If you want to get youth interested first it must be established that mentors have implemented professional strategy and made money out of it. Why else would any one listen to any one trying to sell chemical sterilisation when they don’t even use the product themselves.
You know? It’s just this moral vs economic argument always comes up and charlatan educators confuse the too.
[picking the first comment upthread that looks most like the derail. Shifting the whole subthread because below it gets abusive. Sam, you got pretty free rein in that thread, but a warning, don’t derail and don’t get abusive on Guest Posts and Cross posts. That space was for the author and women in particular to discuss the issues she raised. I don’t want to have to start writing long explanatory comments under posts about where the moderation limits are, it’s easier for me to just moderate the odd commenter instead. I’d suggest dialing back the abuse across the whole site, because your name is starting to pop up too many times for this moderator’s attention. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Dunno about “don’t even use the product themselves”. I’d leap at it if it were reversible – vasectomies can be, but with a pretty crude success rate.
It’s not really about “getting the youth interested”, although the full informed consent thing goes for it. If you plug it to 11 year olds, they’ll do it because they’re not as stupid as teenage boys. And it’s also before 99.5% of them will be in a position to get someone knocked up.
In all interactions there is a need for a trusted broker. Some one who is not from either world but understands both. These people are very rear and hard to find and they usually cost a fortune. These people are not firmly the product of one system or another, these people have unique insights of finance, economics, politics, news and culture and what it all means.
Good people think everything is like a movie that they can freeze development every time they become intensely involved. It does not work liked that. If good people want to substantially effect the strategic evolution of justice for woman good people can not come and go.
It’s hard to tell if your joking or not about sterilising 11 yr olds… I mean that’s just fucking amazing… Some one get McFlock Obamas Nobel peace prize…
Can you imagine the group think on the other side of a two way mirror observing minors as they interact after being sterilised… Ending with congratulations doctor. You’ve done it, you will now be validated. Any one who thinks mutalating the body is a good idea needs to try it first before selling it to others.
Not talking permanent sterilization. An easily and reliably-reversible male contraceptive with fewer side effects than a vasectomy would save a lot of accidental pregnancies.
Yes, like with HPV vax there’ll be some parents who reckon their little prince should not be exposed to the possibility of ever having sex, or seem to believe that it’s impossible to discuss the issue with a child without playing internet porn. Ironically half the time it seems that those are the parents whose kids end up making bad mistakes, but that’s just my anecdata.
Kids around ten are actually pretty smart.
It’s teenagers who tend to be fucking morons.
Oh. “mutalating”. Yes, a 15y.o. considering an abortion or the alternatives is a much better option. 🙄
ok now I’m just going to say that McFlock does not have a medical license and if you did it should be withdrawn immediately. Seeking medical advice from anonymous avatars on the Internet is a terrible fucking idea because they have zero clue about local resources, were to go or what to do.
I mean this is why us lefties are called fucking loonies. It’s like some how you think you’re different from gooie talking about ACT party abortion policy, if you post it ironically or as a joke…
really lucky that I’m not offering medical advice then, innit?
Oh, and last I heard none of the reversible male contraceptives in development were available in NZ or even in human testing phase, let alone for nation-wide roll-out.
They are just promising technologies that could help cut our unplanned pregnancy rate. Especially amongst teens, where pregnancy is often related to a number of hazardous behaviours such as maternal smoking and alcohol use.
And I’m not the weirdo talking about conversations behind a two-way mirror in the sexual health clinic.
Removing diseases and disorders can only be a good thing. However I’m going to say that you’re likely really far off from reality and manipulating biology in such a manner to become much better as a species. At least without becoming something like The Master from Fallout.
On the other hand I have some inclination to witness some mad SCIENCE to see if creating a being like the Master would even be possible.
More seriously outside of curing disorders and defects I lean towards the cybernetic side of things for human improvement.
Again, I get the impression you think this is a big eugenics proposal.
It’s not.
Regardless of harm to the child, the hazardous behavious associated with teen pregnancy simply indicate that the pregnancy itself is related to another risky behaviour (unprotected sex) rather than being a planned pregnancy. I did see a stat once that this does not correlate so much in cultures where women traditionally get pregnant young and have wider community support as it does where women traditionally wait until monogamous marriage,etc.
To put it bluntly, the more teenage pregnancy is contrary to traditional values of that culture, the higher the percentage of teenage mother smoke, for example.
And then as the mothers are older when they have their babies, the fewer of them smoke and actually the smoking rate drops significantly below the smoking rate of their peers.
So for a lot of teens, having a child is another outcome of their phase of risky behaviour. If, without side effects and completely reversibly, we can limit that to the clap rather than 18 years of child rearing then why not offer it to the kids and their parents to discuss before they enter almost the riskiest time of their lives?
yeah, because nobody has had the course of their lives massively altered by an unplanned pregnancy (that might have been prevented if the soon-to-disappear guy had had access to non-invasive, long acting and reliable contraception). /sarc. Lots of /sarc
If we want the state to be a force for good then we must recognise that the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation. What the state does do they must do well. State housing is one area that must do well. Instead of designer baby policies. Provisions could be made to supply single mothers with below cost housing ownership programmes so property minus land value on the provision that the house not be sold with in the first 5 years, or something, so that the mother has chips on the board… These are the things we ought to focus on.
It’s about pregnancy being a positive choice rather than a regretted accident. For both parties.
Of course mothers should be supported to the full extent of the welfare state, but even with that people do end up suspending courses of study or work they really wanted to do in order to raise a kid on a shitty income. Do they regret it? Not for a second. The kids I know are loved intensely. But was it done the wrong way around, and would they prefer to have been able to sever all contact with a dropkick jerk and just have a kid with someone they love? In some cases, yes.
What we ought to focus on is all of the above. Stopping teenagers from doing stupid things is always a challenge, and they and their parents should have the tools to at least limit the consequences.
And as for “the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation”… please tell us more about that, using html documents transmitted over a UFB computer network…
You can not convince the uneducated to come off the play ground and fight for reproductive justice some where else. It’s economics really. The greater the sacrifice the more they will want in return.
Let’s say we implemented your strategy if you want to call it that. So the 11 year old takes the inert for a limited time drug on the provision that life will be a little bit better for the species. So we will all live happily ever after. The end.
With all Parametres predetermined you could come up with a convincing model that does exactly what you set out to do in a really fancy science lab. But out side the lad decisions have to be made between life and death that is something no child should have to contemplate.
Any more than they wear condoms “for the species”.
They talk it over with their parents and maybe a doctor, and see if it’s for them. If they come up with an alternative reason why they won’t accidentally knock up a classmate and spend their period of lowest income having child support deducted, then they don’t bother with it.
But if they have access to a contraceptive that doesn’t require them to carry it in a pocket for a couple of years and hope it’s in good condition when they finally have a reason to use it, they should certainly have the option and everyone should certainly be aware it’s available before they need it. Which means (like HPV vax) before they start shagging each other.
And you know what? People are already fighting for sex education. Kids are still shagging, but less of them are having babies. When a long-acting male contraceptive finally happens, it’ll just be another column in a sex ed flipchart, and they’ll know where to go for more information on it.
You lead me to believe that you were a literary genius of some kind, that all the good writers, what ever that meant exited The Daily Blog for the standard. But the more I read into your mind, the less impressed I am.
But you should be congratulated for your work towards the moron of the century award.
Sex is not taboo. In a population of 5mln you’ll get people acting outside acceptable social norms no mater what any one says.
What I’m actually trying to say is you’re wasting people’s time and money and effort inventing artificial edifices tacted onto the education system because there’s stuff that teachers can’t do for some reason.
If you ask teachers would they like more resources they say ok yeah. Just to help students navigate the landscape better, hardly ever do they come back with a oh we need more varied chemical restrains. That’s just insane. And putting all this over to the private sector is an order of magnitude more insane.
and if you ask the same teachers whether they’ve stopped every kid they taught from ever making a foolish impulsive decision, not one would say yes.
But obviously you have some weird agenda such that every mention of contraception is “designer baby” or “chemical restraint” territory.
Every few days I end up sidelining a few groceries towards a mate whose steady boyfriend ran out of condoms and she didn’t know the pill she was on had lost its effectiveness (I didn’t even know that was a thing). She’s already in a state house, but the little money she has goes on the kid. She skips meals. Hence the groceries. Even without that to worry about, she felt she had to sideline study and professional development until this year. Fucko McDreamy left town three months before the birth.
So yeah, accidental pregnancies are fucking disruptive to people’s lives. If Fucko had had an opportunity to make the choice when he wasn’t horny as fuck and probably a bit drunk, my mate would probably be in a decent job by now and have found someone who wasn’t a jerk, with whom she might plan a family.
We can not hold every ones hands through life. There are only so many adjustments that can be made to the economy. What can be done is give woman access to resources and funds via public programmes like housing. So that when asset prices improve over time, so to does the prospects of woman improve over time. This is a problem all capitalist democracies face and we are still puzzled about how to combine idle hands with idle resources. This meme that says woman make for poor investments must die a horrible death.
On average for every dollar invested in woman’s business globally you get slightly more than a dollar returns. For male dominated industry you’ll be lucky to get 20 cents back. Like seriously. Industry profit is down 80% right across the globe since 2008. I mean did y’all forget or something. It’s actually not a complicated argument.
Personally I think the Coalition has a set of policies and ministers that will keep the kiwi dollar low and improve the prospects of domestic asset prices. These are the things that instruct how to invest time and money. And if it so happens that some drug company makes a brake through in inert for a limited time drugs and gets a license to sell it in New Zealand then it might be worth putting a bob on either way…
Are you pussy whipped? Looking to the future for chemical silver bullets could be the ruin of woman today. Not there salvation. Maybe you should have a shower and blow off some steam or something.
You know. You’re just wasting my time with your irrelevance. If male contraceptives was a thing it would be here already. If it was patented and some one picked it up with an investment model in New Zealand I’d probably put some money in myself because we have some PR merchants piming limited for a time sterilisation.
I mean you mind is about 5 years way to early if any of this even materialises in reality. In the mean time how ever.
Look. He choices for woman are not the same for men. If you give boys a wonder drug that takes away some of the responsibility it will for ever change the genetic make up of the human race and that I think you are naively. Your just wasting time now with me checking in on this conversation so fuck off time waster.
As for your fears about changing the genetic profile of humanity, don’t worry about that because there will still be more than enough total morons like you around to make up the difference.
World’s first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions
6.7% of freight in the EU currently going by inland waterway isn’t a nothing. And existing barges can be retro-fitted. Also a good thing.
But with sea-level rise being slated to be somewhere in the 3m to 6m range this century by some leading researchers… well, there goes a fair amount of any country’s canal network.
It should be done regardless. Abandoning infrastructure and writing off investments is going to be the order of the day anyway. And doing stuff now on a grand enough scale, even if it won’t survive in the medium term, is going to reduce the impacts we’ll be dealing with…assuming no tipping points triggered in the meantime.
Brexit: Britons favour second referendum by 16-point margin – poll
Guardian/ICM survey finds rising interest in vote on final deal as concerns mount over EU talks
I wouldn’t hope that. We elect representative governments in western democracies, not functionaries who report back to us for instructions every time a decision needs to made. Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
And in the case of Brexit, they’re making drastic changes to British society based on a 51/49 result following an ad campaign that featured huge funding by Tory interests on behalf of the ‘leave’ faction. Any sensible representative government would put it Parliament and accept the results.
Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
So we need to ask better questions. To find a way to make sure leading and suggestive question aren’t asked.
It doesn’t mean that we stop trying to become a better democracy.
Ok draco, the question is well worded etc, what’s to stop a wealthy lobby group (taxpayers union for example) running a welll timed dis-information campaign and getting or denying the result they wish.
Well, they run such a campaign before we voted for MMP and then they ran another one when National tried to change to SM.
Didn’t work either of those times.
Are mistakes going to be made?
Yep but people learn from mistakes. Our present system allows people not to learn from the mistakes made. Allows them to blame others for the outcomes rather than owning them and learning from them.
Whinging that it’s just too hard doesn’t make us or our society better.
Before we get into binding ‘i reckons’ we need to:
raise levels of participation,
have media ownership diversified,
lobbyists banished or at least adhere to a register
and generally raise awareness of the system and individuals ‘responsibilities’
The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum. The idiot Cameron put it up as a way to shut up the alt right faction thinking that sanity would prevail and the nonsense of Britain leaving the EU would be self evident. He mis-understood the lies and deceit that would be spread by the alt right, UKIP, and the leave campaign, and the stupidity of the old and decrepit who live in the golden years of the past British Empire (These Daily Mail readers still make up the majority of Brexiters).
Just one example of the damage that has been wrought on Britain since this manic decision
Around 10,000 EU nationals have quit the NHS since the Brexit referendum, it has emerged.
NHS Digital, the agency that collects data on the health service, found that in the 12 months to June, 9,832 EU doctors, nurses and support staff had left, with more believed to have followed in the past three months.
Airbus has told MPs that Britain risks losing the “crown jewels” of its aviation industry to China as a result of Brexit, putting up to 7,000 wing-manufacturing jobs in Wales at risk.
I’d say literally the majority. Thing is, “stick with the status quo” is the sensible option if you have no idea what voting for change would bring, so it’s the leave voters who are the assholes here.
Having spoken to a number of UK residents over the past year – people who were engaged in politics in the UK at a variety of different levels and from what I have read over the past year in the media (apart from the Daily Mail and The Telegraph) the constant refrain has been just that. Voters simply did not understand what it was they were voting on – the old and senile thought they were voting for things to go back to the glory days of the British Empire – and that is what they still fondly believe – but such a notion is nonsense. English law is now firmly aliened with EU, and has to be for such open borders as now exist. Furthermore the falsehood of 350 Million Pounds per week flowing into the NHS was just blatant nonsense, but fooled millions of voters.
No. if you read the article linked to, it it is because suddenly there will be a financial wall (tariff barrier), access for workers from the EU to and from the UK will be restricted, there is still no concept of how trade will continue between the EU and the UK, and a raft of other problems make the continuation of an EU wide manufacturing process – part of which is in Wales – impossible.
The point of another vote on brexit being that they vote on what is really going to happen. Before many of the ‘pluses’ were bogus and also not enough Britain’s took it seriously enough to vote in the first referendum.
Teachers are also very undervalued in NZ especially compared to other countries like Finland where it is considered a top profession and you normally need a masters, and it’s a hard course to enter.
In NZ teachers have been denigrated for 30 years, their union has been weakened and it’s no wonder that less people who would be fantastic teachers, are not joining or staying in the profession.
NZ has never valued local skills, instead under neoliberalism have created policy to sell and semi privatise education by stealth and then just bring in overseas teachers, doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, cleaners, fisherman – you name it – anything to pander to their globalist ideology and drive local wages and conditions down. Apparently it is to compete with Asia.
When locals don’t have access to jobs, starting with part time work when they are studying which has dried up with the amount of work permits being given out, then it becomes harder and harder to actually learn the structure of work, getting up, punctuality etc.
Now we are getting generations who will struggle to work because they don’t have the skills to do it and it’s harder to start out when you are older to learn basic skills.
Then you get the catch 22, more people with immigration to provide the work the ‘hopeless’ ‘overpaid’ locals are not deemed fit for by employers and government, more competition for jobs and houses and more strains on schools and health care and social services needed for the increased population as well as more strains on natural resources and the strains on people’s mental wellbeing as more and more people have to compete for basics like accomodation, minimal waged jobs etc.
I understand the value of education, which is why we put our kids thru private school.
Now two own businesses and the third is working thru uni (with a pet time job not running up a huge student loan).
We also always read to kids every night when they were small – have them a love of books and patented them that they had to do all homework / study before “the fun stuff”.
There are a lot of parents who value education out there.
Of course there are a lot of lousy parents also that let their own kids down.
Private or Public? I went to both when I was a kid. All my children have gone to Public schools…and you know what makes the biggest difference to an education? The teachers…if you are lucky enough to have a good teacher/s it makes no difference if you go Private of Public.
I agree that teachers are vastly important to a good education, I’d also add that a well run school that staff and students can flourish and feel safe in and the involvement and encouragement of parents in the students education will also reap huge benefits.
After a career in teaching, I spent four years as a cleaner and gardener. All the people I worked with, and for, were hard-working. There were no shirkers. And cleaning was hard work. One of the owners, a man of retirement age, said that he couldn’t do that job for eight hours. He didn’t have the energy. He was right. Hard work.
Our bosses knew. We knew. But some of the owners of the houses we cleaned. You could tell there who the slovenly, ill-educated and artistically impoverished were.
I could retire. My wife, a teacher as well, did the same. At seventy, she retired as a cleaner for the same firm.
Most of our colleagues could not retire but had to keep on working for just above minimum pay. The bosses couldn’t really pay more. Large firms from out of town undercut their contracts.
Cleaning is an honourable occupation, necessary and invaluable. Cleaners return x15 their wages as value to society. Just consider the worth of hospital cleaners. When I go into hospital, as an experienced cleaner, I look at the roof and walls, the floor and and the plumbing. Always clean, always reassuringly safe and hygienic.
Yes , James, you can be sure there are hard-working cleaners. Be aware. Observe. Be thankful there are, for the money and social recognition they, we, get.
Ed does not barbecue but likes Brussel sprouts.
Ed does not have a boat but he hates people donating to Alzheimer’s or heart kids.
Ed would not appear to be rich bit is certainly envious of those with more than him.
Ed is ageless.
I hope Ed is not real because it depresses me that there are people so bitter.
I’ve taught in a number of schools around the country – Private, State, and Independent. I even had the misfortune of spending 3 years teaching at Kristin. I have to say it was the worst school in 28 years in the classroom I ever experienced.
The year I left there was a staff turn-over of 28%. The dissatisfaction of staff and the poor staff morale was tangible. I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the place – but your comment above forced me.
It’s all image and show – Progress with vision, integrity, and love. Bullshit!
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…that’s not your level…which again…indicates a severely stunted personal growth curve… of a ‘middle aged man’…who makes up stories on an anonymous blog site…
There was nothing I felt comfortable to reply to Marco – he / she didn’t like teaching there. I don’t know what years it was – but our experience as parents differed.
One Two I went to Kristen School for a year as a pupil. It was a while back but found the school very good at helping me to catch up in certain areas of my schooling.
No idea what it is like now in 2018…but know of other parents who sent their kids to Kristen over the last 4 to 5 years and they seemed ok with the education they received (all be it expensive).
So what is the “Gotchas” in regards to james comment?
James, when I saw “I understand the value of education” I thought I was going to read that that was why your children had become teachers.
When you suggested that your kids have been successful I see it wasn’t in teaching.
I wonder how many parents of kids who go to Kristin encourage their kids to go teaching? There’s another vital service, a work place not far from Kristin which the parents are keen to see succeed and whose importance they likely comment on a lot. I wonder how many Kristin parents encourage their kids to work there. Paremoremo Prison.
@ James (4.1.1.1) … Gosh I hope the private education and university level education had a better outcome on your children’s ability to spell, considering yours leaves a lot to be desired!
Another point about education which we also put great value on. We were ordinary working class parents, who sent our (now adult) children to good old state schools to be primary and secondary educated, followed by tertiary education. One child was exceptionally intelligent, while the other was average, but always displayed a good work attitude. Despite the differences in this regard, they have both done exceedingly well for themselves in their chosen careers, working in the health and justice professions respectively.
My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.
Liberté égalité fraternité is the motto of the French revolution meaning freedom, equality and fraternity, something which has been sorely absent in the social structure of Aotearoa for the past 30 years.
Liberty, egality and fraternity is the structure base of a civilised, fair and decent social system, which respects its citizens for their individual value above all else, regardless of status.
Judging by the tone of Jacinda’s statements during and after the election, I’m positive the coalition government intends to address the vicious and inhumane social failing afflicting our country, during its term of office.
Actually Ed private schools do have a place – although not as elitist “academies”. But they can cater for special needs and act as a vehicle for innovative ideas where a state school is more ham strung by regulation. All children have different needs and a one format fits all approach is not necessarily the best way to educate. Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school. I have already intimated above that I have taught in a variety of different schools Military, State, Private, Home school, and Independent. The worst and best were private, with State schools running a close second best and second worst.
The real difference was in the ethos of each school – was it committed to Education – or was it solely interested in academic achievement. There is a big difference. If academic achievement is the be all, and end all of the school, then education, as such, goes out the window. In a private school (and to some extent state schools) I found that that ethos was driven as much by the parents, as it was by anyone else. Now it is nice that Jane or Johnnie will end up with a nice certificate to say that they successful regurgitated the necessary rhubarb on a series of assessments, but it is not education. The instruction may be brilliant, but there is no guarantee that the mind has been engaged. To engage the mind actually risks questioning the perceived ‘knowledge’.
As an example, in a class we were considering the concept of area – just what did they think area was and how could we measure it – these were “vege math” students at what was then 6th form – just passed school cert but not considered bright enough to gain UE in math. There were a number of suggestions – place a piece of string around it (confusing perimeter with area) etc. But the one that really blew us away was – weigh it. Now that would seem to be nonsense – but actually it proved to be the most accurate! Take a leaf. How do you measure its area? Photocopy it, cut around the image and weigh the resulting piece of paper. Knowing the density of the paper you can calculate the area.
Now there will never be an exam, or test, that will assess this sort of thinking – but this is real education where the engagement of mind has lead to the solution of a problem.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
The goal of National Party education policy is not to educate, nor even to graduate, but to smash the teachers’ unions so that the sector can be privatised.
Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school
Hardly surprising when (underfunded) state schools have had a ‘one format fits all’ approach forced on them by right wing greed.
In some ways, the only thing unique about Finnish schools is that the National Party USA approach to education doesn’t have any influence there.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
I haven’t been avoiding answering this request rather I’ve been working on framing my response as helpfully as I can. I think we can agree that every child has different needs, whether they are the most or the least intelligent or emotionally developed or the least (a la D Trump) or the most physically capable or visually challenged or are socially advantaged, or what ever. Those needs are special to that child and need to be addressed before any real progress can be made on education.
Now essentially the Finnish model (which I endorse btw) does seek to address that most basic issue, but the problem is that with the present state of conventional wisdom in this country, such a system stands as much chance of implementation as a snowballs chance in hell. Just imagine the uproar from “concerned” parents if their child was not introduced to “formal” learning until age 6 or 7! Just imagine if laptops, tablets, and computers were taken out of the classrooms up to high school – and then only at senior level! Just imagine if there were no formal assessments in Junior school and only one or two final assessment at the end of High school and maybe not even then. Just imagine if mathematics and science involved drawing and the arts. And every student was involved in acting, music. and drama, and learned to knit and dance.
There are such schools available in NZ. They follow a curriculum and pedagogy developed over a 100 years ago, and the Finnish model of education has adopted many of their practices. But these schools are private. I had the privilege to teach in one of these schools for several years, and it was the most fulfilling and enriching period of my now 3 score years and 10 plus a few more. One of my pupils has just completed Auckland med school graduating top. Another who entered the class (completely unable to survive in a state school, and spent the first few weeks hiding behind the clothes stand) is now an engineer. Another is a graduate of Toi Whakaari, works as a sexual abuse councillor and facilitator for ACC in secondary schools, and regional co-convenor for the Greens, and was elected to a community board at the last local body elections. Another is a manager for a Travel firm and others are farmers, mechanics etc.
I’m not an anthroposophist but I believe Steiner got it pretty right with his system of education. Here is a comparison done by a US waldorf educator after hearing Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education, speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival about why
Finland ranks first with the best school system in the world. http://chicagowaldorf.org/uploads/files/Finland_Education-by_Carol_Triggiano.pdf – note pdf
Thanks for that Macro. It never crossed my mind that you’d be avoiding it 🙂
As a concerned parent I’m more than happy to go toe-to-toe with any of my peers giving your excellent vision a hard time.
I suspect that the best way the Left can destroy the National Party’s ambitions for education is by closing all private schools and forcing Mummy and Daddy to confront the consequences of their actions at the ballot box, or failing that, to follow Finland’s example and figure out a way to stop the National Party from attacking children.
Yeah dreams are free, and I know now’s never the right time.
I left school at 15 and I’m slightly dyslexic. And I’m also lazy.
As for the comment “My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.”
Indeed, In Finland teaching is held in very high regard.
“Because the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.”
Research indicates that the average Finnish teacher spends seven days a year on professional development, with some municipalities arranging large, multi-school training events and others leaving it up to schools to develop in-service programs. However, teachers’ schedules in Finland enable a great deal of teacher collaboration to support their professional growth.
Any chance you and the truth might recognise one another on the street?
What’s clear is that you tried to lie about the influence of unions in Finnish education and now you’re spinning like a David Farrar-shaped dupe.
You don’t know anything about pedagogy or how professional development works in NZ either. You can keep letting David Farrar dribble down your chin, but don’t fool yourself that it has the slightest relevance to reality, or me.
OAB please point out where I “lied” about the influence of unions in Finnish education.
What I pointed out was the stark difference between how teachers can operate in Finland verse their counterparts in NZ. Which of course is made possible by the Finnish teacher’s union.
Maybe we should send you up to Finland for some personal development to take back to your school 😉
I’m way ahead of you Chuck, you poor dupe. I had already searched for NZ teacher union remarks about Finnish education in anticipation that you’d try and parrot some more of the lies you swallowed like a gullible fool.
Here’s a selection:
There are great models that we can follow from countries such as Finland with high achieving systems…
If I were the Minister of Education for Aotearoa New Zealand the first thing I would do is go to Finland…
The Finns have been able to create the most successful education system in the world because their politicians have been able to put the strategic educational needs of the country before their own party interests…
Walked right into that didn’t you Chuck. Now stop lying and smearing your betters, you rotten filth.
PS: My school? You think I’m a teacher 😆 what a moran.
Christ OAB, you don’t expect me to read the whole thread do you.
There’s no reason why the community can’t be more self-regulating. So I have no problem with you asking any commenter to stop maligning a whole profession, providing you don’t absue someone in the process. Your problem is that you give shit to people so why should they do what you ask?
I’m only going to get involved as a moderator if I see behaviour escalating that is going to cause problems for the site. In this case, the inevitable descent into abusive comments. I listen to the people who say that stuff puts them off from being involved in conversations here. I have to admit I’m stumped by the people who don’t get that. I mean I love a good argument as much as the next man, but I also understand that how I comment has impact and repercussions and that if I don’t want this place to become a ghettoised macho clique I might want to change how I do things.
I get you are on a mission to hold RWers and others in the way of progressive politics to account. I’m just pointing out that how you do that creates problems.
As an example of your utter lack of understanding, you praise Finland because:
…the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.
…but you vote for Notional Standards, which are a direct attack on teacher autonomy.
You can’t even read your own citations. You might know the individual words but the meaning goes over your head. For once in your life, stop mindlessly repeating the right wing lies you rote-learned.
The personal insults aside…I am glad you are opening your mind away from the status quo that the various teacher unions in NZ just can’t seem to let go of.
“While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.”
OAB if for one minute you did not let the red haze of rage cloud your mind, you might have a chance not to miss represent what I say.
By profession, I assume you mean teachers? Teachers can only work within the framework of the day. They are restricted by a/ the Unions and b/ the Government of the day.
Good teachers are worth gold, I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level. Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So have a great day OAB, I don’t expect you to agree with anything I have said…that ok. A debate is good and I do take on board other peoples views that may challenge mine.
Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So you agree with the NZEI and PPTA then. That’s exactly what they’ve been saying.
Unfortunately you voted for Notional Standards instead, which calls your lip service into question.
But everyone knows that really, you’re motivated by nothing but hatred for the freedoms of association and expression represented by the teachers’ unions, and all your* rhetoric is simply in service to that hate.
*except it isn’t really yours, you just parrot the things you rote-learn at the sewer.
Put median incomes NZ 2017, into the net. Be a plumber or electrician, you will earn twice what a teacher, (after 4/5 years) will earn. So there it is… not valued!!
I doubt higher salaries would be sufficient incentive to endure the results of decades of lies and contempt for the profession, embodied by such people as Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata.
embody
ɪmˈbɒdi,ɛmˈbɒdi/Submit
verb
past tense: embodied; past participle: embodied
1.
be an expression of or give a tangible or visible form to (an idea, quality, or feeling).
…
synonyms: personify, incorporate, give human form/shape to, realize, manifest, express, concretize, symbolize, represent, epitomize, stand for, encapsulate, typify, exemplify…
I shouldn’t feel contempt for people who turn education into a political football for money? Would you prefer a more “get tough on crime” manifestation of implacable cold rage?
Come on, you’ve ignored and vilified teachers unions. Who else do you think is going to school your sorry excuse for an education philosophy?
Dodgy criminal property developers.
This country needs regulations.
Cowboys are running amok.
Killing trees.
Polluting waterways.
Treating people like vermin.
This one got jail.
It’s the mindset around the development community that a consent, and any conditions attached to that consent, are just the basis for further negotiation as the project goes forward. So the developer just does what they want and expects to sort it out retrospectively.
It’s pretty much industry practice here, and you’re looked on as some sort of weirdo when you don’t “play the game”
I’m not sure that is correct. The consent and conditions that are part of it are the basis of the approval.
Without meeting the consent conditions 223’s and 224’s will not be issued.
Start doing things that impact wetland etc and you can get in a whole lot of trouble and it takes a lot of time and money that developers just do not have to waste.
Pretty rare when there’s not some “negotiation” around the granting of compliance.
There’s quite a difference between pushing it to the limit, and playing by the rules.
It’s also how a lot of the professional occupations make their money. Advise on how much the limits can be pushed, and then write out the invoice to sort it out when it turns to shit.
Easier, yes, but not as profitable. And as Graeme mentions there is a whole industry that is set up to challenge the rules and get concessions or exceptions.
Lack of consistent enforcement makes this a small gamble worth playing for larger profits if that is your priority.
When 99.9% of resource consents are approved at environment court, – why wouldn’t you be as greedy as possible? The NZ system is set up to reward greed of natural resources to anybody who wants to, from big and small corporations to big and small consents. If the rules on height for example is 15m then the developer will put in for 20m knowing if worst comes to worst it will come down to 15m and use that as a bargaining point on all the other issues that they also try to get more than, but in all likely hood they will get what they want as very expensive to challenge it in court. Meanwhile our country is turning into a deregulated toilet with that attitude.
Our planning seems to be stuck in the dark ages, and our enforcement is weak. Add to this, justifiable complaints about slow processes and costs and the public consensus to reduce redtape means that positive long-term change is unlikely.
One of the problems with leaky home cost recovery was the number of Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today
New Zealand is failing its citizens.
In a basic human need.
Mild reform won’t solve the problem.
The total dismantling of the national economic system is needed.
Grubby deals.
The exploitation of human need.
Greed and real estate agencies.
New Zealand.
Where there are no rules to protect the vulnerable from sharks.
Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.
Well said Ed (6). Agree with your sentiments in your post.
One more thing …
you say – “Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.” Absolutely he should!
Be a good idea to also have John Key next to Douglas on the stand in court for his treachery as well … almost nine years of it! Two dirty devious knights of the realm (one also being a slimy groping hair fiddling pervert), standing side by side in the dock being tried for treason against the people of Aotearoa, for which a guilty verdict can be the only just and rational outcome! That would be absolute justice for those who have suffered immensely as the result of the ruthless inhumane policies of these two arse wipes!
Are we again having to watch the usual couples dancing the Tango here on TS over this long and very hot weekend or may we enjoy a weekend off for a change? We could name it Dancing With The Trolls although it is not always very clear who’s leading whom here 😉
Interestingly, it seems the thumbs up gesture for Roman amphitheatres meant kill the gladiator. The gesture meaning the opposite was a thumb wrapped around the fist. Of course, it has changed since Roman times; however, Commodus would have given the thumbs up for death.
Historical accuracy would have been totally confusing. We must never let historical research get in the road of a good storyline, eh?
Corin Dann has stepped down as political editor at TV One and will be taking on a full time role on Q+A. So, eyes open for who will be the new political editor…
To get people talking? What sort of arrogance is that?
Have we all been wandering around grunting like Neanderthals and need a shiny thing in our sky to gaze at to boot our cerebral cortex into action?
Besides
” The satellite could only be seen at dawn or dusk and was yet to be spotted, he said.”
Damn
Beloved by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the US aerospace industry and with a bog standard arms industry employment caveat courtesy of the US State Department, what’s not to love about RocketLab.
/
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Parallels? They fucken own shit loads of New Zealand, about 40% of the NZX is owned by banks, about 30% hedge funds and the rest pensions funds and professional traders. So people all earning above $250k of unearned capital gains. If only Garreth Morgan had of zipped it for like a couple mimits at the end of every interview we might have reformed all this.
Sorry for the lengthy and divided up response.., but there are character limits to my personality and this has to be explained to people to help them understand the difference between real trade ideas & real risk versus valueless noise. It cant be explained properly in a few words / sentences.
There are no overall shareholder brake down of the NZX that I’m aware of available to the public (for free) but I can give you some quick indicators. Mind you this won’t help you trade at all they’re just quick terminology that may help you to spot a few charlatans on your travels.
– a retail trader trades in accounts less than $500k
– Above retail traders are professional traders with institutional knowledge and institutional money (bank money, the top guys trade in about $400mln accounts with no less than 3 to a trading desk. With this kind of action you can literally print money in foreign currency)
JP Morgan lost $143mln to one client in Equities trading last quarter. Same guy who runs JP Morgan (Jamie Dimon) apparently “did a U-turn” on Bitcoin $BTC last week. So please understand that reporting an accurate number of who owns what of the NZX is next to impossible. So I’ll use Sky City Groups 2016 earnings report as a measuring stick. On page 76 it lists there top 20 share holders totalling $465,288,322 or 70.82% of the company as follows-
1. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
2. JP Morgan Nominees Australia Limited
3. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited A/C State Street – NZCSD
4. Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
5. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA NZ Branch-Segregated Clients Acct – NZCSD
6. HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited
7. National Nominees New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
8. National Nominees Limited
9. RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited
10. Accident Compensation Corporation – NZCSD
11. BNP Paribas Noms Pty Limited
12. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
13. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
14. ANZ Custodial Services New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
15. UBS Nominees Pty Limited
16. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
17. HSBC Nominees A/C NZ Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited – NZCSD
18. ANZ Wholesale Australasian Share Fund – NZCSD
19. FNZ Custodians Limited
20. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD https://www.skycityentertainmentgroup.com/media/1440/2016-skycity-entertainment-group-annual-report.pdf
And this is typical, if you go through earnings report of publicly listed companies on the NZX, retail brokerage accounts make up a fraction or less than 70% of the NZX.
This is like broker’s signals; Broker:”I’m cautiously optimistic” Translate :
If it goes up i will say ” i told you so.” / If it goes down i will say “i did say i was cautious”
We spent this morning cleaning out our sleds to be ready to fly out to Union Glacier tomorrow morning (depending on weather). Then we skied over to the Ceremonial South Pole (probably the Pole that everyone knows as the only South Pole – the barbers Pole with the flags) and the actual Geographic South Pole (which moves around 10m each year), which is marked separately. In the afternoon we were given a tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is seriously as close to what a Base on another planet would be like than anything else on the planet – a mini-town based around the scientific work of the National Science Foundation. Tonight (it never gets dark this time of year) I skied back to the Pole again… to take this photo for all those men who commented “Make me a sandwich” on my TEDX Talk. I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx#bravenotperfect #expandpossible #climatechange #jadesquest #thepolarhatrick #northpole #greenland #southpole #makemeasandwich #nationalgeographic #nationalgeographicapp @natgeo @natgeoau @australiangeographic
We are in Auckland helping my daughter for a couple of days she was so happy. All the mokos are keeping us busy. The sandflys here drove the same type of vehicle that that Rotorua lot drive but they act differently they still try and USE the same dumb ass tactics intimidation and following me around at least they are to busy following me to bother other people Ana to kai
“People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne
Activist Gary Foley tells a crowd of up to 60,000 that ‘if we keep mobilising these numbers, governments cannot ignore us’”
Trump’s tax cuts may be the spark that sets the reindeer dey forest alight.
Debt levels at records heights.
Many experts warning we are at edge of a precipice.
Weird weather, the Herald says.
Rachel Stewart asks if we’re worried yet……
“Not only was 2017 the hottest ocean year on record, the heat gain from the previous hottest ocean year (2015) was quite considerable. In all 15,100,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of heat energy were added by the world ocean from 2015 to 2017. By comparison, 4,184,000,000 Joules were produced by the Hiroshima bomb. The world ocean is now taking in a similar amount of heat every 3-5 seconds.”
We have set our daughter and new Moko granddaughter on a smove course up there lifes ladder. Just a little bit of help at the right time is enough to help her karma. We teach Our children to treat every one with respect. We also teach them that they can only trust a few people in one’s life. I can see the sandflys have been spinning there lies again its so easy to see that effect. I know the people that are helping spread those lies are contracted liers. The contracted liers try to play me to but no ECO Maori checks these idiots to.
Ana to kai
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
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 ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
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If you want to get youth interested first it must be established that mentors have implemented professional strategy and made money out of it. Why else would any one listen to any one trying to sell chemical sterilisation when they don’t even use the product themselves.
You know? It’s just this moral vs economic argument always comes up and charlatan educators confuse the too.
[picking the first comment upthread that looks most like the derail. Shifting the whole subthread because below it gets abusive. Sam, you got pretty free rein in that thread, but a warning, don’t derail and don’t get abusive on Guest Posts and Cross posts. That space was for the author and women in particular to discuss the issues she raised. I don’t want to have to start writing long explanatory comments under posts about where the moderation limits are, it’s easier for me to just moderate the odd commenter instead. I’d suggest dialing back the abuse across the whole site, because your name is starting to pop up too many times for this moderator’s attention. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Dunno about “don’t even use the product themselves”. I’d leap at it if it were reversible – vasectomies can be, but with a pretty crude success rate.
It’s not really about “getting the youth interested”, although the full informed consent thing goes for it. If you plug it to 11 year olds, they’ll do it because they’re not as stupid as teenage boys. And it’s also before 99.5% of them will be in a position to get someone knocked up.
In all interactions there is a need for a trusted broker. Some one who is not from either world but understands both. These people are very rear and hard to find and they usually cost a fortune. These people are not firmly the product of one system or another, these people have unique insights of finance, economics, politics, news and culture and what it all means.
Good people think everything is like a movie that they can freeze development every time they become intensely involved. It does not work liked that. If good people want to substantially effect the strategic evolution of justice for woman good people can not come and go.
I think you’re overthinking it.
It’s hard to tell if your joking or not about sterilising 11 yr olds… I mean that’s just fucking amazing… Some one get McFlock Obamas Nobel peace prize…
Can you imagine the group think on the other side of a two way mirror observing minors as they interact after being sterilised… Ending with congratulations doctor. You’ve done it, you will now be validated. Any one who thinks mutalating the body is a good idea needs to try it first before selling it to others.
Not talking permanent sterilization. An easily and reliably-reversible male contraceptive with fewer side effects than a vasectomy would save a lot of accidental pregnancies.
Yes, like with HPV vax there’ll be some parents who reckon their little prince should not be exposed to the possibility of ever having sex, or seem to believe that it’s impossible to discuss the issue with a child without playing internet porn. Ironically half the time it seems that those are the parents whose kids end up making bad mistakes, but that’s just my anecdata.
Kids around ten are actually pretty smart.
It’s teenagers who tend to be fucking morons.
Oh. “mutalating”. Yes, a 15y.o. considering an abortion or the alternatives is a much better option. 🙄
ok now I’m just going to say that McFlock does not have a medical license and if you did it should be withdrawn immediately. Seeking medical advice from anonymous avatars on the Internet is a terrible fucking idea because they have zero clue about local resources, were to go or what to do.
I mean this is why us lefties are called fucking loonies. It’s like some how you think you’re different from gooie talking about ACT party abortion policy, if you post it ironically or as a joke…
🙄
really lucky that I’m not offering medical advice then, innit?
Oh, and last I heard none of the reversible male contraceptives in development were available in NZ or even in human testing phase, let alone for nation-wide roll-out.
They are just promising technologies that could help cut our unplanned pregnancy rate. Especially amongst teens, where pregnancy is often related to a number of hazardous behaviours such as maternal smoking and alcohol use.
And I’m not the weirdo talking about conversations behind a two-way mirror in the sexual health clinic.
Removing diseases and disorders can only be a good thing. However I’m going to say that you’re likely really far off from reality and manipulating biology in such a manner to become much better as a species. At least without becoming something like The Master from Fallout.
On the other hand I have some inclination to witness some mad SCIENCE to see if creating a being like the Master would even be possible.
More seriously outside of curing disorders and defects I lean towards the cybernetic side of things for human improvement.
Again, I get the impression you think this is a big eugenics proposal.
It’s not.
Regardless of harm to the child, the hazardous behavious associated with teen pregnancy simply indicate that the pregnancy itself is related to another risky behaviour (unprotected sex) rather than being a planned pregnancy. I did see a stat once that this does not correlate so much in cultures where women traditionally get pregnant young and have wider community support as it does where women traditionally wait until monogamous marriage,etc.
To put it bluntly, the more teenage pregnancy is contrary to traditional values of that culture, the higher the percentage of teenage mother smoke, for example.
And then as the mothers are older when they have their babies, the fewer of them smoke and actually the smoking rate drops significantly below the smoking rate of their peers.
So for a lot of teens, having a child is another outcome of their phase of risky behaviour. If, without side effects and completely reversibly, we can limit that to the clap rather than 18 years of child rearing then why not offer it to the kids and their parents to discuss before they enter almost the riskiest time of their lives?
Wha??? There isn’t anything wrong with having children. It’s just society not likening it.
yeah, because nobody has had the course of their lives massively altered by an unplanned pregnancy (that might have been prevented if the soon-to-disappear guy had had access to non-invasive, long acting and reliable contraception). /sarc. Lots of /sarc
Oh McFlock. McFlock, McFlock………. McFlock…….Mc Mc……….just like, wow buddy……
If we want the state to be a force for good then we must recognise that the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation. What the state does do they must do well. State housing is one area that must do well. Instead of designer baby policies. Provisions could be made to supply single mothers with below cost housing ownership programmes so property minus land value on the provision that the house not be sold with in the first 5 years, or something, so that the mother has chips on the board… These are the things we ought to focus on.
Oh come on – “designer babies”.
It’s got nothing to do with that.
It’s about pregnancy being a positive choice rather than a regretted accident. For both parties.
Of course mothers should be supported to the full extent of the welfare state, but even with that people do end up suspending courses of study or work they really wanted to do in order to raise a kid on a shitty income. Do they regret it? Not for a second. The kids I know are loved intensely. But was it done the wrong way around, and would they prefer to have been able to sever all contact with a dropkick jerk and just have a kid with someone they love? In some cases, yes.
What we ought to focus on is all of the above. Stopping teenagers from doing stupid things is always a challenge, and they and their parents should have the tools to at least limit the consequences.
And as for “the state is not a vehicle for science and innovation”… please tell us more about that, using html documents transmitted over a UFB computer network…
You can not convince the uneducated to come off the play ground and fight for reproductive justice some where else. It’s economics really. The greater the sacrifice the more they will want in return.
Let’s say we implemented your strategy if you want to call it that. So the 11 year old takes the inert for a limited time drug on the provision that life will be a little bit better for the species. So we will all live happily ever after. The end.
With all Parametres predetermined you could come up with a convincing model that does exactly what you set out to do in a really fancy science lab. But out side the lad decisions have to be made between life and death that is something no child should have to contemplate.
They don’t take it “for the species”.
Any more than they wear condoms “for the species”.
They talk it over with their parents and maybe a doctor, and see if it’s for them. If they come up with an alternative reason why they won’t accidentally knock up a classmate and spend their period of lowest income having child support deducted, then they don’t bother with it.
But if they have access to a contraceptive that doesn’t require them to carry it in a pocket for a couple of years and hope it’s in good condition when they finally have a reason to use it, they should certainly have the option and everyone should certainly be aware it’s available before they need it. Which means (like HPV vax) before they start shagging each other.
And you know what? People are already fighting for sex education. Kids are still shagging, but less of them are having babies. When a long-acting male contraceptive finally happens, it’ll just be another column in a sex ed flipchart, and they’ll know where to go for more information on it.
You lead me to believe that you were a literary genius of some kind, that all the good writers, what ever that meant exited The Daily Blog for the standard. But the more I read into your mind, the less impressed I am.
But you should be congratulated for your work towards the moron of the century award.
Sex is not taboo. In a population of 5mln you’ll get people acting outside acceptable social norms no mater what any one says.
What I’m actually trying to say is you’re wasting people’s time and money and effort inventing artificial edifices tacted onto the education system because there’s stuff that teachers can’t do for some reason.
If you ask teachers would they like more resources they say ok yeah. Just to help students navigate the landscape better, hardly ever do they come back with a oh we need more varied chemical restrains. That’s just insane. And putting all this over to the private sector is an order of magnitude more insane.
and if you ask the same teachers whether they’ve stopped every kid they taught from ever making a foolish impulsive decision, not one would say yes.
But obviously you have some weird agenda such that every mention of contraception is “designer baby” or “chemical restraint” territory.
Every few days I end up sidelining a few groceries towards a mate whose steady boyfriend ran out of condoms and she didn’t know the pill she was on had lost its effectiveness (I didn’t even know that was a thing). She’s already in a state house, but the little money she has goes on the kid. She skips meals. Hence the groceries. Even without that to worry about, she felt she had to sideline study and professional development until this year. Fucko McDreamy left town three months before the birth.
So yeah, accidental pregnancies are fucking disruptive to people’s lives. If Fucko had had an opportunity to make the choice when he wasn’t horny as fuck and probably a bit drunk, my mate would probably be in a decent job by now and have found someone who wasn’t a jerk, with whom she might plan a family.
We can not hold every ones hands through life. There are only so many adjustments that can be made to the economy. What can be done is give woman access to resources and funds via public programmes like housing. So that when asset prices improve over time, so to does the prospects of woman improve over time. This is a problem all capitalist democracies face and we are still puzzled about how to combine idle hands with idle resources. This meme that says woman make for poor investments must die a horrible death.
On average for every dollar invested in woman’s business globally you get slightly more than a dollar returns. For male dominated industry you’ll be lucky to get 20 cents back. Like seriously. Industry profit is down 80% right across the globe since 2008. I mean did y’all forget or something. It’s actually not a complicated argument.
Personally I think the Coalition has a set of policies and ministers that will keep the kiwi dollar low and improve the prospects of domestic asset prices. These are the things that instruct how to invest time and money. And if it so happens that some drug company makes a brake through in inert for a limited time drugs and gets a license to sell it in New Zealand then it might be worth putting a bob on either way…
what has any of that got to do with giving teens another contraceptive choice?
I honestly regret having entertained your drug marketing delusions.
I still can’t figure out why you want to maintain the rate of unwanted pregnancy.
Are you pussy whipped? Looking to the future for chemical silver bullets could be the ruin of woman today. Not there salvation. Maybe you should have a shower and blow off some steam or something.
I really hope “have a shower” isn’t the sum total of the contraceptive advice you believe should be given to teens.
Ya da, ya da, ya da, ya da………
You know. You’re just wasting my time with your irrelevance. If male contraceptives was a thing it would be here already. If it was patented and some one picked it up with an investment model in New Zealand I’d probably put some money in myself because we have some PR merchants piming limited for a time sterilisation.
I mean you mind is about 5 years way to early if any of this even materialises in reality. In the mean time how ever.
Look. He choices for woman are not the same for men. If you give boys a wonder drug that takes away some of the responsibility it will for ever change the genetic make up of the human race and that I think you are naively. Your just wasting time now with me checking in on this conversation so fuck off time waster.
Well if you think the discussion is five years too early, why the hell didn’t you say that when I was quite clear about what stage they were at in development? It would have saved a lot of time.
As for your fears about changing the genetic profile of humanity, don’t worry about that because there will still be more than enough total morons like you around to make up the difference.
World’s first electric container barges to sail from European ports this summer
Dubbed the ‘Tesla of the canals’, the unmanned vessels will operate on Dutch and Belgian waterways, vastly reducing diesel vehicles and emissions
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/24/worlds-first-electric-container-barges-to-sail-from-european-ports-this-summer?CMP=fb_gu
6.7% of freight in the EU currently going by inland waterway isn’t a nothing. And existing barges can be retro-fitted. Also a good thing.
But with sea-level rise being slated to be somewhere in the 3m to 6m range this century by some leading researchers… well, there goes a fair amount of any country’s canal network.
It should be done regardless. Abandoning infrastructure and writing off investments is going to be the order of the day anyway. And doing stuff now on a grand enough scale, even if it won’t survive in the medium term, is going to reduce the impacts we’ll be dealing with…assuming no tipping points triggered in the meantime.
Using batteries made from precious metals mined from placed with very poor environmental records….
Huh would you look at that, something we both agree on…
Brexit: Britons favour second referendum by 16-point margin – poll
Guardian/ICM survey finds rising interest in vote on final deal as concerns mount over EU talks
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jan/26/britons-favour-second-referendum-brexit-icm-poll
The only poll that counted was the referendum.
It’s brexit baby.
Would you be calling for a new election if the polls showed the right polling higher than the government?
Yeah, but it’s not a done deal until parliament says it is.
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-brexit-endgame-in-five
Indeed. But you would *hope* any government would honour the results of a referendum (obv I support binding referendums here as well).
I wouldn’t hope that. We elect representative governments in western democracies, not functionaries who report back to us for instructions every time a decision needs to made. Referenda in NZ have been good ways of appealing to prejudice or forcing people to make an assumption about what some ambiguously-worded question actually means, but not much use otherwise.
And in the case of Brexit, they’re making drastic changes to British society based on a 51/49 result following an ad campaign that featured huge funding by Tory interests on behalf of the ‘leave’ faction. Any sensible representative government would put it Parliament and accept the results.
So we need to ask better questions. To find a way to make sure leading and suggestive question aren’t asked.
It doesn’t mean that we stop trying to become a better democracy.
Ok draco, the question is well worded etc, what’s to stop a wealthy lobby group (taxpayers union for example) running a welll timed dis-information campaign and getting or denying the result they wish.
Gotta say I am not a fan of binding referenda.
Well, they run such a campaign before we voted for MMP and then they ran another one when National tried to change to SM.
Didn’t work either of those times.
Are mistakes going to be made?
Yep but people learn from mistakes. Our present system allows people not to learn from the mistakes made. Allows them to blame others for the outcomes rather than owning them and learning from them.
Whinging that it’s just too hard doesn’t make us or our society better.
We’re the 2 referenda you referred to, binding?
Before we get into binding ‘i reckons’ we need to:
raise levels of participation,
have media ownership diversified,
lobbyists banished or at least adhere to a register
and generally raise awareness of the system and individuals ‘responsibilities’
PM
In the case of EU membership, there is a precedent (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_European_Communities_membership_referendum,_1975). Under those circumstances, the referendum was entirely appropriate.
The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit referendum. The idiot Cameron put it up as a way to shut up the alt right faction thinking that sanity would prevail and the nonsense of Britain leaving the EU would be self evident. He mis-understood the lies and deceit that would be spread by the alt right, UKIP, and the leave campaign, and the stupidity of the old and decrepit who live in the golden years of the past British Empire (These Daily Mail readers still make up the majority of Brexiters).
Just one example of the damage that has been wrought on Britain since this manic decision
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/21/almost-10000-eu-health-workers-have-quit-the-nhs-since-brexit-vote
London is already suffering as thousands of financial services jobs are axed and business transfers to the EU.
Manufacturing jobs are also under threat particularly AIrbus
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/21/airbus-boss-says-brexit-risks-losing-uk-aviations-crown-jewels-to-china
And that is only the fate of those in the UK – the status of British nationals in the EU is also uncertain. It’s an absolute pot mess – and the only way to undo it is to cancel it.
“The majority of voters in the UK had no idea what they were voting for in the Brexit ”
Do you believe that to be all voters – or just the voters who didn’t vote for the result you wanted ?
I’d say literally the majority. Thing is, “stick with the status quo” is the sensible option if you have no idea what voting for change would bring, so it’s the leave voters who are the assholes here.
Would you vote for the status quo if you were becoming worse off because of it and it had been doing so for decades?
Or would you vote for any sort of change that may make things better for you?
Having spoken to a number of UK residents over the past year – people who were engaged in politics in the UK at a variety of different levels and from what I have read over the past year in the media (apart from the Daily Mail and The Telegraph) the constant refrain has been just that. Voters simply did not understand what it was they were voting on – the old and senile thought they were voting for things to go back to the glory days of the British Empire – and that is what they still fondly believe – but such a notion is nonsense. English law is now firmly aliened with EU, and has to be for such open borders as now exist. Furthermore the falsehood of 350 Million Pounds per week flowing into the NHS was just blatant nonsense, but fooled millions of voters.
Is that because Airbus would prefer fellow EU member China????
No. if you read the article linked to, it it is because suddenly there will be a financial wall (tariff barrier), access for workers from the EU to and from the UK will be restricted, there is still no concept of how trade will continue between the EU and the UK, and a raft of other problems make the continuation of an EU wide manufacturing process – part of which is in Wales – impossible.
The point of another vote on brexit being that they vote on what is really going to happen. Before many of the ‘pluses’ were bogus and also not enough Britain’s took it seriously enough to vote in the first referendum.
Something I agree with you about!
1/5 of Auckland schools lacking teachers.
House prices.
Expensive rentals.
Rapid immigration .
Declining numbers of teacher trainees.
Crisis.
Neoliberalism.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11981812
Teachers are also very undervalued in NZ especially compared to other countries like Finland where it is considered a top profession and you normally need a masters, and it’s a hard course to enter.
In NZ teachers have been denigrated for 30 years, their union has been weakened and it’s no wonder that less people who would be fantastic teachers, are not joining or staying in the profession.
NZ has never valued local skills, instead under neoliberalism have created policy to sell and semi privatise education by stealth and then just bring in overseas teachers, doctors, nurses, fruit pickers, cleaners, fisherman – you name it – anything to pander to their globalist ideology and drive local wages and conditions down. Apparently it is to compete with Asia.
When locals don’t have access to jobs, starting with part time work when they are studying which has dried up with the amount of work permits being given out, then it becomes harder and harder to actually learn the structure of work, getting up, punctuality etc.
Now we are getting generations who will struggle to work because they don’t have the skills to do it and it’s harder to start out when you are older to learn basic skills.
Then you get the catch 22, more people with immigration to provide the work the ‘hopeless’ ‘overpaid’ locals are not deemed fit for by employers and government, more competition for jobs and houses and more strains on schools and health care and social services needed for the increased population as well as more strains on natural resources and the strains on people’s mental wellbeing as more and more people have to compete for basics like accomodation, minimal waged jobs etc.
In Finland
Education is valued.
Children are valued.
Teachers are valued.
In New Zealand
we know the price of everything
and the value of nothing.
Perhaps you are speaking for yourself.
I understand the value of education, which is why we put our kids thru private school.
Now two own businesses and the third is working thru uni (with a pet time job not running up a huge student loan).
We also always read to kids every night when they were small – have them a love of books and patented them that they had to do all homework / study before “the fun stuff”.
There are a lot of parents who value education out there.
Of course there are a lot of lousy parents also that let their own kids down.
Which part of the country are you in that you felt the need to put your children through private schools ?
I never said I needed too. I wanted too.
Its Auckland – Kristin school. We just liked it.
OK sorry I misunderstood, i thought you were suggesting that the private schools offered a better education experience than public schools.
Auckland’s North Shore is certainly very well served by many very good schools public, integrated and private.
” I wanted too.”
Do you understand how lucky you are that you could afford to?
Would the widowed mother on $18.00 an hour, working at paknsav have been able to?
You do shop at paknsav don’t you? It is the cheapest groceries outlet and we all must not be profligate if we want to get ahead.
Private or Public? I went to both when I was a kid. All my children have gone to Public schools…and you know what makes the biggest difference to an education? The teachers…if you are lucky enough to have a good teacher/s it makes no difference if you go Private of Public.
I agree that teachers are vastly important to a good education, I’d also add that a well run school that staff and students can flourish and feel safe in and the involvement and encouragement of parents in the students education will also reap huge benefits.
“Do you understand how lucky you are that you could afford to?”
You do understand that its not all ‘Luck’ dont you. There has been a lot of hard work and sacrifice to be able to do this.
Its the old saying – “the harder I work – the luckier I get”
If you want to talk about odds I think I know a thing or 2 about that.
“the harder I work – the luckier I get”
😆
People who get lucky suffer from attribution errors. Thanks for providing yet another example.
There are many many cleaners, nurses, and other people in underpaid jobs who are very hardworking
I’m sure there are.
They don’t play enough golf 😉
Or go to the right schools
I’m sure there are, too, James.
After a career in teaching, I spent four years as a cleaner and gardener. All the people I worked with, and for, were hard-working. There were no shirkers. And cleaning was hard work. One of the owners, a man of retirement age, said that he couldn’t do that job for eight hours. He didn’t have the energy. He was right. Hard work.
Our bosses knew. We knew. But some of the owners of the houses we cleaned. You could tell there who the slovenly, ill-educated and artistically impoverished were.
I could retire. My wife, a teacher as well, did the same. At seventy, she retired as a cleaner for the same firm.
Most of our colleagues could not retire but had to keep on working for just above minimum pay. The bosses couldn’t really pay more. Large firms from out of town undercut their contracts.
Cleaning is an honourable occupation, necessary and invaluable. Cleaners return x15 their wages as value to society. Just consider the worth of hospital cleaners. When I go into hospital, as an experienced cleaner, I look at the roof and walls, the floor and and the plumbing. Always clean, always reassuringly safe and hygienic.
Yes , James, you can be sure there are hard-working cleaners. Be aware. Observe. Be thankful there are, for the money and social recognition they, we, get.
James has a barbecue
James has a boat
James sent his kids to private school
James is 48.
James is rich.
And ‘James ‘ is not real.
that doesn’t even rhyme.
Poetry doesn’t have to rhyme!
Dylan Thomas, the Welsh poet, described poetry as “The best things said in the best way.”
Ed.
Ed does not barbecue but likes Brussel sprouts.
Ed does not have a boat but he hates people donating to Alzheimer’s or heart kids.
Ed would not appear to be rich bit is certainly envious of those with more than him.
Ed is ageless.
I hope Ed is not real because it depresses me that there are people so bitter.
Didn’t rhyme either and is just as pointless.
I’ve taught in a number of schools around the country – Private, State, and Independent. I even had the misfortune of spending 3 years teaching at Kristin. I have to say it was the worst school in 28 years in the classroom I ever experienced.
The year I left there was a staff turn-over of 28%. The dissatisfaction of staff and the poor staff morale was tangible. I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the place – but your comment above forced me.
It’s all image and show – Progress with vision, integrity, and love. Bullshit!
Hold on a sec…
If you put your kids through private school, and now they’re old enough to own businesses, and the other works part time to fund uni…
So your offspring are into their 20’s as a minimum, which would have you in 40’s at best, or more likely the 50’s or beyond…
When you put the boot into ‘lousy parents’, that signals your own ‘parenting efforts’ are as ‘lousy’ as those you took the time to denegrate…
That is the height of hypocrisy…and indicates a stunted, arrested personal growth journey of a middle aged ‘man’…
Unless of course, it’s fairy tales…
Then you’ve been caught short…again…
I’m 48.
“‘lousy parents’, that signals your own ‘parenting efforts’ are as ‘lousy’ as those you took the time to denegrate”
I do not agree with that.
There are plenty of parents who are indeed lousy. Stating that as fact does not make me a bad or lousy parent.
Of course you wouldn’t agree with it, James…
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…that’s not your level…which again…indicates a severely stunted personal growth curve… of a ‘middle aged man’…who makes up stories on an anonymous blog site…
48 year old ‘man’….
You don’t understand what I’ve alluded to…
I can’t see how he possibly could. As usual, your comments make the Oracle of Delphi appear plain-speaking.
One Two finds it more important to try a ‘gotcha’ or to simply make statements that they have zero knowledge of than to make sense or seem rational.
‘Gotchas’ are courtesy of the plethora of contradicting yet ‘informative’ comments made under the handle, James….
Silver platter stuff…
Macro made a comment regarding having been a teacher at ‘Kristin’…you’ve read it, but not replied…silver platter…
Macro, perhaps unwittingly, exposed another of your fairy tales..
48 years old, agitating and commenting on a sub par level about the importance of education….
My oh my…yes
There was nothing I felt comfortable to reply to Marco – he / she didn’t like teaching there. I don’t know what years it was – but our experience as parents differed.
Big deal.
One Two I went to Kristen School for a year as a pupil. It was a while back but found the school very good at helping me to catch up in certain areas of my schooling.
No idea what it is like now in 2018…but know of other parents who sent their kids to Kristen over the last 4 to 5 years and they seemed ok with the education they received (all be it expensive).
So what is the “Gotchas” in regards to james comment?
James, when I saw “I understand the value of education” I thought I was going to read that that was why your children had become teachers.
When you suggested that your kids have been successful I see it wasn’t in teaching.
I wonder how many parents of kids who go to Kristin encourage their kids to go teaching? There’s another vital service, a work place not far from Kristin which the parents are keen to see succeed and whose importance they likely comment on a lot. I wonder how many Kristin parents encourage their kids to work there. Paremoremo Prison.
Like most others – I encourage my kids to do what they enjoy and want to do.
If they wanted to be teachers – cool. They just didn’t.
James’s online persona is a total fabrication.
He is a sad lonely middle aged man who spends his days on a website whose values he is at odds with.
That’s nice dear.
This your new meme for this week huh ed.
@ James (4.1.1.1) … Gosh I hope the private education and university level education had a better outcome on your children’s ability to spell, considering yours leaves a lot to be desired!
Another point about education which we also put great value on. We were ordinary working class parents, who sent our (now adult) children to good old state schools to be primary and secondary educated, followed by tertiary education. One child was exceptionally intelligent, while the other was average, but always displayed a good work attitude. Despite the differences in this regard, they have both done exceedingly well for themselves in their chosen careers, working in the health and justice professions respectively.
My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.
Private schools have no place in a civilised socialist state.
We do not need ghettos.
Equality was one of the 3 demands of the French Revolution.
Ed @ (4.1.1.1.3.1) … Well put.
Liberté égalité fraternité is the motto of the French revolution meaning freedom, equality and fraternity, something which has been sorely absent in the social structure of Aotearoa for the past 30 years.
Liberty, egality and fraternity is the structure base of a civilised, fair and decent social system, which respects its citizens for their individual value above all else, regardless of status.
Judging by the tone of Jacinda’s statements during and after the election, I’m positive the coalition government intends to address the vicious and inhumane social failing afflicting our country, during its term of office.
Actually Ed private schools do have a place – although not as elitist “academies”. But they can cater for special needs and act as a vehicle for innovative ideas where a state school is more ham strung by regulation. All children have different needs and a one format fits all approach is not necessarily the best way to educate. Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school. I have already intimated above that I have taught in a variety of different schools Military, State, Private, Home school, and Independent. The worst and best were private, with State schools running a close second best and second worst.
The real difference was in the ethos of each school – was it committed to Education – or was it solely interested in academic achievement. There is a big difference. If academic achievement is the be all, and end all of the school, then education, as such, goes out the window. In a private school (and to some extent state schools) I found that that ethos was driven as much by the parents, as it was by anyone else. Now it is nice that Jane or Johnnie will end up with a nice certificate to say that they successful regurgitated the necessary rhubarb on a series of assessments, but it is not education. The instruction may be brilliant, but there is no guarantee that the mind has been engaged. To engage the mind actually risks questioning the perceived ‘knowledge’.
As an example, in a class we were considering the concept of area – just what did they think area was and how could we measure it – these were “vege math” students at what was then 6th form – just passed school cert but not considered bright enough to gain UE in math. There were a number of suggestions – place a piece of string around it (confusing perimeter with area) etc. But the one that really blew us away was – weigh it. Now that would seem to be nonsense – but actually it proved to be the most accurate! Take a leaf. How do you measure its area? Photocopy it, cut around the image and weigh the resulting piece of paper. Knowing the density of the paper you can calculate the area.
Now there will never be an exam, or test, that will assess this sort of thinking – but this is real education where the engagement of mind has lead to the solution of a problem.
I think you need to explain why special needs cannot be catered for in a public system, considering that “one format fits all” is the opposite of the Finnish approach that our teachers and teachers’ unions have been promoting for years.
The goal of National Party education policy is not to educate, nor even to graduate, but to smash the teachers’ unions so that the sector can be privatised.
Pedagogy needs to be responsive to the needs of the student and in some ways that is best achieved in a non state school
Hardly surprising when (underfunded) state schools have had a ‘one format fits all’ approach forced on them by right wing greed.
In some ways, the only thing unique about Finnish schools is that the
National PartyUSA approach to education doesn’t have any influence there.I haven’t been avoiding answering this request rather I’ve been working on framing my response as helpfully as I can. I think we can agree that every child has different needs, whether they are the most or the least intelligent or emotionally developed or the least (a la D Trump) or the most physically capable or visually challenged or are socially advantaged, or what ever. Those needs are special to that child and need to be addressed before any real progress can be made on education.
Now essentially the Finnish model (which I endorse btw) does seek to address that most basic issue, but the problem is that with the present state of conventional wisdom in this country, such a system stands as much chance of implementation as a snowballs chance in hell. Just imagine the uproar from “concerned” parents if their child was not introduced to “formal” learning until age 6 or 7! Just imagine if laptops, tablets, and computers were taken out of the classrooms up to high school – and then only at senior level! Just imagine if there were no formal assessments in Junior school and only one or two final assessment at the end of High school and maybe not even then. Just imagine if mathematics and science involved drawing and the arts. And every student was involved in acting, music. and drama, and learned to knit and dance.
There are such schools available in NZ. They follow a curriculum and pedagogy developed over a 100 years ago, and the Finnish model of education has adopted many of their practices. But these schools are private. I had the privilege to teach in one of these schools for several years, and it was the most fulfilling and enriching period of my now 3 score years and 10 plus a few more. One of my pupils has just completed Auckland med school graduating top. Another who entered the class (completely unable to survive in a state school, and spent the first few weeks hiding behind the clothes stand) is now an engineer. Another is a graduate of Toi Whakaari, works as a sexual abuse councillor and facilitator for ACC in secondary schools, and regional co-convenor for the Greens, and was elected to a community board at the last local body elections. Another is a manager for a Travel firm and others are farmers, mechanics etc.
I’m not an anthroposophist but I believe Steiner got it pretty right with his system of education. Here is a comparison done by a US waldorf educator after hearing Pasi Sahlberg, director general of the Center for International Mobility and Cooperation in Finland’s Ministry of Education, speak at the Chicago Humanities Festival about why
Finland ranks first with the best school system in the world.
http://chicagowaldorf.org/uploads/files/Finland_Education-by_Carol_Triggiano.pdf – note pdf
Thanks for that Macro. It never crossed my mind that you’d be avoiding it 🙂
As a concerned parent I’m more than happy to go toe-to-toe with any of my peers giving your excellent vision a hard time.
I suspect that the best way the Left can destroy the National Party’s ambitions for education is by closing all private schools and forcing Mummy and Daddy to confront the consequences of their actions at the ballot box, or failing that, to follow Finland’s example and figure out a way to stop the National Party from attacking children.
Yeah dreams are free, and I know now’s never the right time.
Yes my spelling is not great.
I left school at 15 and I’m slightly dyslexic. And I’m also lazy.
As for the comment “My point being, regardless of whether a person is state or privately educated, as long as they are encouraged and respected for their individual abilities, they will shine in whatever they choose to do.”
Could not agree more.
Indeed, In Finland teaching is held in very high regard.
“Because the Finnish system places so much emphasis on school and teacher autonomy, there are not clearly defined career ladders. Teachers have control over their classrooms, lesson plans, and hours outside of teaching.”
http://ncee.org/what-we-do/center-on-international-education-benchmarking/top-performing-countries/finland-overview/finland-teacher-and-principal-quality/
The various NZ Teachers Unions would have kittens over the Finland model!! they need to control everything.
For example – Charter Schools.
More than 95% of teachers in Finland are unionized.
From your link:
Any chance you and the truth might recognise one another on the street?
It’s clear that Finnish teachers have a much better union to support them.
Any chance you can understand that OAB?
What’s clear is that you tried to lie about the influence of unions in Finnish education and now you’re spinning like a David Farrar-shaped dupe.
You don’t know anything about pedagogy or how professional development works in NZ either. You can keep letting David Farrar dribble down your chin, but don’t fool yourself that it has the slightest relevance to reality, or me.
There’s no chance you understand that Chuck.
OAB please point out where I “lied” about the influence of unions in Finnish education.
What I pointed out was the stark difference between how teachers can operate in Finland verse their counterparts in NZ. Which of course is made possible by the Finnish teacher’s union.
Maybe we should send you up to Finland for some personal development to take back to your school 😉
😆
I’m way ahead of you Chuck, you poor dupe. I had already searched for NZ teacher union remarks about Finnish education in anticipation that you’d try and parrot some more of the lies you swallowed like a gullible fool.
Here’s a selection:
Walked right into that didn’t you Chuck. Now stop lying and smearing your betters, you rotten filth.
PS: My school? You think I’m a teacher 😆 what a moran.
Please tone down the personal abuse.
While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.
After all, his lies have victims, and those victims are children. ‘Rotten’ and ‘filth’ are mild descriptors in the circumstances.
Anyhow, I’ll try and display my disgust and contempt using more acceptable language.
Christ OAB, you don’t expect me to read the whole thread do you.
There’s no reason why the community can’t be more self-regulating. So I have no problem with you asking any commenter to stop maligning a whole profession, providing you don’t absue someone in the process. Your problem is that you give shit to people so why should they do what you ask?
I’m only going to get involved as a moderator if I see behaviour escalating that is going to cause problems for the site. In this case, the inevitable descent into abusive comments. I listen to the people who say that stuff puts them off from being involved in conversations here. I have to admit I’m stumped by the people who don’t get that. I mean I love a good argument as much as the next man, but I also understand that how I comment has impact and repercussions and that if I don’t want this place to become a ghettoised macho clique I might want to change how I do things.
I get you are on a mission to hold RWers and others in the way of progressive politics to account. I’m just pointing out that how you do that creates problems.
As an example of your utter lack of understanding, you praise Finland because:
…but you vote for Notional Standards, which are a direct attack on teacher autonomy.
You can’t even read your own citations. You might know the individual words but the meaning goes over your head. For once in your life, stop mindlessly repeating the right wing lies you rote-learned.
The personal insults aside…I am glad you are opening your mind away from the status quo that the various teacher unions in NZ just can’t seem to let go of.
Yawn. More lies. The same lies, in fact, that were employed against the teaching profession in 2008.
Take your mind back from the sewer.
“While we’re at it, perhaps someone could ask Chuck to stop attempting to defame and smear an entire profession.”
OAB if for one minute you did not let the red haze of rage cloud your mind, you might have a chance not to miss represent what I say.
By profession, I assume you mean teachers? Teachers can only work within the framework of the day. They are restricted by a/ the Unions and b/ the Government of the day.
Good teachers are worth gold, I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level. Schools should be able to do whats best for their students, which is not a one size fits all approach.
So have a great day OAB, I don’t expect you to agree with anything I have said…that ok. A debate is good and I do take on board other peoples views that may challenge mine.
So you agree with the NZEI and PPTA then. That’s exactly what they’ve been saying.
Unfortunately you voted for Notional Standards instead, which calls your lip service into question.
But everyone knows that really, you’re motivated by nothing but hatred for the freedoms of association and expression represented by the teachers’ unions, and all your* rhetoric is simply in service to that hate.
*except it isn’t really yours, you just parrot the things you rote-learn at the sewer.
I want to see good teachers rewarded and helping struggling teachers up to their level
Rejoice and wipe your chin, Chuck: this is exactly what’s been happening for decades, as the National Party lied and lied and lied to you about it.
Why didn’t you notice it? Grossly distended amygdala? Shares in CSUSA? Blinded by hate?
Put median incomes NZ 2017, into the net. Be a plumber or electrician, you will earn twice what a teacher, (after 4/5 years) will earn. So there it is… not valued!!
I doubt higher salaries would be sufficient incentive to endure the results of decades of lies and contempt for the profession, embodied by such people as Anne Tolley and Hekia Parata.
I did not release that Tolley and Parata had been Education minister’s for the last 3 or 4 decades OAB!
You may have some valid points to make, but your contempt and hatred for anything not remotely resembling your narrative negate your message.
I shouldn’t feel contempt for people who turn education into a political football for money? Would you prefer a more “get tough on crime” manifestation of implacable cold rage?
Come on, you’ve ignored and vilified teachers unions. Who else do you think is going to school your sorry excuse for an education philosophy?
#getoutofauckland
Terrible unscrupulous property managers.
These are not rotten apples.
The problem is systematic.
Tinkering won’t do.
Radical reform needed.
And jail time.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100807243/unregulated-property-managers-hold-keys-to-tenants-fortunes
Dodgy criminal property developers.
This country needs regulations.
Cowboys are running amok.
Killing trees.
Polluting waterways.
Treating people like vermin.
This one got jail.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/100922015/controversial-auckland-property-developer-sentenced-to-jail-for-brutal-damage-to-native-trees
More should.
“The problem is systematic.
Tinkering won’t do.”
Any evidence to back that up. There are many people that are happy and have helpful professional property managers.
There are a few bad eggs in every vertical.
Whilst I agree that guy deserves jail (and more than he got).
Most property developers operate in the rules – the fall out if they do not is too large).
So why should more of them go to jail if they are not breaking laws Ed?
Jailing people you are jealous of?
Na, don’t think he’s seeing it like that.
It’s the mindset around the development community that a consent, and any conditions attached to that consent, are just the basis for further negotiation as the project goes forward. So the developer just does what they want and expects to sort it out retrospectively.
It’s pretty much industry practice here, and you’re looked on as some sort of weirdo when you don’t “play the game”
I’m not sure that is correct. The consent and conditions that are part of it are the basis of the approval.
Without meeting the consent conditions 223’s and 224’s will not be issued.
Start doing things that impact wetland etc and you can get in a whole lot of trouble and it takes a lot of time and money that developers just do not have to waste.
Easier to play by the rules.
Pretty rare when there’s not some “negotiation” around the granting of compliance.
There’s quite a difference between pushing it to the limit, and playing by the rules.
It’s also how a lot of the professional occupations make their money. Advise on how much the limits can be pushed, and then write out the invoice to sort it out when it turns to shit.
“Easier to play by the rules.”
Easier, yes, but not as profitable. And as Graeme mentions there is a whole industry that is set up to challenge the rules and get concessions or exceptions.
Lack of consistent enforcement makes this a small gamble worth playing for larger profits if that is your priority.
When 99.9% of resource consents are approved at environment court, – why wouldn’t you be as greedy as possible? The NZ system is set up to reward greed of natural resources to anybody who wants to, from big and small corporations to big and small consents. If the rules on height for example is 15m then the developer will put in for 20m knowing if worst comes to worst it will come down to 15m and use that as a bargaining point on all the other issues that they also try to get more than, but in all likely hood they will get what they want as very expensive to challenge it in court. Meanwhile our country is turning into a deregulated toilet with that attitude.
With you there savenz.
Our planning seems to be stuck in the dark ages, and our enforcement is weak. Add to this, justifiable complaints about slow processes and costs and the public consensus to reduce redtape means that positive long-term change is unlikely.
One of the problems with leaky home cost recovery was the number of Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today
” Developers who took profit and then closed companies to avoid future liability. Have seen no evidence that practice is less widespread today”
And with SLR and continuing developments on coastal sites – such practices will continue.
Can’t buy.
Can’t rent.
New Zealand is failing its citizens.
In a basic human need.
Mild reform won’t solve the problem.
The total dismantling of the national economic system is needed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100861408/cant-buy-cant-rent-trapped-in-a-system-without-a-way-forward
Grubby deals.
The exploitation of human need.
Greed and real estate agencies.
New Zealand.
Where there are no rules to protect the vulnerable from sharks.
Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/100924851/rental-squeeze-sometimes-you-have-to-sweeten-that-deal
And with the new rules labour want to bring in – the number of rentals will fall.
So it’s only going to get worse for renters.
Well said Ed (6). Agree with your sentiments in your post.
One more thing …
you say – “Roger Douglas.
Should be tried for treason.” Absolutely he should!
Be a good idea to also have John Key next to Douglas on the stand in court for his treachery as well … almost nine years of it! Two dirty devious knights of the realm (one also being a slimy groping hair fiddling pervert), standing side by side in the dock being tried for treason against the people of Aotearoa, for which a guilty verdict can be the only just and rational outcome! That would be absolute justice for those who have suffered immensely as the result of the ruthless inhumane policies of these two arse wipes!
And Prebble, Moore, Richardson, Fay, Richwhite.
Quite a sorry lot.
Crooks Ed. Don’t forget bloody Bill Birch of the Contracts Act infamy!!
Good on you Ed, telling it how it is.
Are we again having to watch the usual couples dancing the Tango here on TS over this long and very hot weekend or may we enjoy a weekend off for a change? We could name it Dancing With The Trolls although it is not always very clear who’s leading whom here 😉
ha ha. We need to appoint some judges though, right?
Yes, hadn’t thought that far; will it be Strictly Ballroom though?
Please don’t take this a suggestion that we should introduce likes & dislikes here on TS!! I can’t stand these 🙁
https://gamerbling.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/commodus.jpg
😉 (Just a wee humour)
Lol, makes sense you would choose that particular image james.
Interestingly, it seems the thumbs up gesture for Roman amphitheatres meant kill the gladiator. The gesture meaning the opposite was a thumb wrapped around the fist. Of course, it has changed since Roman times; however, Commodus would have given the thumbs up for death.
Historical accuracy would have been totally confusing. We must never let historical research get in the road of a good storyline, eh?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumb_signal
I think Lynn trailed it and decided it wasn’t worth the bother of setting it up?
(I’ve come round to like buttons, from my time on twitter. I’m agnostic about them on TS).
Edit, actually twitter just has a like, not down vote, so that might work.
In the interests of fairness maybe a judge from the right hand side, just to add balance…
Hah! And one judge from the Greens to transcend the Left & Right. You do need three judges anyway 😉
😆
Sorry chris, but he got you there.
Hee hee love it Incognito (8) 🙂 It sends the mind into overdrive at the thought!
Corin Dann has stepped down as political editor at TV One and will be taking on a full time role on Q+A. So, eyes open for who will be the new political editor…
This seems like a bit of short-sighted self-promotion and ego on the part of RocketLabs:
Astronomers enraged by huge man-made star that has ‘vandalised’ the sky
IIRC, there was talk during Bush’s time of putting advertisements in the sky, which was promptly shut down – if it was indeed serious.
This arbitrary addition – just because they can – seems arrogant.
I’ve been surprised and heartened by the amount of criticism on twitter about it.
The Herald has since posted a reply from Rocket Labs in response to the criticism.
To get people talking? What sort of arrogance is that?
Have we all been wandering around grunting like Neanderthals and need a shiny thing in our sky to gaze at to boot our cerebral cortex into action?
Besides
” The satellite could only be seen at dawn or dusk and was yet to be spotted, he said.”
Damn
Sux to be us.
Beloved by Silicon Valley venture capitalists and the US aerospace industry and with a bog standard arms industry employment caveat courtesy of the US State Department, what’s not to love about RocketLab.
/
For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States’ International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a country that is part of NATO, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations, click here.
http://www.rocketlabusa.com/careers/positions/general-applicants-auckland-new-zealand-2936214/
https://www.nbr.co.nz/rocket-man
Video on how the US democracy has been taken over by the rich. It may have some parallels here.
The question is: How does money influence who gets chosen to be our candidates?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE
Parallels? They fucken own shit loads of New Zealand, about 40% of the NZX is owned by banks, about 30% hedge funds and the rest pensions funds and professional traders. So people all earning above $250k of unearned capital gains. If only Garreth Morgan had of zipped it for like a couple mimits at the end of every interview we might have reformed all this.
Can you please post some evidence for your numbers.
I would be most interested in them, particularly the statement about Banks and Hedge Funds.
Sorry for the lengthy and divided up response.., but there are character limits to my personality and this has to be explained to people to help them understand the difference between real trade ideas & real risk versus valueless noise. It cant be explained properly in a few words / sentences.
There are no overall shareholder brake down of the NZX that I’m aware of available to the public (for free) but I can give you some quick indicators. Mind you this won’t help you trade at all they’re just quick terminology that may help you to spot a few charlatans on your travels.
– a retail trader trades in accounts less than $500k
– Above retail traders are professional traders with institutional knowledge and institutional money (bank money, the top guys trade in about $400mln accounts with no less than 3 to a trading desk. With this kind of action you can literally print money in foreign currency)
JP Morgan lost $143mln to one client in Equities trading last quarter. Same guy who runs JP Morgan (Jamie Dimon) apparently “did a U-turn” on Bitcoin $BTC last week. So please understand that reporting an accurate number of who owns what of the NZX is next to impossible. So I’ll use Sky City Groups 2016 earnings report as a measuring stick. On page 76 it lists there top 20 share holders totalling $465,288,322 or 70.82% of the company as follows-
1. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
2. JP Morgan Nominees Australia Limited
3. HSBC Nominees (New Zealand) Limited A/C State Street – NZCSD
4. Citibank Nominees (New Zealand) Limited – NZCSD
5. JP Morgan Chase Bank NA NZ Branch-Segregated Clients Acct – NZCSD
6. HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited
7. National Nominees New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
8. National Nominees Limited
9. RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited
10. Accident Compensation Corporation – NZCSD
11. BNP Paribas Noms Pty Limited
12. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
13. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
14. ANZ Custodial Services New Zealand Limited – NZCSD
15. UBS Nominees Pty Limited
16. Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited
17. HSBC Nominees A/C NZ Superannuation Fund Nominees Limited – NZCSD
18. ANZ Wholesale Australasian Share Fund – NZCSD
19. FNZ Custodians Limited
20. BNP Paribas Nominees (NZ) Limited – NZCSD
https://www.skycityentertainmentgroup.com/media/1440/2016-skycity-entertainment-group-annual-report.pdf
And this is typical, if you go through earnings report of publicly listed companies on the NZX, retail brokerage accounts make up a fraction or less than 70% of the NZX.
This is like broker’s signals; Broker:”I’m cautiously optimistic” Translate :
If it goes up i will say ” i told you so.” / If it goes down i will say “i did say i was cautious”
I suggest you google what a nominee is.
Worth a whole article this.
Burn!
Jade Hameister
13 January at 01:45 ·
We spent this morning cleaning out our sleds to be ready to fly out to Union Glacier tomorrow morning (depending on weather). Then we skied over to the Ceremonial South Pole (probably the Pole that everyone knows as the only South Pole – the barbers Pole with the flags) and the actual Geographic South Pole (which moves around 10m each year), which is marked separately. In the afternoon we were given a tour of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It is seriously as close to what a Base on another planet would be like than anything else on the planet – a mini-town based around the scientific work of the National Science Foundation. Tonight (it never gets dark this time of year) I skied back to the Pole again… to take this photo for all those men who commented “Make me a sandwich” on my TEDX Talk. I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx#bravenotperfect #expandpossible #climatechange #jadesquest #thepolarhatrick #northpole #greenland #southpole #makemeasandwich #nationalgeographic #nationalgeographicapp @natgeo @natgeoau @australiangeographic
https://www.facebook.com/jadehameister/photos/a.224825967879767.1073741829.207513589611005/524715937890767/?type=3
We are in Auckland helping my daughter for a couple of days she was so happy. All the mokos are keeping us busy. The sandflys here drove the same type of vehicle that that Rotorua lot drive but they act differently they still try and USE the same dumb ass tactics intimidation and following me around at least they are to busy following me to bother other people Ana to kai
Great news.
“People are starting to understand’: huge Invasion Day protest stuns Melbourne
Activist Gary Foley tells a crowd of up to 60,000 that ‘if we keep mobilising these numbers, governments cannot ignore us’”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jan/26/huge-invasion-day-protest-melbourne-australia-day
THe crash is coming.
Trump’s tax cuts may be the spark that sets the reindeer dey forest alight.
Debt levels at records heights.
Many experts warning we are at edge of a precipice.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/26/imf-chief-warns-trumps-tax-cuts-could-destabilise-global-economy
Weird weather, the Herald says.
Rachel Stewart asks if we’re worried yet……
“Not only was 2017 the hottest ocean year on record, the heat gain from the previous hottest ocean year (2015) was quite considerable. In all 15,100,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules of heat energy were added by the world ocean from 2015 to 2017. By comparison, 4,184,000,000 Joules were produced by the Hiroshima bomb. The world ocean is now taking in a similar amount of heat every 3-5 seconds.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/26/in-2017-the-oceans-were-by-far-the-hottest-ever-recorded
I can finally go for a swim without freezing my nuts off.
We have set our daughter and new Moko granddaughter on a smove course up there lifes ladder. Just a little bit of help at the right time is enough to help her karma. We teach Our children to treat every one with respect. We also teach them that they can only trust a few people in one’s life. I can see the sandflys have been spinning there lies again its so easy to see that effect. I know the people that are helping spread those lies are contracted liers. The contracted liers try to play me to but no ECO Maori checks these idiots to.
Ana to kai