In a tsunami concrete buildings seem more durable than wooden ones.
If the shake goes on for a minute, and if you are knocked off your feet then it is an indication that it is strong enough to be followed by a tsunami. And that could follow within 10 minutes, so evacuation should be asap.
I would 100 times rather be in a wooden building in an earthquake and we’ve been stupid to keep putting up concrete crap in modern building. A concrete building may stand up to a tsunami but it won’t save your life in one either.
Yes I noticed that the mention of concrete just related to tsunami. But it would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional engineerwith pragmatic approach who could tell us whether a badly built concrete building with inadequate reinforcing and possibly slab-built would be better than a badly built wooden building with no dwangs and under-spec studs. Because that is possibly the choice in NZ with anything built in the last 30 years.
I come from Napier so our family have lived in a city with the reminants of buildings from the 1931 earthquakes so we have seen how woden vs concrete buildings do stand up to a large earthquake.
I do take Maui seriously here and he/she could be correct here in some cases.
Most concrete buildings in Napier during the 1931 quake were levelled, but some stood then, and do still today.
So we know the solid reinforced designed buildings are the ones that are still here today.
When the building code here was upgraded from that earthquake we were told that Napier had ‘advanced building codes’ before other regions during the last half of the last century.
So when a building was planned around our area, we saw that heavy reinforced caged steel “lential beams” were placed around the first floor level and at the top of the second floor through the concrete blocks.
We do recall that they only had single 12mm reinfocing rods placed in every second hole of the blocks and then concrete was poured into the holes to set the rods in place.
We always wondered why every hole didnt get a reinforced rod.
We used reinforced rods in every hole of a retaining wall when we built one later in the 1980’s.
So it may be that one should think of “beefing up” the amount of reinforced steel that is used in building a concete block building now.
I hope this sheds some light on the subject.
By the way I lived in the house for several years during the 1950s that was a reconstructed home from a house that (slid) off Napier’s ‘Bluff Hill’ during the 1931 earthquake, so yes a wooden structure can survive if it doesn’t fall over a cliff, opposed to just “sliding” off.
The sod-turning ceremony at 5 King Street in Brisbane will be a groundbreaking event in more than just in the literal sense. When complete in 2018, 45 metres of the 52-metre office tower will qualify as the world’s highest to be held aloft not by steel and concrete, but timber and glue.
Right over the road from where I am right now. Foundations well progressed, and I’d imagine the first structural elements might arrive within weeks. Oh and it doesn’t burn like the concrete dude at the bottom of the article implies … the outer layer chars and that’s it.
In many respects engineered timber is a better bet in disasters than any other material.
“After the previous earthquakes, she took a big hammering on February 22. She shook like you wouldn’t believe. It always amazed me how she still stood.
I am familiar with Shand’s Emporium, also CHCH …. Know the building and city well, pre, and POST quake. Having experienced quite a few jolts there, and in Wellys etc …..
Moreover I live in a dilapidated wooden cottage on the South Coast, and have experienced many a jolt from the Solander Trench over the years!
And dwangs, or noggins… give me timber anytime over concrete!, i.e. CTV Building, Ex Drainage board building, ChCh, or Stats house in Wellington.
The Shand’s 2 story timber construction from the 1800’s has stood the best of time!
JC
I was just throwing some stuff in for consideration not trying to offer any definitive info. I actually wanted to find the engineer who started the ball rolling on the safety of much of the construction but couldn’t find him, too late too tired and I think keeping in mind stuff that was being discussed, keeping questions fresh, is something needed.
have a look at Papamoa and find the evacuation road in case of a Tsunami. Ideally you evacuate with a bicycle cause when all the geezers jump in their car to find the one road out – ooops finished. Well at least the recovery of bodies will be easy as they will be found in their cars.
There is literally no way to evacuate for many who live coastal simply because a. where too? b. one road in one road out,. and c. shall i save my effn boat?
So frankly to evacuate quickly……that is literally not gonna happen.
If they’re corporate execs or sportspeople they’re free agents, free to choose. If they’re politicians they are there on the grace of the people they represent, those that boosted them into the role.
Politicians changing horses mid-stream is misrepresentation, cheating their backers. It’s peeling the labels off Marmite jars and replacing them with Vegemite ones, well wrong.
There have been a whopping 6254 written questions submitted to Govt ministers by the Nats in the last month; for comparison, there were 964 during the equivalent period after the 2014 election.
no surprises that the infant minds of your average nat mp can only see playing childish games as their role now, as we witnessed on day one around the lie to back the speakers appointment.
maybe list mps in the opposition parties should be made redundant on election day
National tactics of stalling labour coalition to make changes is adding a mockery to PM Jacinda Ardern ‘s seeking to obtain a “National Party concensus on child poverty” eh!!!!!!!
The hard lesson learned in the first month of the Labour lead government = do not rely on or trust the National Party at any time.
The Opposition asking questions of the government is “in the interests of New Zealand.” An energised Opposition is to be expected when they are the largest party.
In contrast Labour after 2014 had only got 25% of the vote and were no doubt sufficiently demotivated not too ask very many questions. The next three years will not be the same as when the the largest party is the government.
Jeez Wayne disingenuous to the max. An opposition asking questions of a government “is in the interests of New Zealand” when those questions are relevant and seek to draw out more detail of what a government is doing and why, and perhaps highlighting ineptitude and dishonesty and so on.
An energised Opposition should also be intelligent and genuinely working in the interest of all of us, not simply clogging up the machinery of government for their own selfish ends and to show themselves to be ignorant and anti-democratic which National seem determined to do.
An energised opposition asking questions of the government is in the interest of NZders full stop. It’s an important element of our democratic process.
Its not for you or I as individuals to judge whether or not they are relevant – thats the function of society in general. If the questions don’t generate new and/or relevant insights, then society will in turn judge the oppositions questions as a waste of time, and the particular line of questioning will cease.
In and of itself having to answer lots of questions will not slow down the machinery of government.
Apparently the large number of questions has been generated because the government won’t disclose who their Ministers are meeting with. They said they needed specific questions of Ministers. Well, they are now getting them.
Even if they are declined meetings (to be fair that could be a bit excessive). It is who they are meeting with that is important. But with GCSB, quite a lot will not be disclosable.
Presumably, in line with past practise, the government will disclose the diaries of Ministers so it is all transparent as to what they are doing, including all their meetings.
We all along with the public and all the press too asked national Minsters for the last nine years and got gilich/nothing back from them National pm’s so why do you dumb National pollies now expect any answers to over ‘6000’ thousands of questions in a month now? – it doesn’t work like that!!!!!
Are you stupid or something.
Just wait untill they uncover all the financial scandals they will find as they audit the nine years of governments books lad, are you shaking?
On the seventh december we wil be watching the court proceedure as Winston presents his eveidence in discovery of the national ministers who caused the scandal leaking his private personal information or have you forgotten that???
LOL. Classic! I stand chastened. Not. Aren’t “you and I” members of society in general? I know I am. Therefore by your ” logic” I am totally qualified to judge whether these questions are relevant or not.
“Its not for you or I as individuals to judge whether or not they are relevant – thats the function of society in general.”
Actually, Grantoc, everyone who comments here is part of society in general and has every right to make their own judgement about the behaviour of our politicians. Having the same inane question (“What meetings did the minister attend on…(date)”) repeated for every day, for every Minister isn’t “holding the government to account” – it’s deliberately hovering up public servants’ time in an attempt to hold up progress in researching, developing and implementing policy. If Labour had been doing this during the last government’s time, they would have been mocked and denounced. There’s definitely a role for a focused opposition in parliament, but this isn’t it. This is just being petty and pathetic.
13377 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 6 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13376 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 5 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13375 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 7 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13374 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the NZ Security Intelligence Service
What meetings did the Minister decline on 4 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13373 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 6 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13372 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 8 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13371 (2017). Hon Steven Joyce to the Minister of Finance
What will be the remuneration rate for ordinary members of the newly announced Tax Working Group?
Question 24 November 2017
13370 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the NZ Security Intelligence Service
What meetings did the Minister decline on 5 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13369 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 7 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13368 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the NZ Security Intelligence Service
What meetings did the Minister decline on 6 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13367 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 8 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13366 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 9 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13365 (2017). Hon Steven Joyce to the Minister of Finance
What is the remuneration rate for the chair of the newly announced Tax Working Group?
Question 24 November 2017
13364 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the NZ Security Intelligence Service
What meetings did the Minister decline on 7 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13363 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 10 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13362 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the NZ Security Intelligence Service
What meetings did the Minister decline on 8 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13361 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 9 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13360 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 11 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13359 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister responsible for the GCSB
What meetings did the Minister decline on 10 November?
Question 24 November 2017
13358 (2017). Hon Christopher Finlayson to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
What meetings did the Minister decline on 13 November?
Question 24 November 2017
I don’t see anything wrong with a couple of thousand people emailing the Hon Christopher Finlayson quite a number of times every day. For the sake of transparency and accountability which he is very interested in he could tell us what he’s up to. As a list MP I’m sure he’d like to share.
For years the left have had to cop the flak that comes with being in opposition.
A national sentiment that ponders: ‘How on earth is that line of attack/questioning actually going to help our nation Labour/Greens? You do nothing but moan.’
It’s time for National to slip into that coat and NZ can listen to the 6254 whines from those that lost.
I think our government need only stick to their knitting and spin the noise from the other side of the house in a way that appeals to the broader population. Perpetually moaning negative Nellies are rarely popular.
It’ll be interesting once Winston’s fishing expedition starts to bear fruit and some gaps appear in the mask. And they will, someone will see a personal advantage in saying, or leaking something to further their own ambitions at the old guard’s expense.
I suspect this hyper question tactic to keep everyone too busy to think about how and why they are in opposition, not government. Once the frustration of opposition starts to be felt there’s going to be a lot of mid-level nat MPs looking for someone to take responsibility. I doubt it will be pretty, or swift.
Is there an opportunity to classify questions as harrassment and refuse to play the game? If it is to be asked in Parliament, can they be answered en bloc and a protest made to the Speaker so it goes on record? This should be revealed to the public somehow, can the questioner be brought to a head of steam that won’t be turned off, and then the Speaker can order them from the House etc?
I think the right approach and attitude with regard the questions or their volume is nearly always: ‘Ask whatever you want, we like sharing the details of our progress.’
Apparently a national mp has confirmed it was because labour ministers won’t answer “general questions” like who didn’t they meet this month.? Thus the same question for every date.
Both of you are always suggesting everyone you don’t agree with is lying. But if you go to Kiwiblog, you will see that Mallard did ask 7,000 questions in 2010.
I know enough of this to know these things happen in fits and starts. Sometimes i would get hundreds of questions all at once, then nothing for a bit. It basically took two people in my office to answer them as their main job. I simply saw it as part of a functioning open democracy.
The volume of questions is purely being driven by Ministers and their offices refusing to answer more generalised questions, such as something along the lines of ‘Who has the Minister met with with since being sworn in?’
A very reasonable question. It not only helps to identify who might be influencing government, it also helps to target further information requests.
Ministers’ offices have been responding along the lines of ‘The minister meets with many people on many topics. We can respond to more specific questions.’
No wonder they then face the same question repeated in separate questions for each individual day.
I can’t give a definitive reason as to why others are seeking information by way of written questions vs. OIA request, but (as I understand it) the timeframe for an OIA response is 20 working days whereas the response for written questions to ministers is 6 working days. That would seem amply good reason to me.
Ultimately the volume of questions is being driven by ministers not responding to more general, yet reasonable questions.
Looks to me like this government is backing away from their supposed commitment to transparency and open government. Yet another u-turn from them.
[Anne Tolley recalls around 28,000 written questions from Trev when she was Minister of Education – on more than one occasion deriving from a common question asked separately for each of the 2500-odd public schools.]
Could it be that Anne Tolley needed to be asked the same question 28,000 times before she understood it?
Or 28,000 times before she showed a willingness to answer?
they have been the Tea Party for at least the last nine years.
they are just not hiding it anymore. National Party, the ownership Party – you are on your own – especially in sickness, old age, unemployment, child hood, if one is a person of colour or the female gender or any other gender then heterosexual male. Also don’t apply if you don’t adhere to the right religious cult. Its got at least be a patriarchy and biblical.
As medical examiner for Ansett New Zealand, he had ready access to easy targets – not just because he could control the acceptance process for young women determined to become flight attendants, but because, as he said himself, if an accusation was made, who would believe it?
Unlike his behaviour with other patients, he limited his sexual activity with the Ansett trainees – far enough to afford him some gratification, not so far that it could not be explained away as part of a normal medical examination. ….
“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile
Let’s build houseboats, that will rise up when there is flooding and can be steered into a safe harbour to ride out the storm. Now that would be a useful design and skill for us in NZ
1. An unsupported assertion that there’s a “growing disconnect” between the Merkel and the electorate.
2. The implication that Germany’s refugee policy is in some sense “controversial.”
3. The ludicrous claim that one poll showing 51% of Germans would favour a new election and 49% opposed or not giving a shit means “most Germans” want another election and Merkel has no mandate.
4. some “rise-of-the-right” scaremongering,
All of which is propaganda in service of:
1. Presenting liberal democracies as unstable and poor forms of governance compared with the stability of Russian governance.
2. Attempting to encourage the development of actual instability and poor governance in liberal democracies.
There is of course a ready market of suckers in the West for this propaganda, which is why RT exists.
PM doesn’t understand how Putin can do 3-4 hour live press conferences, off the cuff no teleprompters, no questions barred, in front of the international media, while the leaders of the no-propaganda west hide away as fast as possible in between little bits of sound bite spin.
I have to agree CV. In the year or so after I came back from my time working in Russia I read quite a number of Putin’s speeches (translated of course) and found him quite interesting. I’ve no doubt he’s capable of being ruthless when required, but that’s only one aspect of a complex and intelligent individual. Critics in the west who reflexively write him off as an ex-KGB thug almost certainly haven’t read or listened to the man at any length.
One certainly doesn’t have to be any kind Putin fanboi to recognise that in many ways his stature as an enduring statesman is far beyond almost all comparable figures in the west.
And within the context of Russian leaders over the past two centuries or more, he is by far the most outstanding since probably Catherine the Great.
As I understand it, the Russian people almost universally frown upon Yeltsin as the drunkard who almost let the west destroy Russia.
They do give him credit for one major decision though – finding the relatively obscure Putin and handing power over to him.
This is a clip of Putin addressing his commanders in the Chechen campaign in 1999, when he was a newbie I think just shortly after he took over. ‘Put your glasses down, we’ll have a drink only after we win the war.’
Mugabe took a functioning country and ran it into the ground; Putin took a country that had been through a massive crisis and has restored it. I was there in 2001 and saw for myself the poverty and hardship they Russian people were going through with my own eyes.
Now when I look on google earth at the same streets in the same city, I barely recognise the place; large new buildings, massive public redevelopment and far fewer visible signs of the lack of maintenance and run down grimness that was so confronting when I was there.
That’s just my personal experience and is proof of nothing, but it’s consistent with everything I can read. Putin has proven to be a Russian nationalist before all else, he’s put the interests of Russia first and the people can see the difference in their daily lives.
This is why he remains so very popular in a way all western leaders must envy. Note carefully; I’m not arguing that by liberal western standards he’s any kind of angel or human rights paragon. But for the average person, Putin’s delivered for them.
Comparisons with Mugabe are facile. And I must add that the west really owes Putin a huge debt for stabilising an otherwise dangerously disintegrating nuclear power nation.
Authoritarianism’s good like that. Massive public works, rearmament, Kraft durch Freude, the whole shebang. Just not so good in various other ways, that you’d think would be important to people who don’t live under authoritarian rule.
Sighs. I’m not trying to defend the clearly authoritarian aspects of any regime, be it Russian, Chinese or Fijian. They’re all unattractive and ultimately their own flaws are limiting and inevitably unravel one way or another in the long run.
But the west’s record of imposing regime change is no prettier either. I’ve personal reason to know (and in fuck awful detail) exactly how brutal Saddam Hussein’s political suppression machine was; yet I can also accept that your average Iraqi might well fondly look back on his rule as a period of peace, stability and relative prosperity.
I believe the best path forward is to promote an environment where nations come to believe that it is their best interests to gradually dial back the oppression, increase democratic accountability and sign up to global norms such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
It’s a process of intelligent engagement, cautious and principled that will improve matters. Assumptions of cultural superiority and arrogant interventions will not.
Putin is more open about Russia’s intentions and actions than most western leaders are about their own countries, and is more ready to front up to the news media about such.
In contrast “propaganda” (which might be described variously as PR spin by narrative or ommission) which you are so concerned about is a western speciality.
Oh, I’m pretty sure most western leaders could hold forth for several hours if fact-checking what they said was literally impossible.
As to what constitutes propaganda, I pointed out several features of that RT article as evidence for it being propaganda. The Reuters article maui referred to in response doesn’t have those features. Your assertions to the contrary are worth nothing to anyone other than you.
There’s also a Reuters article saying that half of Germans want a new election. Something tells me you would have no problem with that story.
Merkel lost 9% in the last election and there isn’t a growing disconnect? Ok..
If you hadn’t read the RT article, all you would know is that Merkel won the election and everything is hunky dory. Sure RT may be spinning it a bit, but they none the less give some decent information.
“Well, maybe I do have a personality disorder,” Tolokonnikova laughs.
“This practice is very typical in Russia today. Mental health diagnoses can be attributed to anyone who doesn’t agree with the current state of affairs.”
There’s also a Reuters article saying that half of Germans want a new election. Something tells me you would have no problem with that story.
Correct. For one thing, the Reuters article just reports the poll results without much editorialising, but more importantly, Reuters isn’t the propaganda arm of an authoritarian nationalist regime.
If you hadn’t read the RT article, all you would know is that Merkel won the election and everything is hunky dory.
I already knew that coalition talks had collapsed and Merkel’s got a problem, from following actual news media. The only thing the RT article gave me was an additional serving of Russian government propaganda, which is interesting in terms of spotting the grift, but of little use otherwise.
Correct. For one thing, the Reuters article just reports the poll results without much editorialising, but more importantly, Reuters isn’t the propaganda arm of an authoritarian nationalist regime.
Reuters is not as obviously pro US-Anglo Imperial status quo as say CNN but it’s still up there.
an authoritarian nationalist regime.
Russia? Yes Russia believes in economic and political sovereignty, and not trans-national neoliberal globalism. I guess that’s “nationalist.”
Authoritarian? Russia holds moderately free and fair elections. United Russia is very popular, and if they were less so, the Communist Party would win.
“Regime”? Good on you, you just earnt your little gold star as a propagandist yourself.
It is of course within the bounds of possibility that the assassination, intimidation and imprisonment of journalists, activists and opposition politicians that have made life so difficult for anyone who’d like to see someone other than Putin running Russia are a matter of sheer coincidence – just like it’s within the bounds of possibility that OJ will find the real killer.
Russian literally has no history of liberal democratic government. None at any time since the Russ tribes were first ruled by Peter the Great in the 10th century. There is deep absence of the cultural norms and habits that enable the delicate mechanism we take for granted and on which our system is built.
I would argue Putin has put Russia on a path where such a thing may become possible; but not for a generation or two yet.
Also consider the authoritarian security state one party Chinese Government. Which is returning China back to its status quo position as a leading civilisation (50% of the job done but still needs another generation or so).
After the catastrophic Cultural Revolution and so-called Great Leap Forward
And in the process, lifting half a billion or so people out of agrarian hand to mouth poverty.
Russian literally has no history of liberal democratic government. None at any time since the Russ tribes were first ruled by Peter the Great in the 10th century. There is deep absence of the cultural norms and habits that enable the delicate mechanism we take for granted and on which our system is built.
Which is what makes me wonder why some people post RT links here as though RT wasn’t a creation of the system you describe
At the risk of highlighting your assumed cultural superiority, other civilisational systems are quite capable of produce outstanding creativity and production.
I haven’t published any RT links at all, but there really isn’t any such thing as a gold-standard, objective, spin-free media anywhere in the world. RT is probably not a lot worse than say the NZ Herald. It’s all propaganda really, just a question of degree.
Neither is any source complete bullshit either; like most people I just try to correlate as many bits of info as I can and try to make some sense of it as best I can. And always if I try and set aside my assumptions, there are interesting stories everywhere I look.
It’s more the downsides of a lease arrangement that was made in a time when asset inflation was insignificant and review periods much longer than now. So reviews of this type of lease are pretty painful. Cornwall Park Trust was a similar situation.
Add to that, in 70’s and early 80’s Arrowtown was struggling to survive, lots of rundown 1800’s houses and cribs, so quite low CVs compared to nearby areas. Now the very bottom is $800K. And onwards and upwards from there. There’s also been a major social turnover, with wealthy, or think they are wealthy, people moving into the town displacing the previous residents. Those with freehold properties were able to exit with a good wad of cash, but with a leasehold title you haven’t got much to sell. The social turnover is hard on longer term residents as their social circle shrinks and they are unable to compete or fit in with the new, seemingly more affluent, arrivals.
The problem of old people having to leave the district in their final years isn’t new, it’s been a major problem for 40+ years and is still happening, but usually on medical grounds.
The Wakatipu has always been a difficult place to live. Rewarding in it’s own ways, but difficult. If you can’t insulate yourself from the economic and social cycles, and asset inflation, it can get impossible.
The elderly couple should have taken the 5 year lease extension at just $5,000 per annum. Ridiculous to not go for that option and worry about the rest later.
In fact, given that the Council offered that, they might even have negotiated for a 6 year lease extension at $6,000 p.a., which would have been enough to sell their house on the basis of for a very solid price.
It’s not really all that different to a licence to occupy in a rest home in that regard. There’s the assumption that the occupier isn’t going to live forever.
Reading over one of those contracts was made all the more macabre when it was my folks doing the dying. But yep, they go into details like: This is what happens if the occupiers die between paying the deposit and occupying.
My Dad countered my “Geez, all this talk about you not being here Ma and Pa’ with “You start to die the second you’re born son.’ ….I think he loves me.
A lot of quite long term residents of Arrowtown (since late 70’s) have moved on lately. They’ve found the town wasn’t their cup of tea anymore. Often with deep regret. Socially it’s another town now, even from what it was 10 years ago, but it was really changing then. We used to have a business in Buckingham St, it had an “interesting” social politics then, but I’m really glad we’re in Queenstown now.
It’s a lifestyle trend I’m seeing much more of. Couples retiring to their Huckleberry locale (I’m on the Far North coast) and then late 70’s early 80’s the more frequent 4 hour drives to see medical specialists grind, seeing more of the urban based Grandchildren appeals.
Many of the houses around me are being sold by retiree twilighters. Fab mint 70’s décor.
Another probable aspect to this situation is that the lease negotiations were handled by a council employee who’s in their 30’s or early 40’s, been in the Wakatipu a couple of years, renting at $700 + / week or huge mortgage, grossly over-qualified for the job they are doing, so earning sod all, and not making ends meet at all, and then being tasked to negotiate a sweetheart deal to keep the ex borough overseer in his leasehold home until he and his partner pass away. Really can’t see that progressing with the empathy, compassion and respect needed to get an outcome satisfactory to all parties.
Could be scenario. Then also there is the entitlement issue of many older people who feel that life should be made easy for them all the way.
They don’t pay attention to the problems that all on lower income are having. And the old men who think they know it all and just make assertions about everything, very difficult to tell them anything and get them to think around a problem, especially if they are conversing with a female.
Labour hasn’t realised what the quid pro quo is in the dark marketplace from pollies to journalists, to ensure that the right sort of verbiage is written up about government.
Back in the day when I went into Taits radio Gisborne shop to get one of my radios there were other customers being severed and I felt a chill and got goose bumps there was a elderly man dressed in black shorts and a t-shirt. I observed this man and his manner did not suit his dress code I.E it was warm but not roasting hot. A few weeks later I seen this man following me around in his blue ford falcon . because of there attention I decided to sell my lawn business and go dairy farming in the Waikatato they follow me there later On I lived in a house next to a school in Rotorua that educate Alot of the people that are oppressing me and they gave me a lot of attention.!!!!! There have been many occasions when he has interfered in me and my family life I no all the people that you have used to tried and prove your bullshit ideological theory of me but to no one can not prove what is not fact. Well last year I seen this elderly man he said that he was off course and had to land his glider on the farm I recognise him straight away as the same man from gisborne as well as goosebumps to I no what he was looking for in the forestry next to the farm they had bussed it with a helicopter a month before and they did it again 2 weeks ago after the got Frank Gallagher to sing them some bullshit lol. Now this man is high up in the state service OUR government provides and this man has been persecutioing me for 17 years and this has trained me to spot these people
A mile Away I no who you are and I no that you treat Maori as un human savage how by the way you are treating me You have given me Mana of Eco Maori and you are using OUR courts to try and cancel this out but No I will be using my Mana to fight for equality for our Lady’s and to get Maori Mana back and Mother Earth equally for all humans many thanks to you and your people PS I no that you have oppressed Alot of people of Maori culture in gisborne and this is why Gisborne is like it is today Kia Kaha
Just in case anyone needs a reminder of what a nasty sack’o’shit the Grab’em’fuhrer really is, here’s a handy summary of some of the steps he’s taken to try to push women back into a second-class subservient status.
That, and a tilt at cleansing the big government theocracy.
But even this plan — to fill approximately 150 judicial vacancies before the 2018 elections — is not enough for conservatives.
Enter the next element of the court-packing turducken: a new plan written by the crafty co-founder of the Federalist Society, Steven Calabresi. In a paper that deserves credit for its transparency (it features a section titled “Undoing President Barack Obama’s Judicial Legacy”), Calabresi proposes to pack the federal courts with a “minimum” of 260 — and possibly as many as 447 — newly created judicial positions. Under this plan, the 228-year-old federal judiciary would increase — in a single year — by 30 to 50 percent.
Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president’s travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
Sessions has even adjusted the department’s legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.
As I keep saying to the libertarians that supported the republicans – “It’s the republicans for all their bluster about small government, who habitually increase the state’s scope, and power – term after term”
Many thanks to some media for showing the positive side to our farming culture and community it is not the people falt for the way we farm the government sets the rules it is also good to see a lot of positive story’s on Maori but you are showing to many bad stories that OUR moko don’t need to see Ka pai
In a Saturday night tweet, Trump attacked CNN, saying the network’s international division “represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly.” A few minutes later, Trump tweeted an alternative: MagaPill.com.
[…]
But while Trump presents MagaPill as the antidote to “fake news,” the site regularly traffics in unhinged conspiracy theories. Just a few hours before being endorsed by Trump, MagaPill posted a video from Liz Cronkin, a fringe figure best known for pushing the Pizzagate conspiracy. In the video, Cronkin claims there is a sex tape of Hillary Clinton with an underage girl on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
[…]
Another recent MagaPill post features an “interesting flow chart” which combines nearly every conspiracy theory imaginable: “false flag terrorism,” “organ harvesting,” “child/human sacrifice,” “weaponize forced vaccination,” “earthquake machines.”
[…]
Another post refers to Lady Gaga as a “spirit cooker,” a conspiracy theory associated with Pizzagate that alleges Gaga participates in satanic rituals.
Just been to the local supermarket to get a bottle of wine for tonight’s dinner ( I’m the cook AGAIN”)
I noticed on the checkout there was a large stack of shithouse paper, correction excuse for shithouse paper and I noticed on the front page Heather De Plastic was writing something about Labour being out of their depth.
As I fear for my health I will not read or handle that shit,
Has any brave soul read this article and what is this bit of crap on about?
Nah that’s not it BM, boys behaviour is often excused by many as ‘boys will be boys’ like when boys play a bit rough etc ‘boys will be boys’.
I’ve said it, have you ever said it BM?
I now know better, but it wasn’t until this year when I realised that saying ‘boys will be boys’ is an excuse instead of dealing with behaviour and when we excuse their behaviour they think it’s ok to carrying behaving rough or what ever because ‘boys will be boys’
My point was simple, we had a PM who discounted the actions of a group of males from lynfield college with the comment – ‘boys will be boys’.
It seems odd that you think I was making a more sweeping statement than that. Stop being so precious.
Sexual assaults and rape happen, and most of the time it gets ignored or as donkey said “boys will be boys”. Me, I sick of having to live in a world full of rapist, and I’m over having to engage with women who are fearful of me because I’m a male.
It’s time for men to stand up and do something about this. Or you can deflect, troll, or generally be a prat – the choice is yours BM.
Many thanks to all you Lady’s around OUR WORLD for making a stand for your rights as a equal partner to men in OUR WORLD SOCIETY. As I see this paradigm shift is the only way to fix all the wrongs of OUR world society. Kai Kaha
How do I no that they are using a real life Frank Gallagher is because they were parading him around so I could see him using there dum ass intimidation tactics Ka pai
They didn’t meet me, then again I didn’t
ask, so who else didn’t they meet.
‘Last night upon the stair I met a man wo wasn’t there, he wasn’t there again tonight’.
They had a real life Frank Gallagher like the one from the TV show shamless he is whano to me he has been a alcoholic and drug addict for 25 years he will sing to any tune just to get a fix. They had him walk the street 2x so I could see him to try and intimidat and this person is there next contracted liar this is how they work Ka Pai
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
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Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
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A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
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Scotland Rugby says receive that Australia:
Please, no ABs’ spoilers! Waiting for the replay on Prime – set to record.
i Was just going to post on it when i saw this.
Thanks. There are limited places to go online while waiting for the replay.
Thanks. Watching this arvo.
Seen it now. thanks for not spoiling. Anyone else still waiting to watch it?
Gulp!@#$%^&*()
Not again!!!!!!!!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11930695
“Scientists are discussing the risks it poses at a summit in Napier this week.
They say it could trigger a massive 8.4 magnitude quake, that would cripple the lower North Island.”
In a tsunami concrete buildings seem more durable than wooden ones.
If the shake goes on for a minute, and if you are knocked off your feet then it is an indication that it is strong enough to be followed by a tsunami. And that could follow within 10 minutes, so evacuation should be asap.
I would 100 times rather be in a wooden building in an earthquake and we’ve been stupid to keep putting up concrete crap in modern building. A concrete building may stand up to a tsunami but it won’t save your life in one either.
Yes I noticed that the mention of concrete just related to tsunami. But it would be interesting to get the opinion of a professional engineerwith pragmatic approach who could tell us whether a badly built concrete building with inadequate reinforcing and possibly slab-built would be better than a badly built wooden building with no dwangs and under-spec studs. Because that is possibly the choice in NZ with anything built in the last 30 years.
Yes greywarshark; good point there.
I come from Napier so our family have lived in a city with the reminants of buildings from the 1931 earthquakes so we have seen how woden vs concrete buildings do stand up to a large earthquake.
I do take Maui seriously here and he/she could be correct here in some cases.
Most concrete buildings in Napier during the 1931 quake were levelled, but some stood then, and do still today.
So we know the solid reinforced designed buildings are the ones that are still here today.
When the building code here was upgraded from that earthquake we were told that Napier had ‘advanced building codes’ before other regions during the last half of the last century.
So when a building was planned around our area, we saw that heavy reinforced caged steel “lential beams” were placed around the first floor level and at the top of the second floor through the concrete blocks.
We do recall that they only had single 12mm reinfocing rods placed in every second hole of the blocks and then concrete was poured into the holes to set the rods in place.
We always wondered why every hole didnt get a reinforced rod.
We used reinforced rods in every hole of a retaining wall when we built one later in the 1980’s.
So it may be that one should think of “beefing up” the amount of reinforced steel that is used in building a concete block building now.
I hope this sheds some light on the subject.
By the way I lived in the house for several years during the 1950s that was a reconstructed home from a house that (slid) off Napier’s ‘Bluff Hill’ during the 1931 earthquake, so yes a wooden structure can survive if it doesn’t fall over a cliff, opposed to just “sliding” off.
The Bluff Hill isn’t a bluff either.
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jun/21/tall-timber-the-worlds-tallest-wooden-office-building-to-open-in-brisbane
Right over the road from where I am right now. Foundations well progressed, and I’d imagine the first structural elements might arrive within weeks. Oh and it doesn’t burn like the concrete dude at the bottom of the article implies … the outer layer chars and that’s it.
In many respects engineered timber is a better bet in disasters than any other material.
“After the previous earthquakes, she took a big hammering on February 22. She shook like you wouldn’t believe. It always amazed me how she still stood.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/christchurch-life/94130193/saving-christchurchs-landmark-shands-emporium
Godd search for google
earthquake and slab buildings and engineering doubts
and
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/christchurch-earthquake-2011/10337742/Learning-to-play-game-of-claims
Keh?
I am familiar with Shand’s Emporium, also CHCH …. Know the building and city well, pre, and POST quake. Having experienced quite a few jolts there, and in Wellys etc …..
Moreover I live in a dilapidated wooden cottage on the South Coast, and have experienced many a jolt from the Solander Trench over the years!
And dwangs, or noggins… give me timber anytime over concrete!, i.e. CTV Building, Ex Drainage board building, ChCh, or Stats house in Wellington.
The Shand’s 2 story timber construction from the 1800’s has stood the best of time!
Please correct me if I have misunderstood you!
JC
I was just throwing some stuff in for consideration not trying to offer any definitive info. I actually wanted to find the engineer who started the ball rolling on the safety of much of the construction but couldn’t find him, too late too tired and I think keeping in mind stuff that was being discussed, keeping questions fresh, is something needed.
have a look at Papamoa and find the evacuation road in case of a Tsunami. Ideally you evacuate with a bicycle cause when all the geezers jump in their car to find the one road out – ooops finished. Well at least the recovery of bodies will be easy as they will be found in their cars.
There is literally no way to evacuate for many who live coastal simply because a. where too? b. one road in one road out,. and c. shall i save my effn boat?
So frankly to evacuate quickly……that is literally not gonna happen.
I doubt there would be much of Papamoa left.
http://ptdb.niwa.co.nz/#!/db/275?out=map&map=control&colorby=validity&view=-37.7376|176.4583|10||1420|799
yep, and they are building like there is no tomorrow. I really don’t understand anyone who buys a house there.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/99190830/damien-grant-waka-jumpers-should-be-free-to-take-the-leap
waka jumping ?
list mps should get the boot , electorate mps should be allowed , imho
If they’re corporate execs or sportspeople they’re free agents, free to choose. If they’re politicians they are there on the grace of the people they represent, those that boosted them into the role.
Politicians changing horses mid-stream is misrepresentation, cheating their backers. It’s peeling the labels off Marmite jars and replacing them with Vegemite ones, well wrong.
David Mac
+1
Nats, becoming the NZ Tea Party – cynically trying to impede current government through under arm bowling – or is there a worse/more apt metaphor?
Sam Sachdeva on Twitter
Plus, the discussion that follows is important.
no surprises that the infant minds of your average nat mp can only see playing childish games as their role now, as we witnessed on day one around the lie to back the speakers appointment.
maybe list mps in the opposition parties should be made redundant on election day
National tactics of stalling labour coalition to make changes is adding a mockery to PM Jacinda Ardern ‘s seeking to obtain a “National Party concensus on child poverty” eh!!!!!!!
The hard lesson learned in the first month of the Labour lead government = do not rely on or trust the National Party at any time.
You think National should be assisting Labour? huh?
What they shouldn’t be doing is wasting the government’s time with an excess flood of questions most of which are probably bollocks.
Draco.
So, for instance, asking what the Govt is going about child suicide is in your mind ” bollocks”?
That’s one question. Not > 6000.
And according to James they’re just asking who the minister hasn’t met. It’ll be a long list about 7.6 billion names long.
So, yeah, wasting time. It’s about the only thing that the National Party and RWNJs are good at.
So which group does Trevor Mallard belong to? He has been known to lodge 300 + questions a day on occasion….
[citation needed]
And not Kiwiblog.
just because you dont like the source doesnt mean its not true.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99254200/labour-promised-transparency-in-government-but-they-seem-to-be-buckling-on-that-early
They should be acting in the interests of NZ.
The Opposition asking questions of the government is “in the interests of New Zealand.” An energised Opposition is to be expected when they are the largest party.
In contrast Labour after 2014 had only got 25% of the vote and were no doubt sufficiently demotivated not too ask very many questions. The next three years will not be the same as when the the largest party is the government.
Jeez Wayne disingenuous to the max. An opposition asking questions of a government “is in the interests of New Zealand” when those questions are relevant and seek to draw out more detail of what a government is doing and why, and perhaps highlighting ineptitude and dishonesty and so on.
An energised Opposition should also be intelligent and genuinely working in the interest of all of us, not simply clogging up the machinery of government for their own selfish ends and to show themselves to be ignorant and anti-democratic which National seem determined to do.
Grey Area
An energised opposition asking questions of the government is in the interest of NZders full stop. It’s an important element of our democratic process.
Its not for you or I as individuals to judge whether or not they are relevant – thats the function of society in general. If the questions don’t generate new and/or relevant insights, then society will in turn judge the oppositions questions as a waste of time, and the particular line of questioning will cease.
In and of itself having to answer lots of questions will not slow down the machinery of government.
Why would the malicious, dishonest National Party stop trying to waste the government’s time?
Apparently the large number of questions has been generated because the government won’t disclose who their Ministers are meeting with. They said they needed specific questions of Ministers. Well, they are now getting them.
Even if they are declined meetings (to be fair that could be a bit excessive). It is who they are meeting with that is important. But with GCSB, quite a lot will not be disclosable.
Presumably, in line with past practise, the government will disclose the diaries of Ministers so it is all transparent as to what they are doing, including all their meetings.
Wayne;
We all along with the public and all the press too asked national Minsters for the last nine years and got gilich/nothing back from them National pm’s so why do you dumb National pollies now expect any answers to over ‘6000’ thousands of questions in a month now? – it doesn’t work like that!!!!!
Are you stupid or something.
Just wait untill they uncover all the financial scandals they will find as they audit the nine years of governments books lad, are you shaking?
On the seventh december we wil be watching the court proceedure as Winston presents his eveidence in discovery of the national ministers who caused the scandal leaking his private personal information or have you forgotten that???
LOL. Classic! I stand chastened. Not. Aren’t “you and I” members of society in general? I know I am. Therefore by your ” logic” I am totally qualified to judge whether these questions are relevant or not.
“Its not for you or I as individuals to judge whether or not they are relevant – thats the function of society in general.”
Actually, Grantoc, everyone who comments here is part of society in general and has every right to make their own judgement about the behaviour of our politicians. Having the same inane question (“What meetings did the minister attend on…(date)”) repeated for every day, for every Minister isn’t “holding the government to account” – it’s deliberately hovering up public servants’ time in an attempt to hold up progress in researching, developing and implementing policy. If Labour had been doing this during the last government’s time, they would have been mocked and denounced. There’s definitely a role for a focused opposition in parliament, but this isn’t it. This is just being petty and pathetic.
“Energised”. Yeah sure.
Energised with malice and cry-baby rage.
Stacey Kirk, as ever, quick to the defense of National on this.
Cos, you know, Labour led government not being transparent as they promised.
I don’t see anything wrong with a couple of thousand people emailing the Hon Christopher Finlayson quite a number of times every day. For the sake of transparency and accountability which he is very interested in he could tell us what he’s up to. As a list MP I’m sure he’d like to share.
And there must be heaps of things he needs to know, little tidbits of plausible-sounding issues for him to investigate.
Wayne, over 4000 written questions – this looks more like National has too much time and not much to do – and you know what they say about idle hands…
Not necessarily and certainly doesn’t appear to be what National are doing ATM.
For years the left have had to cop the flak that comes with being in opposition.
A national sentiment that ponders: ‘How on earth is that line of attack/questioning actually going to help our nation Labour/Greens? You do nothing but moan.’
It’s time for National to slip into that coat and NZ can listen to the 6254 whines from those that lost.
I think our government need only stick to their knitting and spin the noise from the other side of the house in a way that appeals to the broader population. Perpetually moaning negative Nellies are rarely popular.
It’ll be interesting once Winston’s fishing expedition starts to bear fruit and some gaps appear in the mask. And they will, someone will see a personal advantage in saying, or leaking something to further their own ambitions at the old guard’s expense.
I suspect this hyper question tactic to keep everyone too busy to think about how and why they are in opposition, not government. Once the frustration of opposition starts to be felt there’s going to be a lot of mid-level nat MPs looking for someone to take responsibility. I doubt it will be pretty, or swift.
Is there an opportunity to classify questions as harrassment and refuse to play the game? If it is to be asked in Parliament, can they be answered en bloc and a protest made to the Speaker so it goes on record? This should be revealed to the public somehow, can the questioner be brought to a head of steam that won’t be turned off, and then the Speaker can order them from the House etc?
I think the right approach and attitude with regard the questions or their volume is nearly always: ‘Ask whatever you want, we like sharing the details of our progress.’
DavidMac
Smoooth.
I see that Trevor Mallard once asked 7000 questions in a month by himself – so this is not that bad after all.
James that sounds like a giveaway of your anonymity.
[citation needed]
How many questions do they actually have available to ask?
How many will the Speaker allow through?
And this really does look like the National Party simply trying to waste the government’s time.
Apparently a national mp has confirmed it was because labour ministers won’t answer “general questions” like who didn’t they meet this month.? Thus the same question for every date.
It’s their own fault.
So much for labour being open and transparent.
confirmed
Translation: lied.
[citation needed]
You keep coming out with all this BS so I suspect that you’re just lying.
Draco and OAB,
Both of you are always suggesting everyone you don’t agree with is lying. But if you go to Kiwiblog, you will see that Mallard did ask 7,000 questions in 2010.
I know enough of this to know these things happen in fits and starts. Sometimes i would get hundreds of questions all at once, then nothing for a bit. It basically took two people in my office to answer them as their main job. I simply saw it as part of a functioning open democracy.
Stop moaning about it.
Kiwiblog is not a viable source as it’s known propaganda device of the National Party.
Depends upon the questions doesn’t it. If they’re simply asking who he hasn’t seen then it’s wasting time.
everyone you don’t agree with is lying.
I assume National Party MPs and their enablers are lying, because as a group:
1. You tell so many lies and,
2. You believe so many lies.
Boy, meet wolf.
Nope not telling lies – here is the backup
From National mp
Brett Hudson
The volume of questions is purely being driven by Ministers and their offices refusing to answer more generalised questions, such as something along the lines of ‘Who has the Minister met with with since being sworn in?’
A very reasonable question. It not only helps to identify who might be influencing government, it also helps to target further information requests.
Ministers’ offices have been responding along the lines of ‘The minister meets with many people on many topics. We can respond to more specific questions.’
No wonder they then face the same question repeated in separate questions for each individual day.
I can’t give a definitive reason as to why others are seeking information by way of written questions vs. OIA request, but (as I understand it) the timeframe for an OIA response is 20 working days whereas the response for written questions to ministers is 6 working days. That would seem amply good reason to me.
Ultimately the volume of questions is being driven by ministers not responding to more general, yet reasonable questions.
Looks to me like this government is backing away from their supposed commitment to transparency and open government. Yet another u-turn from them.
[Anne Tolley recalls around 28,000 written questions from Trev when she was Minister of Education – on more than one occasion deriving from a common question asked separately for each of the 2500-odd public schools.]
Could it be that Anne Tolley needed to be asked the same question 28,000 times before she understood it?
Or 28,000 times before she showed a willingness to answer?
That’s a nonsense question that can’t actually be answered in meaningful way as it’s simply too broad.
No it doesn’t as it’s missing any context. In the month since being sworn the minister has probably met hundreds, if not thousands of people.
That’s not how transparent government works. Transparent government would have the information already publicly available.
And I can recall having climbed Mount Everest in 1901 despite not having been born or having left the country.
Actual data please.
The assertions of a National Party MP aren’t evidence of anything. They tell so many lies. This one, for example, pretends to “understand” things.
It may be that Bishop is breaking with National Party values and telling the truth. His word ain’t worth shit though.
they have been the Tea Party for at least the last nine years.
they are just not hiding it anymore. National Party, the ownership Party – you are on your own – especially in sickness, old age, unemployment, child hood, if one is a person of colour or the female gender or any other gender then heterosexual male. Also don’t apply if you don’t adhere to the right religious cult. Its got at least be a patriarchy and biblical.
GROPERS
No. 11: Dr. Morgan Fahey
https://www.mcnz.org.nz/assets/News-and-Publications/Booklets/History-of-the-Medical-Council/files/basic-html/page135.html
“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11947935
team nz should take the money offered by the uae and run , yacht races are a tv thing for most kiwis so were it is doesn’t matter
I believe the hosts set the rules of engagement. Lets go for a radical America’s Cup rule change and turn it into a race to build houses.
Let’s build houseboats, that will rise up when there is flooding and can be steered into a safe harbour to ride out the storm. Now that would be a useful design and skill for us in NZ
A lesson for any MMP govt that thinks it can ignore public sentiment:
https://www.rt.com/news/410943-merkel-out-of-step-with-germans/
More like a lesson in how the Russian government runs a TV version of the Nats’ “fomenting happy mischief” blog.
It was a solid piece of journalism on the aftermath of the German elections.
A 60 second read and I know exactly what the state of the play in Germany is better than any stuff or NZ Herald piece.
A 60-second read and you’ve picked up:
1. An unsupported assertion that there’s a “growing disconnect” between the Merkel and the electorate.
2. The implication that Germany’s refugee policy is in some sense “controversial.”
3. The ludicrous claim that one poll showing 51% of Germans would favour a new election and 49% opposed or not giving a shit means “most Germans” want another election and Merkel has no mandate.
4. some “rise-of-the-right” scaremongering,
All of which is propaganda in service of:
1. Presenting liberal democracies as unstable and poor forms of governance compared with the stability of Russian governance.
2. Attempting to encourage the development of actual instability and poor governance in liberal democracies.
There is of course a ready market of suckers in the West for this propaganda, which is why RT exists.
Are you an arbitrator of propaganda, Milt?
PM doesn’t understand how Putin can do 3-4 hour live press conferences, off the cuff no teleprompters, no questions barred, in front of the international media, while the leaders of the no-propaganda west hide away as fast as possible in between little bits of sound bite spin.
I have to agree CV. In the year or so after I came back from my time working in Russia I read quite a number of Putin’s speeches (translated of course) and found him quite interesting. I’ve no doubt he’s capable of being ruthless when required, but that’s only one aspect of a complex and intelligent individual. Critics in the west who reflexively write him off as an ex-KGB thug almost certainly haven’t read or listened to the man at any length.
One certainly doesn’t have to be any kind Putin fanboi to recognise that in many ways his stature as an enduring statesman is far beyond almost all comparable figures in the west.
And within the context of Russian leaders over the past two centuries or more, he is by far the most outstanding since probably Catherine the Great.
As I understand it, the Russian people almost universally frown upon Yeltsin as the drunkard who almost let the west destroy Russia.
They do give him credit for one major decision though – finding the relatively obscure Putin and handing power over to him.
This is a clip of Putin addressing his commanders in the Chechen campaign in 1999, when he was a newbie I think just shortly after he took over. ‘Put your glasses down, we’ll have a drink only after we win the war.’
“Since your Here …”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/25/putin-new-russian-empire-ukraine
his stature as an enduring statesman is far beyond almost all comparable figures in the west.
If what Putin has amounts to stature and statesmanship, so was Robert Mugabe’s.
Mugabe took a functioning country and ran it into the ground; Putin took a country that had been through a massive crisis and has restored it. I was there in 2001 and saw for myself the poverty and hardship they Russian people were going through with my own eyes.
Now when I look on google earth at the same streets in the same city, I barely recognise the place; large new buildings, massive public redevelopment and far fewer visible signs of the lack of maintenance and run down grimness that was so confronting when I was there.
That’s just my personal experience and is proof of nothing, but it’s consistent with everything I can read. Putin has proven to be a Russian nationalist before all else, he’s put the interests of Russia first and the people can see the difference in their daily lives.
This is why he remains so very popular in a way all western leaders must envy. Note carefully; I’m not arguing that by liberal western standards he’s any kind of angel or human rights paragon. But for the average person, Putin’s delivered for them.
Comparisons with Mugabe are facile. And I must add that the west really owes Putin a huge debt for stabilising an otherwise dangerously disintegrating nuclear power nation.
Authoritarianism’s good like that. Massive public works, rearmament, Kraft durch Freude, the whole shebang. Just not so good in various other ways, that you’d think would be important to people who don’t live under authoritarian rule.
Sighs. I’m not trying to defend the clearly authoritarian aspects of any regime, be it Russian, Chinese or Fijian. They’re all unattractive and ultimately their own flaws are limiting and inevitably unravel one way or another in the long run.
But the west’s record of imposing regime change is no prettier either. I’ve personal reason to know (and in fuck awful detail) exactly how brutal Saddam Hussein’s political suppression machine was; yet I can also accept that your average Iraqi might well fondly look back on his rule as a period of peace, stability and relative prosperity.
I believe the best path forward is to promote an environment where nations come to believe that it is their best interests to gradually dial back the oppression, increase democratic accountability and sign up to global norms such as the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
It’s a process of intelligent engagement, cautious and principled that will improve matters. Assumptions of cultural superiority and arrogant interventions will not.
Authoritarian governments, authoritarian regime change, both practised by authoritarian trash.
No stature or statesmanship attaches to either.
PM understands very well how Putin can do that. What he doesn’t understand is what convinces you it’s in some way relevant to the discussion.
Allow me to do you a favour and explain.
Putin is more open about Russia’s intentions and actions than most western leaders are about their own countries, and is more ready to front up to the news media about such.
In contrast “propaganda” (which might be described variously as PR spin by narrative or ommission) which you are so concerned about is a western speciality.
Oh, I’m pretty sure most western leaders could hold forth for several hours if fact-checking what they said was literally impossible.
As to what constitutes propaganda, I pointed out several features of that RT article as evidence for it being propaganda. The Reuters article maui referred to in response doesn’t have those features. Your assertions to the contrary are worth nothing to anyone other than you.
While you, and the rest of us in the west, are the most propagandised of all. It’s hilarious.
So, it’s hilarious, but beyond that, not something you can describe in any way other than bald assertions that won’t persuade anybody.
There’s also a Reuters article saying that half of Germans want a new election. Something tells me you would have no problem with that story.
Merkel lost 9% in the last election and there isn’t a growing disconnect? Ok..
If you hadn’t read the RT article, all you would know is that Merkel won the election and everything is hunky dory. Sure RT may be spinning it a bit, but they none the less give some decent information.
They’ve done nothing more than cite a poll.
https://www.zdf.de/politik/politbarometer/politbarometer-extra-jamaika-100.html
Strange comment, Joe
What point is it that statement of yours is attempting to ‘disprove’?
Or was your comment in support?
Thanks J 9.
“Well, maybe I do have a personality disorder,” Tolokonnikova laughs.
“This practice is very typical in Russia today. Mental health diagnoses can be attributed to anyone who doesn’t agree with the current state of affairs.”
http://www.newsweek.com/pussy-riot-takes-you-inside-putins-prison-where-justice-system-721362
There’s also a Reuters article saying that half of Germans want a new election. Something tells me you would have no problem with that story.
Correct. For one thing, the Reuters article just reports the poll results without much editorialising, but more importantly, Reuters isn’t the propaganda arm of an authoritarian nationalist regime.
If you hadn’t read the RT article, all you would know is that Merkel won the election and everything is hunky dory.
I already knew that coalition talks had collapsed and Merkel’s got a problem, from following actual news media. The only thing the RT article gave me was an additional serving of Russian government propaganda, which is interesting in terms of spotting the grift, but of little use otherwise.
Reuters is not as obviously pro US-Anglo Imperial status quo as say CNN but it’s still up there.
Russia? Yes Russia believes in economic and political sovereignty, and not trans-national neoliberal globalism. I guess that’s “nationalist.”
Authoritarian? Russia holds moderately free and fair elections. United Russia is very popular, and if they were less so, the Communist Party would win.
“Regime”? Good on you, you just earnt your little gold star as a propagandist yourself.
It is of course within the bounds of possibility that the assassination, intimidation and imprisonment of journalists, activists and opposition politicians that have made life so difficult for anyone who’d like to see someone other than Putin running Russia are a matter of sheer coincidence – just like it’s within the bounds of possibility that OJ will find the real killer.
About 20% of Russians want to see someone other than Putin running Russia (although they don’t know who).
Oh and of course, you, Westminster, the Pentagon, Congress, the CIA, etc. etc.
Is this the 20 % you refer to…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/09/russia-siberian-cell-death-pussy-riot
Or is that just in the Ukraine …
http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/05/08/despite-concerns-about-governance-ukrainians-want-to-remain-one-country/
Pussy riot don’t even have 20% support in Russia. More like 2%.
@PM
Russian literally has no history of liberal democratic government. None at any time since the Russ tribes were first ruled by Peter the Great in the 10th century. There is deep absence of the cultural norms and habits that enable the delicate mechanism we take for granted and on which our system is built.
I would argue Putin has put Russia on a path where such a thing may become possible; but not for a generation or two yet.
Also consider the authoritarian security state one party Chinese Government. Which is returning China back to its status quo position as a leading civilisation (50% of the job done but still needs another generation or so).
After the catastrophic Cultural Revolution and so-called Great Leap Forward
And in the process, lifting half a billion or so people out of agrarian hand to mouth poverty.
Russian literally has no history of liberal democratic government. None at any time since the Russ tribes were first ruled by Peter the Great in the 10th century. There is deep absence of the cultural norms and habits that enable the delicate mechanism we take for granted and on which our system is built.
Which is what makes me wonder why some people post RT links here as though RT wasn’t a creation of the system you describe
At the risk of highlighting your assumed cultural superiority, other civilisational systems are quite capable of produce outstanding creativity and production.
I haven’t published any RT links at all, but there really isn’t any such thing as a gold-standard, objective, spin-free media anywhere in the world. RT is probably not a lot worse than say the NZ Herald. It’s all propaganda really, just a question of degree.
Neither is any source complete bullshit either; like most people I just try to correlate as many bits of info as I can and try to make some sense of it as best I can. And always if I try and set aside my assumptions, there are interesting stories everywhere I look.
Has Doctorow got the wrong end of the stick with his assertion?.
https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/934076133112287232
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11947871
the market says old people should fuck off if they are poor
It’s more the downsides of a lease arrangement that was made in a time when asset inflation was insignificant and review periods much longer than now. So reviews of this type of lease are pretty painful. Cornwall Park Trust was a similar situation.
Add to that, in 70’s and early 80’s Arrowtown was struggling to survive, lots of rundown 1800’s houses and cribs, so quite low CVs compared to nearby areas. Now the very bottom is $800K. And onwards and upwards from there. There’s also been a major social turnover, with wealthy, or think they are wealthy, people moving into the town displacing the previous residents. Those with freehold properties were able to exit with a good wad of cash, but with a leasehold title you haven’t got much to sell. The social turnover is hard on longer term residents as their social circle shrinks and they are unable to compete or fit in with the new, seemingly more affluent, arrivals.
The problem of old people having to leave the district in their final years isn’t new, it’s been a major problem for 40+ years and is still happening, but usually on medical grounds.
The Wakatipu has always been a difficult place to live. Rewarding in it’s own ways, but difficult. If you can’t insulate yourself from the economic and social cycles, and asset inflation, it can get impossible.
The elderly couple should have taken the 5 year lease extension at just $5,000 per annum. Ridiculous to not go for that option and worry about the rest later.
In fact, given that the Council offered that, they might even have negotiated for a 6 year lease extension at $6,000 p.a., which would have been enough to sell their house on the basis of for a very solid price.
it screamed to me an offer from the council that says ”you’ll be dead in 5 years any way ”
It’s not really all that different to a licence to occupy in a rest home in that regard. There’s the assumption that the occupier isn’t going to live forever.
Reading over one of those contracts was made all the more macabre when it was my folks doing the dying. But yep, they go into details like: This is what happens if the occupiers die between paying the deposit and occupying.
My Dad countered my “Geez, all this talk about you not being here Ma and Pa’ with “You start to die the second you’re born son.’ ….I think he loves me.
They don’t own the land and the house is more than fifty years old, so at best they might be able to sell the lease.
House probably has negative value, ie it’s a cost to remove.
A lot of quite long term residents of Arrowtown (since late 70’s) have moved on lately. They’ve found the town wasn’t their cup of tea anymore. Often with deep regret. Socially it’s another town now, even from what it was 10 years ago, but it was really changing then. We used to have a business in Buckingham St, it had an “interesting” social politics then, but I’m really glad we’re in Queenstown now.
It’s a lifestyle trend I’m seeing much more of. Couples retiring to their Huckleberry locale (I’m on the Far North coast) and then late 70’s early 80’s the more frequent 4 hour drives to see medical specialists grind, seeing more of the urban based Grandchildren appeals.
Many of the houses around me are being sold by retiree twilighters. Fab mint 70’s décor.
Another probable aspect to this situation is that the lease negotiations were handled by a council employee who’s in their 30’s or early 40’s, been in the Wakatipu a couple of years, renting at $700 + / week or huge mortgage, grossly over-qualified for the job they are doing, so earning sod all, and not making ends meet at all, and then being tasked to negotiate a sweetheart deal to keep the ex borough overseer in his leasehold home until he and his partner pass away. Really can’t see that progressing with the empathy, compassion and respect needed to get an outcome satisfactory to all parties.
Could be scenario. Then also there is the entitlement issue of many older people who feel that life should be made easy for them all the way.
They don’t pay attention to the problems that all on lower income are having. And the old men who think they know it all and just make assertions about everything, very difficult to tell them anything and get them to think around a problem, especially if they are conversing with a female.
Heather du Plessis-Allan says, “So far, the pattern is that Labour is out of its depth.”
If being out of one’s depth was serious she wouldn’t have a keyboard, someone would have taken it off her.
Du Plessis out of her depth as a journalist
Labour hasn’t realised what the quid pro quo is in the dark marketplace from pollies to journalists, to ensure that the right sort of verbiage is written up about government.
Out of her depth was my response as well. What credentials does she have to comment on anything?
Back in the day when I went into Taits radio Gisborne shop to get one of my radios there were other customers being severed and I felt a chill and got goose bumps there was a elderly man dressed in black shorts and a t-shirt. I observed this man and his manner did not suit his dress code I.E it was warm but not roasting hot. A few weeks later I seen this man following me around in his blue ford falcon . because of there attention I decided to sell my lawn business and go dairy farming in the Waikatato they follow me there later On I lived in a house next to a school in Rotorua that educate Alot of the people that are oppressing me and they gave me a lot of attention.!!!!! There have been many occasions when he has interfered in me and my family life I no all the people that you have used to tried and prove your bullshit ideological theory of me but to no one can not prove what is not fact. Well last year I seen this elderly man he said that he was off course and had to land his glider on the farm I recognise him straight away as the same man from gisborne as well as goosebumps to I no what he was looking for in the forestry next to the farm they had bussed it with a helicopter a month before and they did it again 2 weeks ago after the got Frank Gallagher to sing them some bullshit lol. Now this man is high up in the state service OUR government provides and this man has been persecutioing me for 17 years and this has trained me to spot these people
A mile Away I no who you are and I no that you treat Maori as un human savage how by the way you are treating me You have given me Mana of Eco Maori and you are using OUR courts to try and cancel this out but No I will be using my Mana to fight for equality for our Lady’s and to get Maori Mana back and Mother Earth equally for all humans many thanks to you and your people PS I no that you have oppressed Alot of people of Maori culture in gisborne and this is why Gisborne is like it is today Kia Kaha
You must be m8 with Rickards A with the same ideological bullshit views on humans and religion Ka Kaha
Just in case anyone needs a reminder of what a nasty sack’o’shit the Grab’em’fuhrer really is, here’s a handy summary of some of the steps he’s taken to try to push women back into a second-class subservient status.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-sexual-harassment-discrimination_us_5a15b385e4b03dec8249b7e5?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
That, and a tilt at cleansing the big government theocracy.
But even this plan — to fill approximately 150 judicial vacancies before the 2018 elections — is not enough for conservatives.
Enter the next element of the court-packing turducken: a new plan written by the crafty co-founder of the Federalist Society, Steven Calabresi. In a paper that deserves credit for its transparency (it features a section titled “Undoing President Barack Obama’s Judicial Legacy”), Calabresi proposes to pack the federal courts with a “minimum” of 260 — and possibly as many as 447 — newly created judicial positions. Under this plan, the 228-year-old federal judiciary would increase — in a single year — by 30 to 50 percent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conservatives-have-a-breathtaking-plan-for-trump-to-pack-the-courts/2017/11/21/b7ce90d4-ce43-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?utm_term=.024763e24cae
Sessions has implemented a new charging and sentencing policy that calls for prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges possible, even if that might mean minority defendants face stiff, mandatory minimum penalties. He has defended the president’s travel ban and tried to strip funding from cities with policies he considers too friendly toward undocumented immigrants.
Sessions has even adjusted the department’s legal stances in cases involving voting rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues in a way that advocates warn might disenfranchise poor minorities and give certain religious people a license to discriminate.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/while-eyes-are-on-russia-sessions-dramatically-reshapes-the-justice-department/2017/11/24/dd52d66a-b8dd-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html
As I keep saying to the libertarians that supported the republicans – “It’s the republicans for all their bluster about small government, who habitually increase the state’s scope, and power – term after term”
Yep idiot bigot Joe I was trying to get some one to see OUR WORLD and society future reality
Many thanks to some media for showing the positive side to our farming culture and community it is not the people falt for the way we farm the government sets the rules it is also good to see a lot of positive story’s on Maori but you are showing to many bad stories that OUR moko don’t need to see Ka pai
Not satisfied with his Spacey comments, Morrissey says more stupid shit.
https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/11/morrissey-says-hed-kill-donald-trump-for-the-safety-of-humanity/
Addled dotard is addled.
In a Saturday night tweet, Trump attacked CNN, saying the network’s international division “represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly.” A few minutes later, Trump tweeted an alternative: MagaPill.com.
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Another recent MagaPill post features an “interesting flow chart” which combines nearly every conspiracy theory imaginable: “false flag terrorism,” “organ harvesting,” “child/human sacrifice,” “weaponize forced vaccination,” “earthquake machines.”
[…]
Another post refers to Lady Gaga as a “spirit cooker,” a conspiracy theory associated with Pizzagate that alleges Gaga participates in satanic rituals.
https://thinkprogress.org/what-is-magapill-1fb18b6f2ed0/
Just been to the local supermarket to get a bottle of wine for tonight’s dinner ( I’m the cook AGAIN”)
I noticed on the checkout there was a large stack of shithouse paper, correction excuse for shithouse paper and I noticed on the front page Heather De Plastic was writing something about Labour being out of their depth.
As I fear for my health I will not read or handle that shit,
Has any brave soul read this article and what is this bit of crap on about?
No
Don’t read the Herald. Someone commented about it earlier though.
Du Plessis is a tragic excuse for a journalist.
Her bias is so obvious.
This song has the same title as a comment by our for pm john key – “Boy’s will be boys”.
How about you have a listen, and we work together to stop boys being boys when it comes to sexually assaulting women and girls.
Big Ups to Stella Donnelly for this track and the video.
Why does the left wing think it’s acceptable to make sweeping comments about men? and especially Caucasian men
It’s a shame this woman has been sexually assaulted but it’s not acceptable to tar and feather all men because of what happened to her.
It’s a good thing no-one has been tarred and feathered then, eh.
Why does BM think it’s acceptable to make sweeping comments about the left wing? Is he a total hypocrite or just a little bit thick?
#notalllefties lol
I’ll bring the feathers.
Stockholm syndrome.
Nah that’s not it BM, boys behaviour is often excused by many as ‘boys will be boys’ like when boys play a bit rough etc ‘boys will be boys’.
I’ve said it, have you ever said it BM?
I now know better, but it wasn’t until this year when I realised that saying ‘boys will be boys’ is an excuse instead of dealing with behaviour and when we excuse their behaviour they think it’s ok to carrying behaving rough or what ever because ‘boys will be boys’
“As a mother of two boys, I have heard the phrase “boys will be boys” approximately 4,000 times. At first I shrugged it off as an innocuous cliche that other parents of sons used to bond with each other, the kind of knee-jerk reaction people have when they see a little girl and say “Isn’t she cute?” It wasn’t until my own son started acting out aggressively that I realized how dismissive and dangerous a phrase it really was.“
Geeze BM, touchy much??!?
My point was simple, we had a PM who discounted the actions of a group of males from lynfield college with the comment – ‘boys will be boys’.
It seems odd that you think I was making a more sweeping statement than that. Stop being so precious.
Sexual assaults and rape happen, and most of the time it gets ignored or as donkey said “boys will be boys”. Me, I sick of having to live in a world full of rapist, and I’m over having to engage with women who are fearful of me because I’m a male.
It’s time for men to stand up and do something about this. Or you can deflect, troll, or generally be a prat – the choice is yours BM.
Many thanks to all you Lady’s around OUR WORLD for making a stand for your rights as a equal partner to men in OUR WORLD SOCIETY. As I see this paradigm shift is the only way to fix all the wrongs of OUR world society. Kai Kaha
How do I no that they are using a real life Frank Gallagher is because they were parading him around so I could see him using there dum ass intimidation tactics Ka pai
What?
They didn’t meet me, then again I didn’t
ask, so who else didn’t they meet.
‘Last night upon the stair I met a man wo wasn’t there, he wasn’t there again tonight’.
Eco maori,
William (not Frank) Gallagher made a disgusting speech regarding the treaty and other issues. Not pleasant.
They had a real life Frank Gallagher like the one from the TV show shamless he is whano to me he has been a alcoholic and drug addict for 25 years he will sing to any tune just to get a fix. They had him walk the street 2x so I could see him to try and intimidat and this person is there next contracted liar this is how they work Ka Pai