This is fascinating! A German study found richer people think they are relatively less rich than they are, while poorer people think they are richer than they are. Leading all of society to grossly underestimate the true extent of inequality that exists.
That's how Capitalism works keep making people feel they need more junk to fulfill people's lives keeping up with the Jones's you must have a better cars houses clothing appliances etc.nothing material will ever satisfy that need for there will always be something better brighter coming that will make the previous model redundant keeping up demand and production.
There's never been a better net to pull China into engaging with multilateral discourse on a more than purely mercantilist basis. Let the pressure pile on.
Full marks to President Biden. That is how you handle as important a matter as the origins of a pandemic. Unlike Trump who politcised the vexing question for personal gain. Most important of all, it looks like it is going to be done in a transparent way which is to everyone's benefit.
I sincerely hope the idiots who kept voting for Trump can see the error of their ways. Vain hope I know.
The problem is that all infections cycle – they peak and then fall. They will frequently fall almost to disappearance and then flare up to a higher peak than previously as the disease find a previously socially excluded population or get a variation that is more infectious.
The actual test of success of population immunity if you’re looking at epidemics and pandemics is if the next peak is significantly smaller than the previous peak. A false ‘its over’ is especially daft when going from winter to summer – with the lowered environmental infection rates.
The last peak in the US was close to double the size of the earlier one. The US is in summer now – its infection rate is still higher than it was in the last low. I’d look to October/November to see if there really has been a actual reduction in pandemics waves.
Only simpletons (like Ben Thomas or Mike Hosking) would think that a Northern Hemisphere moving into summer has beaten off the pandemic.
Manipulating/misconstruing what other people say to give a wrong impression of their reflections and then trying to blindside with pseudo science seems to be a trademark of yours.
I scroll over the top of your diatribes Rosemary because I can't be bothered with vaccine denial and immature pettiness.
This is an interesting example of how decision making can be obfuscated and weakened by deliberate process. And that one must understand the background politics to see the purpose, and be skilled at appeasing the doubts and dislikes to get real progress on the matter in hand.
From Slavoj Zizek's book 'In Defence of Lost Causes' which title appeals to me in our era.
'The 2005 French and Dutch "nos" to the project of the European Constitution were clear-cut cases of what in "French theory" is referred to as a floating signifier: a"no" of confused, inconsistent, overdetermined meanings, a kind of container in which the defense of workers' rights coexists with racism, in which the blind reaction to a perceived threat and fear of change coexist with vague utopian hopes.
We are told that the French "no" was really a "no" to many other things: to Anglo-Saxon neoliberalism, to Chirac and his government, to the influx of immigrant workers from Poland who lower the wages of the French workers, and so on and so forth.
The real struggle is going on now: namely the struggle for the meaning of this "no" – who will appropriate it? Who – if anyone – will translate it into a coherent alternative political vision? p.266
I've broken it up into smaller paragraphs so one can follow the line of his points. What matters are getting in the way and stopping us from going to the heart of our conferences aimed at formulating policy to address our obvious but languishing problems, such as housing at affordable prices, and our inability to cope with the commodification of housing, one of our essential human needs.
It's pretty clear Zizak can't see that the "overdetermined signifiers" he bewails are actually the right set of hooks to successfully pull very broad adherent bases. The incoherent "No" has been and remains precisely the recipe for a successful smashing of the traditional left across Europe and the UK, and also did pretty well in the US as well.
Whereas the traditional left has kept pushing campaigns based around standard human needs, and rapidly failing to the point that globally only NZLabour remains in power or likely to get back to power.
the traditional left has kept pushing campaigns based around standard human needs, and rapidly failing
Only because of self-serving Quislings like Keir Starmer. Neoliberalism has wrecked the livelihoods of the mass of traditional left supporters – identity politics is no substitute for addressing that massive generational ripoff.
Kirk's old vision: a job, a place to live, something to hope for, would sell pretty well in most of the countries hollowed out by the plague of far-right failed economists.
Our current government didn't promise much of standard human needs in its first term, and promised even less in its second term manifesto (they are certainly more adventurous through 2020-21). Few would claim that the continued electoral failure of UK Labor after Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is down to any one leader.
What they promise is a delicate dance with the media, and says little about either the quality of government or their intentions, other than surrendering public discourse to Murdoch's pathetic far-right hacks.
Absent Covid and related crisies, Labour would still be running scared – but the crisis has demonstrated graphically, that neither the media nor the opposition have a ghost of a clue how to govern, how to manage a crisis, or how to run an economy. Leaves the field pretty open.
It is Starmer et al that are the problem with British Labour – the rump of Blairism and its discredited third way presumptions. If a pathetic clown like Boris cannot be fought, much of the blame lies with the character of the opposition.
If Starmer really was the issue, Corbyn should have won in a landslide. Neither did, so it's way more than character.
The left have been granted the Covid-gift of narrating the necessity of the highly interventionist state for the common and egalitarian good. None of that is based on the usual Lefty policy positions: how left parties make good of it will determine their future existence.
If Starmer were alone, he wouldn't have been able to sabotage Corbyn – but that's all he achieved.
Labour faces multiple issues, not least of which is making some kind of accommodation with the SNP. But Starmer isn't facing those issues. It's going to be a long time in the wilderness – but the lesson is not the failure of foundational Labour values, only the danger of allowing quislings to supplant the core party roles. This can hardly be lost on NZ, where the damage done by the cabal who subsequently formed ACT, and their neoliberal colleagues, is still denying many of us the prosperity that competent governance would have delivered.
The UK Labour party is broken Corbyn didn't have any charisma .
Starmer is not much better but where Labour is losing is in its heartland .Brexit played into the Tory hands by dividing the Northern working class labours base.The working classes of the UK have seen migrant labour keeping wages low and house prices high.
Brexit is the revenge that will push out cheap migrant labour.So working class people will continue to vote conservative.
What can Labour do ,their do nothing policy on Brexit didn't go down well.Labour had no options to offer these people so the outcome was inevitable.
Labour will struggle to get back support unless the economy continues in a downward spiral.
White English people had enough of wage destruction by former eastern block labour underming their income.Brexit has already had a chilling effect . Creating labour shortages not being filled by locals who don't want to do the dirty hard work .because the younger generations have had longterm unemployment live a much more sedentary lifestyle and don't want to move out of their social circles.
Many of the same reasons we rely on migrant labour in NZ.
@ Gypsy – We've seen a lot of these "false balance" stories in the media over the last few years.
Corbyn had charisma to burn – the spontaneous reaction at Glastonbury was not spin doctoring.
without any qualities required of a leader, mental agility, articulacy, strategy, good humour or charisma.
You could make the claim – but Britain just chose a cross between a polar bear and an unmade bed – Corbyn is still a better leader than Boris – an absence is a better leader than Boris. And Starmer for that matter – disloyalty is a disqualifier.
The decline and seemingly inevitable Pasokification of UK Labour is largely due to it's colonisation as an institution by a certain London based professional clique of liberal chancers who see the party organisation primarily in terms of a vehicle for personal advancement within the existing power structures in the UK. Radical change actually threatens this ambitious class of mangerialists because it potentially shifts the gravy train they want to stay on to another line and locomotive entirely, snatching away the reawards they feel they are entitled to.
Calling them centrists is to be to generous as to motivation. They just want to get rich via capturing the machinery of major political party and parlaying that into connections that can get them plum jobs outside politics.
Who saw the Blood Super-Moon last night? The other customer in the kebab shop said it was due to happen about 11 pm. But I wanted to be in bed then, and I'm bloody sick of all that is happening on earth without looking at the sky for kicks.
Got a good view of it down here. It was low enough in the sky that I could see it through a window. Quite convenient lying in a beanbag up in the loft in the warm.
It wasn’t quite total here, but still quite spectacular. There was one about 20 years ago that went right through the middle of the umbra, the memory of the flash as the edge of the moon came out of the shadow will be vivid for the rest of my life. And the -15 frost that night, that one was high and had to go outside.
Global transport company Mainfreight says international shipping companies are charging sky high premiums to carry freight, which is driving up the cost of imported goods.
Mainfreight managing director Don Braid said the cost of shipping a 40-foot container of goods had been inflated by up as much as $8000 more than a standard contract price negotiated pre-Covid-19…
Congestion at the Ports of Auckland was going on at every major port around the world, he added.
Braid expected the situation would continue for at least 12 months, with one of its large United States-based customers preparing for the price gouging to last for perhaps four more years.
It was more efficient to call up passing international ships than have our own line; that was the mantra.
Incidentally all my smart family in Auckland think it is crazy to have Whangarei to be opened up to remove pressure on Auckland ports. This thinking is based on simple commonsense! Real examination of the situation indicates that thinking needs to go beyond simple. Yet decisions to vote in general elections are based on similar snap judgments. It seems to me that voters need to do a scratch test to demonstrate they know how to distinguish vital differences, between B and P for instance, (gosh they look alike).
Opening up Whangarei and Northport will only happen if they get the friggin rail sorted. Does anyone seriously want all those container trucks on the road, all the way to and through Auckland?
It comes as news website Politik says the two resignations were orchestrated by the offices of Ardern and former National leader Todd Muller over growing security concerns..
Politik says it was because of growing concerns about the men's relationship with the Chinese government and that they resigned after security briefings to the two-party leaders.
Yes Ghost, we have been sold out to Chinese interests by both major parties for too long.
Unfortunately, corruption in China is normalised and not even seen as wrong or bad by most people. And Chinese are nationalistic to a degree we could never understand (I guess being almost completely isolated until the last century and a half does that).
I know this personally from my brief stint as a lecturer at Lincoln University (I quit after repeatedly being told not to address the almost universal cheating by Chinese students. The bs excuse was that it was culturally offensive to address this). Also as a former CA working for an extended period in Shanghai.
Some relevant questions: why do Kiwirail persist in buying the Dog and Lemon 'DL' class locos, that perform worse than 45 year old US made 'DX' class locos, and have been off the rails for extended periods for major repairs (turbine replacement) and cab asbestos removal and severe cab rust? Or the container wagons that had such bad deck camber that containers could not be loaded, and the decks of which had to be machined flat in NZ?
And thats just Kiwirail. So many similar proven examples of councils (e.g. CCC tiles for the Square that were not fit for purpose or Invercargills Chinese Christmas lights) and government departments and universities doing this (eg the treatment of Prof. Anne-marie Brady by University of Canterbury).
We have been screwed by our 'leaders' who put personal advantage ahead of the national interest for decades now, and now the implications are becoming apparent.
Interesting points. I do think we are naive in our dealings with China and could take a bit of advice from some of our SE Asian neighbours who have been dealing with them for a long time. I always feel the main interest is in ripping us off and we could do with gently easing away and making common cause with other like minded smaller nations.
The Australians seem to be going 'ape' over chinese trade issues, now 60 minutes is calling us as New Xi-land. Its really the 5 Eyes thing where we didnt become their poodle
They get so jingoistsic and of course we are easier to kick around than China
Quite a long piece on the case against Hardieboard going on which will be interesting as we watch the government neolibs puny ideas go naked; ie the ones about business being reliable, and the people and market scrutiny being enough to keep them good. Yes business knows better than government how to do things well and be good not like those lazy, slack, costly, limiting public servants and inspectors.
James Hardie group of companies are a disgrace. Remember their handling of asbestos claims in Australia? Deny deny deny, then when that failed, run offshore. When that fails, blame the victims and delay delay elay until most of the victims are dead.
National Party operative, Ben Thomas, is having a big cry about Kiwis being cautious about immigration at the moment.
Ben might like to accept that Kiwis now are sick and tired of mismanaged immigration policy over the last 20 years. They are sick and tired of our infrastructure not keeping up with demand.
Ben wants to open the tap again, presumably so the value of his houses continue to skyrocket.
It was an article with a lot of contradictions. Proud of our diaspora – not sure about that and I find it deeply worrying that we have several hundred thousand permanent resident visa's issued where the visa holder is not ordinarily resident here. But I bet we'd see them if they had welfare needs. Flights numbers from the red countries went down about 75% when it went to citizens only. Why didn't we do that sooner? It's a large financial risk to the ordinary taxpayer which needs to be controlled – cancel the visa's if people do not remain ordinarily resident here?
But on another subject entirely – I'm no social scientist but we have remained covid free so far – what social strands led us as a community to be so effective? I see precious little interest or curiosity in that as a subject which we could utilise to better ourselves as a community in other ways?
There are some obvious strands – clear information and a lot of feedback as to how we are doing, a bit of money to tide individuals over – but how do we harness this community pull together in other economic and social ways. Not with top down edicts I guess but there must be something there.
"what social strands led us as a community to be so effective?
One aspect that was very clear to me was the memory by Maori of the impact of the 1918 Spanish flu. While quite a few marae have monuments this was a time when oral history was much more useful than written history. Passed down memories of up to 60% of a localised population dying and much more resilient than needing to get a book out of the library or research on the internet.
This set in motion a strong desire to not have history repeat – hence the road blocks, etc.
The other aspects bought by Maori to the table, and more importantly enacted and implemented, were concepts like manakitanga and kotahitanga. Both the looking after others and we are all in this together.
These concepts have always been anathematic to capitalism (you only need to read Hansard to hear politicians speaking of the evils of Maori communism) but in this case were perfectly suited to the crisis that befell the world.
Maori excelled themselves during this crisis and while the media headlines were about road-blocks Maori were busy checking on the elderly and the disabled, making sure they had firewood, dropping off food parcels and to all those redneck bigots who say "well what about the treaty settlements”, they were spending good money on making sure their people as well as many non-Maori were supported through this time. Those skills in organising tangi and bigger events such as kapa haka festivals, etc honed so well over the years, came into good stead.
These concepts and skills with slight variations cover the whole country – from large urban areas to small towns and villages.
I certainly sense a growing confidence, in part as a result of responding to the pandemic so well, about handling their own affairs and being part of the story in New Zealand's future. COVID-19 was an opportunity to sat – we're here and we can do great things.
From a non-Maori perspective there has been a run of crises – the Christchurch earthquakes, etc where people have come together – these almost a pre-cursor to this larger less localised crisis. The seeds were sown.
Where this leads to will be interesting – do we build on that increased confidence that Maori have or do the same people who have been in charge for a while just get put back once the COVID-19 crisis is over.
I'm hopeful that we don't revert – the change sweeping across the country to have Maori wards and therefore to have Maori at the decision making table will bring some challenges for incumbent councils around a whole range of things – environment, development, housing, sustainability, etc. The change from advisor functionality to voting at the table is a big jump forward.
We need some strong social policy researchers to go around these communities and understand the response – it wasn't a capitalist response on the ground – while at a government level things such as increased benefits through the wage subsidy now that European workers would be laid off – was a typical capitalist response.
There are some interesting threads there DOS. While there is a strong maori response there, has it also merged over into the way smaller and more remote communities operate and even into how larger community neighbours work.? The one thing we can say is that it really isn't a top down response.
Looking at the first chch quake – the early Sunday morning one when most management is in bed. The initial response was interesting, early ferries out of Wellington where held back so that some trucks with essential gear comms and telco stuff IIRC could be loaded and sent south, Fonterra at Clandeboyne had washed out milk tankers and dispatched them filled with water by about 8.am, Line maintenance crews had checked lines out further south and where on the road to Chch around the same time and the airport and the main hospital where back in operation and on mains power by about 2pm. Does this also fit into the same social narrative.
…Ben Thomas, is having a big cry about Kiwis being cautious about immigration at the moment.
Basically he’ll have to wait until we hit 70+% vaccination rate. I not aware of any credible medical person who thinks that a rate lower than 70% is sufficient to protect a population from offshore infection. Most seem to be putting it higher than that.
I can’t think of a reason for taking the risk of opening up the borders more than we are doing right now (and I have some trepidation about our current level). I certainly can’t see any reason as a population why we should do so.
Not to mention this bit of stupidity..
For a country that has long been proud of having the developed world’s second-largest diaspora (by percentage of population), after Ireland, the casual dismissal of New Zealanders seeking to come home from overseas, and the glee with which quarantine charging was embraced, was startling.
Who are these stupid dickheads who’d be proud of that? I guess that some proportion of dumb and dumber live here – apparently Ben Thomas meets most of them.
Well I’m 71 and look like spending the entire winter out in the vineyard pruning as we are short of a few thousand mainly Pasifika workers and quite a few European work holiday kids. Say what you like about not needing them for all manner of reasons and I for one have long been a proponent, just to piss my Tory mates off, that a man should not own more vines than he can prune himself, but that was when I was a youthful 40 or 60. I have always felt good about how work done on my place by the few that I need from time to time has helped them to build homes and get clean reliable water for their extended families in places such as Vanuatu and Nuie and Samoa. Their wages put them in the top few per cent of earners where they come from, and incidentally they earn more than me on an hourly rate, and the 2 billion dollars of offshore earnings the wine industry earns pay for the computer you are using and the electric bike you have just bought and most importantly the billion dollars or so of Covid vaccine, which incidentally we are supplying to some of those places because they can’t afford it themselves.
Mobile labour has been as old as time itself, the Pasifika are replacing the many who have moved to “ essential “ work such as baristas, make your own fucking coffee, Human Resources Personnel or as they were known in the old days, slave ship crew, and hairdressers, hairdressers?. Comb it your bloody self.
That’s why we need imported labour, the old supply has moved to what really amounts to shit we can do for ourselves, because we either like to feel pampered or are too bloody lazy to do it ourselves.
Do it ourselves? We need people to do our supermarket shopping for us, to gather goods for our week's cooking, to deliver food to our door so we don't have to cook…
Maybe it's time you stumped up for mechanical harvesting, and obviated the need for under-paid foreign labour. If you are too small, pool together, or encourage your local subcontractor to invest:
Better would be land reform – break up the corporate vineyards – small owners manage to manage their crops. It wasn't the peasant farmers that ruined the Roman economy, it was the huge Sicilian and Sardinian corporate slave operated grain farms. They wiped out the peasantry and then wondered why the legions had to be filled up with disloyal foreigners.
Cause they are citizens and get a benefit from Winz, something a migrant would / will not get?
I suggested some years ago to my then chronically unemployed son of my partner that he should do what the kids from overseas do, get a camper van, travel up and down the country, work the orchards and the vinyards and meet people.
His answer? To hard, hours to long, no internet, and besides Winz will give him a benefit, and he really can't be arsed. His words.
And that is what sums up much of the young kiwi generation to migrants. Entitled, spoiled beyond believe and with no ambition.
Don't blame him. If a job has "meeting people" as an incentive, the pay does not reflect the effort involved.
If one mentions that there's an obscene amount of cash to be made, the number of people who can't be arsed drops dramatically. Sure, there's a balance so that the growers can actually make enough to keep going, but if the dole is competition for the income then the job is shit.
There are other barriers. It's a big deal to relocate around the country for insecure employment. Sometimes you need to keep the flat you have, too, as well as pay for accommodation in the new place. If the job goes under, is there a new stand-down or fucking patronising seminar for the dole, or do you go straight back on it with no loss of income? Is there a clear path for some workers to do different seasonal jobs throughout the year, especially between industries?
These are the questions the local industry associations should be asking and trying to solve, rather than whinging about a lack of imported labour. The current situation is an opportunity to improve methods without being temporarily undercut by the slower-thinking grower down the road.
Importing labour because they're cheaper is just outsourcing our exploitation.
Well i do blame him. Simple as. If you skip school cauase you can't be bothered, never learn a single thing, than at some stage it is your fault. Simple as.
The state owes no one anything as the 'state' is a construct we make up – we might discuss this again next time NZ is run by a different party led government. Same with a job. We are not owed one by anyone. It is up to us in life to muster some sort of survival skills and learn something. Cause if not, i think he will find life very hard.
And i don't think his demands of wages will increase with the lack of any and all marketable skills.
And that is why quite a few people in this country rather 'import' people to work with – and some abuse the system, and some don't (as is with every system) because you can't work with people who deep down don't want to work.
And this is a global work force, as much as there is global trade, and Kiwi who want to make money, leave the country to be some 'job stealing migrant to some migrant importing cheap loader business' somewhere else. Go figure.
Extrapolating from one person to an entire system of labour is bold. Sure, some people might be happy to live on the dole. If they can manage it, good luck to them.
But even if that were the case, we seem to have a problem with exporting doctors and nurses rather than fruit pickers. So this isn't an equal ebb and flow of labour, it's employers undervaluing the work they expect from their employees.
We have a welfare state becaue "work or die" (i.e. no safety net) is exploitation. The biggest thing I've noticed about younger folk isn't an unwillingness to work, it's an unwillingness to be exploited.
Living is exploitation, if you don't feed, house and clothes your body chances are one dies quickly, in fact where it not for mother most of us would not survive birth.
Society is what we make it. You do absolutly not have to work until you die, you can work less, work smarter, or do with less….choices.
As for his unwillingness to be part of the system, i say hunger is a good teacher.
As for living being exploitation, setting my own constraints is not exploitation. Employment with no social safety net enables my employer to set restrictive constraints well outside of my control. That is exploitation.
Hunger is not a great teacher. Just because I can remember verses of John Masefield from the teachers that regularly beat us with a strap doesn't mean I have a love for poetry. It means they beat it into me. The teachers who never hurt me, however, had a chance to build enthusiasm for a subject.
What's the kid doing now? Did his "chronic unemployment" hurt him in the long run?
He is now an adult in his thirties with a good knowledge in gaming but no other marketable skills.
In saying that, if i had a choice, i would put him on the bum benefit, for life, enough to keep him in a room, warm, clothed and fed. Just simply to keep him of the unemployment record. He is not unemployed – for that he would have had to be employed in the first place. He expect "society" to care for him. That is two different things.
If so he's not a typical case. Some people take longer to get into the swing of things than others. Most turn out pretty good, rather than 10-15 years unemployed.
Did a spell of picking in the early nineties between deepsea trips – MAF didn't pay observers when we were on shore, we were just another group of casualized civil servants. Quite hard work, and I was fit as hell back then. Six weeks of work and the diff went on my car – basically didn't make a cent after fixing it. The value proposition is pretty broken.
Just couldn't get it right – always too much or too little. That job definitely needed a skillset I didn't have. I suspect pruning would be similar.
So in one way I can understand growers wanting the workers they've previously used, but turning their back on the local employment market and allowing the local pool of workers to turn brackish has resulted in dumped product.
Then there's the fact they have spent the last twenty years or so telling NZer's they are useless, the corruption in the industry with not paying PAYE etc and lots of pay in cash, lack of things like toilet facilities over the years, the large expansions into areas with few workers, and issues extending of slavery etc over in Hawkes Bay.
There has been warnings and indeed specific pandemic planning about the possibilty of what has occurred – I'd be interested if they gave any thought to it or had any plans in place in the event of a pandemic. Things like building a reliable local workforce, looking after workers when they got there, etc.
Sabine, 9.4.1
True, absolutely true. I have seen both in the same jobs. The productivity of foreign workers was very much higher that of a kiwi. There are benefits but also traps to be aware of. Many foreign workers know that the job will be for a year or maybe a bit more before they move to better shores. So they work very hard and are most of all very dependable. Downside is that you cannot maintain such high octane performance over time without burning out. Not to mentions that the effort is in most cases rewarded with just more work but never higher hourly rates. This is turn corrodes the work conditions that have been bitterly fought for over generations. Many low paying jobs are maintained by having foreign labor rotating in that way.
However, my observation is that kiwis are often lacking motivation. They have been thought that you can be anything. Problem is, most on a benefit decided to be a lazy couch potato. It was on offer so they take it. I think some pressure needs to be applied to make payment lasting longer than say 6 months conditional on participation in offers such as back to school, training or seasonal work that has to be taken up. This also means that WINZ has to get off their rubberstamping something something and actually be proactive with assisting people. Its working in other countries.
With every system, some abuse it some don't. I have also heard lovely stories of long lasting friendships that came about someone doing a few weeks worth of work somewhere in rural NZ while backpacking. Still coming back years later to that same place.
I agree that a child should either be in school or in training. No if and whens and whys. This is not about value of hard work, or capitalism, or exploitation, this is simply making sure that a young person has enough skills to at least participate in society, while here it seems ok to just write them off, to the point where they themselves may not even care anymore. And NZ has some great 'unorthodox training' places i might add.
I personally believe that benefits should be a. higher – 450 pw (25 grand per year tax free) , b. easier accessible – open offices again, walk in, c. irrespective of partnership status. Once you are on a benefit, it is hard enough.
But for a child i would stipulate by law that the kid is either in a school or in an apprenticeship. It is so hard to follow up on that learning if you are an adult. And if a child is not in one of them then something needs to be done. Because we are going to have some fairly uneducated young adults coming at us.
Exactly where the Kiwi 'orchard workers' would stay. Either in Orchard accom, or in their travel van, or in their own house if they live near by. Unelss that is of course not good enough.
IT does actually not matter, what matters is that work needs to be done, and yet kiwis seem to not want to do the job. And that with a min wage of 20 per hour. So maybe its not the accommodation, or the wages, maybe its the 'jobs' in so far as they are hard, dirty, and demanding. And that often these jobs are seasonally and not where people actually live.
A warm bed and a hot shower after a hard days work and a cooked meal and some lap tops with free internet and $5 – $10 above the minimum wage, were I age 20 – 25 I would do it.
I packed apples for a season when I was 18.
On education: when age 40 I went and did 3 level 5-7 diplomas. I hated college, I turned up for the first class on a Friday in the then 5th form and wagged the rest of the day. I dropped out mid year.
I have a lady stop at mine on her way to Te Puke. She is retired, and is currently working the sorting sheds. She can't get over the money she makes. And she jokes a lot about the young ones. They come, stay a week, get paid and are not seen again. Lol. To be honest if i were in dire needs, i would work there. You can get the job pretty much on the spot, pay is weekly, live in the van. The thing is it is a walk on walk of job, and that also needs to be taken into account. But all things considered it is a job.
Being the best version of yourself. Waking up at 60 and realising your life has not been lived in some areas due to unwise decisions or not putting yourself first with some things can hurt and be a cause of regret.
But is that not true for all of us? No matter how well we lived our lifes and / or how much we believe to have missed. At some stage must come the acceptance that the things we do come of the knowledge and maturity at the times we do them.
And maybe being kind to ourself is the key to not regretting so much.
Yes, but the responsibility lays squarely at your feet and is not someone else's to take care of. Whether financially or "being happy" is your doing and yours alone.
This notion that you control your own destiny is just so much bull-shit. Luck, mentors, arseholes, circumstances, illness, accidents, the family you come from, how well off they are, political direction, legislation, genetics, technology, racism and many, many other things that play a part.
It's akin to Thatcher's "there is no community".
Of course we should help and support others and create an environment where people can flourish. The sucking in of the working class by capitalists into thinking they are middle class has a lot to answer for.
Four generations in NZ to move from poverty to approach the mean income. Most people in NZ have any real conception of how well off the rich are and how poor they are in real terms – though COVID-19 woke a few up.
"Most of us, especially in developed nations, expect to grow up to earn more than our parents. But as a new in-depth report by the OECD shows, this is becoming less likely. In fact, things have been trending this way for decades.
As a consequence, social mobility across nations, and generations, has stalled."
It's simplistic to say that because someone who skips school and then doesn't do well in life, well that is their own fault. That ignores the variety of circumstances and what there is to motivate all that otherwise boring studying and conforming. Sometimes I wonder why I come on this blog. I hope to learn something new and factual and hear people's experiences but sometimes it is just the same old cant and prejudice and self-involved waffle. But I am motivated by meeting the minds of some remarkable people.
Its a very mean world out there greywarshark. As a parent you want your kid to survive, being able to stand on their own two feet. To learn and create a means to make their way. This in turn creates a strong community. I think values that have served for a very long time are being eroded and instead a cult of ego is fostered. The lesson I have learned looking back is that, the trend of children being brought up under an anti authoritarian model has actually in so many cases lead to non authoritarian behaviour. There is a need to have expectations in terms of a code of conduct and ethics.
I may add that I reflect with experience of people, environments, poverty, illness without any dole or acc etc…
edit
Good thoughts Foreign Waka. But you are still thinking of children and people conforming to ways that you expect. To live together we do indeed need to conform to certain behaviours that benefit us all. But the ways we adopt need to enable people to live a life that is meaningful and possible for them. There are too many middle class people who seem basically materialistic and judge everything on the basis of having a home that could appear in House and Garden, a good education that enables them to enjoy the finer things of life and find a niche for themselves that brings in enough credits (money) to fit in with whoever is regarded as 'the right crowd' (probably displaying the most materialistic success).
Community and other people's needs and wants do not enter into their minds much as being part of their living. If they can't 'make it' on their own after being given a helping hand here and there, well that's their fault. They are judged for not being materially successful and if they break the law they do so in ways that are not tolerated by the wealthy who have their own rules.
So tight bums sit on their piles of money and look down on all the unfortunates and repeat little homilies about them being lazy etc. If we promote good behaviour, fair behaviour, putting something into the community when you take it out, sharing some of your excess to help others improve themselves, then we would have a nicer society where people were motivated to be kind or at least tolerant of each other, and limit their excessive behaviour however that was displayed. And a little time and money helping others, would bring good profit in many ways, and not just when there is an emergency, which wouldinclude the people down the road (the wealthy often like to help others struggling overseas because they don't give a damn about those around them).
Encourage people to find something they enjoy doing and become skilled in. Enable them to work at something that the society wants, if not full-time, make up the needed income from government reserves. Just keep people embedded in society, creatively working, so no time for the destructive. We are so mean in all ways, and if we don't like what we see now, it is actually a reflection of what is in our shrivelled fault-finding little dried peas we call hearts.
This "Arbeit macht frei" baloney above makes me sick, Along with the comments about the "Society" "We" make.
Honestly, I would expect to hear this sort of stuff on Kiwiblog or from the shade of Margaret Thatcher.
Seeing as how Sabine want's to use 'anecdata" to score points about the unemployed and the labour market, how about I tell you my experience of being unemployed:
Worked in a VERY specialized field in this country for nearly 20 years.
Shifted cities to take up a new role.
A little over a year later, myself and a dozen others were made redundant when the company was sold to an offshore entity – They moved to contracting out / short term / casualising the workforce. No spots for me.
Unemployed for nearly four years, applying for all sorts of work that was 'beneath me" – data entry, telemarketing, all sorts… More than a dozen applications a week, every week, except over Xmas when the jobs dried up
I was lucky if I received a rejection letter let alone an interview – most employers had no understanding of what I did in my previous roles. The fact I was in my 40's and had "manager" in my previous roles seemed to be a problem.
WINZ tried to "assist me" into employment. This was what happened, I am "Tom".
That was me being 'unwilling to be part of the system". The labour market is radically different to how it was a decade ago.
Honestly, A few weeks ago people who used to regularly comment here talked about how it was now a personal soapbox for a half dozen professional gripers who believe they know it all. They are so self obsessed, and so busy yelling pathetic sophistry, that they have forgotten how to listen.
Yes Sabine, they were talking about you and some others in particular.
Last week you were told you were mistaken about the "National raised benefits by $25 / week" lie. You couldn't even acknowledge you were wrong.
As for your "walk in / walk off" job at the sorting sheds – Sounds pretty fucking dodgy. Got a contract for me to sign so I'm protected? Got the paperwork so I can be sure you're paying PAYE tax to contribute to "Society"? Are you sorting out the paperwork for the student loan? Child Support? Fines? ACC levy?
Don't bother replying, just add me to the legion of others who can't be bothered with this place anymore.
Honestly, The Standard is turning into a bourgeois Boomer reckons Soapbox.
Cinder, I am sorry to hear what you go through. I have no solution to offer other than demand all the assistance (financially) that you can get from WINZ and if there are unlawful going on's, try the community law center. webpage below.
i.e. when you use the site you should find at the bottom of the page a drop field to choose location. Once you are where you choose, go to the bottom of the page and you find details like below (example only)
edot
Cinder – That was good for you to get off your chest and for us to hear. I might weep at the way that people go on here, and they are genuinely trying to see through the fog, but it is quite a task for anyone to develop long sight. It's only through study social policy, doing some mind work for mental health, reading some citizen philosophers and thinking and getting back that I have opened my rusty door to understanding.
People are so comfortable with what they have achieved, for all their life little pieces of information have cropped up about the western world achieving such a high standard of living while other areas so low. And we have given donations to charities and felt we have done our bit. Now that we are trans-global, free marketing and have our country legally invaded and see our own standards fall to those once read about we get an inkling of what life is when the finance system fails you and the paring knife of efficiency falls on you.
We have heard the lies about the lies of leaders, politicians, wealthy businesspeople trading with tokens which is what our carefully nurtured international money system is. The smart people are desperately buying our houses which remain standing as a physical asset as the tide of local and international finance rises and falls. But people have lost touch with what life is about, they can't bring themselves to make the slightest change that seems obvious, ie euthanasia for terminally ill sufferers, and cannabis use in contained ways. People just want to have more toys, more technology, shape what is available to suit the wealthy ie housing for the happy retired, and goodies for the wannabes, and the anomic tech-mad individualists.
I think the answer for those who want to face the future and hold onto good from the past is to form a movement of people who care about people and want all to have the ability to make a reasonable living and be secure and know and like most others, and be busy doing good stuff, and have time for enjoyment.
We might need a local sub-currency properly run on economic principles (this is essential) and be prepared to fight in some way to maintain the group against detractors. You might take an interest in what Robert Guyton does and his group, they are 'doing' people with a good heart who are food growers and practical, and the tiny house builders, and the many creatives around the rohe. You might get creative with your own skills, do a sideways shift from the predator businesses and people you work amongst, and find a place where you are respected, liked, and enjoy a different cadence to your life. Climate change is happening, and a large group in NZ are unable to rethink how to live, are caught up by the present and are stuck there like a display of pretty butterflies.
Footnote – I see that you have another job but your story may repeat. There are others who will have been through what you have experienced. Think about what I have said. It may have legs in the future!
See which state in Australia or region in NZ is next to have a lockdown. There are too many exposure sites and the contact tracing is a hit and miss. It has taken two weeks for the situation to occur in Melbourne.
The 5,000 in NZ from Melbourne recently and air travel from other Australian states to NZ see what the situation is in a week or two.
As negative as I can be about the potential of Covid being in the NZ community at any time. The reality is that when Covid is in the community it impacts in many ways.
Indeed and everybody is reacting differently. I am one of those essential workers who work as if there is no tomorrow for a basic hrl. rate. Not so lucky being one of those who got to sit at home doing very very little (video conference in pj's anyone) that's being called "work from home".
Kapai Kia ora Foreign Waka.
And that is whether you are Maori or not. We all need to face our present which is integrating with Maori ideas more, and treasuring our workers especially in the border and health fields.
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Tree sap can be a sticky, unsightly mess on your car’s exterior. It can be difficult to remove, but with the right techniques and products, you can restore your car to its former glory. Understanding Tree Sap Tree sap is a thick, viscous liquid produced by trees to seal wounds ...
The amount of paint needed to paint a car depends on a number of factors, including the size of the car, the number of coats you plan to apply, and the type of paint you are using. In general, you will need between 1 and 2 gallons of paint for ...
Jump-starting a car is a common task that can be performed even in adverse weather conditions like rain. However, safety precautions and proper techniques are crucial to avoid potential hazards. This comprehensive guide will provide detailed instructions on how to safely jump a car in the rain, ensuring both your ...
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Sievers, Research Fellow, Global Wetlands Project, Australia Rivers Institute, Griffith University Chris Brown Humans love the coast. But we love it to death, so much so we’ve destroyed valuable coastal habitat – in the case of some types of habitat, ...
Josh Thomson on the 80s milk ad jingle he can’t stop singing, the beauty of The Simpsons, why Jersey Shore is as good as Shakespeare and more. For someone who spends a lot of time on our screens, popping up in everything from 7 Days to Taskmaster, Educators to Good ...
In apparent defiance of the Biden administration, the Netanyahu government has now initiated missile strikes against Iran. Last Saturday night (Sunday morning in New Zealand) Iran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles against Israeli military targets. With the assistance of US, UK and possibly French forces, ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...
The government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...
Raglan Roast is a staple of Wellington coffee culture. But with five branches across the capital, which one is the best? I am a die-hard Raglan Roast fan. It’s consistently the most affordable cafe in Wellington, and one of the only places you can get a coffee after 3pm. So, ...
Residents of University of Auckland halls are being urged to withhold their accommodation fees from May 1, in a bid to force the university to take student concerns over rent hikes seriously.The University of Auckland is facing a strike from students over the cost of on-campus accommodation. The Students ...
New Zealand and the Philippines have signed a new maritime security agreement and stated their concerns over activity in the South China Sea, as Chinese vessels continue to flout international law. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos committed to signing a Mutual Logistics Supporting Arrangement by ...
The thousands of government “back-office” job cuts are causing widespread pain in the capital city. In today’s episode of The Detail, we speak to three journalists and a think tank researcher, looking at the larger picture around the cuts and what effect it will have on Wellington, a city that’s ...
Opinion: The famed American architect and urban designer Daniel Burnham once said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood!” Burnham wouldn’t have been referring to the transport plans in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past five years; projects so big they hadn’t the credibility to ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 19 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: With maths understanding at 42 percent for Year 8 students, there’s no doubt something has to be done. But how? The post Financial literacy should be on all of us appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Hineaupounamu ‘Missy’ Nuku has been scaling mountains in Canada for her college basketball team, the Lakeland Rustlers. Alberta is currently home for the 20-year-old point guard, who is in her first year of a scholarship at Lakeland College, where she is studying for a business degree. She has certainly made ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra When ASIO boss Mike Burgess delivered his annual threat assessment earlier this year, he stressed the rising danger posed by espionage and foreign interference. “In 2024, threats to our way of life have surpassed ...
This is fascinating! A German study found richer people think they are relatively less rich than they are, while poorer people think they are richer than they are. Leading all of society to grossly underestimate the true extent of inequality that exists.
German voters’ view of personal wealth causes problems for the left
The graphic is especially good.
Can't help thinking exactly the same thing is happening in NZ, be interesting to do the same survey in more countries.
This Covid19 investigation is such a gift to international diplomacy.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-covid-origin-investigation_n_60ae7d08e4b0d56a83f21510
There's never been a better net to pull China into engaging with multilateral discourse on a more than purely mercantilist basis. Let the pressure pile on.
Full marks to President Biden. That is how you handle as important a matter as the origins of a pandemic. Unlike Trump who politcised the vexing question for personal gain. Most important of all, it looks like it is going to be done in a transparent way which is to everyone's benefit.
I sincerely hope the idiots who kept voting for Trump can see the error of their ways. Vain hope I know.
The US figure are stunning
Gone from 300k infections per day when Trump was in power to 20k per day.
And deaths from 3000 to 400 per day.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
The problem is that all infections cycle – they peak and then fall. They will frequently fall almost to disappearance and then flare up to a higher peak than previously as the disease find a previously socially excluded population or get a variation that is more infectious.
The actual test of success of population immunity if you’re looking at epidemics and pandemics is if the next peak is significantly smaller than the previous peak. A false ‘its over’ is especially daft when going from winter to summer – with the lowered environmental infection rates.
The last peak in the US was close to double the size of the earlier one. The US is in summer now – its infection rate is still higher than it was in the last low. I’d look to October/November to see if there really has been a actual reduction in pandemics waves.
Only simpletons (like Ben Thomas or Mike Hosking) would think that a Northern Hemisphere moving into summer has beaten off the pandemic.
That is how you handle as important a matter as the origins of a pandemic.
But! But!
The first conclusion was the correct conclusion. That is: the source was a Wuhan Wet Market where the virus jumped from an animal to a human.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25-05-2021/#comment-1794752
What was a nutbar conspiracy theory on a Tuesday is a laudable initiative on Thursday.
Whew! It's so hard to keep up.
Yeah, can't wait for the centre-left to start calling Biden a raving conspiracy theorist…
Manipulating/misconstruing what other people say to give a wrong impression of their reflections and then trying to blindside with pseudo science seems to be a trademark of yours.
I scroll over the top of your diatribes Rosemary because I can't be bothered with vaccine denial and immature pettiness.
Have a nice night.
People who vote for Trump don't think for themselves they are cult followers reason logic and truth don't register.
Racism and personal inadequacies are the main driver for Trumpist blind faith.
Trump dog whistles and his cultists bark as in barking mad like Trump.
Who baffles people with his BS like any cult leader.
White people losing their high waged jobs to China ,Mexico etc is how Trump rallies his followers .
This is an interesting example of how decision making can be obfuscated and weakened by deliberate process. And that one must understand the background politics to see the purpose, and be skilled at appeasing the doubts and dislikes to get real progress on the matter in hand.
From Slavoj Zizek's book 'In Defence of Lost Causes' which title appeals to me in our era.
'The 2005 French and Dutch "nos" to the project of the European Constitution were clear-cut cases of what in "French theory" is referred to as a floating signifier: a"no" of confused, inconsistent, overdetermined meanings, a kind of container in which the defense of workers' rights coexists with racism, in which the blind reaction to a perceived threat and fear of change coexist with vague utopian hopes.
We are told that the French "no" was really a "no" to many other things: to Anglo-Saxon neoliberalism, to Chirac and his government, to the influx of immigrant workers from Poland who lower the wages of the French workers, and so on and so forth.
The real struggle is going on now: namely the struggle for the meaning of this "no" – who will appropriate it? Who – if anyone – will translate it into a coherent alternative political vision? p.266
I've broken it up into smaller paragraphs so one can follow the line of his points. What matters are getting in the way and stopping us from going to the heart of our conferences aimed at formulating policy to address our obvious but languishing problems, such as housing at affordable prices, and our inability to cope with the commodification of housing, one of our essential human needs.
It's pretty clear Zizak can't see that the "overdetermined signifiers" he bewails are actually the right set of hooks to successfully pull very broad adherent bases. The incoherent "No" has been and remains precisely the recipe for a successful smashing of the traditional left across Europe and the UK, and also did pretty well in the US as well.
Whereas the traditional left has kept pushing campaigns based around standard human needs, and rapidly failing to the point that globally only NZLabour remains in power or likely to get back to power.
the traditional left has kept pushing campaigns based around standard human needs, and rapidly failing
Only because of self-serving Quislings like Keir Starmer. Neoliberalism has wrecked the livelihoods of the mass of traditional left supporters – identity politics is no substitute for addressing that massive generational ripoff.
Kirk's old vision: a job, a place to live, something to hope for, would sell pretty well in most of the countries hollowed out by the plague of far-right failed economists.
Our current government didn't promise much of standard human needs in its first term, and promised even less in its second term manifesto (they are certainly more adventurous through 2020-21). Few would claim that the continued electoral failure of UK Labor after Tony Blair and Gordon Brown is down to any one leader.
What they promise is a delicate dance with the media, and says little about either the quality of government or their intentions, other than surrendering public discourse to Murdoch's pathetic far-right hacks.
Absent Covid and related crisies, Labour would still be running scared – but the crisis has demonstrated graphically, that neither the media nor the opposition have a ghost of a clue how to govern, how to manage a crisis, or how to run an economy. Leaves the field pretty open.
It is Starmer et al that are the problem with British Labour – the rump of Blairism and its discredited third way presumptions. If a pathetic clown like Boris cannot be fought, much of the blame lies with the character of the opposition.
If Starmer really was the issue, Corbyn should have won in a landslide. Neither did, so it's way more than character.
The left have been granted the Covid-gift of narrating the necessity of the highly interventionist state for the common and egalitarian good. None of that is based on the usual Lefty policy positions: how left parties make good of it will determine their future existence.
If Starmer were alone, he wouldn't have been able to sabotage Corbyn – but that's all he achieved.
Labour faces multiple issues, not least of which is making some kind of accommodation with the SNP. But Starmer isn't facing those issues. It's going to be a long time in the wilderness – but the lesson is not the failure of foundational Labour values, only the danger of allowing quislings to supplant the core party roles. This can hardly be lost on NZ, where the damage done by the cabal who subsequently formed ACT, and their neoliberal colleagues, is still denying many of us the prosperity that competent governance would have delivered.
The UK Labour party is broken Corbyn didn't have any charisma .
Starmer is not much better but where Labour is losing is in its heartland .Brexit played into the Tory hands by dividing the Northern working class labours base.The working classes of the UK have seen migrant labour keeping wages low and house prices high.
Brexit is the revenge that will push out cheap migrant labour.So working class people will continue to vote conservative.
What can Labour do ,their do nothing policy on Brexit didn't go down well.Labour had no options to offer these people so the outcome was inevitable.
Labour will struggle to get back support unless the economy continues in a downward spiral.
White English people had enough of wage destruction by former eastern block labour underming their income.Brexit has already had a chilling effect . Creating labour shortages not being filled by locals who don't want to do the dirty hard work .because the younger generations have had longterm unemployment live a much more sedentary lifestyle and don't want to move out of their social circles.
Many of the same reasons we rely on migrant labour in NZ.
Corbyn didn't have any charisma
Orly? Or is that just a Tory story? Sure, they ruined him – but he could've done a lot of good for Britain – absent traitors like Starmer.
This article in the Guardian is brutal to Johnson and the Conservatives, but as part of an equally brutal take down of Corbyn, the author writes this:
"He is a man without any qualities required of a leader, mental agility, articulacy, strategy, good humour or charisma."
I can't disagree.
@ Gypsy – We've seen a lot of these "false balance" stories in the media over the last few years.
Corbyn had charisma to burn – the spontaneous reaction at Glastonbury was not spin doctoring.
without any qualities required of a leader, mental agility, articulacy, strategy, good humour or charisma.
You could make the claim – but Britain just chose a cross between a polar bear and an unmade bed – Corbyn is still a better leader than Boris – an absence is a better leader than Boris. And Starmer for that matter – disloyalty is a disqualifier.
The decline and seemingly inevitable Pasokification of UK Labour is largely due to it's colonisation as an institution by a certain London based professional clique of liberal chancers who see the party organisation primarily in terms of a vehicle for personal advancement within the existing power structures in the UK. Radical change actually threatens this ambitious class of mangerialists because it potentially shifts the gravy train they want to stay on to another line and locomotive entirely, snatching away the reawards they feel they are entitled to.
Calling them centrists is to be to generous as to motivation. They just want to get rich via capturing the machinery of major political party and parlaying that into connections that can get them plum jobs outside politics.
Who saw the Blood Super-Moon last night? The other customer in the kebab shop said it was due to happen about 11 pm. But I wanted to be in bed then, and I'm bloody sick of all that is happening on earth without looking at the sky for kicks.
https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2021/05/27/blood-supermoon-over-new-zealand/
Got a good view of it down here. It was low enough in the sky that I could see it through a window. Quite convenient lying in a beanbag up in the loft in the warm.
It wasn’t quite total here, but still quite spectacular. There was one about 20 years ago that went right through the middle of the umbra, the memory of the flash as the edge of the moon came out of the shadow will be vivid for the rest of my life. And the -15 frost that night, that one was high and had to go outside.
I saw it, Grey, but felt like asking for my money back! Hardly spectacular!
You are so blase' Tony V – been there – done that. We all are so used to miracles and wonders aren't we!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy5T6s25XK4
I had a go so you didn't have to:
Wow
Brilliant. We got too cold after 5 minutes.
Who'd have thunk it?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/443444/mainfreight-director-says-shipping-companies-need-pulling-back-into-line
Global transport company Mainfreight says international shipping companies are charging sky high premiums to carry freight, which is driving up the cost of imported goods.
Mainfreight managing director Don Braid said the cost of shipping a 40-foot container of goods had been inflated by up as much as $8000 more than a standard contract price negotiated pre-Covid-19…
Congestion at the Ports of Auckland was going on at every major port around the world, he added.
Braid expected the situation would continue for at least 12 months, with one of its large United States-based customers preparing for the price gouging to last for perhaps four more years.
It was more efficient to call up passing international ships than have our own line; that was the mantra.
Incidentally all my smart family in Auckland think it is crazy to have Whangarei to be opened up to remove pressure on Auckland ports. This thinking is based on simple commonsense! Real examination of the situation indicates that thinking needs to go beyond simple. Yet decisions to vote in general elections are based on similar snap judgments. It seems to me that voters need to do a scratch test to demonstrate they know how to distinguish vital differences, between B and P for instance, (gosh they look alike).
Opening up Whangarei and Northport will only happen if they get the friggin rail sorted. Does anyone seriously want all those container trucks on the road, all the way to and through Auckland?
Nickleggit does.
Interesting angle on both National and Labours Chinese MPs resigning within 11 days of each other last year
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/ardern-wont-confirm-deny-whether-security-concerns-behind-resignation-chinese-mps
It comes as news website Politik says the two resignations were orchestrated by the offices of Ardern and former National leader Todd Muller over growing security concerns..
Politik says it was because of growing concerns about the men's relationship with the Chinese government and that they resigned after security briefings to the two-party leaders.
Yes Ghost, we have been sold out to Chinese interests by both major parties for too long.
Unfortunately, corruption in China is normalised and not even seen as wrong or bad by most people. And Chinese are nationalistic to a degree we could never understand (I guess being almost completely isolated until the last century and a half does that).
I know this personally from my brief stint as a lecturer at Lincoln University (I quit after repeatedly being told not to address the almost universal cheating by Chinese students. The bs excuse was that it was culturally offensive to address this). Also as a former CA working for an extended period in Shanghai.
Some relevant questions: why do Kiwirail persist in buying the Dog and Lemon 'DL' class locos, that perform worse than 45 year old US made 'DX' class locos, and have been off the rails for extended periods for major repairs (turbine replacement) and cab asbestos removal and severe cab rust? Or the container wagons that had such bad deck camber that containers could not be loaded, and the decks of which had to be machined flat in NZ?
And thats just Kiwirail. So many similar proven examples of councils (e.g. CCC tiles for the Square that were not fit for purpose or Invercargills Chinese Christmas lights) and government departments and universities doing this (eg the treatment of Prof. Anne-marie Brady by University of Canterbury).
We have been screwed by our 'leaders' who put personal advantage ahead of the national interest for decades now, and now the implications are becoming apparent.
Thats my rant for the day over!
Interesting points. I do think we are naive in our dealings with China and could take a bit of advice from some of our SE Asian neighbours who have been dealing with them for a long time. I always feel the main interest is in ripping us off and we could do with gently easing away and making common cause with other like minded smaller nations.
The Australians seem to be going 'ape' over chinese trade issues, now 60 minutes is calling us as New Xi-land. Its really the 5 Eyes thing where we didnt become their poodle
They get so jingoistsic and of course we are easier to kick around than China
The five eyes stuff may be the latest issue but there has now been a string of issues dating back over 20 or so years.
Perhaps why we are now going to "make our own" and are no longer bringing in huge numbers of overseas students.
Yep, at long last. Hillside Workshops rebuild and then assembly of wagons. Good first step.
Quite a long piece on the case against Hardieboard going on which will be interesting as we watch the government neolibs puny ideas go naked; ie the ones about business being reliable, and the people and market scrutiny being enough to keep them good. Yes business knows better than government how to do things well and be good not like those lazy, slack, costly, limiting public servants and inspectors.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018797030/defective-or-incompetent-the-james-hardie-case
James Hardie group of companies are a disgrace. Remember their handling of asbestos claims in Australia? Deny deny deny, then when that failed, run offshore. When that fails, blame the victims and delay delay elay until most of the victims are dead.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-05/james-hardie-up-to-same-old-tricks-on-asbestos-compensation/9391708
National Party operative, Ben Thomas, is having a big cry about Kiwis being cautious about immigration at the moment.
Ben might like to accept that Kiwis now are sick and tired of mismanaged immigration policy over the last 20 years. They are sick and tired of our infrastructure not keeping up with demand.
Ben wants to open the tap again, presumably so the value of his houses continue to skyrocket.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/125250773/why-nzs-in-danger-of-throwing-away-its-covidfree-advantages
It was an article with a lot of contradictions. Proud of our diaspora – not sure about that and I find it deeply worrying that we have several hundred thousand permanent resident visa's issued where the visa holder is not ordinarily resident here. But I bet we'd see them if they had welfare needs. Flights numbers from the red countries went down about 75% when it went to citizens only. Why didn't we do that sooner? It's a large financial risk to the ordinary taxpayer which needs to be controlled – cancel the visa's if people do not remain ordinarily resident here?
But on another subject entirely – I'm no social scientist but we have remained covid free so far – what social strands led us as a community to be so effective? I see precious little interest or curiosity in that as a subject which we could utilise to better ourselves as a community in other ways?
There are some obvious strands – clear information and a lot of feedback as to how we are doing, a bit of money to tide individuals over – but how do we harness this community pull together in other economic and social ways. Not with top down edicts I guess but there must be something there.
"what social strands led us as a community to be so effective?
One aspect that was very clear to me was the memory by Maori of the impact of the 1918 Spanish flu. While quite a few marae have monuments this was a time when oral history was much more useful than written history. Passed down memories of up to 60% of a localised population dying and much more resilient than needing to get a book out of the library or research on the internet.
This set in motion a strong desire to not have history repeat – hence the road blocks, etc.
The other aspects bought by Maori to the table, and more importantly enacted and implemented, were concepts like manakitanga and kotahitanga. Both the looking after others and we are all in this together.
These concepts have always been anathematic to capitalism (you only need to read Hansard to hear politicians speaking of the evils of Maori communism) but in this case were perfectly suited to the crisis that befell the world.
Maori excelled themselves during this crisis and while the media headlines were about road-blocks Maori were busy checking on the elderly and the disabled, making sure they had firewood, dropping off food parcels and to all those redneck bigots who say "well what about the treaty settlements”, they were spending good money on making sure their people as well as many non-Maori were supported through this time. Those skills in organising tangi and bigger events such as kapa haka festivals, etc honed so well over the years, came into good stead.
These concepts and skills with slight variations cover the whole country – from large urban areas to small towns and villages.
I certainly sense a growing confidence, in part as a result of responding to the pandemic so well, about handling their own affairs and being part of the story in New Zealand's future. COVID-19 was an opportunity to sat – we're here and we can do great things.
From a non-Maori perspective there has been a run of crises – the Christchurch earthquakes, etc where people have come together – these almost a pre-cursor to this larger less localised crisis. The seeds were sown.
Where this leads to will be interesting – do we build on that increased confidence that Maori have or do the same people who have been in charge for a while just get put back once the COVID-19 crisis is over.
I'm hopeful that we don't revert – the change sweeping across the country to have Maori wards and therefore to have Maori at the decision making table will bring some challenges for incumbent councils around a whole range of things – environment, development, housing, sustainability, etc. The change from advisor functionality to voting at the table is a big jump forward.
We need some strong social policy researchers to go around these communities and understand the response – it wasn't a capitalist response on the ground – while at a government level things such as increased benefits through the wage subsidy now that European workers would be laid off – was a typical capitalist response.
There are some interesting threads there DOS. While there is a strong maori response there, has it also merged over into the way smaller and more remote communities operate and even into how larger community neighbours work.? The one thing we can say is that it really isn't a top down response.
Looking at the first chch quake – the early Sunday morning one when most management is in bed. The initial response was interesting, early ferries out of Wellington where held back so that some trucks with essential gear comms and telco stuff IIRC could be loaded and sent south, Fonterra at Clandeboyne had washed out milk tankers and dispatched them filled with water by about 8.am, Line maintenance crews had checked lines out further south and where on the road to Chch around the same time and the airport and the main hospital where back in operation and on mains power by about 2pm. Does this also fit into the same social narrative.
Basically he’ll have to wait until we hit 70+% vaccination rate. I not aware of any credible medical person who thinks that a rate lower than 70% is sufficient to protect a population from offshore infection. Most seem to be putting it higher than that.
I can’t think of a reason for taking the risk of opening up the borders more than we are doing right now (and I have some trepidation about our current level). I certainly can’t see any reason as a population why we should do so.
Not to mention this bit of stupidity..
Who are these stupid dickheads who’d be proud of that? I guess that some proportion of dumb and dumber live here – apparently Ben Thomas meets most of them.
To be fair, he might just want to pack them to the rafters with foreign tenants willing to pay far too much.
Well I’m 71 and look like spending the entire winter out in the vineyard pruning as we are short of a few thousand mainly Pasifika workers and quite a few European work holiday kids. Say what you like about not needing them for all manner of reasons and I for one have long been a proponent, just to piss my Tory mates off, that a man should not own more vines than he can prune himself, but that was when I was a youthful 40 or 60. I have always felt good about how work done on my place by the few that I need from time to time has helped them to build homes and get clean reliable water for their extended families in places such as Vanuatu and Nuie and Samoa. Their wages put them in the top few per cent of earners where they come from, and incidentally they earn more than me on an hourly rate, and the 2 billion dollars of offshore earnings the wine industry earns pay for the computer you are using and the electric bike you have just bought and most importantly the billion dollars or so of Covid vaccine, which incidentally we are supplying to some of those places because they can’t afford it themselves.
Mobile labour has been as old as time itself, the Pasifika are replacing the many who have moved to “ essential “ work such as baristas, make your own fucking coffee, Human Resources Personnel or as they were known in the old days, slave ship crew, and hairdressers, hairdressers?. Comb it your bloody self.
That’s why we need imported labour, the old supply has moved to what really amounts to shit we can do for ourselves, because we either like to feel pampered or are too bloody lazy to do it ourselves.
Do it ourselves? We need people to do our supermarket shopping for us, to gather goods for our week's cooking, to deliver food to our door so we don't have to cook…
Maybe it's time you stumped up for mechanical harvesting, and obviated the need for under-paid foreign labour. If you are too small, pool together, or encourage your local subcontractor to invest:
https://www.liveoakbank.com/wine-and-craft-beverage-resources/winery-and-vineyard-resources/vineyard-equipment-spotlight-mechanical-harvesters/
Then you can confine your efforts to pruning.
This government has recently asked the Productivity Commission for advice on immigration and productivity, specifically linking to the Covid impacts:
https://www.productivity.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Terms-of-reference-v5.pdf?vid=3%20
Better would be land reform – break up the corporate vineyards – small owners manage to manage their crops. It wasn't the peasant farmers that ruined the Roman economy, it was the huge Sicilian and Sardinian corporate slave operated grain farms. They wiped out the peasantry and then wondered why the legions had to be filled up with disloyal foreigners.
what's the hourly rate Adrian?
Pruners might be unskilled, but don't underestimate barista or hairdressers.
How did you get your workers from the Pacific? Brokers? Why aren't there now brokers for NZ workers? What are the barriers to getting NZ workers?
Cause they are citizens and get a benefit from Winz, something a migrant would / will not get?
I suggested some years ago to my then chronically unemployed son of my partner that he should do what the kids from overseas do, get a camper van, travel up and down the country, work the orchards and the vinyards and meet people.
His answer? To hard, hours to long, no internet, and besides Winz will give him a benefit, and he really can't be arsed. His words.
And that is what sums up much of the young kiwi generation to migrants. Entitled, spoiled beyond believe and with no ambition.
Don't blame him. If a job has "meeting people" as an incentive, the pay does not reflect the effort involved.
If one mentions that there's an obscene amount of cash to be made, the number of people who can't be arsed drops dramatically. Sure, there's a balance so that the growers can actually make enough to keep going, but if the dole is competition for the income then the job is shit.
There are other barriers. It's a big deal to relocate around the country for insecure employment. Sometimes you need to keep the flat you have, too, as well as pay for accommodation in the new place. If the job goes under, is there a new stand-down or fucking patronising seminar for the dole, or do you go straight back on it with no loss of income? Is there a clear path for some workers to do different seasonal jobs throughout the year, especially between industries?
These are the questions the local industry associations should be asking and trying to solve, rather than whinging about a lack of imported labour. The current situation is an opportunity to improve methods without being temporarily undercut by the slower-thinking grower down the road.
Importing labour because they're cheaper is just outsourcing our exploitation.
Well i do blame him. Simple as. If you skip school cauase you can't be bothered, never learn a single thing, than at some stage it is your fault. Simple as.
The state owes no one anything as the 'state' is a construct we make up – we might discuss this again next time NZ is run by a different party led government. Same with a job. We are not owed one by anyone. It is up to us in life to muster some sort of survival skills and learn something. Cause if not, i think he will find life very hard.
And i don't think his demands of wages will increase with the lack of any and all marketable skills.
And that is why quite a few people in this country rather 'import' people to work with – and some abuse the system, and some don't (as is with every system) because you can't work with people who deep down don't want to work.
And this is a global work force, as much as there is global trade, and Kiwi who want to make money, leave the country to be some 'job stealing migrant to some migrant importing cheap loader business' somewhere else. Go figure.
Agree Sabine. Good on you for saying it
Extrapolating from one person to an entire system of labour is bold. Sure, some people might be happy to live on the dole. If they can manage it, good luck to them.
But even if that were the case, we seem to have a problem with exporting doctors and nurses rather than fruit pickers. So this isn't an equal ebb and flow of labour, it's employers undervaluing the work they expect from their employees.
We have a welfare state becaue "work or die" (i.e. no safety net) is exploitation. The biggest thing I've noticed about younger folk isn't an unwillingness to work, it's an unwillingness to be exploited.
Living is exploitation, if you don't feed, house and clothes your body chances are one dies quickly, in fact where it not for mother most of us would not survive birth.
Society is what we make it. You do absolutly not have to work until you die, you can work less, work smarter, or do with less….choices.
As for his unwillingness to be part of the system, i say hunger is a good teacher.
As for living being exploitation, setting my own constraints is not exploitation. Employment with no social safety net enables my employer to set restrictive constraints well outside of my control. That is exploitation.
Hunger is not a great teacher. Just because I can remember verses of John Masefield from the teachers that regularly beat us with a strap doesn't mean I have a love for poetry. It means they beat it into me. The teachers who never hurt me, however, had a chance to build enthusiasm for a subject.
What's the kid doing now? Did his "chronic unemployment" hurt him in the long run?
yes. it actually did.
He is now an adult in his thirties with a good knowledge in gaming but no other marketable skills.
In saying that, if i had a choice, i would put him on the bum benefit, for life, enough to keep him in a room, warm, clothed and fed. Just simply to keep him of the unemployment record. He is not unemployed – for that he would have had to be employed in the first place. He expect "society" to care for him. That is two different things.
Still unemployed then?
If so he's not a typical case. Some people take longer to get into the swing of things than others. Most turn out pretty good, rather than 10-15 years unemployed.
Did a spell of picking in the early nineties between deepsea trips – MAF didn't pay observers when we were on shore, we were just another group of casualized civil servants. Quite hard work, and I was fit as hell back then. Six weeks of work and the diff went on my car – basically didn't make a cent after fixing it. The value proposition is pretty broken.
Tried fruit thinning in the mid-nineties.
Just couldn't get it right – always too much or too little. That job definitely needed a skillset I didn't have. I suspect pruning would be similar.
So in one way I can understand growers wanting the workers they've previously used, but turning their back on the local employment market and allowing the local pool of workers to turn brackish has resulted in dumped product.
Then there's the fact they have spent the last twenty years or so telling NZer's they are useless, the corruption in the industry with not paying PAYE etc and lots of pay in cash, lack of things like toilet facilities over the years, the large expansions into areas with few workers, and issues extending of slavery etc over in Hawkes Bay.
There has been warnings and indeed specific pandemic planning about the possibilty of what has occurred – I'd be interested if they gave any thought to it or had any plans in place in the event of a pandemic. Things like building a reliable local workforce, looking after workers when they got there, etc.
Sabine, 9.4.1
True, absolutely true. I have seen both in the same jobs. The productivity of foreign workers was very much higher that of a kiwi. There are benefits but also traps to be aware of. Many foreign workers know that the job will be for a year or maybe a bit more before they move to better shores. So they work very hard and are most of all very dependable. Downside is that you cannot maintain such high octane performance over time without burning out. Not to mentions that the effort is in most cases rewarded with just more work but never higher hourly rates. This is turn corrodes the work conditions that have been bitterly fought for over generations. Many low paying jobs are maintained by having foreign labor rotating in that way.
However, my observation is that kiwis are often lacking motivation. They have been thought that you can be anything. Problem is, most on a benefit decided to be a lazy couch potato. It was on offer so they take it. I think some pressure needs to be applied to make payment lasting longer than say 6 months conditional on participation in offers such as back to school, training or seasonal work that has to be taken up. This also means that WINZ has to get off their rubberstamping something something and actually be proactive with assisting people. Its working in other countries.
With every system, some abuse it some don't. I have also heard lovely stories of long lasting friendships that came about someone doing a few weeks worth of work somewhere in rural NZ while backpacking. Still coming back years later to that same place.
I agree that a child should either be in school or in training. No if and whens and whys. This is not about value of hard work, or capitalism, or exploitation, this is simply making sure that a young person has enough skills to at least participate in society, while here it seems ok to just write them off, to the point where they themselves may not even care anymore. And NZ has some great 'unorthodox training' places i might add.
I personally believe that benefits should be a. higher – 450 pw (25 grand per year tax free) , b. easier accessible – open offices again, walk in, c. irrespective of partnership status. Once you are on a benefit, it is hard enough.
But for a child i would stipulate by law that the kid is either in a school or in an apprenticeship. It is so hard to follow up on that learning if you are an adult. And if a child is not in one of them then something needs to be done. Because we are going to have some fairly uneducated young adults coming at us.
Where do the Pasifika and European people you would employ stay?
Exactly where the Kiwi 'orchard workers' would stay. Either in Orchard accom, or in their travel van, or in their own house if they live near by. Unelss that is of course not good enough.
IT does actually not matter, what matters is that work needs to be done, and yet kiwis seem to not want to do the job. And that with a min wage of 20 per hour. So maybe its not the accommodation, or the wages, maybe its the 'jobs' in so far as they are hard, dirty, and demanding. And that often these jobs are seasonally and not where people actually live.
A warm bed and a hot shower after a hard days work and a cooked meal and some lap tops with free internet and $5 – $10 above the minimum wage, were I age 20 – 25 I would do it.
I packed apples for a season when I was 18.
On education: when age 40 I went and did 3 level 5-7 diplomas. I hated college, I turned up for the first class on a Friday in the then 5th form and wagged the rest of the day. I dropped out mid year.
I have a lady stop at mine on her way to Te Puke. She is retired, and is currently working the sorting sheds. She can't get over the money she makes. And she jokes a lot about the young ones. They come, stay a week, get paid and are not seen again. Lol. To be honest if i were in dire needs, i would work there. You can get the job pretty much on the spot, pay is weekly, live in the van. The thing is it is a walk on walk of job, and that also needs to be taken into account. But all things considered it is a job.
Attitude, willingness and not wanting to be in someone else's pocket…. old teachings, long forgotten.
Being the best version of yourself. Waking up at 60 and realising your life has not been lived in some areas due to unwise decisions or not putting yourself first with some things can hurt and be a cause of regret.
But is that not true for all of us? No matter how well we lived our lifes and / or how much we believe to have missed. At some stage must come the acceptance that the things we do come of the knowledge and maturity at the times we do them.
And maybe being kind to ourself is the key to not regretting so much.
Yes, but the responsibility lays squarely at your feet and is not someone else's to take care of. Whether financially or "being happy" is your doing and yours alone.
This notion that you control your own destiny is just so much bull-shit. Luck, mentors, arseholes, circumstances, illness, accidents, the family you come from, how well off they are, political direction, legislation, genetics, technology, racism and many, many other things that play a part.
It's akin to Thatcher's "there is no community".
Of course we should help and support others and create an environment where people can flourish. The sucking in of the working class by capitalists into thinking they are middle class has a lot to answer for.
Four generations in NZ to move from poverty to approach the mean income. Most people in NZ have any real conception of how well off the rich are and how poor they are in real terms – though COVID-19 woke a few up.
"Most of us, especially in developed nations, expect to grow up to earn more than our parents. But as a new in-depth report by the OECD shows, this is becoming less likely. In fact, things have been trending this way for decades.
As a consequence, social mobility across nations, and generations, has stalled."
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/moving-up-the-income-ladder-takes-generations-how-many-depends-on-where-you-live/
It's simplistic to say that because someone who skips school and then doesn't do well in life, well that is their own fault. That ignores the variety of circumstances and what there is to motivate all that otherwise boring studying and conforming. Sometimes I wonder why I come on this blog. I hope to learn something new and factual and hear people's experiences but sometimes it is just the same old cant and prejudice and self-involved waffle. But I am motivated by meeting the minds of some remarkable people.
Its a very mean world out there greywarshark. As a parent you want your kid to survive, being able to stand on their own two feet. To learn and create a means to make their way. This in turn creates a strong community. I think values that have served for a very long time are being eroded and instead a cult of ego is fostered. The lesson I have learned looking back is that, the trend of children being brought up under an anti authoritarian model has actually in so many cases lead to non authoritarian behaviour. There is a need to have expectations in terms of a code of conduct and ethics.
I may add that I reflect with experience of people, environments, poverty, illness without any dole or acc etc…
edit
Good thoughts Foreign Waka. But you are still thinking of children and people conforming to ways that you expect. To live together we do indeed need to conform to certain behaviours that benefit us all. But the ways we adopt need to enable people to live a life that is meaningful and possible for them. There are too many middle class people who seem basically materialistic and judge everything on the basis of having a home that could appear in House and Garden, a good education that enables them to enjoy the finer things of life and find a niche for themselves that brings in enough credits (money) to fit in with whoever is regarded as 'the right crowd' (probably displaying the most materialistic success).
Community and other people's needs and wants do not enter into their minds much as being part of their living. If they can't 'make it' on their own after being given a helping hand here and there, well that's their fault. They are judged for not being materially successful and if they break the law they do so in ways that are not tolerated by the wealthy who have their own rules.
So tight bums sit on their piles of money and look down on all the unfortunates and repeat little homilies about them being lazy etc. If we promote good behaviour, fair behaviour, putting something into the community when you take it out, sharing some of your excess to help others improve themselves, then we would have a nicer society where people were motivated to be kind or at least tolerant of each other, and limit their excessive behaviour however that was displayed. And a little time and money helping others, would bring good profit in many ways, and not just when there is an emergency, which wouldinclude the people down the road (the wealthy often like to help others struggling overseas because they don't give a damn about those around them).
Encourage people to find something they enjoy doing and become skilled in. Enable them to work at something that the society wants, if not full-time, make up the needed income from government reserves. Just keep people embedded in society, creatively working, so no time for the destructive. We are so mean in all ways, and if we don't like what we see now, it is actually a reflection of what is in our shrivelled fault-finding little dried peas we call hearts.
Greywarshark, I couldn't agree more.
This "Arbeit macht frei" baloney above makes me sick, Along with the comments about the "Society" "We" make.
Honestly, I would expect to hear this sort of stuff on Kiwiblog or from the shade of Margaret Thatcher.
Seeing as how Sabine want's to use 'anecdata" to score points about the unemployed and the labour market, how about I tell you my experience of being unemployed:
Worked in a VERY specialized field in this country for nearly 20 years.
Shifted cities to take up a new role.
A little over a year later, myself and a dozen others were made redundant when the company was sold to an offshore entity – They moved to contracting out / short term / casualising the workforce. No spots for me.
Unemployed for nearly four years, applying for all sorts of work that was 'beneath me" – data entry, telemarketing, all sorts… More than a dozen applications a week, every week, except over Xmas when the jobs dried up
I was lucky if I received a rejection letter let alone an interview – most employers had no understanding of what I did in my previous roles. The fact I was in my 40's and had "manager" in my previous roles seemed to be a problem.
WINZ tried to "assist me" into employment. This was what happened, I am "Tom".
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2016/11/major-recruitment-company-accused-of-exploiting-jobless.html
That was me being 'unwilling to be part of the system". The labour market is radically different to how it was a decade ago.
Honestly, A few weeks ago people who used to regularly comment here talked about how it was now a personal soapbox for a half dozen professional gripers who believe they know it all. They are so self obsessed, and so busy yelling pathetic sophistry, that they have forgotten how to listen.
Yes Sabine, they were talking about you and some others in particular.
Last week you were told you were mistaken about the "National raised benefits by $25 / week" lie. You couldn't even acknowledge you were wrong.
As for your "walk in / walk off" job at the sorting sheds – Sounds pretty fucking dodgy. Got a contract for me to sign so I'm protected? Got the paperwork so I can be sure you're paying PAYE tax to contribute to "Society"? Are you sorting out the paperwork for the student loan? Child Support? Fines? ACC levy?
Don't bother replying, just add me to the legion of others who can't be bothered with this place anymore.
Honestly, The Standard is turning into a bourgeois Boomer reckons Soapbox.
For shame…
Cinder, I am sorry to hear what you go through. I have no solution to offer other than demand all the assistance (financially) that you can get from WINZ and if there are unlawful going on's, try the community law center. webpage below.
https://communitylaw.org.nz/free-legal-help/
i.e. when you use the site you should find at the bottom of the page a drop field to choose location. Once you are where you choose, go to the bottom of the page and you find details like below (example only)
Unit 9, Shop 27
Bader Drive
Māngere
M
PO Box 43-201
P(09) 275 4310
E reception@mangerelaw.org.nz
Kia Ora Foreign Weka.
Thank you for the kind words and offer of support.
That event was actually nearly 5 years ago, I do have a job now thank goodness.
As I stated, it was to give the willfully unenlightened "reckons" above some idea of the labour market. But exploiters gonna exploit right?
edot
Cinder – That was good for you to get off your chest and for us to hear. I might weep at the way that people go on here, and they are genuinely trying to see through the fog, but it is quite a task for anyone to develop long sight. It's only through study social policy, doing some mind work for mental health, reading some citizen philosophers and thinking and getting back that I have opened my rusty door to understanding.
People are so comfortable with what they have achieved, for all their life little pieces of information have cropped up about the western world achieving such a high standard of living while other areas so low. And we have given donations to charities and felt we have done our bit. Now that we are trans-global, free marketing and have our country legally invaded and see our own standards fall to those once read about we get an inkling of what life is when the finance system fails you and the paring knife of efficiency falls on you.
We have heard the lies about the lies of leaders, politicians, wealthy businesspeople trading with tokens which is what our carefully nurtured international money system is. The smart people are desperately buying our houses which remain standing as a physical asset as the tide of local and international finance rises and falls. But people have lost touch with what life is about, they can't bring themselves to make the slightest change that seems obvious, ie euthanasia for terminally ill sufferers, and cannabis use in contained ways. People just want to have more toys, more technology, shape what is available to suit the wealthy ie housing for the happy retired, and goodies for the wannabes, and the anomic tech-mad individualists.
I think the answer for those who want to face the future and hold onto good from the past is to form a movement of people who care about people and want all to have the ability to make a reasonable living and be secure and know and like most others, and be busy doing good stuff, and have time for enjoyment.
We might need a local sub-currency properly run on economic principles (this is essential) and be prepared to fight in some way to maintain the group against detractors. You might take an interest in what Robert Guyton does and his group, they are 'doing' people with a good heart who are food growers and practical, and the tiny house builders, and the many creatives around the rohe. You might get creative with your own skills, do a sideways shift from the predator businesses and people you work amongst, and find a place where you are respected, liked, and enjoy a different cadence to your life. Climate change is happening, and a large group in NZ are unable to rethink how to live, are caught up by the present and are stuck there like a display of pretty butterflies.
Footnote – I see that you have another job but your story may repeat. There are others who will have been through what you have experienced. Think about what I have said. It may have legs in the future!
Victoria is now in a 7 day lockdown:
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/victoria-covid-live-updates-melbourne-braces-for-lockdown-as-health-officials-await-overnight-case-numbers-20210526-p57ve7.html
Well i guess that was to be expected.
See which state in Australia or region in NZ is next to have a lockdown. There are too many exposure sites and the contact tracing is a hit and miss. It has taken two weeks for the situation to occur in Melbourne.
The 5,000 in NZ from Melbourne recently and air travel from other Australian states to NZ see what the situation is in a week or two.
Well, get ready for level 3….
As negative as I can be about the potential of Covid being in the NZ community at any time. The reality is that when Covid is in the community it impacts in many ways.
Indeed and everybody is reacting differently. I am one of those essential workers who work as if there is no tomorrow for a basic hrl. rate. Not so lucky being one of those who got to sit at home doing very very little (video conference in pj's anyone) that's being called "work from home".
Kapai Kia ora Foreign Waka.
And that is whether you are Maori or not. We all need to face our present which is integrating with Maori ideas more, and treasuring our workers especially in the border and health fields.