Marama Davidson is currently criticising herself for not doing her job and reducing the number of people requiring emergency housing. Well she is not so self aware as that but she is bemoaning how so many people are in unsafe emergency housing. Here's some free advice for you Ms Davidson. How about you come up with a plan to fix the situation?
Selective hearing and then selective reporting back here on TS without an appropriate link. One wonders whether you comment here in good faith at all.
The government was working to "rectify" the situation by creating more transitional housing, that is contracted by the government and provides individual support services, Davidson said.
She blamed "successive" governments for the housing affordability crisis, but acknowledged there was "not enough currently in the pipeline".
The previous National administration "gutted" the public housing stock, she said, and the current government was now "really, really stuck because of that massive, rapid increase in affordable housing that we've seen over the past year".
"And that just means we've got a slow sort of process to try and get the quantity up to what we actually need."
Apparently the problem is not in her “direct delegation”. Splitting the health and housing portfolios 600 ways is therefore the perfect excuse to do very little, given the problems are unlikely to fall to anyone’s “direct delegation”
Ain't that convenient for the Party that has a majority? Well to be fair, they ran on 'keep moving' not on fixing intergenerational homelessness. That is in the too hard basket, keep moving – even if it is to nowhere is much better.
The women got a job that the Labour government fucked up. Generally i have no use for her. But she is not going to manage to do anything for which a. gets no specified funding from the current majority holding Labour government, b. for which the Labour government would be giving the green light – again, majority holding Labour government, and c. about which the Labour party cares so little about that they put her into that position in the first place.
So you might want to flog dear Marama, but she is the wrong horse. The horse currently pulling NZ in deep entrenched, multi generational homelessness is this current Labour majority held government and before that it was the Labour coalition government and before that it was John 'Can i pull your ponytail' Keys with his handler Paula' Pigdog' Benefit.
Find a better person to complain about it, or at least complain about the silence of the Greens about this issue – until now. Not being able to do something is one thing, keeping mum about it is another altogether.
Just as well, Davidson did not keep mum about it. Have you got nothing better to do than spewing your negative bile and ranting? Have a Kit Kat, that’ll cheer you up.
You should read the whole comment and you would see that while i have not much use for the Green Party i do not fault Marama Davidson for the posioned pill that is homelessness and the losing position that she was put in by the current government.
And you really should eat better chocolate than that, and that includes snickers. They are not good for you at all. No chocolate, only fillers and palmoil, and such, you know, compound "chocolate'. You know, nice choclate, artisan chocolate made by someone in your local community.
I read the whole comment, and all your others. Trust me, it is my job as Moderator.
You wrote:
Generally i have no use for her.
Coming from you I guess that’s faint praise and an unfortunate choice of words; obviously, Davidson is not an object that may or may not be of use to you.
I personally don’t need chocolate, artisan or with fillers and palm oil, because I run on coffee. Luckily, NZ has come a long way making a decent coffee.
!!!??!? Why not? If ever there was a decent and admirable member of parliament, it's Marama Davidson. What leads you to claim you "have no use for her"?
Greens in Parliament are in the worst of all worlds; not in Cabinet, not opposition, no charisma to be noticed, such policy initiatives as they have quickly taken over, and about as close to power as Pluto.
They might want to take some notes from the German Greens who appear to be on a sweet trajectory into Ministerial positions.
My beef with the Green Party is that they want to be too ambitious to quickly. E.g they want entire benefit reform which the country cannot afford and they have a benefit specialist Menendez who could make a statement that TAS is a failure due to rent rises consuming the limit/cap. Or to increase the limit on TAS for rent.
Benefits are survival money. My concern is a roof above people's head, preferably not a motel roof.
Not capping TAS or replacing it with uncapped SB and comparing this to the cost of motel accommodation is what I want the answer to. It is not just about the cost of living in a motel, the negative social aspects are magnified.
Ummm they just won Auckland Central with no charisma?…..Shaw has been one of the best performing MP's over the last few years, he thinks and speaks calmly rather than shooting his mouth off and and blustering like others. Genter is excellent on transport.
They won Auckland central with split votes from labour supporters . Party vote Labour candidate Green. Wellington and Dunedin are rather more reliable for the Greens. Lots of party votes there.
The priority for talent from the Green Party I want to see is to fix homelessness, rising rents and the cost of housing for first home buyers. National and Act need to find some talent as well.
Expecting the government to cop the last 20 years of housing mismanagement is unfair.
Shipley market rents for state homes. Key selling off state homes and no brightline test.
Clark reversing market rents in state homes. Ardern a coalition with Peters, a pandemic and the other elephant in the room the health system.
Brightline test and tax changes will help but needed to have been done sooner. Less immigrants into the country will also help housing to stabilise. More homes need to be built and go back to the state housing system of placing people in state homes and managing the tenants. MSD is income related and not a housing provider. State homes used to have interim homes.
Personally I feel that what happened with fracturing of DHBs has happened to state housing. Just the cost to run each DHB is wasted money. So is public, emergency, transitional housing as fractured due to waiting for a home.
As well bring back overnight shelters until homes are built.
And aren't we all lucky now that Labour is in majority and has no one else to blame for their own fuck ups now? Cause that 'they had to content with NZ FIrst is getting tiresome, without NZfirst they would be sitting on the backbenches rendering their shirts in impotence or in the case of some leave politics altogether to make more money at some dumb think tank. Also the pandemic turned 1, not nearly 4 years old, and as we small business people were told so many times, did they not know to prepare for a pandemic? surely they should have known better, what with Sars 2003 outbreak which happened under Helen Clark. Heck, i am coming to think that they did not prepare for a win nor a pandemic. They are there because Winston Peters went into a coalition with them and the rest is history.
Individually and personally as people i agree with you. But as the Green Party – no use. When the Green Party grows up and realises that it does NOT need to be the handmaid to any ruling party, but could very well govern with gusto from the opposition bench and maybe even achieve more as a principled opposition bench party, i might consider them again. As for now, i have no use for the Green Party as a Party that I would vote for. I keep it with the socialists, they are more to my liking.
As to what i believe is that Labour has set up Marama Davidson as a scapegoat, and considering the funding she gets you will find it very hard to convince me to the contrary. I can see a few people be very happy about M.D. fail, so to speak, despite the fact that she was never set up to win.
MPs Sue Bradford (ex Auckland Peoples Centre, and Te Roupu) and Marama Davidson have been the exception for NZ MPs in recent decades, most of whom have little hands on experience with what people seeking assistance from MSD/WINZ have to endure. Riccardo is new so give him a few more months perhaps, but he was certainly active with AAAP–Auckland Action Against Poverty. AAAP runs clinics at WINZ branches for which people que in the dark, knowing that with an experienced advocate on their side, case managers will actually offer them what they are bloody entitled to in the legislation rather than branch “policy”. Marama has been to these clinics and offered her support.
Most MPs since the 80s have been of middle class or above socio economic status, without a clue of the WINZ sadism unemployed, disabled, and long term sick get from the state. So I am a Marama supporter.
20 years ago for 3 years 15 hours a week I was a benefit rights (BR) advocate. I knew how to fill out a special benefit form and accompany the client to the MSD office and get their entitlement. This was under 9 years of a National government.
I knew a person was better off when an advocate accompanied them. There are to few benefit rights services in the country. Every area requires one like a community law office.
No hospital pass to Menendez from Treetop.
Who is advising MSD on emergency accommodation and capping TAS for rent?
I would vote for Sue Bradford as PM any day of the week. And if only to see some heads explode. But the work that she does in beneficiary advocacy is phenomenal and so so badly needed.
I gave Turei a thought when I first looked at this thread. It has gone full circle for the Green Party re welfare short fall which has an extreme impact e.g. living in motels and transitional housing.
More Bradford's are needed on the front line of defence against poverty.
Fair point Git it was shameful the way so many turned on her for pointing out the obvious. Thousands of beneficiaries are now debtors because benefits are way too low.
Tactically Metiria made a mistake of outing herself via her own case then. Now that we have two tier benefits (COVID & non COVID), and a number of middle class people have encountered the sadism of MSD/WINZ I think she might get a different reaction.
In twenty odd years time when someone will look at rates of absue, sexual violence etc of minors/women/others suffered in tax payers funded emergency housing we should keep in mind that these people were forced to forgo 25% of their below the poverty line benefits for the pleasure of being not 'housed' but warehoused out of sight out of mind by simply another callous government.
Tiger Mountain – I don't know if women have pointed out how Metiria was following the feminist idea, that a solo woman with a family could get good education and/or training for a well-paid job, and earn sufficient money to bring up her family and work. It would always be difficult to do two jobs, but the idea was that a woman would be able to choose being a one-parent family and give the children a good home, education upbringing enough to match those of a couple, if she wanted to and worked hard. But she would need help particularly as the beginning, affording the education and managing her home and child responsibilities while doing so.
By keeping solo and single parents short of money, preventing them from achieving the required educational and parental standards, governments have thrown out the real upward mobility for all women that most feminists expected.
Also married women have had their pay gradually reduced in real terms. Originally the idea of women having workplace experience and having both parents working, was so that they could boost the man's basic wage, and the pair's finances could rise more quickly, so they could save to buy a house. Another stake in the heart that government has dealt to women.
Marama Davidson is one of the few people in parliament with real integrity and courage—in 2016 she actually went on the protest ship Zaytouna-Oliva, along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan and many other activists, that broke the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. She is a committed supporter of human rights campaigns both in Aotearoa and overseas.
For someone like you to dismiss her like that—"not so self aware" indeed!—is beyond ironic.
Lol, this is the Greens doing their job: raising awareness of the problems including the ones they don’t have the power to fix. They’re not even properly part of government, this is on Labour not the Greens. You’re not so stupid as to not understand how parliament and government works, so spare us the rw taking points and give us some actual rw political analysis.
Umm… She is the Minister of Homelessness. If she doesn't have the power to fix this issue she should be demanding she be given it or she should resign.
She is the Associate Minister of Homelessness….the sad fact that we actually have a ministry of that name seems to escape you. Thus she falls under the portfolio of Megan Woods (who surely at some stage will do something about the homelessnessness this country experiences, or well not. Its hard work. )
Housing
Hon Dr Megan Woods
Minister of Housing
Hon Poto Williams
Associate Minister of Housing (Public Housing)
Hon Peeni Henare
Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing)
Hon Marama Davidson
Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness)
But i agree with you: She should have lobbed that poisioned chalice back into J.A. open arms and said' Thanks dear, but no dear, this drink is all yours and that of your majority.
But dear Jacinda knows that on homelessness the Labour Party are as clueless, oblivious, and uninteressted and a guilty as was National under John Key, Helen Clark, Jenny Shipley and everyone before them since at least the late 80.s.
So Marama got the associate ministry and the Greens can pretend that they are again 'part of government' decision making. – or not depending of whom you ask.
But yeah, she got 4 million – 4 fucking million for something while we spend a million alone on emergency housing pretty much ever night. Which is not transitional housing, which is not public housing, which is not housing.
Associate Housing Minister Marama Davidson today announced funding support for new initiatives that will prevent and reduce homelessness in Whangarei, Auckland, Napier/Hastings, Rotorua and the Hutt Valley.
“Over $4 million has been allocated to projects that address homelessness in local communities,” Marama Davidson said.
“This is the first round of funding from the Government’s $16.6 million Local Innovation and Partnership Fund, which is a key part of our Homelessness Action Plan.
But but 16.6 Million local innovation and partnership fund, now that is as orwellian as it gets. Innovation and partnership fund to fix what? I don't think they know.
Fuck the poor and homeless in this country are so screwed. Intergenerational Poverty, Homelessness and th government has 16.6 million local innovation and partnership fund, and the hapless associate Minister of Homelessness MUST cheer this lest she gets nothing from dear Grant Robertson. This fucking government.
The 4 mil spent on homelessness projects I would have put that into benefit rights services (BRS) establishing new ones. Even if just for emergency housing BRS. I do think Davidson
is a sincere person.
Yes she was set up to fail. No money and no clout. Was she supposed to use the $4mill to persuade Maori entities to put up housing to relieve the state?
Meanwhile, Labour keep letting new people into the country. We've now had almost 18 months to train teachers, nurses and a lot of other occupations. Would it be so bad if we let the population decline a bit? Free's up housing for one.
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best.
– Otto von Bismarck
With some commenters here, nothing is possible yet everything is possible, nothing is attainable yet all is attainable, instantly, of course, and nothing is ever good enough. They are walking sacks of cells full of negativity and contradiction and mental wastelands where creativity and originality have died long ago in the winds of howling despair.
You don’t understand, and I don’t want sound like an ungrateful hua, but I read all comments here, at least I try to, but some are worse than stabbing my eyes with blunt tweezers.
The whole thing started when Key's government was in charge. They started shoving people into motels to save the embarassment of families sleeping in cars. Then complaints that motels were costing up to $2k a week, even though they were loans, caused the government to invent tranistional housing which is the government commandeering any hostel-style dwelling regardless of the condition, old motel units, RSE worker accommodation, whatever it can find. The government didn't want to run them so they statrted contracting incompetent community groups to do it. The whole mess has been the result of one knee-jerk reaction to another. No planning, just a series of silly decisions all aimed at staving off bad publicity.
The whole thing started well before John Key even was back in NZ.
he number of homeless people in New Zealand rose between the last two Census counts, a new study says.
The University of Otago study, which is based on Census data, said one in 100 were homeless in 2013, compared with one in 120 in 2006 and one in 130 in 2001.
The study used the Government's official definition of homeless, which is people living in severely crowded houses, in motels, boarding houses, on the street or in cars.
Between 2006 and 2013, the rise in homeless people outstripped population growth.
New Zealand's population grew by 4.8 per cent over this period, while the number of homeless grew by 25 per cent.
The total number of homeless in 2013 was 41,075, or 1 per cent of New Zealand's population. In 2006, the number of homeless was 33,295, or 0.8 per cent of the population.
People living in night shelters were excluded from the research.
"Homelessness is worsening in New Zealand in terms of both numbers and as a proportion of the population," researcher Kate Amore said.
"If the homeless population were a hundred people, 70 are staying with extended family or friends in severely crowded houses, 20 are in a motel, boarding house or camping ground, and 10 are living on the street, in cars, or in other improvised dwellings."
this is a bipartisan crisis that was foisted upon this countries population without mercy, be that by allowing migration in that cant' be managed, be that by selling everything not nailed to the floor, or be that by systematically underfunding the services that should help people who are homeless.
Btw. Oranga Tamariki also warehouses children in Motels.
Labour/National, both sides to the coin that we call homelessness.
Sabine, this is a battle of getting taxation from money and property owned by private corporations/ families. These are international and want to be treated like Google. Only expensive litigation will get the fair share.
As for the philosophy of the Labour party on this issue, well we might need to ask them as nothing that is happening on the ground looks like anywhere near resembling an association with that name. The party is a liberal conservative one by what can be observed by results. If reading the attached correctly, NZ is practically "owned" to 48% offshore and/or privately. Hence not much weight in what is happening on the domestic policy front comes to bear. Of cause the issue of Maori vs Pakeha would be the perfect divide and conquer platform to assist with stalling, distracting.
Maybe, and I hope so even if its wishful thinking, I am wrong.
MSD can resurrect the special benefit (SB) to enable many people to stay in a rental. Temporary additional support (TAS) has proven to be insufficient to enable people to afford the rent as it is capped. So the accommodation supplement (AS) is insufficient, plus TAS. Think old special benefit is not capped. Possibly $100 – $200 SB would be required per week. I would give AS plus SB. Some people still recieve the old SB not sure why.
Menendez could do special benefit costings due to his skills from working as a benefit rights advocate.
Sabine's suggestion to pay the entire weeks rent I would consider this short term.
Sorry for my reiterating as I feel the above is required immediately.
It was interesting how in the 1990s the numbers of people receiving a special benefit were slashed. The Labour opposition declared they'd make sure people who were entitled to the special benefit received it, which from 1999 they did a reasonable job of. Then they decided it cost too much so abolished it, replacing it with the temporary additional support. That's Labour for you.
Here is a quite amazing BBC interview where Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Environmental Advisor to the UN shuts down their anti China rhetoric in real time….
"Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a current serving Environmental Advisor to the UN, said that the broadcaster's framing of the debate was "not what [he had] expected" when he was asked to come on the show.
The climate change expert stated that he had initially been asked to discuss the environment, but claimed that the BBC's choice to instead debate China's human rights abuses – whilst completely ignoring human rights abuses of the West – was "absolutely bizarre".
Prior to the interview, the BBC had aired a segment (which was seen by Mr Sachs) detailing how the US's relationship with China was becoming strained due to the Asian nation's record on human rights.
The BBC segment then posed the question about whether the USA could really continue to work with China on climate change given their record on human rights."
The USA should disband immediately out of sheer embarrassment at the huge amounts of hypocrisy they generate on a daily basis right – its just outrageous how they parade around telling the whole planet how to live their lives ! . On the other hand of course Professor Sachs works at Colombia University , Lives in NYC and probably has a pretty good upper middle class life in the USA and can happily criticize his government all day long without any repercussions . I wonder how that level of public disagreement with his own government would go over if he lived in China do you think ?
The reason Professor Sachs was on the BBC programme was no doubt because of his qualifications and expertise on climate change.
"Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership, and has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders." – Columbia University site.
The BBC, as it is want to do, blindsidedly changed the agenda from climate change to human rights abuses. As this is not the professor's area of expertise, he engaged the interviewer, without success, in an attempt to stop her derailing of the debate. The set-up became very obvious when it emerged that the other participant was a Chinese dissident. It does not appear he is qualified in any academic fields related to climatology – the topic of discussion.
The salient question might be, would a programme debating mutual approaches to climate change, if on Chinese media would have devolved into an interviewer's engineered slanging match on respective human rights abuses? One would hope not!
…. and can happily criticize his government all day long without any repercussions.
Abolitionists, union organizers, feminists, free speech advocates have been targeted by the U.S. state right from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, and state laws against "sedition" down to the persecution of journalists and whistle-blowers like Ellsberg, Snowden, Manning and Assange. Thanks to the struggles of free speech advocates dating back to Patrick Henry and Ben Franklin, there is still freedom to speak out in the United States. It is, however, increasingly under threat.
Civil rights activists , Politicians and Activists in Hong Kong , Scientists , Artists , Businessmen , common farmers concerned about their lands being polluted or taken by corrupt officials – have all been punished , imprisoned and executed by the PRC and its security organizations right up to this very day with no sign at all of this kind of behavior by the Chinese regime showing any signs of slacking – just getting more extreme .
See how easy it is to pen a very broad/ sweeping paragraph about how poorly a particular National entity behaves towards its own citizens ?
I can probably write one about NZ too !
But of course you did not respond to my original point which was how long of a career do you think the fair Professor would have in the PRC .?
Why the scare quotes, Sacha? Actually I'm working on a transcript of that memorable piece of radio right now. Her putting straight of the notorious Prof. Patman*, as well as the complacent Wallace Chapman and the right wing ideologue David Farrar was too good to be lost forever in the ether.
Don’t bother posting it here on TS; we prefer original contributions.
So how come you tolerate the likes of Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?
Some things should be lost forever in the ether.
Fair comment. That applies to 99 per cent of Wallace Chapman's show. But not to sterling contributions by thoughtful and articulate commentators such as Laila Harré.
… Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?
I know it goes whoooosh over your head, but joe90 actually generally conveys more original thought and commentary in just a handful of well-chosen words accompanying those posts than is present in the screeds of repetitive stuff you continually re-post.
…. conveys more original thought and commentary in just a handful of well-chosen words accompanying those posts than is present in the screeds of repetitive stuff you continually re-post.
That's one of the funniest statements you've ever made. Far funnier than any of those daily jibes at President "Tweetyturd" to which you treated us over the last four years.
A decade or so ago, one Michael White made the outlandishly funny claim that the pompous Channel 4 autocue reader Jon Snow was a better journalist than, of all people, John Pilger.
I'd say he does more good for progressive attitudes than half a dozen Pilgers, wouldn't you?
You gotta love those amateur arm-chair ‘referees’ who think they know better, think they see more, but who don’t fully understand the rules of the game, don’t know how to tune their Smart TV or how to operate the remote and then when the game wasn’t to their liking they want their money back and blame the referee
I think you are actually polluting discourse and creating a suffocating atmosphere here. What’s worse, your attacks are setting a bad precedent for others. It seems you’re Hellbound to escalate this to a point of no return. Are you sure about this?
"So how come you tolerate the likes of Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?"…that is because Incognito mostly agrees with Joe 90 and never with you…as has become plainly obvious over the previous months the only debate incognito can generally handle are ones that take place within the walls of their own set political paradigm..or at least close to it.
BTW I and many others on TS really enjoy reading your transcripts..and I assume TS isn't here just to conform to Incognito's dubious aesthetic.
Many readers don’t mind at all scrolling and scrolling past these transcripts on their phones or past your own legendary exchanges that descend into conspiracy rabbit holes committed by Ruskies and Yankees and attacking just about every other commenter who needs to “turn [more/further] Left”, in your view.
Of course, your thinly veiled and indirect attack on me as Moderator ignores the fact that those transcripts not only are often long and tedious to read and/or scroll past, puerile, and often contain errors as noted by others here (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/brash-bassett-and-hide-take-up-blogging/#comment-1775697). You do seem to go about it in a sly way when attacking some (i.e. the usual) people on this site.
I’d be most obliged to you if you could find me a few examples where I unequivocally agree with joe90 given that you assert that I mostly (??) agree with joe90. I might reciprocate with a few examples where I do actually agree with Mossie even though you assert that I never (!) agree with him; I’m not that disagreeable by nature unless I’m hangry and need a Kit Kat.
I would also be highly appreciative if you could give a description of my “set political paradigm” and show how this is influencing my moderation here in a way that is unfair or unreasonable to you and/or Mossie and interferes with your desire to express yourself here as you wish without giving any consideration of how you come across to others. In fact, you always seem to be looking and thirsting for a ‘good [shit] fight’ here.
Lastly, I do try to encourage robust debate, which should be inclusive and without undue prescription as long as it adheres to this site’s Policy. Removing noise & dirt & nasty trolls have nothing to do my “dubious aesthetic” although I do admit that I prefer beautifully worded arguments and masterly crafted comments.
I prefer not to let this drag on for much longer, because the fun part is long gone for me and you constantly needling, criticizing, and attacking a Moderator might set a wrong example for others. I look forward to you backing up your accusations soon with rockhard watertight evidence or dropping this exercise in futility and surefire way to self-Martyrdom, so that we can move on.
The ball is now in your court, for the very last time, i.e. put up or shut up.
It was not a transcript, it was a satire. Everyone who commented underneath that little drama—ianmac, Drowsy M. Kram, and georgecom—got that it was a satire. Surely you don't think it was really a transcript?
Didn’t read the commentary, just picked the first ‘transcript’ that suited my comment. If you insist, I can pick one of your real transcripts from your oeuvre here; there are some real doozies among them.
I have to ask, was that intended as self-satire, if there even is such a thing? Pretty good effort, I have to admit; I fell for it, in my hurry to finish the comment on time.
I get that some people enjoy your transcripts and the suggestion has been made for you to post them on your own blog. I think that is an excellent suggestion, a win-win for all.
Siobhan, myself and few other lefties we know who started reading TS about the same time, were/are all big fans of your‘transcripts’ Morrissey and would get great enjoyment out of reading them and then recounting and laughing about our favourite bits when we got together.
Unfortunately most of those other Lefties no longer read TS, which is doubly sad because most of them where younger Lefties in their twenties. I would go into the reasons why they don’t bother reading TS any longer…but I think that is pretty clear.
This movement to not allow you to put those great pieces of truly original and funny satire on The Standard any longer is an indescribable loss for TS, one of main points of obvious humour cut out like this only illustrates what a humourless place it is being pushed into becoming.
BTW I and many others on TS really enjoy reading your transcripts..and I assume TS isn't here just to conform to Incognito's dubious aesthetic.
I can think of three moderators who have reached the end of their patience with the transcripts. For me it's the historical inaccuracy and simply not having time to check. That and him having a habit of slandering public figures and putting the site at legal risk is why there's an intolerance now.
Pretty good effort, I have to admit; I fell for it, in my hurry to finish the comment on time.I get that some people enjoy your transcripts
Thanks for that, Incognito. I appreciate that you acknowledge that fact.
and the suggestion has been made
By Sacha. Only by Sacha. Who has hardly ever said anything kind or even reasonably good-tempered to me.
for you to post them on your own blog. I think that is an excellent suggestion, a win-win for all.
No, I will not cease putting up transcripts of the vacuous and/or malicious things that politicians and broadcasters say. However, because I don't want to bore you or the other people on this site or overwhelm them with transcripts, I have hardly put any up at all for a long time, and I don't intend to for a while either. Except possibly just a bit of that Panel segment featuring Professor Robert Patman and Laila Harré.
Please, allow me to make a suggestion to you: don’t post your transcripts here on TS but post them on your own blog instead. Please never ever post transcripts from yesteryear here again.
If you must post new transcripts, I would strongly encourage you to go extremely lightly with them, so lightly that none of the pissed-off Moderators gets even more pissed off with them and/or you.
It’s just a suggestion, of course 😉
You could provide a link to the audio, with a bit of original commentary and personal analysis but without any ad homs and without any transcript. I know, it sounds radical, but most commenters are doing it this way here and I’m confident that you can too 😉
I've just told you, quite clearly, that I have not posted any transcripts for many, many months. If I do put any up, than I will keep them short and to the point.
I have spent a lot of time on the transcripts that I've done for this site. I take great pains to present them attractively, and with complete accuracy. I have transcribed things that politicians and broadcasters would rather were forgotten—for example, RNZ National Panel hosts and guests hooting in derision at the suffering of Julian Assange, or a National Party Cabinet minister telling Kathryn Ryan that there is "a variety of various variables", or Paul Henry ranting on breakfast television: "We have to be in there STRONG and HARD! We have to KILL THEM ALL! And in the course of this, bombs are going to bounce into tents where there are women and children! But we must not get up in arms about that! Kill them all!"
Why should I not put such things, awful and disgusting as they are, up on this site? I thought this was a forum for serious discussion and analysis.
[Ok, have it your way, you’re now being Moderated.
I’ve just told you, quite clearly, that I have not posted any transcripts for many, many months. If I do put any up, than I will keep them short and to the point.
I know transcribing is hard work, although software applications are becoming quite impressive and useful, and I know that some here lament the loss of your transcriptions here as the last remaining sense of humour and thus of human creativity and intelligence on this site. I sympathise with those losers.
However, a number of Moderators now have outlined why they have a wee problem with your transcripts. Given that transcripts are simply a written copy of audio, a link to the original source would and does suffice. If necessary, provide a time stamp pointing to the specific segment that you want to highlight. As such, (your) transcripts are no substitutes or surrogates for serious discussion and analysis. Unfortunately, you seem to put so much effort in the transcribing that you omit adding any decent analysis other than snide remarks about a wonderful interviewer/panel and the awful interviewee or vice versa. As weka mentioned, on occasion this has bordered on slander and putting this site at risk.
You insist that will continue putting up your transcripts (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27-04-2021/#comment-1790116). This could be a problem because you’ve demonstrated beyond any doubt that you cannot self-moderate your comments and commenting behaviour.
You can do whatever you like on your own blog and others can visit and read your transcripts to their heart’s content over there, but on this site, you must take heed of Moderators’ guidance. This is your warning – Incognito]
And right on cue, you produce a humourless transcript from yesteryear…
The humourlessness of that transcript is entirely due to the Australian prime minister and his moronic interlocutors. It's actually far worse than "humourless", of course: it's a brutal and nasty demonstration of contempt for both Pamela Anderson and the political prisoner she is speaking for.
As weka mentioned, on occasion this has bordered on slander and putting this site at risk.
That ONE occasion—I was unable to provide evidence of a politician alleging something nasty—has been well and truly put to bed. I apologized to both Mr Prent and the politician involved. You personally thanked me for that apology. Now, when else have I ever "bordered on slander" or put this site at risk? Was I slandering Scott Morrison by transcribing his malicious and humourless denigration of a political prisoner?
…. you’ve demonstrated beyond any doubt that you cannot self-moderate your comments and commenting behaviour.
That is an unfair and highly prejudiced accusation. Where have I ever personally denigrated anyone on this forum, or used foul language, or—apart from the one incident already mentioned and dealt with—made unfounded accusations about anyone?
You can do whatever you like on your own blog and others can visit and read your transcripts to their heart’s content over there, but on this site, you must take heed of Moderators’ guidance.
I do take heed of Moderators' guidance.
[Why are you wasting more Moderator when you’re already being Moderated?
Clearly, whether your transcripts are funny and contain humour is highly subjective but also irrelevant to this Moderation. This site is not an entertainment channel for people to express and enjoy their personal fetish. Nor is it aiming to compete with Comedy Central. There’s plenty of room and opportunity for sharp wit and satire, without your transcripts.
Yes, you apologised when you crossed the line, which was the right thing to do. I’ve no interest in trying to find other instances that might have occurred before I became Moderator here; I have a feeling the other Moderators could easily chip in here, but this is not necessary. Once is enough to make the point. Note that this is not the only reason for your Moderation.
There is a tediously long history of warning you in comments and Moderating you. You still don’t get it or still don’t want to get it; you dig in, you argue back, you resist, you litigate, you’re a recidivist offender who has wasted hours of Moderator time here over the years. I see this lack of adaptation and improvement as proof that you cannot self-moderate or don’t want to. Moreover, your comments regularly contain snide remarks and negativity/negative criticism aimed at others although perhaps not generally others on this forum (i.e. other commenters), which is synonymous with “denigrate” in my version of the English language. Criticism is ok, necessary even, but it needs to be fair and constructive and supported with analysis (which a transcript is not!). Taking potshots at people is the act of a small-minded wee soul. And it is not funny.
You assert you take heed of Moderators’ guidance. You forgot to qualify this conditional assertion; if you had taken heed in the past, we wouldn’t have that long history, or should I call it “precedence”, and if you had taken heed, I would not have to spend time writing this Moderation note either, which is yet another one added to the ever-growing list.
Don’t assume you can use this site as your personal playground and sandpit; you don’t pay a cent towards its running costs and you don’t spend any time & effort in managing it nor do you write any (Guest) Posts. You’re free to comment here as long as you follow instructions. You have your own blog where you can be in total control and do whatever you like within the boundaries of NZ Law.
This conversation is now closed! Take it or leave it – Incognito]
Do try a dose of your own medicine: “if you don’t like then don’t read read…there problem solved” [sic]. Up the dose when coming across any commenter or Moderator, comment or Moderation note, that might make your brain explode and trigger a verbiage of verbal diarrhoea from you.
She reads them all right, Adrian. She even had a minor supporting role in one, back in December 2013*, which is the reason for her unending anger and animosity.
She was supporting ….. (wait for it)…. Matthew Hooton.
Thanks for fixing the link. You're a real champion, I think.
"She" is our good friend Sacha. My first ever interaction with her came after the post "Mr Brown's Boys", which sent up the naïveté and gullibility of commentators on Russell Brown's site. She's had it in for me ever since. The old Breen charm routine fails to impress her, I'm afraid.
Side issue. Motels are not slums. Even cheap ones are infinitely better than living in a car. Since there are not enough houses to go around, isn't this a pretty good solution? Motel rates need to be brought under control though. And you can't choose your neighbours if the mob moves in next door, it can happen to anyone. Yes NZ needs more houses built but this will take a long time. Can't the Gov't just buy these Motels for 'the state' and let developers build more new ones?
you must not have seen some of the motels and the people housed there.
If you lived next to drug peddling gangsters with your family and you have no way of escape you might think twice about living in a van or car.
No the government 'can't just buy' these motels, they are private property -landbankers if you want so – and they are getting greased by the government beyond believe. Heck for 400 NZD a night (highest amount paid so far as per reports) they could pay rent fully. But then that would be a novel idea, and we only ever tried the known, tried and true and for the best profit for the motel lobby. Cause some industries are more deserving of receiving governments money then others. Never mind the all the unpleasantness about it.
Sabine as an ex rep I can claim to have stayed in more motels than most including low cost south Auckland motels many times. It's comes down to security if you want safe. It's no place for children though, which is what you are alluding too I suppose. OK for adults as long as your aware of your surroundings and live accordingly. It is still much better and much safer than a car. Maybe some people worry too much about the lower socioeconomic situation and let the media hype put unreasonable fear into conservative people.
As an ex rep you have no idea what you are talking about. Thanks.
Maybe you should have a good look at the motels that participate in this scheme, and you will find that most are motels that you as a rep would never have booked in, or say your company would have paid for.
Shoving a family of 4+ into a 25sqm 4 – 6 bed room is not the same as you coming as a rep, eating in a restaurant for dinner, coming in to sleep – maybe a cuppa and some Sky before going to bed before you travelled on to the next motel to stay for A night.
Apples and oranges are both fruit, both come from trees and that is literally where all 'sameness' then ends.
Nope. Still better than living in a car. BTW I have stayed in plenty of low end motels and had takeaways mostly. Dining by oneself is over rated. I'm not saying all motels are good. There are a lot of shitholes out their BUT they have more room, are warmer, have a bed, shower, kitchenete, etc etc etc. Your car have this?My bus does, but then it is not a car. I lived in my car at the Mount for 6 winter months when I was a bit younger. I have very low standards it would seem.
read this article and then weep. Homelessness is big business for motels tha twould have already died due to lack of tourists. Heck, so it seems that one part of the tourism industry does get help from the government.
With the election over, there's a renewed drive to lease or purchase hotels for transitional housing – but industry leaders warn it is simply subsidising the tourism industry without fixing the crisis in homelessness.
Government agencies want to buy up motels to house families who may otherwise spend Christmas on the streets, or crammed into sheds and garages.
The homelessness crisis was temporarily swept out of sight during the Covid lockdowns and, conveniently, the election campaign. It is now re-emerging ahead of Christmas.
Moteliers say Work and Income has been paying them enormous amounts to rent motels rooms for days and weeks at a time; as well as paying the full nightly tariff, Work and Income pays for security and up to $2500 for repairs to every room after they have been used.
they could have rented a standard bog property of trade me irrespective of the cost of that rental, housed a family longterm that way, and still have saved money.
yeah, and it is as cynical as that:
He welcomed the Government's renewed drive to purchase motels, saying they would be purchasing in lower socio-economic suburbs like Taradale, and by removing stock from the market would help the remaining moteliers.
"It's fantastic that they are starting to buy again," he said. "They're looking after the people who need accommodation and, for any current motel owner, it should increase our occupancy rates. It's a win-win."
Where are these mythical properties the Government could rent.? A potty mouth and a twisted view of the world does not help.. Some of your arguments are cogent, but most are thorough going rants.
Well this particular video of Wanganui is hardly selling it as a tourist destination…..think I would prefer to holiday in the Sunshine Coast (or virtually anywhere other than Gonville, Wanganui)!
Perhaps you could list a few of the tourist highlights and points of interest of Gonville for me, and maybe we will look at it as a possible holiday destination.
we are paying somewhere of 110 – 400 NZD a night, guaranteed occupancy. No way Tiny Dean in Rotorua is selling his Motels, this is the best money he ever made. And he don't even need to do anything else then say, yeah, i can squeeze another twenty into here for 150 buck a nigh per person.
What gets me is, that they can be build faster then houses – i have seen some Motels go up very fast here in Vegas, same as for oldfolks housing, – what the government should do is maybe build to that model and start with 1 – 2 bedrooms and make it permanent housing with a concierge, maybe an on site social worker/ advocate that can help navigate Winz and such.
That would be a much better use of money then what we are doing now.
Sabine you will burst a foo-foo valve if you don't take a break and stop fulminating. For every criticism and fault you find – see if you can find something good and positive. Otherwise you and we will be off to the mental health and they are already overcrosded. How about taking a break every half an hour for a cup of tea or something.
One of the nastier little changes the Nats made was to remove the requirement from house owners to eliminate noxious plants such as old mans beard. I don't know whether that can be done by regulation or whether an act is required, but there has now been long enough for that pest at least to regain a foothold in quite a few areas. This might be a ping pong issue (and landlords will complain about yet more regulation and costs pushing up rents), but I believe it worth doing as soon as possible.
yet here our council sprays the good plants so that the weeds prosper.
The best one that i saw a few years ago was a 'blackberry' weed eradication programme – never mind all of us who liked to go and pick these for jams and pies. The managed to kill most of the blackberry and now replaced it with kudzu and moth plant.
I am amazed too that old man's beard is not a hot issue, I see so much of it. And sneak into any controls one against bindweed – Convulvulus arvensis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus_arvensis
Bindweed actually has quite a pretty, white, trumpet-like flower but it is a brute of a plant. An invasive vine, once established it's extremely difficult to get rid of. … The Bindweed stems creep along the surface of the soil, climbing fences, other plants and whatever else they encounter, forming dense, tangled mats. https://www.henrystreet.co.uk/battling-bindweed-in-your-garden/
But that's a half-truth. Actually it grows roots like thin pipes underground whether you can see it above or not, quite often both. Morning glory (Calystegia) can also be called bindweed.
Under his leadership at Dunedin there was a fair few fine moves that occurred. The ones I noticed are:
– Turning the historic precinct from a run-down and derelict waterfront into a high-end innovation and commercial precinct.
– Wrinsing out the historical corruption within Dunedin City operations, and enabling a new generation of managers to rise through a good CE
– Getting a much stronger grip on Aurora Ltd and their horrific maintenance record. And a generally stronger grip on all the City companies
– Getting DCC's debt under control, post-stadium build
– Upgrading all of the central Dunedin water supply from E to A
– Enabling rail tourism to flourish
– Persuading NZTA to get cycleways all the way out to Port Chalmers on one side of the harbour, and out beyond Portobello on the other (though it took until this term to see it really rolling)
– Pushing successfully (both as Mayor and as Chair of Southern DHB) for a brand new hospital (which is still going through another Cabinet cycle)
I hope they fine this guy a decent amount, as it sounds like he travelled from Perth when he knew he shouldn't have, and basically puts everyone else at risk. If he ends up with a slap from the wet bus ticket it will be no disincentive.
Yep. Or just stuff him in special MIQ in Mt Eden for 2 weeks and charge him full price for it. But somehow, instead, they picked him up at the border and sent him home in Northland to self-isolate. Just encourages more irresponsible idiots.
Not sure who has control in a case like this, police, customs, MoH?
I have very little tolerance for people who knowingly put whole populations of people in potential jeopardy.
Concerns me that they trust him to self isolate in Northland, especially after the way he left Perth and changed flights etc. It doesn't sound like he is that trustworthy.
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TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
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Marama Davidson is currently criticising herself for not doing her job and reducing the number of people requiring emergency housing. Well she is not so self aware as that but she is bemoaning how so many people are in unsafe emergency housing. Here's some free advice for you Ms Davidson. How about you come up with a plan to fix the situation?
Selective hearing and then selective reporting back here on TS without an appropriate link. One wonders whether you comment here in good faith at all.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441256/inhumane-conditions-green-party-minister-condemns-some-emergency-housing
Ministerial delegations, for following comments: https://dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/cabinet-office/ministers-and-their-portfolios/delegations
Here is the link Gosman
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/green-party-minister-marama-davidson-labels-some-emergency-housing-as-inhumane.html
Apparently the problem is not in her “direct delegation”. Splitting the health and housing portfolios 600 ways is therefore the perfect excuse to do very little, given the problems are unlikely to fall to anyone’s “direct delegation”
Ain't that convenient for the Party that has a majority? Well to be fair, they ran on 'keep moving' not on fixing intergenerational homelessness. That is in the too hard basket, keep moving – even if it is to nowhere is much better.
The women got a job that the Labour government fucked up. Generally i have no use for her. But she is not going to manage to do anything for which a. gets no specified funding from the current majority holding Labour government, b. for which the Labour government would be giving the green light – again, majority holding Labour government, and c. about which the Labour party cares so little about that they put her into that position in the first place.
So you might want to flog dear Marama, but she is the wrong horse. The horse currently pulling NZ in deep entrenched, multi generational homelessness is this current Labour majority held government and before that it was the Labour coalition government and before that it was John 'Can i pull your ponytail' Keys with his handler Paula' Pigdog' Benefit.
Find a better person to complain about it, or at least complain about the silence of the Greens about this issue – until now. Not being able to do something is one thing, keeping mum about it is another altogether.
Just as well, Davidson did not keep mum about it. Have you got nothing better to do than spewing your negative bile and ranting? Have a Kit Kat, that’ll cheer you up.
You should read the whole comment and you would see that while i have not much use for the Green Party i do not fault Marama Davidson for the posioned pill that is homelessness and the losing position that she was put in by the current government.
And you really should eat better chocolate than that, and that includes snickers. They are not good for you at all. No chocolate, only fillers and palmoil, and such, you know, compound "chocolate'. You know, nice choclate, artisan chocolate made by someone in your local community.
Sabine-why would you have no time for the only party that takes poverty seriously?
see below to me answering Morrisey.
I read the whole comment, and all your others. Trust me, it is my job as Moderator.
You wrote:
Coming from you I guess that’s faint praise and an unfortunate choice of words; obviously, Davidson is not an object that may or may not be of use to you.
I personally don’t need chocolate, artisan or with fillers and palm oil, because I run on coffee. Luckily, NZ has come a long way making a decent coffee.
Generally i have no use for her.
!!!??!? Why not? If ever there was a decent and admirable member of parliament, it's Marama Davidson. What leads you to claim you "have no use for her"?
Greens in Parliament are in the worst of all worlds; not in Cabinet, not opposition, no charisma to be noticed, such policy initiatives as they have quickly taken over, and about as close to power as Pluto.
They might want to take some notes from the German Greens who appear to be on a sweet trajectory into Ministerial positions.
My beef with the Green Party is that they want to be too ambitious to quickly. E.g they want entire benefit reform which the country cannot afford and they have a benefit specialist Menendez who could make a statement that TAS is a failure due to rent rises consuming the limit/cap. Or to increase the limit on TAS for rent.
Benefits are survival money. My concern is a roof above people's head, preferably not a motel roof.
Not capping TAS or replacing it with uncapped SB and comparing this to the cost of motel accommodation is what I want the answer to. It is not just about the cost of living in a motel, the negative social aspects are magnified.
Ummm they just won Auckland Central with no charisma?…..Shaw has been one of the best performing MP's over the last few years, he thinks and speaks calmly rather than shooting his mouth off and and blustering like others. Genter is excellent on transport.
Plenty of talent among the other Green MP's.
Yeah, and before that Auckland Central was won by Nikki Kaye National and constantly lost by Jacinda Ardern Labour until she was gifted Mt. Albert.
So really winning an Electorate in NZ really means nothing much, consider that the woman who never won this particular electorate is now PM.
They won Auckland central with split votes from labour supporters . Party vote Labour candidate Green. Wellington and Dunedin are rather more reliable for the Greens. Lots of party votes there.
The priority for talent from the Green Party I want to see is to fix homelessness, rising rents and the cost of housing for first home buyers. National and Act need to find some talent as well.
Expecting the government to cop the last 20 years of housing mismanagement is unfair.
no it is not.
In the last 20 years we had
Shipley
Clark
Key
Ardern
the are part and parcel of what got us here in the first place.
Shipley market rents for state homes. Key selling off state homes and no brightline test.
Clark reversing market rents in state homes. Ardern a coalition with Peters, a pandemic and the other elephant in the room the health system.
Brightline test and tax changes will help but needed to have been done sooner. Less immigrants into the country will also help housing to stabilise. More homes need to be built and go back to the state housing system of placing people in state homes and managing the tenants. MSD is income related and not a housing provider. State homes used to have interim homes.
Personally I feel that what happened with fracturing of DHBs has happened to state housing. Just the cost to run each DHB is wasted money. So is public, emergency, transitional housing as fractured due to waiting for a home.
As well bring back overnight shelters until homes are built.
But people in Kainga Oranga do pay 'market rent'. Just not all of it. The pay what they can and Winz pays the rest even now.
See here in regards to Rotorua from a OIA request 2020.
https://www.hud.govt.nz/assets/News-and-Resources/Proactive-Releases/OIA-response-DOIA2021090472-Public-Housing-in-Rotorua.pdf
And aren't we all lucky now that Labour is in majority and has no one else to blame for their own fuck ups now? Cause that 'they had to content with NZ FIrst is getting tiresome, without NZfirst they would be sitting on the backbenches rendering their shirts in impotence or in the case of some leave politics altogether to make more money at some dumb think tank. Also the pandemic turned 1, not nearly 4 years old, and as we small business people were told so many times, did they not know to prepare for a pandemic? surely they should have known better, what with Sars 2003 outbreak which happened under Helen Clark. Heck, i am coming to think that they did not prepare for a win nor a pandemic. They are there because Winston Peters went into a coalition with them and the rest is history.
Market rent in public housing is subsidised, but only 25% of income is paid in rent.
Removing special benefit was under Clark 1 April 2006.
That is a brilliant suggestion, ceteris paribus.
Individually and personally as people i agree with you. But as the Green Party – no use. When the Green Party grows up and realises that it does NOT need to be the handmaid to any ruling party, but could very well govern with gusto from the opposition bench and maybe even achieve more as a principled opposition bench party, i might consider them again. As for now, i have no use for the Green Party as a Party that I would vote for. I keep it with the socialists, they are more to my liking.
As to what i believe is that Labour has set up Marama Davidson as a scapegoat, and considering the funding she gets you will find it very hard to convince me to the contrary. I can see a few people be very happy about M.D. fail, so to speak, despite the fact that she was never set up to win.
"I keep it with the socialists, they are more to my liking."
And they're more able to influence policy than the Greens?
the greens have influence?
Answer the question
Getting my
Kit Katsecond bag of popcorn.Fair enough. Thanks Sabine.
Remember when the Greens stood against GMO? Those where the days. No handmaidening going on back then.
MPs Sue Bradford (ex Auckland Peoples Centre, and Te Roupu) and Marama Davidson have been the exception for NZ MPs in recent decades, most of whom have little hands on experience with what people seeking assistance from MSD/WINZ have to endure. Riccardo is new so give him a few more months perhaps, but he was certainly active with AAAP–Auckland Action Against Poverty. AAAP runs clinics at WINZ branches for which people que in the dark, knowing that with an experienced advocate on their side, case managers will actually offer them what they are bloody entitled to in the legislation rather than branch “policy”. Marama has been to these clinics and offered her support.
Most MPs since the 80s have been of middle class or above socio economic status, without a clue of the WINZ sadism unemployed, disabled, and long term sick get from the state. So I am a Marama supporter.
20 years ago for 3 years 15 hours a week I was a benefit rights (BR) advocate. I knew how to fill out a special benefit form and accompany the client to the MSD office and get their entitlement. This was under 9 years of a National government.
I knew a person was better off when an advocate accompanied them. There are to few benefit rights services in the country. Every area requires one like a community law office.
No hospital pass to Menendez from Treetop.
Who is advising MSD on emergency accommodation and capping TAS for rent?
You need to be a special kind of person to be a beneficiary advocate–it is coming at you from all sides!
To be determined, non judgemental, work alongside the client, know the legislation, be honest and deliver results and to think outside the box.
[fixed typo in user name]
Think I need to watch the numbering to reply. In saying this I can have a strong view to a previous comment which I did not make.
I would vote for Sue Bradford as PM any day of the week. And if only to see some heads explode. But the work that she does in beneficiary advocacy is phenomenal and so so badly needed.
"I would vote for Sue Bradford as PM any day of the week"…+1.
Metiria Turei was excellent and would still be in parliament but for the rat pack.
she was the last Green Person i voted for, as i wrote her in as candidate for PM sadly we got whom we have now.
I gave Turei a thought when I first looked at this thread. It has gone full circle for the Green Party re welfare short fall which has an extreme impact e.g. living in motels and transitional housing.
More Bradford's are needed on the front line of defence against poverty.
Fair point Git it was shameful the way so many turned on her for pointing out the obvious. Thousands of beneficiaries are now debtors because benefits are way too low.
Tactically Metiria made a mistake of outing herself via her own case then. Now that we have two tier benefits (COVID & non COVID), and a number of middle class people have encountered the sadism of MSD/WINZ I think she might get a different reaction.
In twenty odd years time when someone will look at rates of absue, sexual violence etc of minors/women/others suffered in tax payers funded emergency housing we should keep in mind that these people were forced to forgo 25% of their below the poverty line benefits for the pleasure of being not 'housed' but warehoused out of sight out of mind by simply another callous government.
Thanks for that thoughtful and perceptive comment Tiger Mountain.
Tiger Mountain – I don't know if women have pointed out how Metiria was following the feminist idea, that a solo woman with a family could get good education and/or training for a well-paid job, and earn sufficient money to bring up her family and work. It would always be difficult to do two jobs, but the idea was that a woman would be able to choose being a one-parent family and give the children a good home, education upbringing enough to match those of a couple, if she wanted to and worked hard. But she would need help particularly as the beginning, affording the education and managing her home and child responsibilities while doing so.
By keeping solo and single parents short of money, preventing them from achieving the required educational and parental standards, governments have thrown out the real upward mobility for all women that most feminists expected.
Also married women have had their pay gradually reduced in real terms. Originally the idea of women having workplace experience and having both parents working, was so that they could boost the man's basic wage, and the pair's finances could rise more quickly, so they could save to buy a house. Another stake in the heart that government has dealt to women.
Agreed Tiger.
Well she is not so self aware as that…
Marama Davidson is one of the few people in parliament with real integrity and courage—in 2016 she actually went on the protest ship Zaytouna-Oliva, along with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan and many other activists, that broke the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. She is a committed supporter of human rights campaigns both in Aotearoa and overseas.
For someone like you to dismiss her like that—"not so self aware" indeed!—is beyond ironic.
Lol, this is the Greens doing their job: raising awareness of the problems including the ones they don’t have the power to fix. They’re not even properly part of government, this is on Labour not the Greens. You’re not so stupid as to not understand how parliament and government works, so spare us the rw taking points and give us some actual rw political analysis.
Umm… She is the Minister of Homelessness. If she doesn't have the power to fix this issue she should be demanding she be given it or she should resign.
She is the Associate Minister of Homelessness….the sad fact that we actually have a ministry of that name seems to escape you. Thus she falls under the portfolio of Megan Woods (who surely at some stage will do something about the homelessnessness this country experiences, or well not. Its hard work. )
But i agree with you: She should have lobbed that poisioned chalice back into J.A. open arms and said' Thanks dear, but no dear, this drink is all yours and that of your majority.
But dear Jacinda knows that on homelessness the Labour Party are as clueless, oblivious, and uninteressted and a guilty as was National under John Key, Helen Clark, Jenny Shipley and everyone before them since at least the late 80.s.
So Marama got the associate ministry and the Greens can pretend that they are again 'part of government' decision making. – or not depending of whom you ask.
But yeah, she got 4 million – 4 fucking million for something while we spend a million alone on emergency housing pretty much ever night. Which is not transitional housing, which is not public housing, which is not housing.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/4m-reduce-homelessness-five-locations
But but 16.6 Million local innovation and partnership fund, now that is as orwellian as it gets. Innovation and partnership fund to fix what? I don't think they know.
Fuck the poor and homeless in this country are so screwed. Intergenerational Poverty, Homelessness and th government has 16.6 million local innovation and partnership fund, and the hapless associate Minister of Homelessness MUST cheer this lest she gets nothing from dear Grant Robertson. This fucking government.
The 4 mil spent on homelessness projects I would have put that into benefit rights services (BRS) establishing new ones. Even if just for emergency housing BRS. I do think Davidson
is a sincere person.
I never said she is not sincere, i said she was and is set up to fail. That is not quite the same.
Yes she was set up to fail. No money and no clout. Was she supposed to use the $4mill to persuade Maori entities to put up housing to relieve the state?
Meanwhile, Labour keep letting new people into the country. We've now had almost 18 months to train teachers, nurses and a lot of other occupations. Would it be so bad if we let the population decline a bit? Free's up housing for one.
I agree on the set up to fail.
+1
So if she stamps her foot enough Labour will give her more power?
/end massive eye roll
– Otto von Bismarck
With some commenters here, nothing is possible yet everything is possible, nothing is attainable yet all is attainable, instantly, of course, and nothing is ever good enough. They are walking sacks of cells full of negativity and contradiction and mental wastelands where creativity and originality have died long ago in the winds of howling despair.
lol…welcome to the human race…and why ‘consensus democracy’ is not an option.
It's like bloody talk radio.
Nah, some of the commentary here is worse, much worse than bloody talkback radio and that’s setting a really low bar!
Is that really unexpected?…after all both open access blogs and talkback are vox populi.
pox populi
the alternative?
I was actually thinking of the oafish hosts when I wrote 'talk radio'.
vox populi, vox orificii
again…the alternative?
TINA
there is….but whether any of them have better outcomes is open to debate
True that, they tend to be variations on a theme. We tend to prefer the Devil we know, don’t we?
we do…and its worth reminding ourselves that those of us who frequently comment on here are not representative.
Yes, that’s a very good point, thank you!
You clearly have not listened to Peter Williams, Sean Plunket, or anything on NewstalkZB.
no…youre right, i havnt
You don’t understand, and I don’t want sound like an ungrateful hua, but I read all comments here, at least I try to, but some are worse than stabbing my eyes with blunt tweezers.
Always have been. But probably not as bad now as during some periods in the past.
I have – once for a few minutes each was enough to persuade me there would be no value in repeating the experience.
Yet still, there's truth in Incognito's comment.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/309530/auckland-house-prices-need-to-drop-50-percent-greens
5 years later its looking like prescience
The whole thing started when Key's government was in charge. They started shoving people into motels to save the embarassment of families sleeping in cars. Then complaints that motels were costing up to $2k a week, even though they were loans, caused the government to invent tranistional housing which is the government commandeering any hostel-style dwelling regardless of the condition, old motel units, RSE worker accommodation, whatever it can find. The government didn't want to run them so they statrted contracting incompetent community groups to do it. The whole mess has been the result of one knee-jerk reaction to another. No planning, just a series of silly decisions all aimed at staving off bad publicity.
Yes and add to house Oranga Tamariki, mental health and justice.
The whole thing started well before John Key even was back in NZ.
he number of homeless people in New Zealand rose between the last two Census counts, a new study says.
The University of Otago study, which is based on Census data, said one in 100 were homeless in 2013, compared with one in 120 in 2006 and one in 130 in 2001.
The study used the Government's official definition of homeless, which is people living in severely crowded houses, in motels, boarding houses, on the street or in cars.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/homelessness-rising-in-new-zealand/MOJKUZEF5KR6AALU7XLU5JQTXE/#:~:text=In%202006%2C%20the%20number%20of,%2C%22%20researcher%20Kate%20Amore%20said.
From here https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLEcoRP14021/homelessness-in-new-zealand#footnote_18
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0406/S00117/meeting-called-to-address-homeless-issue.htm from 2004 lol when John Banks was Mayor of Auckland and Helen Clark reigned supreme as PM.
this is a bipartisan crisis that was foisted upon this countries population without mercy, be that by allowing migration in that cant' be managed, be that by selling everything not nailed to the floor, or be that by systematically underfunding the services that should help people who are homeless.
Btw. Oranga Tamariki also warehouses children in Motels.
Labour/National, both sides to the coin that we call homelessness.
Sabine, this is a battle of getting taxation from money and property owned by private corporations/ families. These are international and want to be treated like Google. Only expensive litigation will get the fair share.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/116661441/new-zealands-biggest-50-landowners-revealed
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/400417/green-rush-foreign-forestry-companies-nz-s-biggest-landowners
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/101772/we-look-data-how-much-new-zealand-owned-foreigners-even-though-foreign-ownership
As for the philosophy of the Labour party on this issue, well we might need to ask them as nothing that is happening on the ground looks like anywhere near resembling an association with that name. The party is a liberal conservative one by what can be observed by results. If reading the attached correctly, NZ is practically "owned" to 48% offshore and/or privately. Hence not much weight in what is happening on the domestic policy front comes to bear. Of cause the issue of Maori vs Pakeha would be the perfect divide and conquer platform to assist with stalling, distracting.
Maybe, and I hope so even if its wishful thinking, I am wrong.
you are not, i believe.
The whole thing started with the deregulation of the financial system decades ago….Keys government were cheerleaders, but not solely responsible.
MSD can resurrect the special benefit (SB) to enable many people to stay in a rental. Temporary additional support (TAS) has proven to be insufficient to enable people to afford the rent as it is capped. So the accommodation supplement (AS) is insufficient, plus TAS. Think old special benefit is not capped. Possibly $100 – $200 SB would be required per week. I would give AS plus SB. Some people still recieve the old SB not sure why.
Menendez could do special benefit costings due to his skills from working as a benefit rights advocate.
Sabine's suggestion to pay the entire weeks rent I would consider this short term.
Sorry for my reiterating as I feel the above is required immediately.
It was interesting how in the 1990s the numbers of people receiving a special benefit were slashed. The Labour opposition declared they'd make sure people who were entitled to the special benefit received it, which from 1999 they did a reasonable job of. Then they decided it cost too much so abolished it, replacing it with the temporary additional support. That's Labour for you.
Here is a quite amazing BBC interview where Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Environmental Advisor to the UN shuts down their anti China rhetoric in real time….
"Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a current serving Environmental Advisor to the UN, said that the broadcaster's framing of the debate was "not what [he had] expected" when he was asked to come on the show.
The climate change expert stated that he had initially been asked to discuss the environment, but claimed that the BBC's choice to instead debate China's human rights abuses – whilst completely ignoring human rights abuses of the West – was "absolutely bizarre".
Prior to the interview, the BBC had aired a segment (which was seen by Mr Sachs) detailing how the US's relationship with China was becoming strained due to the Asian nation's record on human rights.
The BBC segment then posed the question about whether the USA could really continue to work with China on climate change given their record on human rights."
Jefferey Sachs comes on @ 6.30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmd6WFoNS2w
The USA should disband immediately out of sheer embarrassment at the huge amounts of hypocrisy they generate on a daily basis right – its just outrageous how they parade around telling the whole planet how to live their lives ! . On the other hand of course Professor Sachs works at Colombia University , Lives in NYC and probably has a pretty good upper middle class life in the USA and can happily criticize his government all day long without any repercussions . I wonder how that level of public disagreement with his own government would go over if he lived in China do you think ?
The reason Professor Sachs was on the BBC programme was no doubt because of his qualifications and expertise on climate change.
"Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor, bestselling author, and syndicated columnist whose monthly newspaper columns appear in more than 100 countries. He is the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership, and has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders." – Columbia University site.
The BBC, as it is want to do, blindsidedly changed the agenda from climate change to human rights abuses. As this is not the professor's area of expertise, he engaged the interviewer, without success, in an attempt to stop her derailing of the debate. The set-up became very obvious when it emerged that the other participant was a Chinese dissident. It does not appear he is qualified in any academic fields related to climatology – the topic of discussion.
The salient question might be, would a programme debating mutual approaches to climate change, if on Chinese media would have devolved into an interviewer's engineered slanging match on respective human rights abuses? One would hope not!
…. and can happily criticize his government all day long without any repercussions.
Abolitionists, union organizers, feminists, free speech advocates have been targeted by the U.S. state right from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, and state laws against "sedition" down to the persecution of journalists and whistle-blowers like Ellsberg, Snowden, Manning and Assange. Thanks to the struggles of free speech advocates dating back to Patrick Henry and Ben Franklin, there is still freedom to speak out in the United States. It is, however, increasingly under threat.
Civil rights activists , Politicians and Activists in Hong Kong , Scientists , Artists , Businessmen , common farmers concerned about their lands being polluted or taken by corrupt officials – have all been punished , imprisoned and executed by the PRC and its security organizations right up to this very day with no sign at all of this kind of behavior by the Chinese regime showing any signs of slacking – just getting more extreme .
See how easy it is to pen a very broad/ sweeping paragraph about how poorly a particular National entity behaves towards its own citizens ?
I can probably write one about NZ too !
But of course you did not respond to my original point which was how long of a career do you think the fair Professor would have in the PRC .?
Laila Harré did pretty much the same thing last week, as she injected some rare seriousness and rationality to National Radio's light chat show. ….
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/thepanel/audio/2018792344/the-panel-with-laila-harre-and-david-farrar-part-2
Thank you for not offering a 'transcript'.
Why the scare quotes, Sacha? Actually I'm working on a transcript of that memorable piece of radio right now. Her putting straight of the notorious Prof. Patman*, as well as the complacent Wallace Chapman and the right wing ideologue David Farrar was too good to be lost forever in the ether.
* https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11092013/#comment-694967
vox Morrissey
Don’t bother posting it here on TS; we prefer original contributions.
Some things should be lost forever in the ether.
Don’t bother posting it here on TS; we prefer original contributions.
So how come you tolerate the likes of Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?
Some things should be lost forever in the ether.
Fair comment. That applies to 99 per cent of Wallace Chapman's show. But not to sterling contributions by thoughtful and articulate commentators such as Laila Harré.
… Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?
I know it goes whoooosh over your head, but joe90 actually generally conveys more original thought and commentary in just a handful of well-chosen words accompanying those posts than is present in the screeds of repetitive stuff you continually re-post.
…. conveys more original thought and commentary in just a handful of well-chosen words accompanying those posts than is present in the screeds of repetitive stuff you continually re-post.
That's one of the funniest statements you've ever made. Far funnier than any of those daily jibes at President "Tweetyturd" to which you treated us over the last four years.
A decade or so ago, one Michael White made the outlandishly funny claim that the pompous Channel 4 autocue reader Jon Snow was a better journalist than, of all people, John Pilger.
Congratulations. You're right up there with…. Michael White.
Even your ad homs are boring and stale. C’mon Mossie, go deep, aim high, and make’m fly, to the sky.
Hmmm, what is the difference between prefer and tolerate?
BTW, I cannot read tweets as I’m not on Twitter; my ‘department’ is transcripts.
PS Joe90 is a cool name!
Joe90 even has his own song.
"So how come you tolerate the likes of Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?"
You gotta love the double standards of a blow happy referee.
You gotta love those amateur arm-chair ‘referees’ who think they know better, think they see more, but who don’t fully understand the rules of the game, don’t know how to tune their Smart TV or how to operate the remote and then when the game wasn’t to their liking they want their money back and blame the referee
"You gotta love the double standards of a blow happy referee." +1…except I also think it is actually very damaging to the general atmosphere of TS.
I think you are actually polluting discourse and creating a suffocating atmosphere here. What’s worse, your attacks are setting a bad precedent for others. It seems you’re Hellbound to escalate this to a point of no return. Are you sure about this?
"So how come you tolerate the likes of Joe90 simply posting up Twitter messages every day?"…that is because Incognito mostly agrees with Joe 90 and never with you…as has become plainly obvious over the previous months the only debate incognito can generally handle are ones that take place within the walls of their own set political paradigm..or at least close to it.
BTW I and many others on TS really enjoy reading your transcripts..and I assume TS isn't here just to conform to Incognito's dubious aesthetic.
One transcript speaks (nearly) a thousand words: https://thestandard.org.nz/walkergate-mp-quits/#comment-1727532.
Many readers don’t mind at all scrolling and scrolling past these transcripts on their phones or past your own legendary exchanges that descend into conspiracy rabbit holes committed by Ruskies and Yankees and attacking just about every other commenter who needs to “turn [more/further] Left”, in your view.
Of course, your thinly veiled and indirect attack on me as Moderator ignores the fact that those transcripts not only are often long and tedious to read and/or scroll past, puerile, and often contain errors as noted by others here (e.g. https://thestandard.org.nz/brash-bassett-and-hide-take-up-blogging/#comment-1775697). You do seem to go about it in a sly way when attacking some (i.e. the usual) people on this site.
I’d be most obliged to you if you could find me a few examples where I unequivocally agree with joe90 given that you assert that I mostly (??) agree with joe90. I might reciprocate with a few examples where I do actually agree with Mossie even though you assert that I never (!) agree with him; I’m not that disagreeable by nature unless I’m hangry and need a Kit Kat.
I would also be highly appreciative if you could give a description of my “set political paradigm” and show how this is influencing my moderation here in a way that is unfair or unreasonable to you and/or Mossie and interferes with your desire to express yourself here as you wish without giving any consideration of how you come across to others. In fact, you always seem to be looking and thirsting for a ‘good [shit] fight’ here.
Lastly, I do try to encourage robust debate, which should be inclusive and without undue prescription as long as it adheres to this site’s Policy. Removing noise & dirt & nasty trolls have nothing to do my “dubious aesthetic” although I do admit that I prefer beautifully worded arguments and masterly crafted comments.
I prefer not to let this drag on for much longer, because the fun part is long gone for me and you constantly needling, criticizing, and attacking a Moderator might set a wrong example for others. I look forward to you backing up your accusations soon with rockhard watertight evidence or dropping this exercise in futility and surefire way to self-Martyrdom, so that we can move on.
The ball is now in your court, for the very last time, i.e. put up or shut up.
One transcript speaks (nearly) a thousand words:
https://thestandard.org.nz/walkergate-mp-quits/#comment-1727532.
MEMO Incognito:
It was not a transcript, it was a satire. Everyone who commented underneath that little drama—ianmac, Drowsy M. Kram, and georgecom—got that it was a satire. Surely you don't think it was really a transcript?
Didn’t read the commentary, just picked the first ‘transcript’ that suited my comment. If you insist, I can pick one of your real transcripts from your oeuvre here; there are some real doozies among them.
I have to ask, was that intended as self-satire, if there even is such a thing? Pretty good effort, I have to admit; I fell for it, in my hurry to finish the comment on time.
I get that some people enjoy your transcripts and the suggestion has been made for you to post them on your own blog. I think that is an excellent suggestion, a win-win for all.
Siobhan, myself and few other lefties we know who started reading TS about the same time, were/are all big fans of your‘transcripts’ Morrissey and would get great enjoyment out of reading them and then recounting and laughing about our favourite bits when we got together.
Unfortunately most of those other Lefties no longer read TS, which is doubly sad because most of them where younger Lefties in their twenties. I would go into the reasons why they don’t bother reading TS any longer…but I think that is pretty clear.
This movement to not allow you to put those great pieces of truly original and funny satire on The Standard any longer is an indescribable loss for TS, one of main points of obvious humour cut out like this only illustrates what a humourless place it is being pushed into becoming.
Thanks very much, Adrian. I'm ecstatic, yet humbled, to hear that.
You're welcome to stage National Party Emergency Caucus Meeting (© Daisycutter Sports, 2005) or Mrs Brown's Boys (© Daisycutter Sports, 2013) or The Clobbering Machine (© Daisycutter Sports, 2013) at any time. I'll even drive the Breenmobile down to the Heretaunga Plains to help you workshop it if you like.
I love good satire. We need more political satire in NZ although Don and Boris have killed it, I’m afraid. Just no transcripts.
I can think of three moderators who have reached the end of their patience with the transcripts. For me it's the historical inaccuracy and simply not having time to check. That and him having a habit of slandering public figures and putting the site at legal risk is why there's an intolerance now.
Pretty good effort, I have to admit; I fell for it, in my hurry to finish the comment on time. I get that some people enjoy your transcripts
Thanks for that, Incognito. I appreciate that you acknowledge that fact.
and the suggestion has been made
By Sacha. Only by Sacha. Who has hardly ever said anything kind or even reasonably good-tempered to me.
for you to post them on your own blog. I think that is an excellent suggestion, a win-win for all.
No, I will not cease putting up transcripts of the vacuous and/or malicious things that politicians and broadcasters say. However, because I don't want to bore you or the other people on this site or overwhelm them with transcripts, I have hardly put any up at all for a long time, and I don't intend to for a while either. Except possibly just a bit of that Panel segment featuring Professor Robert Patman and Laila Harré.
You know only boring people get bored easily..well that is what have observed of my life time anyway.
Yawn
Please, allow me to make a suggestion to you: don’t post your transcripts here on TS but post them on your own blog instead. Please never ever post transcripts from yesteryear here again.
If you must post new transcripts, I would strongly encourage you to go extremely lightly with them, so lightly that none of the pissed-off Moderators gets even more pissed off with them and/or you.
It’s just a suggestion, of course 😉
You could provide a link to the audio, with a bit of original commentary and personal analysis but without any ad homs and without any transcript. I know, it sounds radical, but most commenters are doing it this way here and I’m confident that you can too 😉
I've just told you, quite clearly, that I have not posted any transcripts for many, many months. If I do put any up, than I will keep them short and to the point.
I have spent a lot of time on the transcripts that I've done for this site. I take great pains to present them attractively, and with complete accuracy. I have transcribed things that politicians and broadcasters would rather were forgotten—for example, RNZ National Panel hosts and guests hooting in derision at the suffering of Julian Assange, or a National Party Cabinet minister telling Kathryn Ryan that there is "a variety of various variables", or Paul Henry ranting on breakfast television: "We have to be in there STRONG and HARD! We have to KILL THEM ALL! And in the course of this, bombs are going to bounce into tents where there are women and children! But we must not get up in arms about that! Kill them all!"
Why should I not put such things, awful and disgusting as they are, up on this site? I thought this was a forum for serious discussion and analysis.
[Ok, have it your way, you’re now being Moderated.
And right on cue, you produce a humourless transcript from yesteryear: https://thestandard.org.nz/australia-is-picking-a-fight-with-china/#comment-1790135.
It didn’t take me long to find a number of transcripts, or are they satires, over the last couple of months or so:
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-04-2021/#comment-1787755
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11-04-2021/#comment-1787697
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-04-2021/#comment-1787525
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09-03-2021/#comment-1782610
I’ve even asked you before in a Moderation note to start up your own blog: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-04-2021/#comment-1787661.
I know transcribing is hard work, although software applications are becoming quite impressive and useful, and I know that some here lament the loss of your transcriptions here as the last remaining sense of humour and thus of human creativity and intelligence on this site. I sympathise with those losers.
However, a number of Moderators now have outlined why they have a wee problem with your transcripts. Given that transcripts are simply a written copy of audio, a link to the original source would and does suffice. If necessary, provide a time stamp pointing to the specific segment that you want to highlight. As such, (your) transcripts are no substitutes or surrogates for serious discussion and analysis. Unfortunately, you seem to put so much effort in the transcribing that you omit adding any decent analysis other than snide remarks about a wonderful interviewer/panel and the awful interviewee or vice versa. As weka mentioned, on occasion this has bordered on slander and putting this site at risk.
You insist that will continue putting up your transcripts (https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27-04-2021/#comment-1790116). This could be a problem because you’ve demonstrated beyond any doubt that you cannot self-moderate your comments and commenting behaviour.
You can do whatever you like on your own blog and others can visit and read your transcripts to their heart’s content over there, but on this site, you must take heed of Moderators’ guidance. This is your warning – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:40 pm.
Hey, I was sincerely thanking you. Was about to agree with another comment of yours too.
Weka has explained concisely the problem for the site regardless of the opinion of me or anyone else. Please think broader.
And right on cue, you produce a humourless transcript from yesteryear…
The humourlessness of that transcript is entirely due to the Australian prime minister and his moronic interlocutors. It's actually far worse than "humourless", of course: it's a brutal and nasty demonstration of contempt for both Pamela Anderson and the political prisoner she is speaking for.
As weka mentioned, on occasion this has bordered on slander and putting this site at risk.
That ONE occasion—I was unable to provide evidence of a politician alleging something nasty—has been well and truly put to bed. I apologized to both Mr Prent and the politician involved. You personally thanked me for that apology. Now, when else have I ever "bordered on slander" or put this site at risk? Was I slandering Scott Morrison by transcribing his malicious and humourless denigration of a political prisoner?
…. you’ve demonstrated beyond any doubt that you cannot self-moderate your comments and commenting behaviour.
That is an unfair and highly prejudiced accusation. Where have I ever personally denigrated anyone on this forum, or used foul language, or—apart from the one incident already mentioned and dealt with—made unfounded accusations about anyone?
You can do whatever you like on your own blog and others can visit and read your transcripts to their heart’s content over there, but on this site, you must take heed of Moderators’ guidance.
I do take heed of Moderators' guidance.
[Why are you wasting more Moderator when you’re already being Moderated?
Clearly, whether your transcripts are funny and contain humour is highly subjective but also irrelevant to this Moderation. This site is not an entertainment channel for people to express and enjoy their personal fetish. Nor is it aiming to compete with Comedy Central. There’s plenty of room and opportunity for sharp wit and satire, without your transcripts.
Yes, you apologised when you crossed the line, which was the right thing to do. I’ve no interest in trying to find other instances that might have occurred before I became Moderator here; I have a feeling the other Moderators could easily chip in here, but this is not necessary. Once is enough to make the point. Note that this is not the only reason for your Moderation.
There is a tediously long history of warning you in comments and Moderating you. You still don’t get it or still don’t want to get it; you dig in, you argue back, you resist, you litigate, you’re a recidivist offender who has wasted hours of Moderator time here over the years. I see this lack of adaptation and improvement as proof that you cannot self-moderate or don’t want to. Moreover, your comments regularly contain snide remarks and negativity/negative criticism aimed at others although perhaps not generally others on this forum (i.e. other commenters), which is synonymous with “denigrate” in my version of the English language. Criticism is ok, necessary even, but it needs to be fair and constructive and supported with analysis (which a transcript is not!). Taking potshots at people is the act of a small-minded wee soul. And it is not funny.
You assert you take heed of Moderators’ guidance. You forgot to qualify this conditional assertion; if you had taken heed in the past, we wouldn’t have that long history, or should I call it “precedence”, and if you had taken heed, I would not have to spend time writing this Moderation note either, which is yet another one added to the ever-growing list.
Don’t assume you can use this site as your personal playground and sandpit; you don’t pay a cent towards its running costs and you don’t spend any time & effort in managing it nor do you write any (Guest) Posts. You’re free to comment here as long as you follow instructions. You have your own blog where you can be in total control and do whatever you like within the boundaries of NZ Law.
This conversation is now closed! Take it or leave it – Incognito]
See my final (!) Moderation note to you @ 3:08 pm.
Bound to be 'original' like most fiction is. 🙂
I'd love a transcript Morrissey!
Like you, I despair of the verbose, partisan and ineffectual Chapman.
Perfect! He can post it on his own blog and send you the link.
What the hell does it matter to you if he posts it on The Standard?…if you don't like then don't read read…there problem solved.
Do try a dose of your own medicine: “if you don’t like then don’t read read…there problem solved” [sic]. Up the dose when coming across any commenter or Moderator, comment or Moderation note, that might make your brain explode and trigger a verbiage of verbal diarrhoea from you.
signal to noise ratio.
and what the hell does it matter to you if he posts it on his own blog..
She reads them all right, Adrian. She even had a minor supporting role in one, back in December 2013*, which is the reason for her unending anger and animosity.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30122013/#comment-750859
[link fixed]
Who is “she”? Michelle LeBoag?
BTW, I fixed your link. FYI, don’t paste (Ctrl + V) TS links but use the Link button (Ctrl + K) in the comment/text editor.
Thanks for fixing the link. You're a real champion, I think.
"She" is our good friend Sacha. My first ever interaction with her came after the post "Mr Brown's Boys", which sent up the naïveté and gullibility of commentators on Russell Brown's site. She's had it in for me ever since. The old Breen charm routine fails to impress her, I'm afraid.
Oh dear! You pay so little attention to other commenters and comments here because you’re too busy ad homming and ‘discussing’ people. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10-04-2021/#comment-1787675.
Maybe Sacha doesn’t like to be insulted and who does? They can fill you in on their motives, if they wish 😀
The “old Breen charm routine”? You’re starting to sound like an old sleazebag wearing Old Spice.
Maybe Sacha doesn’t like to be insulted and who does? They can fill you in on their motives, if they wish
“They”? OMG, how many Sachas are there?
You’re starting to sound like an old sleazebag wearing Old Spice.
Tough assessment—but fair, methinks. And funny. That's a Kit-Kat for you, my friend.
Yeah, I know, astroturfing is becoming a problem and it is hard keeping them apart when they all use the same name, which can be very deceiving.
Oh yum! I’m gonna share it with my other friend here, Sabine.
I really thought he had paid more attention. 🙂
Robert, if you are around thought you might enjoy this. Others here too.
https://twitter.com/petemrcooper/status/1386776334790184961?s=21
Side issue. Motels are not slums. Even cheap ones are infinitely better than living in a car. Since there are not enough houses to go around, isn't this a pretty good solution? Motel rates need to be brought under control though. And you can't choose your neighbours if the mob moves in next door, it can happen to anyone. Yes NZ needs more houses built but this will take a long time. Can't the Gov't just buy these Motels for 'the state' and let developers build more new ones?
Test
Test 2 not logged in, safari
you must not have seen some of the motels and the people housed there.
If you lived next to drug peddling gangsters with your family and you have no way of escape you might think twice about living in a van or car.
No the government 'can't just buy' these motels, they are private property -landbankers if you want so – and they are getting greased by the government beyond believe. Heck for 400 NZD a night (highest amount paid so far as per reports) they could pay rent fully. But then that would be a novel idea, and we only ever tried the known, tried and true and for the best profit for the motel lobby. Cause some industries are more deserving of receiving governments money then others. Never mind the all the unpleasantness about it.
Sabine as an ex rep I can claim to have stayed in more motels than most including low cost south Auckland motels many times. It's comes down to security if you want safe. It's no place for children though, which is what you are alluding too I suppose. OK for adults as long as your aware of your surroundings and live accordingly. It is still much better and much safer than a car. Maybe some people worry too much about the lower socioeconomic situation and let the media hype put unreasonable fear into conservative people.
As an ex rep you have no idea what you are talking about. Thanks.
Maybe you should have a good look at the motels that participate in this scheme, and you will find that most are motels that you as a rep would never have booked in, or say your company would have paid for.
Shoving a family of 4+ into a 25sqm 4 – 6 bed room is not the same as you coming as a rep, eating in a restaurant for dinner, coming in to sleep – maybe a cuppa and some Sky before going to bed before you travelled on to the next motel to stay for A night.
Apples and oranges are both fruit, both come from trees and that is literally where all 'sameness' then ends.
Nope. Still better than living in a car. BTW I have stayed in plenty of low end motels and had takeaways mostly. Dining by oneself is over rated. I'm not saying all motels are good. There are a lot of shitholes out their BUT they have more room, are warmer, have a bed, shower, kitchenete, etc etc etc. Your car have this?My bus does, but then it is not a car. I lived in my car at the Mount for 6 winter months when I was a bit younger. I have very low standards it would seem.
This one was. And AFAIK, nothing's changed.
https://vimeo.com/72231984
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018647386/whanganui-emergency-housing-unhabitable-salvation-army-says
but but but – details details Joe.
also this 🙂
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/govt-to-buy-motels-for-christmas
read this article and then weep. Homelessness is big business for motels tha twould have already died due to lack of tourists. Heck, so it seems that one part of the tourism industry does get help from the government.
they could have rented a standard bog property of trade me irrespective of the cost of that rental, housed a family longterm that way, and still have saved money.
yeah, and it is as cynical as that:
this fucking government.
Where are these mythical properties the Government could rent.? A potty mouth and a twisted view of the world does not help.. Some of your arguments are cogent, but most are thorough going rants.
I have never been to Wanganui. After watching this, I never want to go to Wanganui.
Silly you, Wanganui is a lovely place.
Well this particular video of Wanganui is hardly selling it as a tourist destination…..think I would prefer to holiday in the Sunshine Coast (or virtually anywhere other than Gonville, Wanganui)!
So, Jimmy, you judge all Gonville and Whanganui by one little video of one little spot.
I and others will take this into account when assessing the intrinsic value of all your future comments – if we bother to read them.
Perhaps you could list a few of the tourist highlights and points of interest of Gonville for me, and maybe we will look at it as a possible holiday destination.
GreenBus, apparently they tried and word got round and sale prices went up.
we are paying somewhere of 110 – 400 NZD a night, guaranteed occupancy. No way Tiny Dean in Rotorua is selling his Motels, this is the best money he ever made. And he don't even need to do anything else then say, yeah, i can squeeze another twenty into here for 150 buck a nigh per person.
What gets me is, that they can be build faster then houses – i have seen some Motels go up very fast here in Vegas, same as for oldfolks housing, – what the government should do is maybe build to that model and start with 1 – 2 bedrooms and make it permanent housing with a concierge, maybe an on site social worker/ advocate that can help navigate Winz and such.
That would be a much better use of money then what we are doing now.
Sabine you will burst a foo-foo valve if you don't take a break and stop fulminating. For every criticism and fault you find – see if you can find something good and positive. Otherwise you and we will be off to the mental health and they are already overcrosded. How about taking a break every half an hour for a cup of tea or something.
Got nothing to say then dear?
How about a nice virtual cup of your tea with your special sweetner of ' cant' be bothered'.
As for me? Like with chocolate, i don't like the cheap crap, its too sweet, has no flavor and is essentially just a waste of money.
Just like hte current governments inaction on our homeless crisis.
bye now. 🙂
Erdogan's attitude to women-in-power being made plain for all to see (not that it really needs pointing out any further):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/26/sofagate-snub-would-not-have-happened-to-a-man-von-der-leyen
I'll never be convinced it was any kind of oversight. And Charles Michel's "reaction" was little short of contemptible.
Old Man's Beard
One of the nastier little changes the Nats made was to remove the requirement from house owners to eliminate noxious plants such as old mans beard. I don't know whether that can be done by regulation or whether an act is required, but there has now been long enough for that pest at least to regain a foothold in quite a few areas. This might be a ping pong issue (and landlords will complain about yet more regulation and costs pushing up rents), but I believe it worth doing as soon as possible.
moth plant, kudzu, etc.
yet here our council sprays the good plants so that the weeds prosper.
The best one that i saw a few years ago was a 'blackberry' weed eradication programme – never mind all of us who liked to go and pick these for jams and pies. The managed to kill most of the blackberry and now replaced it with kudzu and moth plant.
Pests. ey?
I am amazed too that old man's beard is not a hot issue, I see so much of it. And sneak into any controls one against bindweed – Convulvulus arvensis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulus_arvensis
Bindweed actually has quite a pretty, white, trumpet-like flower but it is a brute of a plant. An invasive vine, once established it's extremely difficult to get rid of. … The Bindweed stems creep along the surface of the soil, climbing fences, other plants and whatever else they encounter, forming dense, tangled mats. https://www.henrystreet.co.uk/battling-bindweed-in-your-garden/
But that's a half-truth. Actually it grows roots like thin pipes underground whether you can see it above or not, quite often both. Morning glory (Calystegia) can also be called bindweed.
A big shoutout to Dunedin's Mayor Dave Cull, who has died at 71.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/former-dunedin-mayor-dave-cull-dies
Under his leadership at Dunedin there was a fair few fine moves that occurred. The ones I noticed are:
– Turning the historic precinct from a run-down and derelict waterfront into a high-end innovation and commercial precinct.
– Wrinsing out the historical corruption within Dunedin City operations, and enabling a new generation of managers to rise through a good CE
– Getting a much stronger grip on Aurora Ltd and their horrific maintenance record. And a generally stronger grip on all the City companies
– Getting DCC's debt under control, post-stadium build
– Upgrading all of the central Dunedin water supply from E to A
– Enabling rail tourism to flourish
– Persuading NZTA to get cycleways all the way out to Port Chalmers on one side of the harbour, and out beyond Portobello on the other (though it took until this term to see it really rolling)
– Pushing successfully (both as Mayor and as Chair of Southern DHB) for a brand new hospital (which is still going through another Cabinet cycle)
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/former-dunedin-mayor-dave-cull-dies-aged-71
And from all reports I got, being effective as a leader at the Council.
Sounds good Ad. RIP Mayor Cull.
Dave Cull did Dunedin Proud .
Hopefully no-one got affected by the disk change tonight. Upgraded the disk array for The Standard. Took about 25 minutes longer than it should have.
I hope they fine this guy a decent amount, as it sounds like he travelled from Perth when he knew he shouldn't have, and basically puts everyone else at risk. If he ends up with a slap from the wet bus ticket it will be no disincentive.
Man who flew from Perth 'knew he should not be travelling to NZ': Immigration boss | Stuff.co.nz
Yep. Or just stuff him in special MIQ in Mt Eden for 2 weeks and charge him full price for it. But somehow, instead, they picked him up at the border and sent him home in Northland to self-isolate. Just encourages more irresponsible idiots.
Not sure who has control in a case like this, police, customs, MoH?
I have very little tolerance for people who knowingly put whole populations of people in potential jeopardy.
Concerns me that they trust him to self isolate in Northland, especially after the way he left Perth and changed flights etc. It doesn't sound like he is that trustworthy.