it might be better if Helen Clark stays out of nz politics etc , the tv3 boys are having a ball pushing the meme that clark still runs the labour party.. undermining Ardern she is
I just sold my older hunterway .he’s still use full but now I have a younger better one , he just gets in the way of the younger one reaching it’s potential
Am I missing something here? Is this really just over Helen Clark wanting to get rid of plastic bags? It does not sound like sufficient reason to put some kind of gagging order on her!
Indeed, Helen Clark should be deleted from the political history books and she (and Sir Michael Cullen) should sever all ties with the NZ Labour Party and all NZ politics for that matter. She should take up painting instead. The same was done with Sir Roger Douglas and the NZ Labour Party has never looked back since. [sarc]
Morning Duncan yea I back the plastic bag bann I would like to see all but the ecential plastic that can’t be replaced by renewable products.
Alcohol does a lot of damage to OUR WORLD SOCIETY 21 YEARS old min age and advising of the side effects should be legerslated and banned from supermarket
Alcohol is damageing he tangata more than any other drug. Ka kite ano
Helen Clark was the best PM labour have had since Michael Joseph Savage but the media set about dirty politics on her so she is needed now more than ever as Labour goes through this ‘minefield of National Party antics and attemptd wreck Labours changes to make NZ a more caring transparent, kinder more inclusive Government.
More heads are better than one, as we see national are wheeling all their old guard out at the same time are still using Don Brash ect’ elk and were using their past PM’s to from 1990’s like the both National PM’s from the 1990’s era so shouldn’t Labour?
Why pick on Helen Clark when she was at the Auckland Town Hall when jacinda gave her first pre-election speech so did you complain then as that speech is what set Jacinda on the path to victory?
Look Duncan no body is perfect.
If one is getting bombarded with conflicting information get it correct all the time is near impossible.
ECO MAORI likes some of the bold moves OUR new coalition government is making.
They benefit the 99.9 %.
One man has taken on my it’s all in the design house we could set up a factory next door to a wood mill that makes all
The kit set flat pack houses and wallar you have thousands of houses built obviously Would need more than one factory. We need to get away from concrete floors as there is to much greenhouse gas built in the production of concrete.
The previous generation got that right in a land that is known for EARTH QUAKEs
It is not logical to have concrete floors.
You can recycle a house with wooden floors. If the environment were the house placed become uninhabitable well you put it on a truck and relocation it to a new site. I say that all houses should be legerslated to have a design so one can truck it out.
Ka kite ano
Duncan when one Reads the book on
Te Ropata WahaWaha it was written over 150 years ago our society was totally different the settlers were trying to establish them selves.
So what better why to sway the minds of te tangata whenua that a story on a Great Maori man that supports the Queen and the settlers.
Over 70% of tangata could read and write and who who wrote this book a settlor.
He used this story to boost the Mana of the settlers religion to stop the other religions taking hold of tangata minds.
There are a couple of sentences that are designed to boost the settlers religion.
So a intelligent person will add this information into how they decifer this book into reality. Ropata WahaWaha is The most important man who shaped how OUR Atoearoa society is today.
We do not have a native class all living in squallar in the most unsophistical environment in Atoearoa like other colonised country’s have its not perfect but we have it better than most tangata whenua.
Kia kaha P.S I will support Radio NZ new channels I see why John Campbell stayed there. Ana to kai
Duncan Ropata WahaWaha was not just advised by his Whano the Missionary advised him on the reality of Atoearoa and Papatuanukue he new how much MANA Britain had so they made choice to leave to there mokos a bright prousperious future like ECO MAORI is doing. Ka pai Ka kite ano
Many thanks for the great post on Thestandard from the true Leftys I support your views as they are the same as
ECO MAORIs. You good people are putting up a lot of good links and intelligence post to back OUR views of a equal society for all the creations on Papatuanukue. Kia kaha.
Protesters. P.S I’m a bit busy at the minute with my own battle Ka kite ano
Morning Rumble Rock radio I get the big picture I will support you I see you get burn left and right I will be watching radio NZ news show.
And Mulls on channel 4 news.
There you go ECO MAORI just has to fart and the sandflys are spinning it out that I walk around with a _____in me pants all day lol.
. P.S I got a plan and its as cunning a a snake as black addar use to say
Kia kaha guys Ka kite ano
Morning Rumble I’m a bit late look like the sandflys have tipped 3 dosen Tui big
bottles of beer on one of my LAWNs every time I got to mow it it is half cut lol Ka kite ano
“Following the collapse of the TPPA in the wake of the US withdrawal, the election of the new Government put a spring in the step of many. The Labour Party, New Zealand First and the Green Party had all said they would not support ratification of the TPPA. During the parliamentary examination of the text, Labour cited concerns about sovereignty, secrecy and inadequate economic modelling leading to uncertainty in projected outcomes; the Greens added that the TPPA is “inimical to the imperative of sustainability”; and New Zealand First focused on the anticipated dangers of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
What on earth happened? Labour has done a full U-turn, New Zealand First has joined in on the spin, and the Greens are very lukewarm in their disagreement.”
I’ve posted links here lots of times to the Labour Party policy (still on the website unchanged) that lays out the 5 bottom lines for the party. These are the things worked on since the election and either solved (eg control of land and housing sales to non-resident foreign buyers) or improve (eg limiting ISDS through side deals).
You might prefer it if Labour hadn’t signed the CPTTPA but that was never what was promised. Go back and check the record.
The Labour Party bottom-lines were strawmen, easily winnable, and not the issues that people were protesting about.
What is clear is that Labour is not being hypocritical by signing the revised TPPA. They were never against it in the first place. Which is one of the primary reasons I voted Green last election.
Labour hacks can tell themselves that but it’s not to late to do a u turn and save themselves as a political party in terms of public trust. It’s about perception in politics so I don’t think weasel words will work, nor will it when overseas people own more of the houses, drive around in Mercedes and bring in their own workers from high wages to low wages.
The media is being quiet so keep the pressure for Labour and NZ First to hang themselves on TPPA. Once they are committed guess what the favourite attack line will be!
On the new TPPA
“What’s different?
Let’s be crystal clear. The “new” text is exactly the same, the only change being that 22 of the 1,000-plus original provisions have been suspended. These 22 provisions – mainly concerning intellectual property – have not been removed so that they can be revived if and when the United States comes back on board, as the Trump administration has indicated it is willing to do. When pushed on this point, the Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker said that New Zealand could veto any attempt by the United States to join if that would compromise the Labour Party’sfive bottom lines. That, of course, would not stop a different government from giving up important aspects of New Zealand’s sovereignty simply to reduce tariffs for a trifling increase in GDP. And what was the Minister’s response to that serious concern? “Time will tell.””
“In the case of Fu Wah and the Hyatt hotel project, at least one construction company disclosed to Radio NZ that they had attempted to tender for the contract;
However an Auckland company, which did not want to be named for fear of losing out on future work, told RNZ they had voiced their interest at the start of the project in 2016.
A staff member said soon after Hawkins and China Construction were appointed as the main contractors, his company was contacted about what the programme of work would be and asked whether they would be able to do it.
“We went back and said ‘yes, everything’s fine, things are going to be a little bit tight here, things will be fine here’, but nothing major that would lead us to believe we’d been crossed off as a potential subcontractor.”
He said while it was emphasised that they should lock in subcontractors early because of a busy schedule to meet the deadline, it was never an issue of lack of skills.
“At that point in time we more or less had a year or two to lock in labour resource, to build up the labour teams that we have if necessary. But we heard nothing for a couple of years, in fact we never even heard back in the end on whether we could tender for the main package.”
When asked whether they had the staff to do the work now, he said they did.”
Bomber Bradbury should go and find something to complain about.
CSCEC and Hawkins are a good combination and are delivering to time, cost and quality.
Different specialist teams are brought in all the time on jobs like this.
Finish line will be tight, but then again, it always is.
Bomber would I am sure like to bring back the Tourist Hotel Corporation, because every ‘radical’ like him adores are really, really, really powerful state.
If Bomber would care to visit the Auckland International Airport information centre, he would find you can’t get a hotel room or rental car unless you go out as far as Rotorua or Whangarei. That’s because we need more hotels built faster.
Bomber would be complaining even louder if there was a gang of 200 tilers roaming the country looking for work. Instead, the crew will be sent back straight after they are done, minimising local employment market distortion as intended.
” That’s because we need more hotels built faster.”
Is this satire? You know, along the lines of…
First accommodation failure came for the beneficiaries,
Then it came for the state home tenants…
Then it came for the working class….
Then it came for the middle class…
And now it comes for the tourists!
Something must be done!
The import of labour diminishes the impetus to ensure that the NZ labour force is trained and provided with skills to take us into the future. It also reduces the leverage gained that allows for better wages and work conditions.
If the hotel takes longer to build, then that is the consequence of that business not taking into account the scarcity of labour.
If you want to complain about a lack of skilled tilling, roofing or stonemason workforce in New Zealand, you are dead right.
I can just assure you that every construction company in the entire country is aware about the impact of scarce skilled labour on the deliverability of their programmes.
And each construction company is also watching its margins even more closely than before after watching the great falling satellite of clusterfuck called Fletcher Building.
I don’t want to complain. The building companies are doing that just fine.
What they are not doing – is setting in place apprenticeships in order to alleviate the lack of skills. They expect skilled workers to appear out of thin air. There is a decided expectation that the pool of workers in NZ is something to extract from, not contribute to.
Allowing companies to import workers for jobs, ensures that the shortage of skilled workers will continue into the future, and it removes any financial impetus or political pressure to sort out the problem effectively.
@Molly – “They expect skilled workers to appear out of thin air’ they do, air New Zealand, air China, Korean Air!
Know a lot of people in construction. One of the issues is that when building firms do apprenticeships there is a lot of red tape, a lot of training and then what was happening is that someone poaches the worker for a higher salary once trained or they leave and go onto higher wagers overseas in Australia. Therefore it has put off many firms from offering apprenticeships but it also has decimated the whole industry into a downward spiral of lack of staff, lack of training, lack of wages, lack of experience.
So not many people were able to enter the sector, they also had to pay and get in debt to do the polytechnic course and then even if they did many local firms were not getting the contracts to provide regular work and salary.
What the government need to do for qualified builders is to regulate that any building firm over 3 staff has to have to train apprentices on a ratio (aka for every 10 staff they train 1 apprentice, to keep their industry going) so that all the firms have to do it and you don’t get the greedy firms not doing their share.
You would hope that the firms could organise it themselves but generally many are too busy making money to bother training when they can just poach off another firm or these days like hire an illegal worker or get someone from Asia.
The problem with the current approach of bringing in overseas workers is that NZ is not creating any wealth it’s destroying it, by taking out jobs, skills and experience for locals, lowering wages and not getting the taxes from the booming construction industry and people are just illegal (note in the current bust, the guy was a permanent resident under a false identity and pulling in more and more illegal workers and the scam continues all of whom are taking up houses to live in, transport and health care in NZ)
With skills like stopping and tiling, it’s crazy to have a shortage as they are fairly easy skills to acquire. It’s a rout for an immigration scam.
If they want to get the provinces employed – a months training in the careers above obviously would not go a miss.
I agree with the red tape etc. leading to aversion of businesses to engage apprentices.
Also, I think the changes made to the apprenticeship pathway a couple of decades ago, is why the current situation has occurred. We are now feeling the long-term effects of those changes.
There are many builders who provide extensive apprenticeships, but there are others that do the bare minimum and don’t have the scope of work to cover all the techniques and skills that earlier tradespeople would be exposed to. A better pathway and support system needs to be created and implemented.
For that to occur, political pressure needs to be applied. And construction companies even if they do not want to run apprenticeships themselves, need to apply that pressure to government to sort this out. If we allow short-term labourers in for this purpose, that pressure will not happen.
I’m also not convinced that a hotel build is such a necessity that it requires importing labourers.
It’s a curiosity when a party built on and ostensibly dedicated to the interests of workers trots out the employers’ weaselly ‘reasons’ with such facility.
If the companies are aware of the lack of skilled workforce then it is their fault. The ITOs were supposed to be ensuring training in the areas of work that were wanted. Government stepped back because business knew what it was doing, had complete confidence in its efficacy, and were supposed to step forward to oversee the training.
AD before mouthing off as usual it might pay to read the link and work out the correct author.
Clearly your neoliberal cheerleading leaves a lot to be desired in the real world because we have multiple crisis in this country from wages, health, jobs, housing, etc etc
It kept Labour out of parliament for nearly a decade as they have not only embraced globalism but they also thought that getting the little guy to pay for it locally was the way to keep it all going, while banks, financial industry and big business were wooed.
Labour campaigned on TPPA being a dog and reducing immigration. They finally got back into power.
The neoliberal legacy is that people have got poorer, or their house earns more than they do. The next generation though, will be left with nothing as slowly but surely more individual wealth becomes eaten up with costs of day to day living as they struggle to pay for the welfare system that subsidises multinational corporations employers wages, tourist health costs and more.
The neoliberal policies and cheerleading of outsourcing as a good idea is clearly not working for NZ and many other countries like the UK and USA that started them.
Free market only works if you want to go back to a more feudal style of living. The average person doesn’t.
So, we are like Spain and Greece were way back when they brought in Brits at piece rates to do jobs, and sent them back to Britain at jobs end?
I can’t help thinking how Spain and Greece ended up.
Rich retirees buying up places cheaply, (including so called investment hotel apartments suites and rooms) locals paid very low wage rates, no or low GDP, high borrowings, market shift… and….crash!!
Sure you don’t currently have trades out of work, so then you can’t find tradies or apprentices. No security at all. The contractor’s death spiral.
I don’t know if you know but the reason the THC was formed was because the private sector would not take the risk in building hotels in out of the way places.
Tourism was wonderful in NZ and contributed to the economy – that is until they sold much of it off and now the money is going offshore to some international tax dodge to avoid taxes or park some ‘gold bricks’.
Now it’s neoliberalism 3.0 – they don’t even employ the Kiwi workers so there is actually nothing beneficial about tourism at all, it’s a loss because the locals are providing roads, health, ACC and environmental counters free to offset it all.
Then providing the welfare for the growing unemployed.
Then providing the welfare for the growing aged population due to the parents clause in immigration so that new residents can bring their parents over to ‘retire’ here.
We earn averagely $20 p/h – even the illegal Malaysian workers are better paid by their masters!
There is no evidence that china wants to take over NZ and make it into their strategic base in the South Pacific nor is there any evidence had planned for and invested in such a scenario…..hence 🙄
New Zealand is strategically very important for China, one as a source of food supply and protein but also strategically from a military point of view especially if it comes to military action with Australia & the USA.
Also a very cunning move getting an ex-spy strategically placed inside one of New Zealand’s leading political parties, to make contacts and understanding how the country operates ?
The reason that many of these companies can’t get skills is that they lack planning and rely on getting cheap exploitable labour in to compensate because they want to cut out local construction firms and workers.
The government should have a condition that the salary of workers being bought in for temporary or permanent construction labour needs to be $100,000 plus. There should also be a hefty fee, to cover the administration of these permits.
I know two migrants working in the construction industry. As soon as one got residency he quit because he hated the job and now seems to just work for cash in an unrelated industry as an odd jobs man, the other is just waiting to quit his job when he gets residency as he is paid well under the going rate in a high demand skill.
So the poor conditions and wages for locals and residency workers is biting the unregulated construction industry in the butts.
And the lies of more local jobs with foreign investment construction should be laughed at. It’s quite the opposite, foreign owners have no intention of employing local firms, who struggle to get contracts and therefore pay their staff poorly (often to compete with cheap overseas tenders with cheaper labour) their staff don’t get the skills on bigger projects. It’s a downward spiral.
There are definitely a few shoddy subbies of subbies of subbies. There usually are in a boom.
Buyer: don’t commit off the plans, and watch the construction take place regularly. If you are going to commit $700-$800k on an apartment, spend $10k for your own regular quality auditor.
Worker: get NZ certifications or even better a full degree, and join a union.
Otherwise – as is always the case – the unskilled and un-unoinised and unprepared will risk exploitation.
@Thank you oh wise one, Ad. and where do you think those reading the Standard would get the money for the “$700-$800k on an apartment, spend $10k for your own regular quality auditor.” considering wages in New Zealand averaged 20.83 NZD/Hour from 1989 until 2017,
Naki Man
All the people that comment on the Standard are expected to be concerned about others’ welfare, and should be making efforts to understand the effects of policy or lack of policy and bad implementation makes on the vulnerable as much as anyone who might be benefitted by it.
Agree you have to watch for short cuts and shoddy subbies.
In Australia the developer is allowed to change up to 20% of the contract AFTER it is signed. We talked to a couple who missed this small print in their contract.
Changes to outdoor area, lighting, tiling was very upsetting.
Always have a lawyer look at the contract before signing…buying off the plan is chancy on many levels.
New Zealand Companies do not put the time and resources into training and up skilling their staff, as they are too busy cost cutting and trying to drive wage rates through the floor ?
Look at all the good companies that did exist here in NZ that have been destroyed or bankrupted and are now overseas owned. Evidently Fletchers is 80% overseas
owned now ?
Likewise we have had successive Governments who have sold off $25.6 Billion of State Assets excluding houses and that money has just been squandered ?
A while ago it was completely different, Kiwi construction workers were considered better and Asian’s struggled to find work, due to the perception that their work was shoddy.
Now somehow the tables have turned. Asian construction better in the eyes of the government and Kiwi construction workers have a perception that they are drugged out and hopeless.
Cabinet has approved, in principle, a move to amend the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 to provide a statutory power for the senior courts to make declarations of inconsistency under the Bill of Rights Act, and to require Parliament to respond.
It’s not enough. All legislation should conform to the BoRA. That said, the National Party will now be forced to defend one of its core values: that some people have fewer human rights than others.
They will say that you can forfeit your human rights, by losing your job, for example. They won’t put it that way, of course, but that’s what “name the father” means.
Take bigger strides, Labour, not just these baby-steps. Expose National for what they are.
You are probably correct.
It is very sad that Nikki Kaye had her bout with cancer.
I think she would have been right out in front and would make a very good Opposition Leader and Prime Minister otherwise.
She would certainly have kept her total dominance of Ardern going.
They have taken an innovative way to handle this, rather than our type of thinking which would be to just set laws or give advisory information and talk about the problem.
Norway is issuing all tourists with safety visibility vests to wear as they travel.
These will be a silent reminder of the safe way to behave, and if they do wear them they will be seen from a distance and other drivers can beware of the straying gogglers.
Chinese – two things on the news. One is that they had a two term limit on the President which the leader wants to waive. Dangerous but they are apparently talking about removing this law. Are they thinking of Robert Mugabe; and they are working on tech and genetics – what if they get that technology stretching lives with DNA recovery shots every day??
An Australian book exploring Chinese influence deep in politics and business etc – well we aren’t free of that, it is something to be aware of.
Got to be impressed with the hard right totalitarian regime in Burma. Who needs evidence of a crime against humanity – when you can just bulldoze it away.
Eco Maori will watch the project and see what they are up to I need to sort out a app for radio NZ new channel it will be good to see John Campbell again.
Ka kite ano
The National Association of School Resource Officers and many school shooting survivors, including those from Parkland, strenuously oppose plans to arm teachers. Teachers may not feel safe wielding arms; students could get ahold of the weapons or get caught in crossfire; law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher or other non-uniformed school staffer for an assailant. The prospect of something going wrong seems even higher with non-vetted, non-professional members of a conspiratorial militia group volunteering services that schools did not ask for.
Rhodes’ response? “Tough.”
“If they don’t like it, too bad,” Rhodes said. “We’re not there to make people feel warm and fuzzy; we’re there to stop murders.”
The sandflys search my shed illegally they know who storing there stuff in my shed they are so desperate to damage my Mana they spin that and say that it’s mine ECO MAORI doesn’t need a substitute. It was lucky I tidy up my shed and found the empty box and I clicked watching new at 7 last night what a bunch of turn coats how much did they pay you immature idiot Ana to kai.
TV News it does not matter what culture you are what counts is the way one behaves. If he has policy that benefit the 99.9 % and not just the 00.1% that is the people ECO MAORI wants in power.
So far Simon Bridge track record is not very good at all with that highway the Eastern link was a project of lineing the Tauranga people pocket at the expense of the Nation.Tom McRae
Ana to kai
SAMANTHA we don’t need the mokos seeing Alcohol in the supermarket when they are taken shopping at supermarket.
ECO MAORI Says ban the sale of Alcohol from supermarket that was joyce and his retail association move to line there pockets. Raise the age.
Rasing the tax will hurt the alcoholics the poor common ones and the mokos will miss out on the basic they need for a happy healthy life come on that is a basic logical equation. As for stats and data unless it is audited by independent practice than it will be minupulated to suite the organisation displays that data. There are a lot of cheats out there. Ana to kai. Ka kite ano
Hi good people from the Project some people are trying to imply that ECO MAORI viewers are from one part of OUR society.
But know my viewers are from all different age groups of the 99.9% of Common people of Atoearoa. Lisa
ECO MAORI Says the Lady Niki Kaye was a better candidate but a old dog doesn’t change it spots. We will have 10 good years of Labour so long as they don’t drop the ball good times for the common tangata /people and mokos /grandchildren. Ka kite ano
Men’s fertility rates are dropping because of all the poison and chemicals that are in our food and agriculture sprays wood preservers. You don’t get something for nothing there are allways concerquences. The multi national companies exposing us to these poison say that they are safe in minute quantities. This is how they justify putting these poison in our prosessed food for taste and preserveing OUR food We need to stop this bad behaviour by big businesses.
I try and eat unpreserved food as much as possible. Ka kite ano
On Saturday, 24 February, the UN Security Council passed a unanimous resolution for a 30 day ceasefire , to allow food in, and the evacuation of the wounded, to begin without delay!
But the bombings continue!
Russia refused to include a specific date that the ceasefire should begin, and are taking advantage of this loophole to continue bombing.
A couple of months ago now I wrote a post about the new set of discount rates government agencies are supposed to use in undertaking cost-benefit analysis, whether for new spending projects or for regulatory initiatives. The new, radically altered, framework had come into effect from 1 October last year, ...
Huawei dominates Indonesia’s telecommunication network infrastructure. It won over Indonesia mainly through cost competitiveness and by generating favour through capacity-building programs and strategic relationships with the government, and telecommunication operators. But Huawei’s dominance poses risks. ...
Democracy and the liberal tradition have long been seen as among the most basic tenets of the American way of life. They are also the main reason the West has for the past 80 years ...
Nicola Willis continues to compare the economy to a household needing to tighten its belt to survive. Photo: Getty Images The key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, April 29 are: Nicola Willis today announced a cut in the Government’s new spending ...
The Herald had another announcement today about a new solar farm being officially opened - this time the 63MW Lauriston solar farm in Canterbury. It is of course briefly "NZ’s biggest solar farm", but it will soon be overtaken by Kōwhai park at Christchurch airport (168MW) and Tauhei (202MW), both ...
I woke this morning to the shock news that Tory Whanau was no longer contesting the Wellington mayoralty, having stepped aside to leave the field clear for Andrew Little. Its like a perverse reversal of Little's 2017 decision to step aside for Jacinda - the stale, pale past rudely shoving ...
In a pre-Budget speech this morning the Minister of Finance announced that this year’s operating allowance – the net amount available for new initiatives – was being reduced from $2.4 billion to $1.3 billion (speech here, RNZ story here). Operating allowance numbers in isolation don’t mean a great deal (what ...
Of the two things in life that are certain, defence and national security concern themselves with death but need to pay more attention to taxes. Australia’s national security, defence and domestic policy obligations all need ...
The Coalition of Chaos is at it again with another half-baked underwhelming scheme that smells suspiciously like a rerun of New Zealand’s infamous leaky homes disaster. Their latest brainwave? Letting tradies self-certify their own work on so-called low-risk residential builds. Sounds like a great way to cut red tape to ...
Perfect by natureIcons of self indulgenceJust what we all needMore lies about a world thatNever was and never will beHave you no shame don't you see meYou know you've got everybody fooledSongwriters: Amy Lee / Ben Moody / David Hodges.“Vote National”, they said. The economic managers par excellence who will ...
The Australian Defence Force isn’t doing enough to adopt cheap drones. It needs to be training with these tools today, at every echelon, which it cannot do if it continues to drag its feet. Cheap drones ...
Hi,Just over a year ago — in March of 2024 — I got an email from Jake. He had a story he wanted to tell, and he wanted to find a way to tell it that could help others. A warning, of sorts. And so over the last year, as ...
Back in the dark days of the pandemic, when the world was locked down and businesses were gasping for air, Labour’s quick thinking and economic management kept New Zealand afloat. Under Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson, the Wage Subsidy Scheme saved 1.7 million jobs, pumping billions into businesses to stop ...
When I was fifteen I discovered the joy of a free bar. All you had to do was say Bacardi and Coke, thanks to the guy in the white shirt and bow tie. I watched my cousin, all private school confidence, get the drinks in, and followed his lead. Another, ...
The Financial Times reported last week that China’s coast guard has declared China’s sovereignty over Sandy Cay, posting pictures of personnel holding a Chinese flag on a strip of sand. The landing apparently took place ...
You might not know this, but New Zealand’s at the bottom of the global league table for electric vehicle (EV) chargers, and the National government’s policies are ensuring we stay there, choking the life out of our clean energy transition.According to the International Energy Agency’s 2024 Global EV Outlook, we’ve ...
We need more than two Australians who are well-known in Washington. We do have two who are remarkably well-known, but they alone aren’t enough in a political scene that’s increasingly influenced by personal connections and ...
When National embarked on slash and burn cuts to the public service, Prime Minister Chris Luxon was clear that he expected frontline services to be protected. He lied: The government has scrapped part of a work programme designed to prevent people ending up in emergency housing because the social ...
When the Emissions Trading Scheme was originally introduced, way back in 2008, it included a generous transitional subsidy scheme, which saw "trade exposed" polluters given free carbon credits while they supposedly stopped polluting. That scheme was made more generous and effectively permanent under the Key National government, and while Labour ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
The news of Virginia Giuffre’s untimely death has been a shock, especially for those still seeking justice for Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Giuffre, a key figure in exposing Epstein’s depraved network and its ties to powerful figures like Prince Andrew, was reportedly struck by a bus in Australia. She then apparently ...
An official briefing to the Health Minister warns “demand for acute services has outstripped hospital capacity”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāThe key long stories short in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, April 28 are: There’s a nationwide shortage of 500 hospital beds and 200,000 ...
We should have been thinking about the seabed, not so much the cables. When a Chinese research vessel was spotted near Australia’s southern coast in late March, opposition leader Peter Dutton warned the ship was ...
Now that the formalities of saying goodbye to Pope Francis are over, the process of selecting his successor can begin in earnest. Framing the choice in terms of “liberal v conservative” is somewhat misleading, given that all members of the College of Cardinals uphold the core Catholic doctrines – which ...
A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 20, 2025 thru Sat, April 26, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
Let’s rip the shiny plastic wrapping off a festering truth: planned obsolescence is a deliberate scam, and governments worldwide, including New Zealand’s, are complicit in letting tech giants churn out disposable junk. From flimsy smartphones that croak after two years to laptops with glued-in batteries, the tech industry’s business model ...
When I first saw press photos of Mr Whorrall, an America PhD entomology student & researcher who had been living out a dream to finish out his studies in Auckland, my first impression, besides sadness, was how gentle he appeared.Press released the middle photo from Mr Whorrall’s Facebook pageBy all ...
It's definitely not a renters market in New Zealand, as reported by 1 News last night. In fact the housing crisis has metastasised into a full-blown catastrophe in 2025, and the National Party Government’s policies are pouring petrol on the flames. Renters are being crushed under skyrocketing costs, first-time buyers ...
Would I lie to you? (oh yeah)Would I lie to you honey? (oh, no, no no)Now would I say something that wasn't true?I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?Writer(s): David Allan Stewart, Annie Lennox.Opinions issue forth from car radios or the daily news…They demand a bluer National, with ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Do the 31,000 signatures of the OISM Petition Project invalidate the scientific consensus on climate change? Climatologists made up only 0.1% of signatories ...
In the 1980s and early 1990s when I wrote about Argentine and South American authoritarianism, I borrowed the phrase “cultura del miedo” (culture of fear) from Juan Corradi, Guillermo O’Donnell, Norberto Lechner and others to characterise the social anomaly that exists in a country ruled by a state terror regime ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
Chris Bishop has unveiled plans for new roads in Tauranga, Auckland and Northland that will cost up to a combined $10 billion. Photo: Lynn GrievesonLong stories short from Aotearoa political economy around housing, poverty and climate in the week to Saturday, April 26:Chris Bishop ploughed ahead this week with spending ...
Unless you've been living under a rock, you would have noticed that New Zealand’s government, under the guise of economic stewardship, is tightening the screws on its citizens, and using debt as a tool of control. This isn’t just a conspiracy theory whispered in pub corners...it’s backed by hard data ...
The budget runup is far from easy.Budget 2025 day is Thursday 22 May. About a month earlier in a normal year, the macroeconomic forecasts would be completed (the fiscal ones would still be tidying up) and the main policy decisions would have been made (but there would still be a ...
On 25 April 2021, I published an internal all-staff Anzac Day message. I did so as the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, which is responsible for Australia’s civil defence, and its resilience in ...
You’ve likely noticed that the disgraced blogger of Whale Oil Beef Hooked infamy, Cameron Slater, is still slithering around the internet, peddling his bile on a shiny new blogsite calling itself The Good Oil. If you thought bankruptcy, defamation rulings, and a near-fatal health scare would teach this idiot a ...
The Atlas Network, a sprawling web of libertarian think tanks funded by fossil fuel barons and corporate elites, has sunk its claws into New Zealand’s political landscape. At the forefront of this insidious influence is David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, whose ties to Atlas run deep.With the National Party’s ...
Nicola Willis, National’s supposed Finance Minister, has delivered another policy failure with the Family Boost scheme, a childcare rebate that was big on promises but has been very small on delivery. Only 56,000 families have signed up, a far cry from the 130,000 Willis personally championed in National’s campaign. This ...
This article was first published on 7 February 2025. In January, I crossed the milestone of 24 years of service in two militaries—the British and Australian armies. It is fair to say that I am ...
He shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn.At the going down of the sun and in the morningI will remember him.My mate Keith died yesterday, peacefully in the early hours. My dear friend in Rotorua, whom I’ve been ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: on news New Zealand abstained from a vote on a global shipping levy on climate emissions and downgraded the importance ...
Hi,In case you missed it, New Zealand icon Lorde has a new single out. It’s called “What Was That”, and has a very low key music video that was filmed around her impromptu performance in New York’s Washington Square Park. When police shut down the initial popup, one of my ...
A strategy of denial is now the cornerstone concept for Australia’s National Defence Strategy. The term’s use as an overarching guide to defence policy, however, has led to some confusion on what it actually means ...
The IMF’s twice-yearly World Economic Outlook and Fiscal Monitor publications have come out in the last couple of days. If there is gloom in the GDP numbers (eg this chart for the advanced countries, and we don’t score a lot better on the comparable one for the 2019 to ...
For a while, it looked like the government had unfucked the ETS, at least insofar as unit settings were concerned. They had to be forced into it by a court case, but at least it got done, and when National came to power, it learned the lesson (and then fucked ...
The argument over US officials’ misuse of secure but non-governmental messaging platform Signal falls into two camps. Either it is a gross error that undermines national security, or it is a bit of a blunder ...
Cost of living ~1/3 of Kiwis needed help with food as cost of living pressures continue to increase - turning to friends, family, food banks or Work and Income in the past year, to find food. 40% of Kiwis also said they felt schemes offered little or no benefit, according ...
Hi,Perhaps in 2025 it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the CEO and owner of Voyager Internet — the major sponsor of the New Zealand Media Awards — has taken to sharing a variety of Anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories to his 1.2 million followers.This included sharing a post from ...
In the sprint to deepen Australia-India defence cooperation, navy links have shot ahead of ties between the two countries’ air forces and armies. That’s largely a good thing: maritime security is at the heart of ...
'Cause you and me, were meant to be,Walking free, in harmony,One fine day, we'll fly away,Don't you know that Rome wasn't built in a day?Songwriters: Paul David Godfrey / Ross Godfrey / Skye Edwards.I was half expecting to see photos this morning of National Party supporters with wads of cotton ...
The PSA says a settlement with Health New Zealand over the agency’s proposed restructure of its Data and Digital and Pacific Health teams has saved around 200 roles from being cut. A third of New Zealanders have needed help accessing food in the past year, according to Consumer NZ, and ...
John Campbell’s Under His Command, a five-part TVNZ+ investigation series starting today, rips the veil off Destiny Church, exposing the rot festering under Brian Tamaki’s self-proclaimed apostolic throne. This isn’t just a church; it’s a fiefdom, built on fear, manipulation, and a trail of scandals that make your stomach churn. ...
Some argue we still have time, since quantum computing capable of breaking today’s encryption is a decade or more away. But breakthrough capabilities, especially in domains tied to strategic advantage, rarely follow predictable timelines. Just ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Pearl Marvell(Photo credit: Pearl Marvell. Image credit: Samantha Harrington. Dollar bill vector image: by pch.vector on Freepik) Igrew up knowing that when you had extra money, you put it under a bed, stashed it in a book or a clock, or, ...
The political petrified piece of wood, Winston Peters, who refuses to retire gracefully, has had an eventful couple of weeks peddling transphobia, pushing bigoted policies, undertaking his unrelenting war on wokeness and slinging vile accusations like calling Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick a “groomer”.At 80, the hypocritical NZ First leader’s latest ...
It's raining in Cockermouth and we're following our host up the stairs. We’re telling her it’s a lovely building and she’s explaining that it used to be a pub and a nightclub and a backpackers, but no more.There were floods in 2009 and 2015 along the main street, huge floods, ...
A recurring aspect of the Trump tariff coverage is that it normalises – or even sanctifies – a status quo that in many respects has been a disaster for working class families. No doubt, Donald Trump is an uncertainty machine that is tanking the stock market and the growth prospects ...
The National Party’s Minister of Police, Corrections, and Ethnic Communities (irony alert) has stumbled into yet another racist quagmire, proving that when it comes to bigotry, the right wing’s playbook is as predictable as it is vile. This time, Mitchell’s office reposted an Instagram reel falsely claiming that Te Pāti ...
In the week of Australia’s 3 May election, ASPI will release Agenda for Change 2025: preparedness and resilience in an uncertain world, a report promoting public debate and understanding on issues of strategic importance to ...
In a world crying out for empathy, J.K. Rowling has once again proven she’s more interested in stoking division than building bridges. The once-beloved author of Harry Potter has cemented her place as this week’s Arsehole of the Week, a title earned through her relentless, tone-deaf crusade against transgender rights. ...
Health security is often seen as a peripheral security domain, and as a problem that is difficult to address. These perceptions weaken our capacity to respond to borderless threats. With the wind back of Covid-19 ...
Would our political parties pass muster under the Fair Trading Act?WHAT IF OUR POLITICAL PARTIES were subject to the Fair Trading Act? What if they, like the nation’s businesses, were prohibited from misleading their consumers – i.e. the voters – about the nature, characteristics, suitability, or quantity of the products ...
Rod EmmersonThank you to my subscribers and readers - you make it all possible. Tui.Subscribe nowSix updates today from around the world and locally here in Aoteaora New Zealand -1. RFK Jnr’s Autism CrusadeAmerica plans to create a registry of people with autism in the United States. RFK Jr’s department ...
We see it often enough. A democracy deals with an authoritarian state, and those who oppose concessions cite the lesson of Munich 1938: make none to dictators; take a firm stand. And so we hear ...
370 perioperative nurses working at Auckland City Hospital, Starship Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre will strike for two hours on 1 May – the same day senior doctors are striking. This is part of nationwide events to mark May Day on 1 May, including rallies outside public hospitals, organised by ...
Character protections for Auckland’s villas have stymied past development. Now moves afoot to strip character protection from a bunch of inner-city villas. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories shortest from our political economy on Wednesday, April 23:Special Character Areas designed to protect villas are stopping 20,000 sites near Auckland’s ...
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly transform the Indo-Pacific maritime security landscape. It offers unprecedented situational awareness, decision-making speed and operational flexibility. But without clear rules, shared norms and mechanisms for risk reduction, AI could ...
For what is a man, what has he got?If not himself, then he has naughtTo say the things he truly feelsAnd not the words of one who kneelsThe record showsI took the blowsAnd did it my wayLyrics: Paul Anka.Morena folks, before we discuss Winston’s latest salvo in NZ First’s War ...
Nicola Willis announced that funding for almost every Government department will be frozen in this year’s budget, costing jobs, making access to public services harder, and fuelling an exodus of nurses, teachers, and other public servants. ...
The Government’s Budget looks set to usher in a new age of austerity. This morning, Minister of Finance Nicola Willis said new spending would be limited to $1.4 billion, cut back from the original intended $2.4 billion, which itself was already $100 million below what Treasury said was needed to ...
The Green Party has renewed its call for the Government to ban the use, supply, and manufacture of engineered stone products, as the CTU launches a petition for the implementation of a full ban. ...
Te Pāti Māori are appalled by Cabinet's decision to agree to 15 recommendations to the Early Childhood Education (ECE) sector following the regulatory review by the Ministry of Regulation. We emphasise the need to prioritise tamariki Māori in Early Childhood Education, conducted by education experts- not economists. “Our mokopuna deserve ...
The Government must support Northland hapū who have resorted to rakes and buckets to try to control a devastating invasive seaweed that threatens the local economy and environment. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill that would ensure the biological definition of a woman and man are defined in law. “This is not about being anti-anyone or anti-anything. This is about ensuring we as a country focus on the facts of biology and protect the ...
After stonewalling requests for information on boot camps, the Government has now offered up a blog post right before Easter weekend rather than provide clarity on the pilot. ...
More people could be harmed if Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey does not guarantee to protect patients and workers as the Police withdraw from supporting mental health call outs. ...
The Green Party recognises the extension of visa allowances for our Pacific whānau as a step in the right direction but continues to call for a Pacific Visa Waiver. ...
The Government yesterday released its annual child poverty statistics, and by its own admission, more tamariki across Aotearoa are now living in material hardship. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori join the motu in celebration as the Treaty Principles Bill is voted down at its second reading. “From the beginning, this Bill was never welcome in this House,” said Te Pāti Māori Co-Leader, Rawiri Waititi. “Our response to the first reading was one of protest: protesting ...
The Green Party is proud to have voted down the Coalition Government’s Treaty Principles Bill, an archaic piece of legislation that sought to attack the nation’s founding agreement. ...
A Member’s Bill in the name of Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter which aims to stop coal mining, the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill, has been pulled from Parliament’s ‘biscuit tin’ today. ...
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty’s Members Bill to make the law simpler and fairer for businesses operating on Easter, Anzac and Christmas Days has passed its first reading after a conscience vote in Parliament. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Professor of Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology The lights are mostly back on in Spain, Portugal and southern France after a widespread blackout on Monday. The blackout caused chaos for tens of millions of people. ...
By Anish Chand in Suva Filipo Tarakinikini has been appointed as Fiji’s Ambassador-designate to Israel. This has been stated on two official X, formerly Twitter, handle posts overnight. “#Fiji is determined to deepen its relations with #Israel as Fiji’s Ambassador-designate to Israel, HE Ambassador @AFTarakinikini prepares to present his credentials ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University; and Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fellow, Victoria University India and Pakistan are once again at a standoff over Kashmir. A terror attack last week in the disputed region that ...
We are sending send a strong message to those in power that we demand a better deal for working people, and an end to the attack on unions. We will also be calling on the Government to deliver pay equity and honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Federico Tartarini, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture Design and Planning, University of Sydney New Africa, Shutterstock Many Australians struggle to keep themselves cool affordably and effectively, particularly with rising electricity prices. This is becoming a major health concern, especially for our ...
Led by the seven-metre-long Taxpayers' Union Karaka Nama (Debt Clock), the hīkoi highlights the Government's borrowing from our tamariki and mokopuna. ...
Wellington's deputy mayor is "absolutely gutted" by Tory Whanau's decision to not run for the mayoralty, but another councillor believes it is an opportunity for a fresh start. ...
Wellington's deputy mayor is "absolutely gutted" by Tory Whanau's decision to not run for the mayoralty, but another councillor believes it is an opportunity for a fresh start. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona MacDonald, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia Canada’s 2025 federal election will be remembered as a game-changer. Liberal Leader Mark Carney is projected to have pulled off a dramatic reversal of political fortunes after convincing voters he was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Any doubts that Australia’s growing housing challenges would be a major focus of the federal election campaign have been dispelled over recent weeks. Both ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tegan Cohen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology Ti Wi / Unsplash Another election, another wave of unsolicited political texts. Over this campaign, our digital mailboxes have been stuffed with a slew of political appeals and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tegan Cohen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology Ti Wi / Unsplash Another election, another wave of unsolicited political texts. Over this campaign, our digital mailboxes have been stuffed with a slew of political appeals and ...
Queenstown resident Ben Hildred just spent 100 days doing more uphill cycling than almost anyone else could imagine. He talks to Shanti Mathias about its psychological impact. Ben Hildred swings his leg over his bike, parks it, orders a kombucha and sits down opposite me at Bespoke, a Queenstown cafe. ...
Queenstown resident Ben Hildred just spent 100 days doing more uphill cycling than almost anyone else could imagine. He talks to Shanti Mathias about its psychological impact. Ben Hildred swings his leg over his bike, parks it, orders a kombucha and sits down opposite me at Bespoke, a Queenstown cafe. ...
Lawyers for Wellington City Council say councillors were given multiple options, and deny staff pushed them towards demolishing the City to Sea Bridge. ...
Lawyers for Wellington City Council say councillors were given multiple options, and deny staff pushed them towards demolishing the City to Sea Bridge. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Crosby, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Macquarie University The Oscars have entered the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Last week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences explicitly said, for the first time, films using generative AI tools will not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Crosby, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, Macquarie University The Oscars have entered the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Last week the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences explicitly said, for the first time, films using generative AI tools will not ...
$1.3bn in operating allowance isn’t enough to pay for cost pressures in health alone ($1.55bn). There is no money for cost pressures in education and other public services, or proposed defence spending. This is a Budget that will be built on cuts ...
Shane Jones says if the $2 million study proves it viable, it could turn Northland into a major power-exporting region and reduce prices nationally. ...
Shane Jones says if the $2 million study proves it viable, it could turn Northland into a major power-exporting region and reduce prices nationally. ...
Nicola Willis talks about ‘limited fiscal means’ forcing cuts to the operating allowance - well, she is the author of those, and it is a choice that she made.The PSA will strongly resist any further threats to the jobs of public service or health ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sue Hand, Professor Emeritus, Palaeontology, UNSW Sydney Mary_May/Shutterstock As the world’s only surviving egg-laying mammals, Australasia’s platypus and four echidna species are among the most extraordinary animals on Earth. They are also very different from each other. The platypus is well ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University When refugees flee their home country due to war, violence, conflict or persecution, they are often forced to leave behind their families. For more than 30,000 people who have sought asylum in ...
After nearly a decade of let’s-and-let’s-not, Wellington City Council has officially commenced work on the Golden Mile upgrade. It’s hard to imagine why city dwellers wouldn’t want a better place to live, argues Lyric Waiwiri-Smith. The truck carrying a load of port-a-loos had stopped at the least opportune time. Idling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Gillespie, Professor of Management; Chair in Trust, Melbourne Business School Matheus Bertelli/Pexels Have you ever used ChatGPT to draft a work email? Perhaps to summarise a report, research a topic or analyse data in a spreadsheet? If so, you certainly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin University Stoer Head lighthouse, Scotland.William Gale/Shutterstock We’ve discovered that a meteorite struck northwest Scotland 1 billion years ago, 200 million years later than previously thought. Our results are published today in the journal Geology. This ...
Poor performance reporting, difficulty tracing what government spending actually achieves and the erosion of trust in the public sector have been key concerns of outgoing Auditor-General John Ryan. ...
New Zealand is now running the worst primary deficit of any advanced economy, and government debt has exploded from $59 billion in 2017 to a projected $192 billion this year. Every dollar of new spending needs to be matched by savings — not a ...
Disruption during a traditional Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Anzac Day dawn service has revealed the grim state of race relations across the ditch, writes Ātea editor Liam Rātana.It was 5.30am on Anzac Day. The sky was still dark, but 50,000 people had gathered at the Shrine of Remembrance ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena Wajrak, Senior Lecturer in Chemistry, Edith Cowan University Arsenic is a nasty poison that once reigned as the ultimate weapon of deception. In the 18th century, it was the poison of choice for those wanting to kill their enemies and spouses, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Singh, Research Fellow, Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia SarahMcEwan/Shutterstock If you’ve ever tried to build a new habit – whether that’s exercising more, eating healthier, or going to bed earlier – you may have heard the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Hegedus, Associate Professor, Griffith Film School, Griffith University Shutterstock The Australian screen industry is often associated with fun, creativity and perhaps even glamour. But our new Pressure Point Report reveals a more troubling reality: a pervasive mental health crisis, which ...
it might be better if Helen Clark stays out of nz politics etc , the tv3 boys are having a ball pushing the meme that clark still runs the labour party.. undermining Ardern she is
Is this over the petition to ban plastic bags?
Surely she can support it if she wants to??
I just sold my older hunterway .he’s still use full but now I have a younger better one , he just gets in the way of the younger one reaching it’s potential
Am I missing something here? Is this really just over Helen Clark wanting to get rid of plastic bags? It does not sound like sufficient reason to put some kind of gagging order on her!
A.
IMHO Clark should stay out of the press when it comes to anything political .unless asked by Ardern .
I see what you mean but it really is up to her
Tv3 are perfectly capable of parroting whatever new attack lines the National Party gives them. A better course of action is to ignore them.
Garner and Richardson would say that.
They are both Tory bovver boys.
Ignore them and for your own sanity avoid their ghastly show.
Better still avoid the entire organisations low brow nuanced coverage of what it wants you to think.
Right a couple of half witted Tories without two brain cells to rub together ?
Indeed, Helen Clark should be deleted from the political history books and she (and Sir Michael Cullen) should sever all ties with the NZ Labour Party and all NZ politics for that matter. She should take up painting instead. The same was done with Sir Roger Douglas and the NZ Labour Party has never looked back since. [sarc]
Haven’t heard so much from Clark in the Media, as from Brash these days – is he still running ACT and the Nats?
Morning Duncan yea I back the plastic bag bann I would like to see all but the ecential plastic that can’t be replaced by renewable products.
Alcohol does a lot of damage to OUR WORLD SOCIETY 21 YEARS old min age and advising of the side effects should be legerslated and banned from supermarket
Alcohol is damageing he tangata more than any other drug. Ka kite ano
Helen Clark was the best PM labour have had since Michael Joseph Savage but the media set about dirty politics on her so she is needed now more than ever as Labour goes through this ‘minefield of National Party antics and attemptd wreck Labours changes to make NZ a more caring transparent, kinder more inclusive Government.
More heads are better than one, as we see national are wheeling all their old guard out at the same time are still using Don Brash ect’ elk and were using their past PM’s to from 1990’s like the both National PM’s from the 1990’s era so shouldn’t Labour?
Why pick on Helen Clark when she was at the Auckland Town Hall when jacinda gave her first pre-election speech so did you complain then as that speech is what set Jacinda on the path to victory?
Look Duncan no body is perfect.
If one is getting bombarded with conflicting information get it correct all the time is near impossible.
ECO MAORI likes some of the bold moves OUR new coalition government is making.
They benefit the 99.9 %.
One man has taken on my it’s all in the design house we could set up a factory next door to a wood mill that makes all
The kit set flat pack houses and wallar you have thousands of houses built obviously Would need more than one factory. We need to get away from concrete floors as there is to much greenhouse gas built in the production of concrete.
The previous generation got that right in a land that is known for EARTH QUAKEs
It is not logical to have concrete floors.
You can recycle a house with wooden floors. If the environment were the house placed become uninhabitable well you put it on a truck and relocation it to a new site. I say that all houses should be legerslated to have a design so one can truck it out.
Ka kite ano
Eco you will improve your day if you switch off Garner and Richardson’s toxic propaganda.
Yes He should live in a dark little echo chamber next to yours a?
Duncan when one Reads the book on
Te Ropata WahaWaha it was written over 150 years ago our society was totally different the settlers were trying to establish them selves.
So what better why to sway the minds of te tangata whenua that a story on a Great Maori man that supports the Queen and the settlers.
Over 70% of tangata could read and write and who who wrote this book a settlor.
He used this story to boost the Mana of the settlers religion to stop the other religions taking hold of tangata minds.
There are a couple of sentences that are designed to boost the settlers religion.
So a intelligent person will add this information into how they decifer this book into reality. Ropata WahaWaha is The most important man who shaped how OUR Atoearoa society is today.
We do not have a native class all living in squallar in the most unsophistical environment in Atoearoa like other colonised country’s have its not perfect but we have it better than most tangata whenua.
Kia kaha P.S I will support Radio NZ new channels I see why John Campbell stayed there. Ana to kai
Duncan Ropata WahaWaha was not just advised by his Whano the Missionary advised him on the reality of Atoearoa and Papatuanukue he new how much MANA Britain had so they made choice to leave to there mokos a bright prousperious future like ECO MAORI is doing. Ka pai Ka kite ano
Many thanks for the great post on Thestandard from the true Leftys I support your views as they are the same as
ECO MAORIs. You good people are putting up a lot of good links and intelligence post to back OUR views of a equal society for all the creations on Papatuanukue. Kia kaha.
Protesters. P.S I’m a bit busy at the minute with my own battle Ka kite ano
Morning Rumble Rock radio I get the big picture I will support you I see you get burn left and right I will be watching radio NZ news show.
And Mulls on channel 4 news.
There you go ECO MAORI just has to fart and the sandflys are spinning it out that I walk around with a _____in me pants all day lol.
. P.S I got a plan and its as cunning a a snake as black addar use to say
Kia kaha guys Ka kite ano
Morning Rumble I’m a bit late look like the sandflys have tipped 3 dosen Tui big
bottles of beer on one of my LAWNs every time I got to mow it it is half cut lol Ka kite ano
Any clues on where I can get a copy of this book the old families had ties to the East Coast, when Major Ropata was alive ?
Maybe Auckland University Library may have a copy ?
“Following the collapse of the TPPA in the wake of the US withdrawal, the election of the new Government put a spring in the step of many. The Labour Party, New Zealand First and the Green Party had all said they would not support ratification of the TPPA. During the parliamentary examination of the text, Labour cited concerns about sovereignty, secrecy and inadequate economic modelling leading to uncertainty in projected outcomes; the Greens added that the TPPA is “inimical to the imperative of sustainability”; and New Zealand First focused on the anticipated dangers of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
What on earth happened? Labour has done a full U-turn, New Zealand First has joined in on the spin, and the Greens are very lukewarm in their disagreement.”
https://itsourfuture.org.nz/nationwide-day-action-tppa-11/
I’ve posted links here lots of times to the Labour Party policy (still on the website unchanged) that lays out the 5 bottom lines for the party. These are the things worked on since the election and either solved (eg control of land and housing sales to non-resident foreign buyers) or improve (eg limiting ISDS through side deals).
You might prefer it if Labour hadn’t signed the CPTTPA but that was never what was promised. Go back and check the record.
The Labour Party bottom-lines were strawmen, easily winnable, and not the issues that people were protesting about.
What is clear is that Labour is not being hypocritical by signing the revised TPPA. They were never against it in the first place. Which is one of the primary reasons I voted Green last election.
Same here
Labour have been talking utter bullshit in regard ISDS. If this issue had been sorted the Greens would be supporting TPP also.
When is a “bottom line” not a bottom line?
So what is the reason for Winston & NZF doing the big U Turn on the TPPA Agreement as they were vehemently opposed to it in recent years ?
Labour hacks can tell themselves that but it’s not to late to do a u turn and save themselves as a political party in terms of public trust. It’s about perception in politics so I don’t think weasel words will work, nor will it when overseas people own more of the houses, drive around in Mercedes and bring in their own workers from high wages to low wages.
The media is being quiet so keep the pressure for Labour and NZ First to hang themselves on TPPA. Once they are committed guess what the favourite attack line will be!
On the new TPPA
“What’s different?
Let’s be crystal clear. The “new” text is exactly the same, the only change being that 22 of the 1,000-plus original provisions have been suspended. These 22 provisions – mainly concerning intellectual property – have not been removed so that they can be revived if and when the United States comes back on board, as the Trump administration has indicated it is willing to do. When pushed on this point, the Minister for Trade and Export Growth David Parker said that New Zealand could veto any attempt by the United States to join if that would compromise the Labour Party’sfive bottom lines. That, of course, would not stop a different government from giving up important aspects of New Zealand’s sovereignty simply to reduce tariffs for a trifling increase in GDP. And what was the Minister’s response to that serious concern? “Time will tell.””
https://itsourfuture.org.nz/nationwide-day-action-tppa-11/
The “free” market can’t even build a bloody hotel?!
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/26/the-free-market-cant-even-build-a-bloody-hotel/
“In the case of Fu Wah and the Hyatt hotel project, at least one construction company disclosed to Radio NZ that they had attempted to tender for the contract;
However an Auckland company, which did not want to be named for fear of losing out on future work, told RNZ they had voiced their interest at the start of the project in 2016.
A staff member said soon after Hawkins and China Construction were appointed as the main contractors, his company was contacted about what the programme of work would be and asked whether they would be able to do it.
“We went back and said ‘yes, everything’s fine, things are going to be a little bit tight here, things will be fine here’, but nothing major that would lead us to believe we’d been crossed off as a potential subcontractor.”
He said while it was emphasised that they should lock in subcontractors early because of a busy schedule to meet the deadline, it was never an issue of lack of skills.
“At that point in time we more or less had a year or two to lock in labour resource, to build up the labour teams that we have if necessary. But we heard nothing for a couple of years, in fact we never even heard back in the end on whether we could tender for the main package.”
When asked whether they had the staff to do the work now, he said they did.”
Bomber Bradbury should go and find something to complain about.
CSCEC and Hawkins are a good combination and are delivering to time, cost and quality.
Different specialist teams are brought in all the time on jobs like this.
Finish line will be tight, but then again, it always is.
Bomber would I am sure like to bring back the Tourist Hotel Corporation, because every ‘radical’ like him adores are really, really, really powerful state.
If Bomber would care to visit the Auckland International Airport information centre, he would find you can’t get a hotel room or rental car unless you go out as far as Rotorua or Whangarei. That’s because we need more hotels built faster.
Bomber would be complaining even louder if there was a gang of 200 tilers roaming the country looking for work. Instead, the crew will be sent back straight after they are done, minimising local employment market distortion as intended.
” That’s because we need more hotels built faster.”
Is this satire? You know, along the lines of…
First accommodation failure came for the beneficiaries,
Then it came for the state home tenants…
Then it came for the working class….
Then it came for the middle class…
And now it comes for the tourists!
Something must be done!
The import of labour diminishes the impetus to ensure that the NZ labour force is trained and provided with skills to take us into the future. It also reduces the leverage gained that allows for better wages and work conditions.
If the hotel takes longer to build, then that is the consequence of that business not taking into account the scarcity of labour.
If you want to complain about a lack of skilled tilling, roofing or stonemason workforce in New Zealand, you are dead right.
I can just assure you that every construction company in the entire country is aware about the impact of scarce skilled labour on the deliverability of their programmes.
And each construction company is also watching its margins even more closely than before after watching the great falling satellite of clusterfuck called Fletcher Building.
I don’t want to complain. The building companies are doing that just fine.
What they are not doing – is setting in place apprenticeships in order to alleviate the lack of skills. They expect skilled workers to appear out of thin air. There is a decided expectation that the pool of workers in NZ is something to extract from, not contribute to.
Allowing companies to import workers for jobs, ensures that the shortage of skilled workers will continue into the future, and it removes any financial impetus or political pressure to sort out the problem effectively.
@Molly – “They expect skilled workers to appear out of thin air’ they do, air New Zealand, air China, Korean Air!
Know a lot of people in construction. One of the issues is that when building firms do apprenticeships there is a lot of red tape, a lot of training and then what was happening is that someone poaches the worker for a higher salary once trained or they leave and go onto higher wagers overseas in Australia. Therefore it has put off many firms from offering apprenticeships but it also has decimated the whole industry into a downward spiral of lack of staff, lack of training, lack of wages, lack of experience.
So not many people were able to enter the sector, they also had to pay and get in debt to do the polytechnic course and then even if they did many local firms were not getting the contracts to provide regular work and salary.
What the government need to do for qualified builders is to regulate that any building firm over 3 staff has to have to train apprentices on a ratio (aka for every 10 staff they train 1 apprentice, to keep their industry going) so that all the firms have to do it and you don’t get the greedy firms not doing their share.
You would hope that the firms could organise it themselves but generally many are too busy making money to bother training when they can just poach off another firm or these days like hire an illegal worker or get someone from Asia.
The problem with the current approach of bringing in overseas workers is that NZ is not creating any wealth it’s destroying it, by taking out jobs, skills and experience for locals, lowering wages and not getting the taxes from the booming construction industry and people are just illegal (note in the current bust, the guy was a permanent resident under a false identity and pulling in more and more illegal workers and the scam continues all of whom are taking up houses to live in, transport and health care in NZ)
With skills like stopping and tiling, it’s crazy to have a shortage as they are fairly easy skills to acquire. It’s a rout for an immigration scam.
If they want to get the provinces employed – a months training in the careers above obviously would not go a miss.
I agree with the red tape etc. leading to aversion of businesses to engage apprentices.
Also, I think the changes made to the apprenticeship pathway a couple of decades ago, is why the current situation has occurred. We are now feeling the long-term effects of those changes.
There are many builders who provide extensive apprenticeships, but there are others that do the bare minimum and don’t have the scope of work to cover all the techniques and skills that earlier tradespeople would be exposed to. A better pathway and support system needs to be created and implemented.
For that to occur, political pressure needs to be applied. And construction companies even if they do not want to run apprenticeships themselves, need to apply that pressure to government to sort this out. If we allow short-term labourers in for this purpose, that pressure will not happen.
I’m also not convinced that a hotel build is such a necessity that it requires importing labourers.
It’s a curiosity when a party built on and ostensibly dedicated to the interests of workers trots out the employers’ weaselly ‘reasons’ with such facility.
If the companies are aware of the lack of skilled workforce then it is their fault. The ITOs were supposed to be ensuring training in the areas of work that were wanted. Government stepped back because business knew what it was doing, had complete confidence in its efficacy, and were supposed to step forward to oversee the training.
Shame we don’t train New Zealanders for employment, easier to import labour from overseas and leave New Zealanders sitting on the scrap heap ?
AD before mouthing off as usual it might pay to read the link and work out the correct author.
Clearly your neoliberal cheerleading leaves a lot to be desired in the real world because we have multiple crisis in this country from wages, health, jobs, housing, etc etc
It kept Labour out of parliament for nearly a decade as they have not only embraced globalism but they also thought that getting the little guy to pay for it locally was the way to keep it all going, while banks, financial industry and big business were wooed.
Labour campaigned on TPPA being a dog and reducing immigration. They finally got back into power.
The neoliberal legacy is that people have got poorer, or their house earns more than they do. The next generation though, will be left with nothing as slowly but surely more individual wealth becomes eaten up with costs of day to day living as they struggle to pay for the welfare system that subsidises multinational corporations employers wages, tourist health costs and more.
The neoliberal policies and cheerleading of outsourcing as a good idea is clearly not working for NZ and many other countries like the UK and USA that started them.
Free market only works if you want to go back to a more feudal style of living. The average person doesn’t.
+111
So, we are like Spain and Greece were way back when they brought in Brits at piece rates to do jobs, and sent them back to Britain at jobs end?
I can’t help thinking how Spain and Greece ended up.
Rich retirees buying up places cheaply, (including so called investment hotel apartments suites and rooms) locals paid very low wage rates, no or low GDP, high borrowings, market shift… and….crash!!
Sure you don’t currently have trades out of work, so then you can’t find tradies or apprentices. No security at all. The contractor’s death spiral.
I don’t know if you know but the reason the THC was formed was because the private sector would not take the risk in building hotels in out of the way places.
Yes Peter, Public money used to provide tourist infrastructure.
Fine ’till greedies sell it to their friends.
Tourism was wonderful in NZ and contributed to the economy – that is until they sold much of it off and now the money is going offshore to some international tax dodge to avoid taxes or park some ‘gold bricks’.
Now it’s neoliberalism 3.0 – they don’t even employ the Kiwi workers so there is actually nothing beneficial about tourism at all, it’s a loss because the locals are providing roads, health, ACC and environmental counters free to offset it all.
Then providing the welfare for the growing unemployed.
Then providing the welfare for the growing aged population due to the parents clause in immigration so that new residents can bring their parents over to ‘retire’ here.
We earn averagely $20 p/h – even the illegal Malaysian workers are better paid by their masters!
Bomber nails it again.
Be outraged.
About sea ice levels in the Bering Sea.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/02/26/that-gross-60minute-interview-and-twitter-offence/
China wants to eventually take over NZ, and build it in their dream to be their strategic “base of the south Pacific”
National Inc’ had already planned for this and invested for this also.
CG
Evidence for these frankly ludicrous claims?
Professor Brady
🙄
She talks of China’s influence on our political parties.
Did you not read that?
🙄
Is it just me, but using an emoticon just a perverse way to enter a debate?
Actually it’s not having a debate, but more than bit like swing a phallus around.
Just an observation using words.
adam
+1 Agree (but a short code is all right for that I reckon.)
Ah, so like all RWNJs, you’re ignoring the evidence because it doesn’t suit you.
There is no evidence that china wants to take over NZ and make it into their strategic base in the South Pacific nor is there any evidence had planned for and invested in such a scenario…..hence 🙄
Except all the research done by an academic that you’re ignoring because it doesn’t suit your ideology.
New Zealand is strategically very important for China, one as a source of food supply and protein but also strategically from a military point of view especially if it comes to military action with Australia & the USA.
Also a very cunning move getting an ex-spy strategically placed inside one of New Zealand’s leading political parties, to make contacts and understanding how the country operates ?
Shame we don’t train New Zealanders for employment, easier to import labour from overseas and leave New Zealanders sitting on the scrap heap ?
They won’t need to invade there buying it bit by bit and farm by farm.
The reason that many of these companies can’t get skills is that they lack planning and rely on getting cheap exploitable labour in to compensate because they want to cut out local construction firms and workers.
The government should have a condition that the salary of workers being bought in for temporary or permanent construction labour needs to be $100,000 plus. There should also be a hefty fee, to cover the administration of these permits.
I know two migrants working in the construction industry. As soon as one got residency he quit because he hated the job and now seems to just work for cash in an unrelated industry as an odd jobs man, the other is just waiting to quit his job when he gets residency as he is paid well under the going rate in a high demand skill.
So the poor conditions and wages for locals and residency workers is biting the unregulated construction industry in the butts.
And the lies of more local jobs with foreign investment construction should be laughed at. It’s quite the opposite, foreign owners have no intention of employing local firms, who struggle to get contracts and therefore pay their staff poorly (often to compete with cheap overseas tenders with cheaper labour) their staff don’t get the skills on bigger projects. It’s a downward spiral.
There are definitely a few shoddy subbies of subbies of subbies. There usually are in a boom.
Buyer: don’t commit off the plans, and watch the construction take place regularly. If you are going to commit $700-$800k on an apartment, spend $10k for your own regular quality auditor.
Worker: get NZ certifications or even better a full degree, and join a union.
Otherwise – as is always the case – the unskilled and un-unoinised and unprepared will risk exploitation.
Otherwise, your comments are wrong.
@Thank you oh wise one, Ad. and where do you think those reading the Standard would get the money for the “$700-$800k on an apartment, spend $10k for your own regular quality auditor.” considering wages in New Zealand averaged 20.83 NZD/Hour from 1989 until 2017,
https://tradingeconomics.com/new-zealand/wages
Even the illegal Mayasian stoppers were earning more $20 – $40 cash!
You assume that everyone that reads the Standard is on the bones of their arse.
Naki Man
All the people that comment on the Standard are expected to be concerned about others’ welfare, and should be making efforts to understand the effects of policy or lack of policy and bad implementation makes on the vulnerable as much as anyone who might be benefitted by it.
“Comments are wrong” Wow!! Rather sweeping Ad.
Agree you have to watch for short cuts and shoddy subbies.
In Australia the developer is allowed to change up to 20% of the contract AFTER it is signed. We talked to a couple who missed this small print in their contract.
Changes to outdoor area, lighting, tiling was very upsetting.
Always have a lawyer look at the contract before signing…buying off the plan is chancy on many levels.
New Zealand Companies do not put the time and resources into training and up skilling their staff, as they are too busy cost cutting and trying to drive wage rates through the floor ?
Look at all the good companies that did exist here in NZ that have been destroyed or bankrupted and are now overseas owned. Evidently Fletchers is 80% overseas
owned now ?
Likewise we have had successive Governments who have sold off $25.6 Billion of State Assets excluding houses and that money has just been squandered ?
Yes…. Where was that money used? Did it fill one of English/Joyce budget holes??
Not only that they destroyed the people too.
A while ago it was completely different, Kiwi construction workers were considered better and Asian’s struggled to find work, due to the perception that their work was shoddy.
Now somehow the tables have turned. Asian construction better in the eyes of the government and Kiwi construction workers have a perception that they are drugged out and hopeless.
Clearly money, talks.
A baby-step in the right direction.
It’s not enough. All legislation should conform to the BoRA. That said, the National Party will now be forced to defend one of its core values: that some people have fewer human rights than others.
They will say that you can forfeit your human rights, by losing your job, for example. They won’t put it that way, of course, but that’s what “name the father” means.
Take bigger strides, Labour, not just these baby-steps. Expose National for what they are.
I wonder how the “Spying on NZers bill” would have fared?
Or the raid on Dotcom and family?
Amy Adams….. with Bridges the runner up. /myreckons
Plus Joyce with a key front bench role. Very off-putting line up, tho.
You are probably correct.
It is very sad that Nikki Kaye had her bout with cancer.
I think she would have been right out in front and would make a very good Opposition Leader and Prime Minister otherwise.
She would certainly have kept her total dominance of Ardern going.
…nah dizzy blonde methinks ?
Heard her speak at a few meetings, don’t rate her IMO.
Seems that Norway has trouble with tourists stopping on the road to take photos of stunning scenery. Our problem too.
https://www.thelocal.no/20180219/norway-road-authority-buys-reflective-vests-for-tourists
They have taken an innovative way to handle this, rather than our type of thinking which would be to just set laws or give advisory information and talk about the problem.
Norway is issuing all tourists with safety visibility vests to wear as they travel.
These will be a silent reminder of the safe way to behave, and if they do wear them they will be seen from a distance and other drivers can beware of the straying gogglers.
Chinese – two things on the news. One is that they had a two term limit on the President which the leader wants to waive. Dangerous but they are apparently talking about removing this law. Are they thinking of Robert Mugabe; and they are working on tech and genetics – what if they get that technology stretching lives with DNA recovery shots every day??
An Australian book exploring Chinese influence deep in politics and business etc – well we aren’t free of that, it is something to be aware of.
Bridges leader and Paula Bennett offsider. Official.
One more thing we don’t talk about from the impact of cars.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/351311/large-canterbury-tyre-fire-still-burning
That is a shocker.
Still more impact: there’s still a lot of natural rubber used in tyres – massive tropical forest clearance for monoculture plantations.
Got to be impressed with the hard right totalitarian regime in Burma. Who needs evidence of a crime against humanity – when you can just bulldoze it away.
http://www.businessinsider.com/myanmar-bulldozes-rohingya-villages-evidence-of-ethnic-cleansing-2018-2/?r=AU&IR=T
Eco Maori will watch the project and see what they are up to I need to sort out a app for radio NZ new channel it will be good to see John Campbell again.
Ka kite ano
The British government’s incompetent smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn
is the funniest piece of dark comedy since Brass Eye.
A militia wingnut arrested last year following a fight that involved his use of a weapon has stationed himself outside high school with an AR-15.
And if teachers or students don’t like it? Tough.
( OAB’s prescience )
The National Association of School Resource Officers and many school shooting survivors, including those from Parkland, strenuously oppose plans to arm teachers. Teachers may not feel safe wielding arms; students could get ahold of the weapons or get caught in crossfire; law enforcement could mistake an armed teacher or other non-uniformed school staffer for an assailant. The prospect of something going wrong seems even higher with non-vetted, non-professional members of a conspiratorial militia group volunteering services that schools did not ask for.
Rhodes’ response? “Tough.”
“If they don’t like it, too bad,” Rhodes said. “We’re not there to make people feel warm and fuzzy; we’re there to stop murders.”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/oath-keepers-want-armed-members-volunteer-schools-after-parkland
Tory twit comes unstuck under relentless questioning.
Andrew Neill at his best!
Watch and enjoy…
The sandflys search my shed illegally they know who storing there stuff in my shed they are so desperate to damage my Mana they spin that and say that it’s mine ECO MAORI doesn’t need a substitute. It was lucky I tidy up my shed and found the empty box and I clicked watching new at 7 last night what a bunch of turn coats how much did they pay you immature idiot Ana to kai.
TV News it does not matter what culture you are what counts is the way one behaves. If he has policy that benefit the 99.9 % and not just the 00.1% that is the people ECO MAORI wants in power.
So far Simon Bridge track record is not very good at all with that highway the Eastern link was a project of lineing the Tauranga people pocket at the expense of the Nation.Tom McRae
Ana to kai
SAMANTHA we don’t need the mokos seeing Alcohol in the supermarket when they are taken shopping at supermarket.
ECO MAORI Says ban the sale of Alcohol from supermarket that was joyce and his retail association move to line there pockets. Raise the age.
Rasing the tax will hurt the alcoholics the poor common ones and the mokos will miss out on the basic they need for a happy healthy life come on that is a basic logical equation. As for stats and data unless it is audited by independent practice than it will be minupulated to suite the organisation displays that data. There are a lot of cheats out there. Ana to kai. Ka kite ano
No understanding of the life of an activist woman in a repressive, hostile country.
I wonder who is on the tribunal?
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/turkish-woman-deported-despite-discrimination-and-sexual-violence-fears
Hi good people from the Project some people are trying to imply that ECO MAORI viewers are from one part of OUR society.
But know my viewers are from all different age groups of the 99.9% of Common people of Atoearoa. Lisa
ECO MAORI Says the Lady Niki Kaye was a better candidate but a old dog doesn’t change it spots. We will have 10 good years of Labour so long as they don’t drop the ball good times for the common tangata /people and mokos /grandchildren. Ka kite ano
Men’s fertility rates are dropping because of all the poison and chemicals that are in our food and agriculture sprays wood preservers. You don’t get something for nothing there are allways concerquences. The multi national companies exposing us to these poison say that they are safe in minute quantities. This is how they justify putting these poison in our prosessed food for taste and preserveing OUR food We need to stop this bad behaviour by big businesses.
I try and eat unpreserved food as much as possible. Ka kite ano
Stop the delay, ceasefire now!