There is an interesting article by Guyon Espinar in the listener this week about Grant Robertson. Interesting because it raises the possibility that he may be the first openly gay Prime Minister.
With Shearer barely 2 months into the job this sort of conjecture is not helpful. The last thing that Shearer needs is the categorisation of a caretaker looking after things while Robertson prepares himself. Some could describe it as being disloyal.
Robertson also talks about gay issues and obviously supports gay adoption.
This is one aspect of “equality” that I have a major difficulty with. My experience from dealing with adopted people over a number of years is that the institution itself is brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives. The feeling of rejection that adoptees have swells to the surface in their teenage years and causes huge problems from then on. Why this concept should be extended to gay couples is beyond me. It would be much better if it was done away with all together.
And Labour is so highly dependent on support from the Pacifica community it should tread very warily in these areas. I would prefer that it put effort into the essentials such as dealing with poverty, job creation, and environmental sustainability than get into a debate about a policy that has limited application.
I’m not referring so much to adoption but the double stanards employed for those who aren’t hetrosexual – if adoption is antiquated then lets at least allow all to participate…
Can you point me towards somewhere I can get an idea of why you think it old fashioned – is it the concept or the delivery you dislike?
slight aside: my mother was adopted and brought to NZ (Italian orphan post ww2) and in turn she was forced to adopt out my eldest brother (stupid standards of the day – they were reunited about 20 years back, in a wonderful but awkward way)… the impacts of all have had a huge emotional toll on my family and they continue and will do for at least another generation I reckon… but we’re all as disfunctional as any ‘normal’ loving kiwi family 🙂
Nope just a simple repeal of the Adoption Act 1955 would do it. If kids have to be moved out of their family unit the Care of Children Act can handle the legal side. The child retains his or her legal biological links to his or her parents and they can hopefully know who their parents are.
Open adoptions are not as damaging as the old fashioned closed adoptions but it is still a barbaric principle that treats a child’s family relations as something that can be changed at the stroke of a pen.
The Care of Children Act allows gay and lesbian couples to assume care of a child and has no problems with gay and lesbian couples doing so.
“It would be much better if it was done away with all together.”
I agree totally! In 1972, I had my oldest son adopted out and away from me and although he’s been back in my life since 1991, his life has been horrific. His adoptive mother’s a good woman, but the rest all treated him as if was dangerous. Guess what a child does if everyone expects him to mess up? Yes, you’re right.
Are you suggesting that children who are put up for adoption should instead be killed?
No, of course not. But most adoptions now are not stranger adoptions (I think it’s around 85% of adoptions now are cases where a step-father adopts a child when he and the mother marry, or and this weird but it happens, where a couple marry after being together and having children – and in order for the children to have the name of the new husband, he has to legally adopt them even though he is their father!) It’s a myth that there are hundreds of abandoned children all ready to be adopted by lovely middle class rescuers.
Fully agree vicky. Closed adoption is a barbaric holdover from generations past. We really should be legislating to make them illegal. And you are so right about the power of expectation; it’s one of the two or three most potent influences on the human psyche.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
I agree. Open adoption is a good thing, if the child has the chance to know where s/he comes from, and is not lied to!
Thanks Mickey. I have no issue with gay couples caring for children; they generally manage to muddle through and do their best, just like most parents. I however do have issues with the politics of adoption. Adoption in New Zealand is a barbaric practice; the legislation that covers it was passed in 1955 and should be totally repealed and replaced by a revamped guardianship act. This would cover care of children whose parents are unable to care for them, either temporarily or permanent. Adoption gives ownership of the child to the adopters – something than natural parents don’t have or need. The child’s name, family and heritage is taken from it, and it is forced to live a lie under a false name and pretend that strangers are its parents. No wonder so many finish up under the care of the mental health or penal services. There have been many submissions made to many MPs on many reviews of the act, but they all get pigeonholed into the “too hard” basket.
It is a brutal process and it is no wonder that so many are adversely affected by it. IMHO they should just repeal the act. The Care of Children Act can handle care arrangements much more elegantly.
Open adoption is not a legislated practice. There have been adopters who have signed an open adoption agreement with the birth mothers and their families and then after the adoption becomes legal they shut the whole thing down with no legal consequences as the child who the legal agreement named no longer legally exists, it is owned by a new family. Adoption objectifies and dehumanises the child, who is not a blank slate as many would like to think.
My experience from knowing many adoptees and adopters is that the adopters have been motivated by the best of intentions and the adoptees have all been better off in the short and longer term and have made wonderful families.
In all but one case they have been in contact at certain times or in an ongoing fashion with their birth families as well without any adverse effects.
So from my experience I would have to completely refute your assertion that adoption is ‘brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives.’ Although I do expect you get to see the worst in your professional capacity.
I do see the worst effects of adoption HS but I have also done some study in the area for professional reasons and the outcomes for adopted kids are way worse than for kids generally.
I actually have two adopted cousins who turned out pretty well but did struggle with it. Your comments suggest that you have seen the best of cases. I agree that I have seen some of the worst.
Should we actually give a fark about that point, and instead of continually having our differences pointed out between us, perhaps we should focus on similarities instead…
Grant will be the first male PM – Not really accurate it is, and won’t sell as many records, better just focus on the fact he is gay, as opposed to weather or he might actually be capable..
Can’t wait for the distractions over this exciting piece of news should it ever happen!
Really? Not according to what I can find on google. I am sure he’d be amazed to hear it. It reminds me of those lists of “famous people who were one of us” put out by everything from the ADHD association to gay rights groups – Leonardo Da Vinci being the most absurd of the latter – I learned that in the 1960s, an American Freudian had decided that Leonardo was gay because he used to buy caged birds and release them – which was such an effeminate thing to do! 😀
The truly hilarious thing about that is that Americans are totally clueless about any culture other than their own. As Hans Eysenck pointed out in his book about Freud, buying caged birds and releasing them was a cultural thing – males and females in that time and place did it all the time, as an attractor of good luck. Gay my left tit! 😀
Yep, that comment surprised me, too, V32. I know Savage didn’t marry, but that doesn’t make him a ‘confirmed batchelor, nudge nudge, wink wink’. From previous comments, I think Sprout has issues with homosexuality and likes to use it as a putdown.
Mounting evidence that at least some Pike River workers survived the initial explosion and were left to die. I’m starting to think it won’t just be Peter Whittall who is jailed over these deaths. If can be proved that the decision to abandon a rescue was itself a crime, then there are going to be some nervous officials busy trying to think of excuses for their cowardice.
Can’t see how incompetance and adherence to a crippling ‘safety culture’ could constitite a criminal act. At the end of the day, I expect there will be some ‘recommendations’ and that, as they say, will be that. And the wankers who wouldn’t allow rescuers to enter the mine will absolve themselves by pointing to the rules and regulations, give themselves a congratulatory pat on the back for following proper procedure and claim they acted on the best available evidence at the time.
And all the knowledge pertaining to methane explosions; the percentage of methane to oxygen that is explosive (12% or so I think?) will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of. And the window of opportunity that came in the aftermath of the first explosion that would, in all likelyhood, have ‘cleaned out’ any built up methane will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of.
And so on.
In other words, authority will absolve itself and all those who act in its interests.
The decision not to risk more deaths considering the likelihood of further explosions, the atmosphere and the difficulties of rescue deep underground with SCBA was perfectly justified in the circumstances.
Why get more people killed while trying to rescue some who were extremely unlikely to have survived.
If it happens that some were still alive, for a while, it does not make that decision wrong.
I have read many accident reports where people rushed in to rescue their mates, a brave and human response, and have died too.
Not long ago on a log ship at Marsden point.
Someone there who made them hold off and get proper equipment would have saved at least one life.
It was one of those decisions some one had to make which could be seen to be wrong on hindsight either way.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
This is absolute proof that the west’s “health & safety” culture pendulum has swung too far.
Pike River has similarities. It aint as easy as you paint KJT. Read and listen to what some of NZ’s most experienced miners and mine rescuers had to say on exactly this.
Similar goes for rescues in Christchurch post-Feb 22. The last survivor was resuced only about 24 hours after the quake and this is an extremely short time in comparison to other earthquake rescues. How many potential survivors died because of our health & safety culture’s over careful approach? This is a very fair and legitimate question imo and I hope the royal commission answers it.
Not that you want people to be foolhardy and naive in coming to your rescue. But you wouldn’t want them to be timid wait on the sidelines until the clock runs down while-you-die-terrified-and-abandoned types either.
Fact of the matter is, if a specialist unit which is trained and experienced and judges that it is worth taking a risk to try and help someone (and understands what that risk is) why let manager types who have fuck all expertise stand in their way. What’s our society become?
Does no one remember the saying “All for one and one for all?” Is it now “All for one and one for all, but only when we judge that all associated risks and potential liabilities are negligible”?
Interestingly in some other cases you get high honours and recognition for deliberately putting yourself in lethal harm’s way while trying to help others.
In the case of the CHCH earthquake, it really was quite a different situation to other earthquakes world-wide that see rescues happening days and occasionally weeks after the event:
1. Most of the earthquakes with these rescues happen in 3rd world or developing countries, where many more buildings fall down, trapping many more people. The more people who are trapped, increases the number who can be rescued.
2. We really only had 2 large buildings that collapsed and the one that had the most people trapped and died had a massive fire. Not a lot you can do about that, and turning hoses on it is quite likely to drown anyone who did actually manage to survive the fire/collapse in the first place.
3. A lot of the worst buildings in the CBD were already cordoned off from the September 4th and boxing day quakes: this is quite different compared to a city that is hit by a massive earthquake out of nowhere as is typically the case.
4. Similar to above, because of the September 4th quake a lot of people had already left the city and/or were much more clued up with how to react to an earthquake and this would have saved lives.
5. A lot of the deaths that occurred were from masonry facades falling on people. Heavy bricks smashing you in the head/back is likely to lead to death, compared to being inside a collapsed building that will have air pockets created due to the amount and different materials involved.
I don’t believe the fact that the last rescue occurred 24 hours after the quake has anything to do with health and safety, but rather a result of many different factors, some of which I have outlined above.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
Or, NZers might see it as having been a heroic, necessary and worthwhile attempt to save lives. Risking a 3 or 4 person team in order to try and save 20 others.
Standard Rule of the Sea is that we are obliged to render assistance whenever others are in need, but with the proviso that the rescuers are not put at risk. The same applies to those arriving at a traffic accident. Secure the area and make sure that the rescuers are not exposing themselves to risk.
Problem is in deciding how great the risk is. On the spot. Risk of more falls. Child caught by a beam and crying. Stand back? Or risk it? Hard eh!
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
No-one was ever going to be ‘ordered’ to enter the mine. With knowledge of the likely risks involved, there were members of the rescue team who wanted to enter the mine. They were prohibited by managers/bureaucrats. And, if my memory serves me correctly, some resigned from the rescue team in disgust.
It was as well that someone took the responsibility for making the decision.
Second guessing afterwards is unfair and unrealistic.
You have to go on the information at the time.
That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive.
And. The least suitable people to make the decision at the time is the mates of the people in the mine. To much emotion involved. Same reason why Doctors are discouraged from treating close family.
The internet is full of armchair Admirals with the benefit of hindsight. Most of whom will never be in a situation where they have to make that decision.
Well I am in a job where the risk level is similar to mining. I am aware I may have to make that sort of decision at some time.
I am not prepared to judge the person who had to make the decision, on the ground, immediately, when we are all sitting down and have had days to consider it.
Okay. I fully agree that someone who is emotionally charged up is not the best person to make a decision. But that doesn’t mean that the people who are going to be putting their own safety/lives on the line shouldn’t be the ones making the decision based on all available or requested information.
. That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive
I find this assertion strange. Of course any would be rescuers were going to be exposed to certain and probably quite extreme risk. But where the hell do you get the idea that a risk assessment was balanced off against indications that no-one was alive? What you are suggesting is that if some-one was known to be alive, then the rescuers would have allowed to enter the mine under the same level of risk that was present when they were forbidden to enter.
And I have serious doubts over the claim that there was “a strong indication that no one was still alive.” What indication was that? As I recall, there was talk of rescue up until the second explosion.
Meanwhile, (and flying in the face of rescue talk at the time) the company knew there was only half an hour’s worth of oxygen in any cylinders and (presumably) that the best time to attempt a rescue is immediately after any explosion because gas levels will likely be at non-dangerous levels but getting more dangerous with time.
You might accuse me of cynicism, but it crosses my mind that with the knowledge the company had at hand, they reckoned that by the time they responded (well in excess of 30 minutes) it was too late….unless miners had grabbed multiple cylinders. But they didn’t want the publicity and the hard questions that would have followed from people having died due to the tardiness of their initial emergency response. Solution? Wank around and say it’s all too dangerous to enter the mine and just keep on saying that it’s all too dangerous. Arse covered (sort of)…until somebody mounts a camera on a robot….
I think that Pike River showed NZ just how dangerous coal mining is and I hope the inquiry gets that message across. The major problem with mine explosions is that they destroy or badly damage the ventilation system in the vicinity of the blast. Ventilation is what removes dangerous gases from a mine so if the system is broken you’ll get a gas build up. An explosion can also start small fires and/or create potential ignition sources such as arcing batteries and if you put the two together you get a mine too dangerous to enter.
The harsh reality of coal mines is that an explosion typically makes the mine too dangerous for rescue teams to enter and unless the mine can be re-ventilated to a satisfactory level it can conceivably never be safe. With Pike it appeared necessary to enter the mine to repair the ventilation system which created that catch22 situation.
The only way to make a mine safe is to prevent the explosions from occurring. The rescue teams were placed in a terrible position and I don’t think they warrant any criticism.
We should have regular ‘crony watch ‘ post to see a list of appointments and their links to NACT/MP figures in SOE’s, authorities both new and existing, govt departments etc yand have some slots for Hide and Ellis to see what junket they pop up in after seeing Parata’s whanau doing very nicely on the taxpayer…..ka Ching.
Aye but I am sure that they will say that a proper and robust selection took place with real checks and balances and cognizance of the fact that the candidate was the Minister’s sister but that the committee members, all of who are outstanding in their area of expertise, are confident that the decision and process cannot be faulted and that in the fullness of time their decision will be shown to be the right one.
Fascinating investment letter from Jeremy Grantham. NZ would be unrivalled in a warming, resource depleting world – if we could shore up our military security capabilities.
Sorry, no way of knowing the context of any of that.
Remember how Anderton said it would take an earthquake to keep him from being mayor?
And how afterward, Slater said the truth is whatever he says it is at the time?
Armed with that info, you can’t even tell whether any of the comments in the video relate to the same worksite, the same union, the same strike, the same job, or even the same person.
Intimadatory tactics? That’s what economic and class war is based on. Why not threaten the balance sheets and profits of corporations if they fail to take their responsibilities to workers and workers families seriously?
So what? It doesn’t matter that you can see the edits, what matters is that there is no context to tell what he’s talking about from one edit to the next.
You’re assuming it’s one story about one strike at one workplace but you have no way of knowing that, and the video was made by someone with a history of fooling people like you in exactly the same way.
I’m not saying you might not be right, just that you’re relying on faith in Slater’s honesty and pretending you’re not.
You say it’s not the 1950s, yet here we have a port company and its international clients trying to crush the workers and their families into submission to drive down their wage bill.
Were you around in the 50’s, and have you bothered to understand that the strike is actually being created due to lies and dishonesty of the PoAL management and board/CEO?
Spoken to many warfies first hand, or spent time wading through the structures that govern PoAL as it relates to the onership directives by the council?
Yeah today he’s all concerned about someone losing their ping pong balls, when just last night he would’ve sexually violated someone with them as a punishment.
ps this video has a dolphin logo in the corner so I guess it was made by the Slater child.
Given his history of deliberately editing videos out of context to make people appear to be saying things they never actually said, nothing in it can be assumed to be accurate.
The neoliberals can’t find any effective ways to develop and create any truly new assets or wealth of their own at the moment. Therefore the easiest way left to grow their own riches is to organise the transfer (theft) of already existing public wealth into their private sector hands.
The meme of the “wealth creating” top 0.1% is largely, though not entirely, a fabrication.
“If you really want to see a wealth creator, just look at the grocer, the nurse, the software developer, the accountant, and the civil engineer. They are all creators of wealth. Chances are, you are a wealth creator”.
Agreed, the accountant isn’t a wealth creator but is a part of the administration. The administration is necessary but they aren’t the wealth creators that they paint themselves as and, as such, they should be paid less than the actual wealth creators.
I’d go along with both comments. When I went into business for myself I made the conscious decision to keep the accountants out of the business. They do the books & the tax returns and that’s as close as they get. Works well for me.
Finally, Bernard Hickey has had the courage to promote what he terms “heresy”: ie that RBNZ should be creating money to finance infrastructure and rebuild Christchurch.
1) I suspect that there’s no need to eliminate fractional reserve banking if the Government becomes a major source of interest free/debt free money for productive use.
2) There’s no way that the private banks and the privately driven world central banking system is going to allow NZ to wean off their (very profitable) interest bearing debt markets. Especially as it will mean that they cannot indebt NZ enough to compromise our productive assets (which is the true prize they covet) in firesales.
3) John Key is an Inside Man of these private banking interests. You can be certain that he won’t have a bar of any of this talk of Government supplied credit to the economy. Government supplied credit to the economy means no more need for overseas asset sales. See the point above.
Presently, the POAL dispute continues, and I applaud every MP who has turned up at the picket line.
Meanwhile, Housing NZ is shutting its offices, so that clients can only contact them through a call centre. This no doubt is a prelude to farming out management to some corporation or other.
In the Herald, Matt McCarten draws attention to a strike by Aged care Workers. Their employer, Oceania, presently owns 79 NZ Rest homes and is in turn owned by a large conglomerate. The workers have been offered a 1% pay rise, with a base rate of $13.61 an hour provided they give up their overtime.
Conciliatory noises from the left at this time suggest that we no longer have a left at the representational level. And diverting the conversation to superficial social rearrangements do not cut it either. We need a clear, articulate challenge to all of the above, along with an alternative strategy at representational level yesterday!
There is no point in trying to look user friendly to raise money to fight an election if you have no one left listening to you. Conversely, if your vision is bold, sane and well-articulated, you might not need the bloody money – people will rally to you anyway.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government. The government need to act fast due to being the odd country out when it comes to the increase in preventable infectious disease. A green paper for this and a white paper for that is nothing but lip service. The Families Commission have told the government about the correlation that unaffordable housing and damp housing has when it comes to child abuse and child hospitalisation.
My apprasil of Heatley is that he is a real estate minister as all he can say is that we have empty houses, the houses are in need of repair, we are going to build cramped complexes which will create social problems and that some millionaires are lined up to buy HNZ properties with million dollar views, (the top priority is the millionaires).
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government.
It’s not a disconnect, this government is purposefully ignoring the facts and ramming through policies based upon their ideology. The ideology that has led to more poverty as the wealth accumulates into the hands and control of the few. They’re setting NZ up to become a feudal state complete with serfs.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
I am an HNZ tenant, and we got the letters announcing this back in December. The Tenancy Manager I had (I can no longer call her) never answered her phone anyway being the laziest cow unhung, so it’s made no difference to me, but it will to others. 🙁
It’s like the cutting of frontline services at IRD and authorising agents (private sector ) to be able to file your tax returns.
It used to be someone who was having trouble with their tax return could go to IRD and get some help to fill it out. This service was free and was part of what was called public service.
Today you are referred to someone in the private sector who is authorised to do this and charges you a fee and from what I’ve seen often gets it wrong.
Many low income people and those with disabilities ( the two often go hand in hand) can’t or won’t pay a fee to get this done and so often go without a refund they are entitled to.
The well off on the other hand pay their accountants to work out how to pay less tax while again the poor pay more than their share.
I’ve taken to helping people do their tax returns and getting their refunds due simply because I can’t see why they should have to pay to fulfill their democratic obligations.
It’s not like the public don’t need this help – the plethora of agents that has sprung up in recent years is testimony to this. They must be making money from what used to be free.
It ain’t enough to pay crap wages in this country – any mechanism to get some of those wages back will suffice. This is but another one.
Good to see the Talley Family standing up to the Meatworkers Union .Just like POA there will only be one winner there,and it wont be the workers or the Union
Some on here may very well listen to cricket commentary. There was a time when commentators were generally drawn from wordsmiths – and they were articulate and interesting to listen to. The qualification for getting behind a microphone in today’s group (taking a lead from Australia) appears to be that one needs to be a former player.
Now perhaps someone here can enlighten me.
The expression “Running between the wickets” referring to batsmen. I would have thought that to run between the wickets would earn a rebuke and warning from the umpire for running directly down the line of the wickets and therefore damaging the pitch.
Secondly, as I am taking the radio commentary, I cannot see exactly what is happening, and depend therefore on their description of play. It would appear from this constantly repeated term “Their running between the wickets …” suggests that the batsmen run to other points of the oval as well. Can anyone help out there on that one?
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Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
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There is an interesting article by Guyon Espinar in the listener this week about Grant Robertson. Interesting because it raises the possibility that he may be the first openly gay Prime Minister.
With Shearer barely 2 months into the job this sort of conjecture is not helpful. The last thing that Shearer needs is the categorisation of a caretaker looking after things while Robertson prepares himself. Some could describe it as being disloyal.
Robertson also talks about gay issues and obviously supports gay adoption.
This is one aspect of “equality” that I have a major difficulty with. My experience from dealing with adopted people over a number of years is that the institution itself is brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives. The feeling of rejection that adoptees have swells to the surface in their teenage years and causes huge problems from then on. Why this concept should be extended to gay couples is beyond me. It would be much better if it was done away with all together.
And Labour is so highly dependent on support from the Pacifica community it should tread very warily in these areas. I would prefer that it put effort into the essentials such as dealing with poverty, job creation, and environmental sustainability than get into a debate about a policy that has limited application.
same sex marriages and gay adoption should be a no brainer for anyone on the left who believes in equality for all
But why Shorts?
Adoption is a barbaric old fashioned concept that does all sorts of damage. Why extend it?
I’m not referring so much to adoption but the double stanards employed for those who aren’t hetrosexual – if adoption is antiquated then lets at least allow all to participate…
Can you point me towards somewhere I can get an idea of why you think it old fashioned – is it the concept or the delivery you dislike?
slight aside: my mother was adopted and brought to NZ (Italian orphan post ww2) and in turn she was forced to adopt out my eldest brother (stupid standards of the day – they were reunited about 20 years back, in a wonderful but awkward way)… the impacts of all have had a huge emotional toll on my family and they continue and will do for at least another generation I reckon… but we’re all as disfunctional as any ‘normal’ loving kiwi family 🙂
“It would be much better if it was done away with all together.”
Are you suggesting that children who are put up for adoption should instead be killed?
He …
Nope just a simple repeal of the Adoption Act 1955 would do it. If kids have to be moved out of their family unit the Care of Children Act can handle the legal side. The child retains his or her legal biological links to his or her parents and they can hopefully know who their parents are.
Open adoptions are not as damaging as the old fashioned closed adoptions but it is still a barbaric principle that treats a child’s family relations as something that can be changed at the stroke of a pen.
The Care of Children Act allows gay and lesbian couples to assume care of a child and has no problems with gay and lesbian couples doing so.
cheers, your suggestion sounds much more civilised all round
Ok, I wasn’t aware that there was separate legislation already on the books that could be used to handle this instead.
I agree totally! In 1972, I had my oldest son adopted out and away from me and although he’s been back in my life since 1991, his life has been horrific. His adoptive mother’s a good woman, but the rest all treated him as if was dangerous. Guess what a child does if everyone expects him to mess up? Yes, you’re right.
No, of course not. But most adoptions now are not stranger adoptions (I think it’s around 85% of adoptions now are cases where a step-father adopts a child when he and the mother marry, or and this weird but it happens, where a couple marry after being together and having children – and in order for the children to have the name of the new husband, he has to legally adopt them even though he is their father!) It’s a myth that there are hundreds of abandoned children all ready to be adopted by lovely middle class rescuers.
Fully agree vicky. Closed adoption is a barbaric holdover from generations past. We really should be legislating to make them illegal. And you are so right about the power of expectation; it’s one of the two or three most potent influences on the human psyche.
By contrast open adoption can be great. I’m pretty liberal-minded about the form that families might take… as far as I’m concerned the people who have the babies really don’t have to be the same people who grow them up; just so long as they are all part of the same extended family or social group.
I agree. Open adoption is a good thing, if the child has the chance to know where s/he comes from, and is not lied to!
Thanks Mickey. I have no issue with gay couples caring for children; they generally manage to muddle through and do their best, just like most parents. I however do have issues with the politics of adoption. Adoption in New Zealand is a barbaric practice; the legislation that covers it was passed in 1955 and should be totally repealed and replaced by a revamped guardianship act. This would cover care of children whose parents are unable to care for them, either temporarily or permanent. Adoption gives ownership of the child to the adopters – something than natural parents don’t have or need. The child’s name, family and heritage is taken from it, and it is forced to live a lie under a false name and pretend that strangers are its parents. No wonder so many finish up under the care of the mental health or penal services. There have been many submissions made to many MPs on many reviews of the act, but they all get pigeonholed into the “too hard” basket.
Agreed Janice.
It is a brutal process and it is no wonder that so many are adversely affected by it. IMHO they should just repeal the act. The Care of Children Act can handle care arrangements much more elegantly.
Open adoption is not a legislated practice. There have been adopters who have signed an open adoption agreement with the birth mothers and their families and then after the adoption becomes legal they shut the whole thing down with no legal consequences as the child who the legal agreement named no longer legally exists, it is owned by a new family. Adoption objectifies and dehumanises the child, who is not a blank slate as many would like to think.
My experience from knowing many adoptees and adopters is that the adopters have been motivated by the best of intentions and the adoptees have all been better off in the short and longer term and have made wonderful families.
In all but one case they have been in contact at certain times or in an ongoing fashion with their birth families as well without any adverse effects.
So from my experience I would have to completely refute your assertion that adoption is ‘brutal, uncaring and wrecks lives.’ Although I do expect you get to see the worst in your professional capacity.
I do see the worst effects of adoption HS but I have also done some study in the area for professional reasons and the outcomes for adopted kids are way worse than for kids generally.
I actually have two adopted cousins who turned out pretty well but did struggle with it. Your comments suggest that you have seen the best of cases. I agree that I have seen some of the worst.
Grant will be the first male Gay New Zealand PM.
Should we actually give a fark about that point, and instead of continually having our differences pointed out between us, perhaps we should focus on similarities instead…
Grant will be the first male PM – Not really accurate it is, and won’t sell as many records, better just focus on the fact he is gay, as opposed to weather or he might actually be capable..
Can’t wait for the distractions over this exciting piece of news should it ever happen!
Baaa baaa baaa
I think Fortran’s point was to imply that Helen Clark was a lesbian, Muzza.
He was being a dickhead, not trying to make a serious point.
Michael Joseph Savage was our first gay PM
Really? Not according to what I can find on google. I am sure he’d be amazed to hear it. It reminds me of those lists of “famous people who were one of us” put out by everything from the ADHD association to gay rights groups – Leonardo Da Vinci being the most absurd of the latter – I learned that in the 1960s, an American Freudian had decided that Leonardo was gay because he used to buy caged birds and release them – which was such an effeminate thing to do! 😀
The truly hilarious thing about that is that Americans are totally clueless about any culture other than their own. As Hans Eysenck pointed out in his book about Freud, buying caged birds and releasing them was a cultural thing – males and females in that time and place did it all the time, as an attractor of good luck. Gay my left tit! 😀
Yep, that comment surprised me, too, V32. I know Savage didn’t marry, but that doesn’t make him a ‘confirmed batchelor, nudge nudge, wink wink’. From previous comments, I think Sprout has issues with homosexuality and likes to use it as a putdown.
I thought it was a well known rumour. We’ll never know for sure
.
Mounting evidence that at least some Pike River workers survived the initial explosion and were left to die. I’m starting to think it won’t just be Peter Whittall who is jailed over these deaths. If can be proved that the decision to abandon a rescue was itself a crime, then there are going to be some nervous officials busy trying to think of excuses for their cowardice.
Can’t see how incompetance and adherence to a crippling ‘safety culture’ could constitite a criminal act. At the end of the day, I expect there will be some ‘recommendations’ and that, as they say, will be that. And the wankers who wouldn’t allow rescuers to enter the mine will absolve themselves by pointing to the rules and regulations, give themselves a congratulatory pat on the back for following proper procedure and claim they acted on the best available evidence at the time.
And all the knowledge pertaining to methane explosions; the percentage of methane to oxygen that is explosive (12% or so I think?) will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of. And the window of opportunity that came in the aftermath of the first explosion that would, in all likelyhood, have ‘cleaned out’ any built up methane will be quietly pushed aside and not spoken of.
And so on.
In other words, authority will absolve itself and all those who act in its interests.
The decision not to risk more deaths considering the likelihood of further explosions, the atmosphere and the difficulties of rescue deep underground with SCBA was perfectly justified in the circumstances.
Why get more people killed while trying to rescue some who were extremely unlikely to have survived.
If it happens that some were still alive, for a while, it does not make that decision wrong.
I have read many accident reports where people rushed in to rescue their mates, a brave and human response, and have died too.
Not long ago on a log ship at Marsden point.
Someone there who made them hold off and get proper equipment would have saved at least one life.
It was one of those decisions some one had to make which could be seen to be wrong on hindsight either way.
If the rescuers had been killed. The same people who are damning the decision, not to go in, would be, with their 20/20 hindsight be damning them for killing the rescuers.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104935/Fire-chief-told-policeman-leave-drowning-man-3ft-deep-lake-half-boot-deep.html
This is absolute proof that the west’s “health & safety” culture pendulum has swung too far.
Pike River has similarities. It aint as easy as you paint KJT. Read and listen to what some of NZ’s most experienced miners and mine rescuers had to say on exactly this.
Similar goes for rescues in Christchurch post-Feb 22. The last survivor was resuced only about 24 hours after the quake and this is an extremely short time in comparison to other earthquake rescues. How many potential survivors died because of our health & safety culture’s over careful approach? This is a very fair and legitimate question imo and I hope the royal commission answers it.
Not that you want people to be foolhardy and naive in coming to your rescue. But you wouldn’t want them to be timid wait on the sidelines until the clock runs down while-you-die-terrified-and-abandoned types either.
Fact of the matter is, if a specialist unit which is trained and experienced and judges that it is worth taking a risk to try and help someone (and understands what that risk is) why let manager types who have fuck all expertise stand in their way. What’s our society become?
Does no one remember the saying “All for one and one for all?” Is it now “All for one and one for all, but only when we judge that all associated risks and potential liabilities are negligible”?
Interestingly in some other cases you get high honours and recognition for deliberately putting yourself in lethal harm’s way while trying to help others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Apiata
In the case of the CHCH earthquake, it really was quite a different situation to other earthquakes world-wide that see rescues happening days and occasionally weeks after the event:
1. Most of the earthquakes with these rescues happen in 3rd world or developing countries, where many more buildings fall down, trapping many more people. The more people who are trapped, increases the number who can be rescued.
2. We really only had 2 large buildings that collapsed and the one that had the most people trapped and died had a massive fire. Not a lot you can do about that, and turning hoses on it is quite likely to drown anyone who did actually manage to survive the fire/collapse in the first place.
3. A lot of the worst buildings in the CBD were already cordoned off from the September 4th and boxing day quakes: this is quite different compared to a city that is hit by a massive earthquake out of nowhere as is typically the case.
4. Similar to above, because of the September 4th quake a lot of people had already left the city and/or were much more clued up with how to react to an earthquake and this would have saved lives.
5. A lot of the deaths that occurred were from masonry facades falling on people. Heavy bricks smashing you in the head/back is likely to lead to death, compared to being inside a collapsed building that will have air pockets created due to the amount and different materials involved.
I don’t believe the fact that the last rescue occurred 24 hours after the quake has anything to do with health and safety, but rather a result of many different factors, some of which I have outlined above.
If you look at the accident rates in industries such as construction, mining, fishing and shipping.
Yes the HSE pendulum has swung too far.
In the wrong direction.
Or, NZers might see it as having been a heroic, necessary and worthwhile attempt to save lives. Risking a 3 or 4 person team in order to try and save 20 others.
Standard Rule of the Sea is that we are obliged to render assistance whenever others are in need, but with the proviso that the rescuers are not put at risk. The same applies to those arriving at a traffic accident. Secure the area and make sure that the rescuers are not exposing themselves to risk.
Problem is in deciding how great the risk is. On the spot. Risk of more falls. Child caught by a beam and crying. Stand back? Or risk it? Hard eh!
Yeah its tough. Even something as mundane as getting involved to break up a pub fight can be extremely risky, let alone this other stuff.
More akin to stopping a mother from rushing into a burning building when there is no hope of getting her or her child out safely.
No-one was ever going to be ‘ordered’ to enter the mine. With knowledge of the likely risks involved, there were members of the rescue team who wanted to enter the mine. They were prohibited by managers/bureaucrats. And, if my memory serves me correctly, some resigned from the rescue team in disgust.
It was as well that someone took the responsibility for making the decision.
Second guessing afterwards is unfair and unrealistic.
You have to go on the information at the time.
That information was that rescuers would be exposed to extreme and almost certain risk balanced against the strong indication that no one was still alive.
And. The least suitable people to make the decision at the time is the mates of the people in the mine. To much emotion involved. Same reason why Doctors are discouraged from treating close family.
The internet is full of armchair Admirals with the benefit of hindsight. Most of whom will never be in a situation where they have to make that decision.
Well I am in a job where the risk level is similar to mining. I am aware I may have to make that sort of decision at some time.
I am not prepared to judge the person who had to make the decision, on the ground, immediately, when we are all sitting down and have had days to consider it.
Okay. I fully agree that someone who is emotionally charged up is not the best person to make a decision. But that doesn’t mean that the people who are going to be putting their own safety/lives on the line shouldn’t be the ones making the decision based on all available or requested information.
I find this assertion strange. Of course any would be rescuers were going to be exposed to certain and probably quite extreme risk. But where the hell do you get the idea that a risk assessment was balanced off against indications that no-one was alive? What you are suggesting is that if some-one was known to be alive, then the rescuers would have allowed to enter the mine under the same level of risk that was present when they were forbidden to enter.
And I have serious doubts over the claim that there was “a strong indication that no one was still alive.” What indication was that? As I recall, there was talk of rescue up until the second explosion.
Meanwhile, (and flying in the face of rescue talk at the time) the company knew there was only half an hour’s worth of oxygen in any cylinders and (presumably) that the best time to attempt a rescue is immediately after any explosion because gas levels will likely be at non-dangerous levels but getting more dangerous with time.
You might accuse me of cynicism, but it crosses my mind that with the knowledge the company had at hand, they reckoned that by the time they responded (well in excess of 30 minutes) it was too late….unless miners had grabbed multiple cylinders. But they didn’t want the publicity and the hard questions that would have followed from people having died due to the tardiness of their initial emergency response. Solution? Wank around and say it’s all too dangerous to enter the mine and just keep on saying that it’s all too dangerous. Arse covered (sort of)…until somebody mounts a camera on a robot….
I would not go too much on what members of the rescue team said in the heat of the moment.
That was their friends in there.
Speaking to a senior member afterwards.
“The decision not to go in probably saved our lives”.
“Though we were all keen to go at the time no matter what”.
I think that Pike River showed NZ just how dangerous coal mining is and I hope the inquiry gets that message across. The major problem with mine explosions is that they destroy or badly damage the ventilation system in the vicinity of the blast. Ventilation is what removes dangerous gases from a mine so if the system is broken you’ll get a gas build up. An explosion can also start small fires and/or create potential ignition sources such as arcing batteries and if you put the two together you get a mine too dangerous to enter.
The harsh reality of coal mines is that an explosion typically makes the mine too dangerous for rescue teams to enter and unless the mine can be re-ventilated to a satisfactory level it can conceivably never be safe. With Pike it appeared necessary to enter the mine to repair the ventilation system which created that catch22 situation.
The only way to make a mine safe is to prevent the explosions from occurring. The rescue teams were placed in a terrible position and I don’t think they warrant any criticism.
Exactly.
I do not think the people really close to it should have to make the decision.
We should have regular ‘crony watch ‘ post to see a list of appointments and their links to NACT/MP figures in SOE’s, authorities both new and existing, govt departments etc yand have some slots for Hide and Ellis to see what junket they pop up in after seeing Parata’s whanau doing very nicely on the taxpayer…..ka Ching.
Aye but I am sure that they will say that a proper and robust selection took place with real checks and balances and cognizance of the fact that the candidate was the Minister’s sister but that the committee members, all of who are outstanding in their area of expertise, are confident that the decision and process cannot be faulted and that in the fullness of time their decision will be shown to be the right one.
Fascinating investment letter from Jeremy Grantham. NZ would be unrivalled in a warming, resource depleting world – if we could shore up our military security capabilities.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2012/02/GMO.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIHRSeVxSeg&feature=player_embedded
Interesting view from a port worker
Interesting how? Never heard of scab labour before?
OMG! They took his ping pong balls away!
And gee I wonder how there came to be ping pong, pool, and bbq facilities eh?
Kinda figured you lot would ignore the physical assaults and verbal threats, probably think thats what they deserve
And again, you must be unfamiliar with the concept of scab labour.
ffs this guy crossed a picket line and he’s complaining about his car getting egged?
I was referring to the verbal threats, shoulder charges and spitting (while not painful it is a pretty foul thing to do) and the racism aspect as well
Sorry, no way of knowing the context of any of that.
Remember how Anderton said it would take an earthquake to keep him from being mayor?
And how afterward, Slater said the truth is whatever he says it is at the time?
Armed with that info, you can’t even tell whether any of the comments in the video relate to the same worksite, the same union, the same strike, the same job, or even the same person.
bollix
On that clip you could tell where the edits were done, on this clip the edits are done between sentences
or do you really believe that the unions would never use indimadationary tactics to get what they want?
Intimadatory tactics? That’s what economic and class war is based on. Why not threaten the balance sheets and profits of corporations if they fail to take their responsibilities to workers and workers families seriously?
So what? It doesn’t matter that you can see the edits, what matters is that there is no context to tell what he’s talking about from one edit to the next.
You’re assuming it’s one story about one strike at one workplace but you have no way of knowing that, and the video was made by someone with a history of fooling people like you in exactly the same way.
I’m not saying you might not be right, just that you’re relying on faith in Slater’s honesty and pretending you’re not.
Whereas threatening the livelihoods of families and neighbourhoods is just being economically rational.
I agree the strikers are threatning livelihoods, good to see that you’re starting to see things rationally
Oh how droll.
Whether you meant it or not you were correct
The most powerful and the wealthiest in the country are the ones who destroy jobs and financial value, mate.
So how many lattes did you have before you came up with that slogan
Lattes? I’m typing this with a delicious Irish Coffee in front of me at the cafe.
Yes.
Of course you think removing workers wages and livelihood so a few can get rich is not violent.
The union is not good for ports operations (heresy!) its that simple
This isn’t the 1950s (though some on here wish it were) its time to move on
You say it’s not the 1950s, yet here we have a port company and its international clients trying to crush the workers and their families into submission to drive down their wage bill.
Bullshit. Without the workers/consumers there would be no port and no profits.
Were you around in the 50’s, and have you bothered to understand that the strike is actually being created due to lies and dishonesty of the PoAL management and board/CEO?
Spoken to many warfies first hand, or spent time wading through the structures that govern PoAL as it relates to the onership directives by the council?
Today we have the sensitive chris73. Metaphorically, speaking, of course.
Yeah today he’s all concerned about someone losing their ping pong balls, when just last night he would’ve sexually violated someone with them as a punishment.
ps this video has a dolphin logo in the corner so I guess it was made by the Slater child.
Given his history of deliberately editing videos out of context to make people appear to be saying things they never actually said, nothing in it can be assumed to be accurate.
keep telling yourself that and you may just end up believing it
I don’t need to, Slater himself admits that he does that.
Look what the tories have been up to in Canada http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/22/racknine-inc-fraudulent-election-calls-traced/
The Nats real agenda – Get Rich By Privitisation?
This from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/25/emma-harrison-family-tsar
The neoliberals can’t find any effective ways to develop and create any truly new assets or wealth of their own at the moment. Therefore the easiest way left to grow their own riches is to organise the transfer (theft) of already existing public wealth into their private sector hands.
The meme of the “wealth creating” top 0.1% is largely, though not entirely, a fabrication.
Exactly, its NACTS version of the long awaited economic growth
Too true. The “wealth creator”s have been so ineffectual at creating wealth, the only way they can do it is to steal ours.
The real wealth creators are you and me.
http://www.alternet.org/economy/154153/how_the_1_destroys_jobs_and_the_real_heroes_are_everyday_people
“If you really want to see a wealth creator, just look at the grocer, the nurse, the software developer, the accountant, and the civil engineer. They are all creators of wealth. Chances are, you are a wealth creator”.
Though I would argue about the Accountant.
Agreed, the accountant isn’t a wealth creator but is a part of the administration. The administration is necessary but they aren’t the wealth creators that they paint themselves as and, as such, they should be paid less than the actual wealth creators.
I’d go along with both comments. When I went into business for myself I made the conscious decision to keep the accountants out of the business. They do the books & the tax returns and that’s as close as they get. Works well for me.
Finally, Bernard Hickey has had the courage to promote what he terms “heresy”: ie that RBNZ should be creating money to finance infrastructure and rebuild Christchurch.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10788041
He still needs, though, to look at the other side of the coin (excuse the pun) and promote the elimination of “fractional reserve” banking.
1) I suspect that there’s no need to eliminate fractional reserve banking if the Government becomes a major source of interest free/debt free money for productive use.
2) There’s no way that the private banks and the privately driven world central banking system is going to allow NZ to wean off their (very profitable) interest bearing debt markets. Especially as it will mean that they cannot indebt NZ enough to compromise our productive assets (which is the true prize they covet) in firesales.
3) John Key is an Inside Man of these private banking interests. You can be certain that he won’t have a bar of any of this talk of Government supplied credit to the economy. Government supplied credit to the economy means no more need for overseas asset sales. See the point above.
Already being done in that bastion of socialism, the USA.
http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/
Note that the US States which have best survived the GFC were also the ones with State banking.
North Dakota is the best example.
+1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0rJWnRFUJA
Presently, the POAL dispute continues, and I applaud every MP who has turned up at the picket line.
Meanwhile, Housing NZ is shutting its offices, so that clients can only contact them through a call centre. This no doubt is a prelude to farming out management to some corporation or other.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6481036/Housing-NZ-shutting-offices
In the Herald, Matt McCarten draws attention to a strike by Aged care Workers. Their employer, Oceania, presently owns 79 NZ Rest homes and is in turn owned by a large conglomerate. The workers have been offered a 1% pay rise, with a base rate of $13.61 an hour provided they give up their overtime.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788025
Then we have the most recent Pike River Mine news, about people having survived the first blast, mentioned on this thread by Te Reo Putake.
Two days or so ago we heard of how our corporates are exploiting foreign slave labour (already noted elsewhere on this site).
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/call-action-over-fishing-slave-ships-4738571
Meanwhile, 762 Meat workers are being locked out.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10788023
Conciliatory noises from the left at this time suggest that we no longer have a left at the representational level. And diverting the conversation to superficial social rearrangements do not cut it either. We need a clear, articulate challenge to all of the above, along with an alternative strategy at representational level yesterday!
There is no point in trying to look user friendly to raise money to fight an election if you have no one left listening to you. Conversely, if your vision is bold, sane and well-articulated, you might not need the bloody money – people will rally to you anyway.
Oh great the shithouse Talley family in full flight yet again, they must not have enough tens of millions of dollars yet.
So Key and co are cutting a front line service to the public at HNZ. This is not helping an already CRITICAL housing situation and those who work at the coal face who will have to wait until they hear back from HNZ for an appointment.
Further proof of the widening DISCONNECT by the current government. The government need to act fast due to being the odd country out when it comes to the increase in preventable infectious disease. A green paper for this and a white paper for that is nothing but lip service. The Families Commission have told the government about the correlation that unaffordable housing and damp housing has when it comes to child abuse and child hospitalisation.
My apprasil of Heatley is that he is a real estate minister as all he can say is that we have empty houses, the houses are in need of repair, we are going to build cramped complexes which will create social problems and that some millionaires are lined up to buy HNZ properties with million dollar views, (the top priority is the millionaires).
It’s not a disconnect, this government is purposefully ignoring the facts and ramming through policies based upon their ideology. The ideology that has led to more poverty as the wealth accumulates into the hands and control of the few. They’re setting NZ up to become a feudal state complete with serfs.
It’s the tenth of the 1% who are faceless and who are doing the irreparable damage.
I am an HNZ tenant, and we got the letters announcing this back in December. The Tenancy Manager I had (I can no longer call her) never answered her phone anyway being the laziest cow unhung, so it’s made no difference to me, but it will to others. 🙁
It’s like the cutting of frontline services at IRD and authorising agents (private sector ) to be able to file your tax returns.
It used to be someone who was having trouble with their tax return could go to IRD and get some help to fill it out. This service was free and was part of what was called public service.
Today you are referred to someone in the private sector who is authorised to do this and charges you a fee and from what I’ve seen often gets it wrong.
Many low income people and those with disabilities ( the two often go hand in hand) can’t or won’t pay a fee to get this done and so often go without a refund they are entitled to.
The well off on the other hand pay their accountants to work out how to pay less tax while again the poor pay more than their share.
I’ve taken to helping people do their tax returns and getting their refunds due simply because I can’t see why they should have to pay to fulfill their democratic obligations.
It’s not like the public don’t need this help – the plethora of agents that has sprung up in recent years is testimony to this. They must be making money from what used to be free.
It ain’t enough to pay crap wages in this country – any mechanism to get some of those wages back will suffice. This is but another one.
Is Chris Heatley related to the filthy rich business tycoon, Craig Heatley?
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/eliot-spitzer-spending-money-on-prosecuting-pot-is-ridiculous/
“…Former New York governor and attorney general Eliot Spitzer says he not only supports medical marijuana –
– but thinks we should replace marijuana prohibition with legalization…”
phil-at-whoar.
Good to see the Talley Family standing up to the Meatworkers Union .Just like POA there will only be one winner there,and it wont be the workers or the Union
Backing the very wealthy ahead of ordinary working NZers? Why am I not surprised.
Nice to see you know what side you’re on, Jim Jim. Our new insect overlords will be well pleased with your efforts. Perhaps they’ll eat you last.
Some on here may very well listen to cricket commentary. There was a time when commentators were generally drawn from wordsmiths – and they were articulate and interesting to listen to. The qualification for getting behind a microphone in today’s group (taking a lead from Australia) appears to be that one needs to be a former player.
Now perhaps someone here can enlighten me.
The expression “Running between the wickets” referring to batsmen. I would have thought that to run between the wickets would earn a rebuke and warning from the umpire for running directly down the line of the wickets and therefore damaging the pitch.
Secondly, as I am taking the radio commentary, I cannot see exactly what is happening, and depend therefore on their description of play. It would appear from this constantly repeated term “Their running between the wickets …” suggests that the batsmen run to other points of the oval as well. Can anyone help out there on that one?
My goodness – there may be the occasional fruitloop on The Standard, but nothing as fruity as this http://aotearoaawiderperspective.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/is-the-standard-blog-a-mainstream-media-shill/
Apparently we’re all just shills of the mainstream media….
i went and read that piece..and have to concur with whoever it is..
..they have given a calm/link-backed rendition of what has been happening in this domino-effect the americans are using in the middle east..
..the most recent example the shills of this phenomenon..the calling for ‘the dogs of war of humanitarian-intervention’/cia-coup had me gobsmacked..
.it was how keith locke..(who of all people..you’d think would know better..eh..?)..was just parroting the cia-pro-invasion propaganda for them…
..i wasn’t reading here then..was this site/labour pretty get-gadaffi-gung-ho..?
..also parroting that pro-war bullshit..?
..and those swallowing/parroting this latest call for the dogs of war to be unleashed really should think on a bit more/deeper..
..and look closer at the latest example.. libya http://whoar.co.nz/?s=libya
..especially at the outcome..one year later..(3rd story in link..)
..and maybe ponder on how..like gaddafi..assad was until very recently..americas’ friend..
..so much a friend..that america renditioned prisoners there for torture…
..think on..!..eh..?
phil-at-whoar.
late night juxtaposition:
TAG oil’s highest estimate for the east coast prospecting is $600million to NZ.
Oil-strike-could-be-worth-600m
Cost of cleanup from one cargo ship is $130million.
Gotta love that risk-reward ratio.
TAG gets the reward, we get the risk, what’s there not to love as a TAG shareholder?