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.
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Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
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The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
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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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsKMpctRuLA
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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5keoT4PvPs
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!