Apanaviciene As we approach another Waitangi Day, we should be thinking again about what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means. As the late Moana Jackson commented, the meaning of Te Tiriti will be ...
Even prime ministers get caught in bad weather. It’s a week on from the devastating flooding that hit Auckland and Northland and Chris Hipkins has been forced to drive north for the start of Waitangi weekend commemorations after his plan was turned away from Kerikeri airport (twice). Today will see ...
Less than a year ago, co-governance had a future, at least as potentially accepted terminology. Now some iwi leaders want the label removed and replaced, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
“The decision by the Reserve Bank of Australia to not replace the late Queen with Charles on the Aussie $5 note should indicate to our Reserve Bank that it’s time to change the NZ $20 note” said Lewis Holden, campaign chair of New ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Wolf, Associate Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Australian National University Somchat Parkaythong/Shutterstock Black holes are bizarre things, even by the standards of astronomers. Their mass is so great, it bends space around them so tightly that nothing can escape, even ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Revell, Associate Professor in Environmental Physics, University of Canterbury Getty Images The ozone layer is on track to heal within four decades, according to a recent UN report, but this progress could be undone by an upsurge in rocket ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney At the New South Wales election on March 25 a 12-year-old Coalition government will be seeking re-election. Hoping to return as premier is Liberal leader Dominic Perrottet – a political conservative ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Trauer, Associate Professor, Monash University Anastelfy/Shutterstock The XBB.1.5 subvariant, known informally as “Kraken”, is the latest in a menagerie of Omicron subvariants to dominate the headlines, following increasing detection in the United States and United Kingdom. But there ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madeline Combe, Doctoral student, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock As the economist Herman Daly pithily said, the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment – not the reverse. Nature makes our lives possible through what scientists call ecosystem ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Jefferson, Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock Grit. Don’t quit. That’s the mantra many parents may have in mind when they, like me, spend what feels like years ferrying children to a seemingly endless variety of sports and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Humphery-Jenner, Associate Professor of Finance, UNSW Sydney Sam Shere/Wikimedia Commons A few weeks ago, Gautam Adani was indisputably India’s richest man. Now his fortune is slipping away as the stocks of his many companies crash, thanks to the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Divna Haslam, Senior Research Fellow, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Have you ever found yourself scrolling through social media and noticed you felt a bit down? Maybe a little envious? Why aren’t you on a yacht? Running a startup? Looking ...
The science of ‘event attribution’ is growing, with researchers working to accelerate their assessments. A leading NZ climate scientist tells Toby Manhire how it works, how climate change impacted the ‘off the chart’ weekend downpours, and why we can’t put a number on it tomorrow. Brutal, unexpected, record-breaking, destructive, tragic. ...
Those lockdown vibes are back – and maybe they never really went away. We were supposed to be organised. For a while there, we were. A uniform, purchased across a frenzied weekend dashing between specialist stores, was spread out over our son’s bed. Tags removed, shirts folded, socks in balls, ...
Establishing a Truth, Reconciliation and Justice Commission and recognising Māori tino rangatiratanga are among several recommendations in two pivotal reports released today (Friday 3 February) by Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission. The ...
Losing her mum at an early age, Ivari Christie found strength in netball. The explosive teen midcourter has now burst into the Southern Steel, with help from a couple of Silver Ferns legends, Suzanne McFadden writes. It was the biggest moment in Ivari Christie’s netball career; just 18 years old ...
The latest Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list, described by Steve BrauniasFICTION 1 Kāwai by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99) Huzzah to Monty Soutar, huzzah to his publishers, and huzzah to the three wise judges of the fiction prize at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand national book awards for ...
James Shaw says his Labour colleagues need to work with him to plug the emissions gap created by extending the fuel tax cuts Less than a week after a climate-fuelled storm laid waste to wide swathes of Auckland, the Government resurrected fossil fuel subsidies in the form of an extension ...
Jacinda Ardern was treated like royalty at Waitangi with people coming from near and far to see her every February. Newly minted Prime Minister Chris Hipkins isn’t a familiar face in the Far North and will have his work cut out this weekend, writes political editor Jo Moir.Analysis: About ...
By extending the fuel excise duty cut, the Government is encouraging people to drive more, which will only worsen the climate challenges we face in the very near futureOpinion: By most accounts, the storms that have been wreaking havoc in Auckland and Northland are fuelled by climate change. The ...
Is a sponge city the answer to Auckland's flooding woes? The Detail finds out what the concept is all about. With the cleanup in full swing all over Auckland after this week's catastrophic flooding, people are starting to talk about throwing out the old building rules and "unengineering" our city - ...
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Airstrikes ordered against civilian targets, destruction of thousands of buildings, millions displaced, nearly 3000 civilians murdered, more than 13,000 jailed, the country’s independent media banished, and the country locked in a deadly nationwide civil war. Myanmar civilians now ask what else must happen before they receive international support in line ...
By Nick Young of Greenpeace My family and I are lucky to have come through it unscathed, but my neighbourhood in Titirangi has been ravaged. Many people here and around the wider region have lost their homes altogether. I’ve seen people’s belongings out on the streets in piles ruined beyond ...
By Jonty Dine, RNZ News reporter While Auckland residents enjoy a brief reprieve from the rain, the rubbish continues to pile up as the full cost of the New Zealand flash floods continues to be counted. Some streets in Auckland are littered with items damaged and discarded from Friday’s freak ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Former Fijian Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was paid $224,792 in bonuses during his term at FBC which began in 2008, the new board chair has claimed. He was due for a $30,000 bonus this year. FBC chair Ajai Bhai Amrit also revealed Sayed-Khaiyum, ...
In additon to the MetService severe thunderstorm warning issued earlier this afternoon for Auckland, Coromandel and the Waikato, the MetService has issued a further update saying it is “ideal thunderstorm weather” in Auckland. Auckland is experiencing very high humidity and MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says “Today and tomorrow brings us ...
The Green Party co-leader joins Grant Robertson and Nicola Willis in opting not to contest the seat.Just six days after five-term Wellington Central MP and finance minister Grant Robertson announced he would not be contesting the Wellington Central seat and would go list-only at this year’s election, James Shaw ...
The decision turns Wellington into a 2023 battleground, with three brand new faces set to contest the electorate - and Shaw has already thrown his support behind Tamatha Paul. ...
The Wellington Central electorate is set to be a wide-open race, with Greens co-leader James Shaw joining Labour incumbent Grant Robertson in opting against a run for the seat later this year Green Party co-leader James Shaw will not run for the Wellington Central seat at this year’s election, instead ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zahid Shahab Ahmed, Senior research fellow, Deakin University Muhammad Sajjad/AP Earlier this week, a suicide blast ruptured the relative calm that had returned to Pakistan in recent years. The attack at a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed ...
Between midnight February 3 and 8pm on February 10, rare photographs of New Zealand writers will be up for auction on the Fairfax Archives website. Books editor Claire Mabey explains.So, what is this auction?As of midnight on February 3 you can bid on pieces of literary history. The ...
The sun might be out, but Aucklanders are being warned another deluge could hit the city as soon as tonight. The city has been in a state of emergency since late Friday evening which is not due to expire until later this week. But while the weather has improved dramatically ...
When the streets flood, contaminated water gets everywhere – including into your clothes and shoes. Here’s why that matters and what to do next. Bernard Hickey, journalist and host of podcast When the Facts Change was “rubbernecking” around Auckland on Friday night. There were puddles everywhere. “They certainly didn’t look ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Nordberg, Senior Lecturer (Applied Ecology and Landscape Management), University of New England Shutterstock Australia’s renewable energy transition has prompted the construction of dozens of large-scale solar farms. The boom helps reduce Australia’s reliance on fossil fuels, but requires large ...
It has, to put it mildly, been a wet one. After record rainfall caused major flooding events and stormwater issues, Auckland is in crisis. Roads, suburbs, parks and homes have been overwhelmed with floodwater, much of which is “blackwater,” meaning it contains faecal matter and other sewage contaminants. So here’s ...
The government has unlocked an additional $700,000 in flood relief for regions most badly hit by recent bad weather. That includes Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland and the Bay of Plenty, with most of the money going toward providing unskilled and semi-skilled jobs for local people who can support the clean-up ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Helps, Research fellow, Monash University Shutterstock Identifying perpetrators of domestic and family violence is critical to ending violence against women. Practitioners across different sectors, including mental health, alcohol and drug services, have a vital opportunity to “screen” clients to ...
Age Concern New Zealand would like to extend a warm welcome to new Minister for Seniors, Ginny Andersen, who takes up the Seniors portfolio from the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall. Karen Billings-Jensen, Chief Executive Age Concern New Zealand, says “We ...
Continuing fuel subsidies despite official and expert advice urging otherwise is focused on helping New Zealanders in the here and now, the finance minister says. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University As we enter the fourth year of living with COVID, we are all asking the predictable question: when will the pandemic be over? To answer this question, it’s worth reminding ourselves that a pandemic involves ...
The twitter account for the mayor of Auckland, Wayne Brown, has posted and deleted an image showing the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, pointing at Brown, who stares back in a tableau that at first glance appears combative. The tweet, which came with a caption describing a meeting between the two ...
The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand later this month, taking in the sights of Palmerston North. Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced the royal will attend the 100th anniversary celebrations for the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief. These ...
PM Anthony Albanese has announced changes to help protect New Zealand-born residents of Australia from deportation, following years of outcry about the toll on so-called ‘501s’. Don Rowe looks at why the policy is so widely reviled. A major shift in Australian immigration policy means the government will now consider ...
King Charles has sent a message to New Zealand following the floods that hit the top of the North Island over the past few days. In a letter shared via the governor general, the monarch said he had been following the news with the “deepest concern” and wanted to pass ...
Dunedin – Following news that the Scottish city of Edinburgh has become Europe’s first capital to sign the Plant Based Treaty, animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has sent a letter to the mayor of Edinburgh’s ...
New figures reveal just how much living costs increased for households in 2022. Last year was dominated politically by the cost of living crisis, which has carried over into 2023 with inflation sky high and a looming recession on the horizon. According to Stats NZ, the cost of living for ...
Ramari Jackson-Paniora is the daughter of one of the main faces of the 1972 Māori Language Petition – but her relationship with te reo Māori is more complicated than people may assume.My whānau’s journey with reo Māori is typical of many Māori whānau across Aotearoa. Looking at my parents’ ...
After Monday night, the accepted narrative around rugby, sexuality and masculinity will never be quite the same, writes Sam Brooks. If you tuned into Seven Sharp on Monday night, you probably did so unaware that you were about to watch a history-making interview. After a wholesome segment with two ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has apologised for his “drongo” comment about journalists, but defended his decision to stop other councillors speaking out on the night of the devastating floods. In an interview with Newshub’s AM this morning, Brown admitted he shouldn’t have called the media drongos, adding that he will ...
Buller Electricity (BEL), the community owned lines network company that supplies the majority of electricity consumers in the Buller district on the South Island’s West Coast, has lodged a formal legal challenge opposing a 427% price increase in ...
Chris Hipkins says Aotearoa has "some tough calls to make as a country" regarding the future of communities in places vulnerable to extreme weather events. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pii-Tuulia Nikula, Principal Academic, Eastern Institute of Technology GettyImages An increasing number of businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand are changing how they operate to reduce their overall climate impact. These measures, which include reducing carbon emissions, are largely voluntary outside of ...
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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 : )