I have learned to assume the worst of our politicians…its easier that way as it avoids that awful feeling of betrayal when manifesto promises are broken and hopes for a kinder and more fair New Zealand are dashed…again.
Heavy sigh this am as the Natrad Bedwetters Club featured the news of Green Party Co Leader James Shaw's announcement of an $11.7 million handout to a Taranaki private school.
…and those millions would have gone a long way towards rectifying some of the infrastructure issues faced by many Taranaki schools. Some of these issues involve leaky, damp buildings which is ironic as the major business magnates behind this private school made their fortune from selling ventilation systems.
Doubly ironic as I clearly remember a phone conversation with a telemarketer for said company. He waffled on about cold and damp and how much I needed a home ventilation system to circulate the air around our home. I politely informed helpful gentleman that we already had a ventilation system…windows and doors…
I digress. The cynic in me suspects that James, the co -leader of the party I had just about committed to voting for again, thinks the average Joe or Jane will hear "Green" and assume all is sound and ethically well with this funding and it must fit within the Party's code. Big mistake, James.
The alternative is possibly worse. James has turned traitor and has decided to torpedo the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience.
Your final sentence is nonsense, Rosemary. Funding a school is a laudable action. The question is; does it contravene Green Party policy and if so, how concerned should we be about that. I'd be very interested to hear from The Greens and James especially, for their explanation, before scuppering the boat I float in.
Suspend your judgement till you have heard from those most closely involved, I reckon. Funding a school is not a damning act, it's a well-intentioned, widely supported action. The Greens did say ‘Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools,” (says the party’s current education policy.) but there's nothing yet to prevent them doing so. It is though, at this point, an awkward situation. I certainly don't see it as a "debacle" or even the echo of one.
Mr Guyton, I am well acquainted with the Green policies, but thank you for the link. Others here may find it helpful, although I suspicion the reading of manifesto and policy statements do not always feature as preparation to casting one's precious vote.
I fear that even here, amoungst the assumed politcally aware, there is a tendency to vote "Labour" or "Green" or goddess forbid "NZ First" just because.
Hurry up James! Rattle your dags sunshine and please explain!
Someone tending toward voting Green is unlikely to swerve violently away at the news that The Greens facilitated funding for a school, I'd have thought!
Unless they're one of those people, and there are a few about, who look as hard as they can for any reason to avoid voting lab/grn, so they can back a sub 1% party and cling to the notion they're doing the right thing by the country, even though every wasted vote brings the prospect of a nat led government closer.
"James is proud and loud over this" doesn't seem like a "back-room deal" then does it, or something The Greens wished to slip in unnoticed by the public. Seems kinda "up-front" wouldn't ya say?
Many of those people, The Al1en, are presently backing Billy Te Kihaka's conspiracy party now, and loudly declaring that The Greens have sold out to the Man, or whatever. I hear "The Greens support the use of 1080 so it's all over between me and Them!" and so on, levering their exit around any one of a hundred issues The Greens are "ignoring", 5G, compulsory vaccination, mask-wearing, and so on and so on. It's a phenomenon of the startlable-Left, unfortunately. Gotta learn to live with it. For people who profess to support The Greens to immediately declare, "I'm off" at the news of this school support, fits that picture, imo. Consequently, I agree with the sentiment of your comment.
Might need to do another post on 1080 and what the GP actually say on that.
I kind of understand the reactionary, emotional vote, but I mostly don't get it. We have to have someone in parliament and government, who should that be this time? It's not a hard thing to figure out, despite any disappointments along the way (and I have my own about the Greens).
The expectation that a political party could perfectly represent the needs of anyone at all, is a pipe-dream. Those who toy-toss at the slightest bump in the road seem flakey to me. Will they just as easily return to the fold if the next issue suits them better, or will they stay stubbornly out in the cold because "the party" betrayed them? This issue is de minimis, in my opinion, in the big picture; I compare it with National's most recent "the water quality regulations will be gone by lunchtime" scandal and ask myself, wtf are Green supporters thinking, throwing in the towel at the sniff of something they don't agree with (or fully understand)? Funding for a school!?! The horror!!!
I was listening yesterday to a group of young Maori men discussing Billy TK and his prophecies. Very disturbing that they have taken as Gospel his comments about 5 G / Covid conspiracies etc. They feel that because Billy TK is a great musician then he must be correct about the "ride to hell we are currently on". I fear for the vulnerable young people of NZ.
I attended a meeting of such people last night, Patricia. I don't recommend such an experience. I have been engaging in discussion/dialogue/debate with various (younger) people in my town over "Billy" and his ways, pointing out his efforts to align with Hanna Tamaki (spurned) and Jamie-Lee Ross (accepted) as well as his most recent expulsion from the White Ribbon movement because of his "separation from reality", or some such. I mentioned the very poor turnout at the Auckland "5G and everything else" march, which contradicted the followers claims that "the uprising is massive and will turn the country on its head", and have, as yet, made zero progress, despite my careful strategising and genuine concern for their wellbeing
Someone tending toward voting Green is unlikely to swerve violently away at the news that The Greens facilitated funding for a school, I'd have thought!
But it is not just any old school is it Robert?
It is a very special Private School for the offspring of the Very Wealthy of Aotearoa, and especially Overseas.
At a time when state schools are desperate for funding for remedial work to be done…which would surely have the potential to employ as many, if not more than just this one school.
Paul Goulter, NZEI Te Riu Roa national secretary said it came as a “complete surprise”.
“This comes as a complete surprise to us given the Greens’ own clear policy against public funding of private schools.
“We just can’t understand why the Government would go ahead and fund a private school with public money at a time when public schools in the Taranaki region are crying out for this type of investment,” he said.
The sheer scale of the funding is significant. When the Government announced a $400 million package to upgrade New Zealand’s ageing public school infrastructure, it was capped at $400,000. The grant to the Green School would be enough to fund nearly 30 schools at that rate.
Just up the road from Green School, New Plymouth Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools each received $400,000.
It's shit like this that makes me think of myself as a labour voter who sometimes goes green, rather than a green voter. Funding a private school is fucked, but because it has "green" in the name they'll throw out the socioeconomic principles they allegedly have.
Basically, a comprehensive and holistic platform is compromised for a single pet project because they like the vibe. Private education is capitalist, and capitalism is the enemy of the environment. An elitist enviro-wank school is the equivalent of champagne socialism.
Labour supported the choice via their local candidate.
We still don't know if the Greens wanted this, or if there wasn't much choice. I can't imagine the Greens would choose this over funding state schools or any number of other projects, so I'm guessing it came from the Infrastructure Reference Group in charge of the shovel-ready projects. That's run by Twyford and Jones afaik.
Labour are predictable in their policy blindspots.
The Greens tend to be pretty solid, then do a random announcement on some issue.
Apparently Shaw announced it as a minister – fair call, maybe it's a all-govt thing, but I've difficulty seeing which portfolio makes him the responsible cheerleader for this decisions. Associate minister of finance? Surely they could have given the role of announcing this project to someone else, given that it's in direct contradiction to Green policy?
still guessing, but yes Assoc Finance portfolio, *and the GP (according to Hipkins) advocated for it, but I'm betting it was from a pool of projects that Twyford and Jones had shortlisted.
So if the Greens had the opportunity to lobby for specific projects for the fund, and it was a choice between say a new road/coal fired power plant or a private school that has a strong green focus, what would they do?
Might still be a politically naive thing to have done of course, instead of choosing nothing.
Totally speculating here, because I'm just so sick of the whole purity politics stuff, as well as the jumping to conclusions before we even know what happened.
If people want the Greens to stick to their kaupapa the best way to ensure that is to give them more power in government. We will never get a GP or any party that is perfect for us, but I just do not believe that this idea came from the Greens originally when they would be more naturally interested in actual green projects.
and, if it turns out the Greens chose this over all the worthy green projects needing done that wouldn't have made it past Twyford and Jones, then I will rightly condemn the Greens too. I'll still vote for them though, because climate change is going to monkeys of us all for a very long time after purity ceases to be a pressing concern. Oh yeah, and because their welfare policy outstrips anything else in parliament. And their fresh water policy. And most things when it comes down to it.
If they had a list of crappy projects, they should have chosen nothing. The projects would have been done one way or the other, it's not like the Greens could have vetoed the entire list.
Or at least let Jones and Twyford announce their crappy projects.
yes, probably. But we have no idea what happened, so I'd rather wait before slagging off the Greens or changing my vote or whatever. If people want to change their vote because the Greens aren't political players, they can do that, but it's a different thing, and we still need them in govt. It's not like they have policies that will intentionally keep lots of people in poverty, that would be Labour.
at the least Shaw is bungling the PR on this. No idea if that’s because he thinks funding this school is a brilliant idea and has completely misread the room, or if there’s something more pragmatic going on.
I guess the issue for me with the discussion is why people would throw out the lovely policy, along with lots of other lovely policy, over this one thing. Not least because that means voting for a party that won’t be in parliament or one that will but has worse policy. I understand the principle of the thing thing (I have my own bottom lines), but this looks like something else. Post brewing about how people still don’t trust the Greens and look for any weakness as proof of that.
Yeah I agree with that – anyone who's an enthusiastic supporter of the Greens and then ditches it because of one decision is being a bit precious, at best, in the current NZ political climate.
But then there's more the "meh, what the hell" voter. By which I mean that up to the election I look at policy and the people involved (grassroots as well as the parliamentarians), but my vote might be up in the air between a couple of parties, and it just depends on what the polls think the result will be and what my preferred result might be. I don't really know for sure what I will tick while I'm picking up the forms, and might be inclined to do something different when I leave the polling station.
I mean, I know I won't be voting National, but say labgrn looks pretty solid, maybe I won't vote either if there's a <1% party on the left – give them an extra vote, and thereby a tiny little bit more credibility. Dunno who any decent trace-element parties at the moment are, though, but there's a couple of months yet.
How often will a local candidate not support spending government money in their district? I mean, a west coast Green candidate might oppose the government subsidising the start up of a coal mine, or a Nat might object to a bit of funding to entice the Worldwide Collective Association of Socialist Parties to set up headquarters in their district. But short of something like that, a local politician will always support more jerbs in their district funded by the government.
I've been aware of this school for sometime. One of the investors is a brother of an acquaintance of mine, and as she is involved in childhood education she was invited to go and view the site and meet the founders last year.
The idea and the kaupapa make for good soundbites, but primarily from my perspective – as Rosemary suspects – it is a school that is intended to create opportunities for green entrepreneurs. And the "green" aspect is fluid.
If our society is dedicated to providing a good, quality universal education, that priority needs to be achieved first before educational funding such as this is allocated.
We are nowhere near providing a good, quality universal education. We should focus on that.
"it is a school that is intended to create opportunities for green entrepreneurs."
And that's a bad thing???
Surely, it's a school for the promotion of environmentally-friendly learning, yes? A school for children? You're attacking the worth of the school, but I would think its value and values were closely looked-at by James Shaw et al before they swung in to support the funding of it; who to believe, who to trust???
"Surely all schools should be funded to deliver such laudable learnings Robert?"
Well, yes, Rosemary but should all other progress stall until that happens? Shall we cancel the Enviroschools programme till every school has signed on? How would that work?
why, have the Green nothing to say about this in the government of which they are part?
or is it simply dumb and tone deaf to announce the waste of some 10 millions to a private school, while other schools in NZ are build of shacks? Oh, its the green focus of that school? Well if that is the case I hope that the Green Party will promote teh idea that all the other schools in NZ specifically the public schools should get the same amount to 'teach green focus' in school.
fucks sake. The GP don't control either the Education funding or the Shovel funding. That's NZF and Labour.
Looks like the GP fucked up on this, either via their PR or by their decision on the project. Tell you what, don't vote for them, or vote Labour, that will get you a way better govt /drippingsarc
And ffs, go and learn how government actually works, because this fairy dust, magic wand shit is tedious.
You missed an important part in my comment Robert: And the "green" aspect is fluid.
" Surely, it's a school for the promotion of environmentally-friendly learning, yes? A school for children? "
No surely about it. It is promoted as…
And it is accessible only to a small number of monied students. Our government funding for environmental education should be able to be accessed by all.
Do I trust James Shaw is not the question. I can see where his perspective lies from actions like this.
Cripes Molly the country has to move in different directions than in the past. Better education is not just returning to what we had in the 1980/90s but something that fits our needs today, more machine-minds and tech, less jobs, poor wages etc. We need to learn less about how to criticise and more on how to thing creatively and practically. Good on the Greens, if they get started then they can tune up to what is needed, change the tune, fine-tune. And at the same time ensure everyone can read, understand what they read, discuss its effect, learn psychology and how to get on with each other, and look up any facts needed on google.
Thanks for talking us down to earth quietly Robert G. I thought we were leaving Ground Zero by too far a distance there.
Thinking of getting high, has everyone else caught up with the fact that dirigibles are the thing being worked on around Europe? This was a piece from The Telegraph. I stop at the paywall, might do occasional donations though as they give gen that I don't always get here.
The UK, a leader in the airship revival, is going head to head with France in an escalating global race. Zeppelins and dirigible airships are now promising to provide the future of green transport, and if all goes well, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes in this fascinating column, we will be able to hop virtuously from Liverpool to Belfast in point-to-point travel.
Shaw's only comment seems to be that the spend will result in 200 jobs. What rubbish. These jobs will be temporary jobs while the build happens and not permanent new jobs. Every indication is that because the word "Green" is in the title of the school that this is the reason the funding – which equates apparently to $200k per pupil – was granted. A shonky and suspect decision.
@ Rosemary McDonald , Thanks for writing that response to this shameful hypocrisy, it saves me the time of writing pretty much the same thing.
Funnily enough I had just said on Sunday here on open mike (6.2.1.) that I would probably vote Greens, but lamented the day the Greens didn't choose Bradford as co leader, mainly because of her deeply held values and uncrossable lines in the sand…well this episode just proves that point, Shaw is a pragmatic centrist who is (like so many greens) willfully blind to the class war that rages all around him, and like all centrists end up entrenching a class based society further.
They lost your vote because they funded a school? They did indicate that, "‘Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools," – the term, "phased out" doesn't mean "immediately ceased", so their support does not baldly contravene their policy as is being claimed here and on Kiwiblog.
Again, they lost your vote because they funded a school?
Was it an evil school? A school that teaches subversive, anti-Kiwi values? A school that is nothing more than a front for…whatever?
But I'm guessing the justifications you have given us this morning are the same the Green Party will trot out. And those of us lesser mortals are just closet righties if we have a problem with this gross corporate welfare.
I have a pile of sleeper sized maccy to cut and wrestle into raised garden beds today…I've said my piece.
A tune for your day Sir…you've sung the Green's hymn well.
I'm teasing, Rosemary. And "we" is plural, not singular. In any case, some time in the corner, thinking about what you have done, will do you no harm . I'm going to do the same, except I'll do it outside and prune apple trees instead. It would be good to have some more comment from The Greens before we wade deeper into the issue.
Robert – are you aware that many teachers feel very strongly about state money being generously thrown at private schools? This particular private school charges over $20,000 per NZ student, and over $40,000 per foreign student…
This is against the spirit of Green Education Policy. When The Alliance disappeared, I, as a teacher, looked at all the parties' Education policies, liked the Greens' the most, and have party-voted Green since.
I am now in doubt. I will definitely continue my donations to Greenpeace, but I now wonder about Party vote Green. How are the Greens going to make 5% by losing any of their considerable teacher support? I do not want to waste my Party vote on a party that does not seem bothered about failing to reach 5%.
Greens need to do some damage control about this, I fear. Ill-considered..
the 5% issue existed before this, and it's entirely on left wing voters whether the GP are in parliament or not after the election. Ditto in government.
If this is a real deal breaker for you, I'd be interested to know what Labour's policy is.
In Vino – yes, and as an ex-teacher (early childhood, primary, secondary, special needs and tertiary) I feel the same way. My only argument here is for restraint around dumping on the Party before their reasons have been published. Do you know why The Greens have made this decision that surely must have tested their attachment to their policy and principles? My experience is that they don't do anything thoughtlessly. I'd like to hear what they have to say on the issue. My immediate reaction is not one I'm arguing for, as I need to hear what James and co. have to say. Perhaps they have reneged, perhaps they have rationalised their action for the furtherance of their principles; that's what I'd like to know. Thick as molasses, my decision-making machinery!
Understood, Robert, but I think some gesture of damage control will be needed for the more short-fused and less contemplative types that there are in many school staff-rooms. I hope that James Shaw can come up with something convincing.
It is an irony that Righties attack the Greens for being 'red on the inside', but the Greens then do something that would actually please the Righties, rather than their own supporters.
To me this looks like something that appeals to a small (but possibly vocal) segment of hard-core Greens. It's possible Shaw himself is firmly in that segment. But those in the Greens that made the decision to push for this totally misread how the wider public would take it.
For instance, the opportunity to (fairly) cry "hypocrisy" is always going to trump any positive feelings the right may have over any Green support for a private initiative.
I agree entirely, In Vino and would add "the more short-fused and less contemplative types" here on The Standard and across the comment-o-sphere. It'll be gleeful fun for The Greens' opponents to whip this up but it disturbs me when up-till-now supporters turn-tail so easily before the discussion has been had. Avoiding this sort of gotcha moment close to an election is, in my view, impossible; look at how many National has suffered recently! This single instance for The Greens, whether earned or not, should be measured against those various scandals/outrages. Given also, that The Greens are in Government and actually doing things, rather than say, The ACT Party who do nothing but gripe and are therefore harder to "expose", it's to be expected that a storm of some sort would whip up. This one, where the worst charge that might stick is one of hypocrisy, shouldn't really phase Green supporters, or those who were "considering" voting Green. The damage control will indeed be needed, even if the damage wasn't self-inflicted, but instead, manufactured from without. I'm as keen as anyone to hear a response from James Shaw but significantly less keen to throw in my Green towel and march indignantly off
nope, cause there is really nothing that would make wasting this much tax payer money on one PRIVATE school good and decent, specifically in these times where everyone else is supposed to do with less, some with nothing, and here the Green Party is giving 10 millions away for bumkins. But they get to feel all ‘Green’.
John Hardy's Green Schools are in fact not inline with "Kiwi Values"…being a touch expensive..hence the large percentage of overseas pupils..and I don't mean kids from the pacific islands…. We in fact already have schools that cover the whole plethora of "Kiwi Values" many of which include environmental and social aspects of which you might approve.
They are all desperate for funding for these programmes…infact with increased funding even more schools would embrace the very programmes we urgently need to educate ALL our NZ youngsters.
John Hardys Green Schools are well patronised by some very wealthy individuals..who I am sure could philanthropically fund his vision to their hearts content. Failing that they could organise a cake raffle…
They have also lost my vote, because it's a fucking private school. I don't care if they promote left wing views if you send your kids to private school you should pay for everything.
By the sounds of it, the parents are paying plenty enough "for it". Perhaps there is benefit in supporting the establishment of such a school, for the wider community? Assisting them over the initial "bump" with money that will indeed stimulate the economy through jobs, will benefit everyone through creating a precedent for green public schools and I expect that's what The Greens have deduced. Your reaction, "public school or bust" sounds … reactionary.
It might not be just one thing. For those of us looking at which party has the least unattractive pile of peaches and dead rats to choke down in order to vote for them, this may be the big dead rat tossed on top that pushes the overall balance away from the Greens.
Yep. But it's expected behaviour for the other parties, so it doesn't change their pile. Whereas for the Greens it removes the peach labelled "principle" and adds a dead rat labelled "featherbedding their special buddies".
"Green School CEO Chris Edwards has thanked Green Party co-leader and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw for his support. "
Shaw's "support"? Is that what Shaw gave? You mean, this wasn't a Green initiative, driven through Parliament relentlessly, in contradiction to the Green's kaupapa? That in fact, Shaw supported something along the way? It gets even worse for the duplicitous Greens – support! Scandalous!
You could find an objection to any one project. The point is it's a portfolio of infrastructure and construction projects that’s designed to keep the economy rolling in that field
Reading the Stuff piece, questions I have are this:
given this comes from Shaw as a Minister and not Shaw as GP co-leader, did the Labour/NZF caucus approve this project?
given the funding was for shovel-ready projects, what were the constraints on that?
who was in the decision making process? who decided which shovel-ready projects would be approved?
why are so many lefties unaware of how government actually works?
why are so many lefties expecting a level of purity from the Greens and unwilling to figure out the compromises involved in being in government?
Sounds like it was a Green push, not someone else's they agreed to as a governing compromise:
During today’s 1pm Covid-19 update, Hipkins addressed the funding, saying the Green Party “advocated quite strongly” for it. “It was one of their ‘wins’, if you like, from the shovel ready projects… It’s not necessarily a project that I would have prioritised.”
1. The GP had free reign to choose whatever projects they wanted?
2. The fund was restricted to a set pool of projects and/or criteria, and the GP had to choose from those?
If it's the former, I would definitely have major concerns about why the GP chose this over many, many other things. But this seems unlikely. Good stick to beat the Greens with though.
If you end up with the time stamp for todays' covid briefing and Hipkins' comment, I'd be interested.
I've done a bit searching on the web, including on the Greens website, and found nothing yet that makes me feel this was a good decision. Or even anything hinting it might have been a good decision. Shaw directly explaining it hasn't turned up yet (if you want people to consider it, how about linking?) but I'll wait for something written to come out rather than listening to emotionally-manipulative low-fact-density blather.
"International education was until recently New Zealand's fourth largest export sector. It is obviously going through a very tough time right now as a result of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
"This project not only secures 200 jobs in the near term, it also creates additional capacity for the time when people are able to travel more freely, enabling Taranaki to develop a thriving international education opportunity."
Shaw said the project would create hundreds of quality jobs.
"Meaning more people can continue to provide for their families whilst we weather the economic storm of the pandemic crisis. These jobs will provide a good day's pay, doing meaningful work, building a better future for Taranaki.
"The support we are providing will help Green School to meet growing demand from parents all over New Zealand, and the rest of the world, wanting to enrol their children. This will mean more families can take the opportunity to put down roots in Taranaki and contribute to the future growth of the region," Shaw said.
I'm not persuaded because it's not a green project. It's more of the same bullshit so beloved of the Nats, selling education to bring wealthy people here so we can relieve them of money and they'll spend lots more money buying property and businesses and stuff. But the Greens have hopped on board because of the enviro-wank (thanks McFlock) positioning of the school as their sales proposition.
I understood this money came out of the Regional pot, not the Education or Green vote? Personally I am for Public Education, but in a democracy I do support choice. I thought buildings and maintenance were provided by the State?
That funding comes with strings, which were meant to prevent them from using their fees to get better teacher:student ratios than state schools, etc. Not quite the same thing.
Robert asked whether Integrated schools receive Government funding and the answer is yes. Never said that it was the same thing though because you are right, it isn’t the same as for State schools. I have no time or interest in elaborating on the differences (a major one is the State doesn’t own the buildings & land of Integrated schools); somebody else can or Robert can use Google 😉
@Robert you got any basis for suggesting it will be paid back? In all the articles I've seen so far there has been a complete absence of any words or even hints about repayment. But plenty of words like given and granted etc usually used in the context of a non-repayable gift.
You're quite right, Andre – I'd seen something earlier in the day, before visiting The Standard, which read: "
peterwn
“So their official policy is to ban public funding of private schools (ie the 25% subsidy per student)”.
The Government gets back 60% of that subsidy in GST (yes, parents of private school pupils do pay GST on their fees) so in reality it is only a 10% subsidy." Not quite the same thing, but perhaps a little salve to the dreadful wound.
Why oh why can you anti-people not expand your minds about this Green Party move. Nothing you have ever thought of up till now has saved us from getting to this end moment in our world's and country's progress/regress. You set too big a store by your ethics, values, standards or whatever you choose to call them.
There are broad principles to steer by, but sometimes it is better to include something that may be different than Green Party principles. They aren't a church, po-faced about humanity fitting in with its dicta; the Greens are a Party trying to turn things around for people AND the planet so both have a future that is not dire. They need our support and our help not our pin-pricking platitudes.
the beige suits of all parties in government can abstain and it is counted as a vote. Why are people supposed to choose between useless, corrupt and uninspired?
That is how i see the parties, Labour – mostly useless, National, mostly corrupt, and the greens – mostly uninspired.
oh because y'all are afraid of Judith Collins? Wow, now that is really not a good 'please vote for Labour or the Greens' point.
Before i move to my reply you can dial down your knee jerk Green Party defence…the foot belongs to the Gov.
Read the 'company' promo.that targets the international monied cliental from the international market…it will never be available to the local kiwi kid down the road….FFS, if you are incapable of recognising the appalling hypocrisy of funding this project when both public education and health providers are decrying the lack of resources then you are delusional.
These types of mindless decisions will cost the incumbents far more votes than Judith and Gerry's carping about Covid
The funding doesn't come from the education budget, does it? Nor the health budget. It comes from the budget that's for job creation and infrastructure development in response to Covid 19. Seems appropriate.
"Tell that to the state school teacher that cant get a teacher aide to assist with severely dysfunctional students because resources."
What would that achieve, Pat? The money for teacher aides comes from a completely seperate budget which will not be affected at all by the spending from the one being considered here. They are seperate, unconnected issues.
Therein lies your problem Robert….you are thinking like an accountant….voters will not separate the funding streams (and nor should they) …its a question of priorities and funding the desires of the offspring of the (offshore) wealthy dosnt trump the basic needs of the locals
personally no…if theres funding available it should go to the area of greatest need first…and private schools for the children of wealthy foreigners (even if climate conscious) are way down the list of needs
But even more importantly will be how the state employed educators and the parents of the students view it…and theres a lot more of them
"it will never be available to the local kiwi kid down the road"
A successful "green" school, one that blazes the green-learning trail, risks being a front-footer, trials programmes for the first time, produces well-greened learners who will go out into the world better equiped to mend the environmental and social harms we are experiencing now, will benefit "the local kiwi kid down the road", or at least will potentially, in ways that haven't been discussed here at all. There's been a great deal of outrage at the perceived exclusiveness and privilege involved, as is to be expected from Green supporters; we've always hated on private schools, but perhaps we might pause a while to hear The Greens rationale for their decision, what their decision was, how large the part they played in the decision and whether they had considered the sort of reaction that's evident here.
How pray tell does lavishly funding a private educational venture WHILE restricting support to a desperate public education sector grow the Green Party vote?….I would suggest the effect is the exact opposite.
However as stated earlier this is not confined to the Green Party
So you think that the Greens should have said to Labour "no we will withhold support for your stimulus package because we can't see any green shovel ready projects that fit with our sensibilities"?
If this is not confined to the Green Party then why have you been so quite about Labour?
An innovative school with an deep green kaupapa, perhaps the deepest in the country so far, shouldn't get enthusiastic support from The Green's?
And, to quote weka:
“Labour candidate for New Plymouth Glen Bennett said the announcement was important for the Taranaki economy and job creation.
He said although it is a private school, the funding wasn’t taking away from public schools as it was an investment in infrastructure rather than education.
“The expansion of the school will bring more students and their families into Taranaki, adding to our economy.”
I'm not at all, In Vino, nor do I gratuitously support funding a private school. I'm simply saying, let's see what The Greens say before we condemn or applaud them. I generally trust the actions they take and recognise that they are constrained, directed and thwarted by their coalition partners, so when something like this comes up and the pile-ons begin, I like to keep my powder dry till I can see the whites in the eyes of whoever is at the centre of the issue. So to speak.
Yep – I see your point, but I was also noticing echos from the past.. (Not your echoes.)
I really hope James can do a good job of explaining this.
Who else will I vote for? Only the least of all evils that is assured of getting over 5%, ie, Labour. But that will be only to keep the Nats out. Not because i have found something better than the Greens.
"The alternative is possibly worse. James has turned traitor and has decided to torpedo the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience."
Co-leaders of the Green Party don't have that kind of power.
snort. The left has long wanted the GP to be the left's political conscience. Should have supported it better while it had the chance. If the GP has gone mainstream, that's because that's where it's getting support from.
Labour candidate for New Plymouth Glen Bennett is pleased with the announcement.
Labour candidate for New Plymouth Glen Bennett said the announcement was important for the Taranaki economy and job creation.
He said although it is a private school, the funding wasn't taking away from public schools as it was an investment in infrastructure rather than education.
“The expansion of the school will bring more students and their families into Taranaki, adding to our economy.
The citation is wrong at $117 million. No wonder we get false news. It should be $11.7 million. It's on a par with Sir Joseph Ward's 1928 election gaffe misreading 70 million pounds borrowed over 10 years to become 70 million pounds borrowed in one year. Factors of 10 do matter!
$11.7 million appears to be correctly used throughout the article.
Decimal points tend to get left out of URLs. Presumably because they have meaning to the software, rather than just being another alphanumeric character for making a name.
Thanks, Andre, for the URL explanation. It's like reading headlines only? In this case, I did read the article. (The URL writer could have left out the .7 and just stated 11 million, surely?)
Looks like stuff URLs are just the headline with all punctuation stripped out. That would be easy to write code to do automatically. It would take a bit more work to write code to determine that something isn't a full stop but is instead a decimal point and strip out the numbers after it.
Just as well I'm not a headline writer for Stuff. I'd be trying really hard to see what kind of unintended consequences I could get to show up in the URLs.
Nope, it is still taking form the taxpayer who may or may not have children in private schools to fund a private for profit business.
the best these guys should get is a wage subsidy when next the country goes to lockdown level 4. Nothing more nothing less, like any other business in NZ.
That's right, Sabine. I too baulk at the spending of public money on private projects such as this. However, the story has not been fully told by those most closely involved, so I'm reserving my ire or praise until I know the details, hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. If only others would do the same but I know as well as any other that this is the period of wild reckonings and snappy responses online whenever there's a political event, such as this is purported to be.
i actually don't care about these guys sitting down now trying to fix up a narrative to make this pig look less like a pig with smeared lipstick all over the place.
We have homeless in this country, this 10 million could have done a great job of building some hovels for these guys.
We have a lot of unemployed people currently , and we will have more at the end of this week, month , year with nothing to replace these jobs in the near future.
we have a shortage of lab staff, testing station etc, and this money could have done great there.
But we are wasting it on a school for a supposed green wash that the children in my family will never go to because we can't afford the 'private school fees' nor yours as you too will be too poor. In the meantime the girls in south auckland don't go to school cause their schools don't have funding for female hygiene products and thus when they are menstruating they stay home. (and don't tell me of the courageous little scheme of providing a few schools in the waikato region with a few tampons to feel good, cause ain't good enough)
So for what its worth, the leader of the green party can throw a ten liter bucket of green color at this and it will still stink to high heavens and it will cost the Greens more then the labour party and thus it was dumb.
This morning, David has two of his special stats driven posts. In one he claims a private Green School is being funded by the Green Party to the tune of $100,000/student and nearby state schools just $330/student.
In the other he claims high speed rail between Hamilton and Auckland would require platforms 750m long. He bases that conclusion on a claim the cost of capital for the project would be 6%.
Now, Twyford isn't a very good politician and I shook my head when he released this rail study the other day knowing that the likes of Farrar would jump all over it, but…
…here's an article which examines "the ways arguments using quantitative analysis fool people into accepting misinformation to suit particular agendas".
The public's inability to spot BS, presented often in the guise of statistical analysis, is an increasing threat to democracy in a data-driven world, according to the author of a new book.
"Question the source of information – who’s telling me this – and how do they know it, and what are they trying to sell me?" (the author) says.
I immediately though of our friend on the far right, David Farrar, who regularly uses his special form of statistical analysis to spread BS for political purposes.
I am proud of NZders. According to this poll they see through the unrelentingly media reports and realise how lucky we are. Last might N Z had slipped even further down the covid metre to 143.
Thanks for the link to those heartening poll results anker.
"Overall trust in the Government’s handling of the pandemic had slightly declined following the Auckland community outbreak and subsequent lockdown, but remained very high – falling from 82 per cent in mid-July to 79 [± 2.7] per cent in late-August."
Rather than join the team of almost five million, our opposition National party's main election campaign strategy under Collins' leadership is to undermine public trust in the Government. In normal times this would be politically pragmatic, but in these extraordinary times it just comes across as small-minded, and more than a little dangerous to us all.
Ross, Falloon, Walker, Woodhouse, Boag, Bridges, Muller, Collins – it’s all about trust.
Anker "It also showed that 64 per cent of those surveyed back the Prime Minister to handle the pandemic in general, compared with 18 per cent for Judith Collins. Over a third (36 per cent) of those who said they voted for National in 2017 now backed Ardern over Collins."
The election is all over bar the shouting….unless there is another serious Covid outbreak.
If you didn't believe blacks got treated differently to whites by the police in parts of the US these two videos are mind-boggling in showing that they do.
This white guy shoots three people at least, the public are telling the police he is the shooter and the police ask the shooter, still holding his gun, for directions to the injured and tell him to get off the road.
Warning: It does show him shooting people but not in a bloody, gory way. It is simply shocking.
No Weka posting defending her beloved Green Party, must be awaiting instructions on how to spin this….although it's going to be a tough sell to dance on the head of that particular pin.
Ohhh look, Judith has done this/said that…will do this/do that!
Now, has everyone forgotten about the money donated to that private school by the Greens yet?
Answer: NO!
[lprent: Idiots who don’t read the policy about falsely ascribing hidden motivations to authors are never right and are to be despised. You know better – so this is your warning.
Banned for 2 weeks. ]
Ground troops armed with (I hope) tasers arrest violent and dangerous criminal with the assistance of the Eagle helicopter.
Comforting that this footage exists for the Constabulary to promulgate…we'd hate to think that we were not safe.
(btw. The criminal is a car thief ffs, armed with a torch. Did he want to get court?)
The loudest noises about attrition as a result of the pandemic have come from the hospitality industry. The tourist industry, despite its cries of desperation and predictions of doom and gloom in the beginning, appears now to be enjoying steady times and has become less publicity seeking.
I would have thought that the hospitality industry is actually a "nice to have." Eating out is certainly not an essential and as for that coffee and muffin, at least one of our service stations, does a pretty good job of satisfying a craving for caffeine.
We often hear the patronising calls for those on meagre incomes to practice a bit of disciplined shopping and "relearning" cooking at home on a budget. Perhaps those same lecturers should spend a little more time using their eye-level ovens and ceramic hobs rather than feeling the need to be waited on. Eating out in the 70's and 80's was a treat and the sit-down coffee shops a novelty.
In the fullness of Covid Time, there will still be cafes, bars and restaurants. They just will owned and staffed by different people. Your breakfast coffee and muffin will be safe.
Eating, food are the main areas providing employment in a stripped down economy such as ours after opening our borders to all comers has socked our small enterprises on the chin. I don't know what you do logie 97 but does it involve thinking kindly about our country and the rest of humanity here besides yourself.
I do not wish to add fuel to the fire. I commented here as a result of comments sought by the media from those in the hospitality industries as a result of Level 3 in Auckland. On Monday I wrote the following comment on TS and is the context I put today's comment.
quote… Various media channels have sought the views of business leaders in Auckland to what the affects of extending Level 3 'til Sunday will be. And Chamber of Commerce Barnett appeared to be reading from a prepared-script-of-anticipation. Also spokespeople for the hospitality industry, in unison, have said that it is going to be catastrophic and that there will be massive permanent closures as a result.
I hope the media channels will seek these same people out again in a fortnight or so to get their assessments and to check if their predictions were anywhere even close…unquote
it is a nice to have that employes hundreds of thousand people in this country via direct employment – chefs, baristas, waiters/waitresses and then down the line, butchers, bakers, grocery stores, council fees, government fees, taxes in form of GST, Payee and so on and so forth and pretty quickly you have a huge segment of hte working population making a living of it and then you might ask yourself, is it really only a nice to have.
Mind for everyone not working in this industry and making a living of it, it of course may matter not that these people are slowly but surely all losing their jobs, and for a while to be – considering that Covid (or any other pandemic) will be with us for a while. But it they may start re-considering or else try to apply their 'nice to have' to any other industry they may consider 'nice to have'.
One of the industry that i think is nice to have but that could go the way of the dodo would be the booze makers and shops that sell it. Why? I don't drink. 🙂 Also, female hygiene products, i don't need them, surely they are only a nice to have, people can use toilet paper. Doctors, a nice to have thing, for those that can afford it. Schools, ditto i don't need them, nice to have now go away. Roading, i like trains, so fuck roading. Nice to have but not needed, we have rail. 🙂
If we were to look at everything as a nice to have vs, something that was created by others to earn a living, we might end up all in ditch with no food, cause nice to have ….but i don't want to pay for it.
So-called green entrepreneurs are Darth Vaders who have succumbed to the Dark Side of Capitalism and Class War.
The binary thinking is strong with people; there is no sensing of the good underneath and behind the mask (persona). Showing or experiencing both sides is a sign of weakness and needs to be stomped on; 100% pure is the Holy Grail.
Only when you integrate both sides, you become whole. At least some in the Green Party are further down the track with this than others are but they are despised for it and it could lead to their downfall and that of the Party.
If the Resistance is too strong then any attempts at integration and transcendence will be met by defensive mechanisms and (overly) aggressive hostility against change. In such cases, it is best to leave people be and get on with their lives as they know it [no pun] AKA BAU or SSDD and provide them with some illusory control over (their) existence.
It is my lifelong struggle – journey is too neutral and uphill battle too aggressive & destructive – to accept things as they are rather than the way I want them to be.
Thanks for that. In my dotage, I find a quick dip into Montaigne will usually furnish a useful aphorism or quotation to help in that struggle. e.g. "..not being able to govern events, I govern myself."
Ah, but the leader from within can emerge gloriously like a phoenix. And that is what is needed from thinking old people, to find the reserves, the depths, to nurture a new shoot and be reborn so to speak.
It's a spiritual thing and grows on experience, hope and belief out of the muck all around and past all the toxins till it can find light and flower. And I am talking about reality here. I think this is happening. I read books about others' experiences during past times of difficulty, and wonderful people arose strongly and amazingly.
So keep going, you have the reserves if you have come this far and the difficulties encountered will only sharpen your steel – to change images and similes etc.
…dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
I’m afraid any phoenix would suffocate in my tiny mental cage. I think it is better to wait until the cage has rusted away enough to pulverise into rusty-brown dust. It may not happen in my lifetime.
We all have to go Harry Potterish. In the books Harry and all the Hogwarts kids had to just adjust their minds and walk though a brick wall to get to their railway platform. I think I know its number so hope to see you there.
I heard the interview and thought it was downright bullying. MH spoke over Jacinda and didn't let her finish sentences. It was a very disturbing and accusatory interview. Then later in the week speaking to Grant Robertson there were no challenges at all ; all very chatty and matey. MH was subdued and almost submissive. Maybe he doesn't like women in positions of power ?
The Hosk went too far with Jacinda. I bet ZB was inundated with complaints. He was told to pull his horns in or else? Robertson got the new Hosk which might, if we're lucky, last a couple of weeks.
The now-famous sweatshirt also belonged to Glendining, who had kept it from the 1990s.
Different world now. If it was from sometime in the last decade, where it came from might be relevant. But its actual origin is far enough removed from Swarbrick and other current Greens that it can only be of interest to tragic obsessives. And trolls.
Can remember similar Green sweat shirts on sale down at the Vic and Cook Street Markets in the good old days. Local people working hard all week manufacturing the shirts and they'd all be gone over the weekend. Very flexible market in those days ; demand dictated the sweat shirts that would be made over the next week. Not many people wandering round in National or Labour shirts in those days.
The fact that National chose the day that the Christchurch mosque shooter is getting sentenced to launch their small business policy probably tells you everything about how they think it’s going to go down with the public.
Total insensitivity and dissonance from Judith and c/o. But to be expected….cuts for workers, ruin Kiwisaver, and then……. who has this magic money to spend in their businesses?? ….same old tired failed policies that saw people living in cars.
Judith's new expert Goldsmith running finance ; the doctor of history digs up old policy, snips pieces here and there and glues them back into a new piece of policy.
Seems Judith guarantees she won't be gone by lunchtime because there won't be a lunchtime.
On a trip to the home of the Labour party in Blackball, I saw a reference to the miner's strike on the issue of a 30 minute crib- a 30 minute lunchtime for the workers.
National want to return to the 19th century and starve-all stuff all worker's rights.
I've only been able to vote since 2011 so I'm not sure how labour in govt campaigns vs labour in opposition, but is there going to be any policy manifesto or announcements or is the manifesto the same as 2017 until all of it gets made law?
It's becoming incredibly frustrating and depressing that labours not releasing policy it seems arrogant.
Unless labours not running on policy so when they make reforms they can say oh we never said we wouldn't do this , this and this but I feel like it's more they are afraid to release policy because they are so polling so well that releasing policies could turn some people off.
It’s becoming incredibly frustrating and depressing that labours not releasing policy it seems arrogant.
It isn’t arrogant. It is a political reality for the major parties in a MMP environment.
This was also the case for the arrogant National party in 2011, 2014, and 2017. You can find posts here deploring the arrogance of the government party not releasing substantive policy going back to 2007.
You can also find comments running back through to the early 1990s in the usenet forums like alt.politics.nz.
I’d point out by way of comparison that so far the National party policies this election have mostly consisted of bullet points and a few reasonably vague paragraphs promising to reconsider things at some point in the future. All of it uncosted and with vague promises of money appearing out of thin air.
Mostly it is the minor parties that release policies – mostly because they know that they will never have a chance to do more (at best) than try to add a few of them in a cut down form to a coalition agreement.
The major parties know that
They can’t promise anything with certainty when they are almost certainly going to have to trade parts of it to make a coalition agreement(s).
NZ governments are almost completely exposed to massive risks from unexpected offshore problems. That is because we are a trading nation with a tiny local economy. The last time I worked for a company that did more than 10% of their business inside NZ was in 1995. I’ve worked for 5 private sector companies since then. Most profitable companies in NZ, and therefore their employees incomes, are directly or closely directly exposed to offshore winds – from export prices to exchange rates in exports and imports. Making policy decisions at a government level when you’re guessing at overall revenue (taxes and fees) and costs (like welfare rolls) is largely an exercise in futility. You only have to look at effects on our local economy and government of the covid-19 in 2020, the GFC in 2008, the twin tower bombings in 2001, the Asian market ‘flu’ in 1997-8, etc etc over the last 30 years to see this.
That anything concrete that major parties promise as policy has to be vague and surrounded with caveats that look like dithering to simpletons. Besides, if it is a 10 year project as most of them are, and the government is unable to deliver in a 3 year term, it will be spun as a ‘broken promise’ for the headlines. So why bother announcing policies that can be measured against that daft and short-sighted yardstick.
So there is no incentive to make any concrete promises beyond minor ones and vague hand waving about longer term ones. Those kinds of concrete policy announcements really belong back at the era of a completely controlled economy with border tariffs, limits on the amount of money you could take or send off shore, and very very limited export industries (essentially the farming sector with limited processing).
The National party just indulged in their typical waving of hands with roading projects that will take decades to pursue to completion, are known to have incredibly bad returns on investment (as in they cost vastly more than they could ever return), and have no funding sources as it would exceed revenue targeted at the NZTA. They were clearly made up on the back of a envelope targeting the more stupid voters in their favoured electorates and with nice sound bites for even thicker journalists like Mike (the moron) Hosking.
The probability of any of those projects ever happening is extremely low. Is that the kind of ‘policy’ you’d like – useless pie in the sky for the credulous? Will that make you satisfied as a policy announcement? You’d have to be as thick as pigshit (or a died in the wool National supporter) to be satisfied with that.
Personally I prefer what Labour has been doing. Making policy announcements, giving timetables and budgets for them, about what they are planning to do over the next few years. Then pointing out directions where they’d like to head. There are a lot of the latter around. You can find them on the Labour party website, or the Greens website, of the NZF and even the Act website.
What you will mostly see on National’s website isn’t policy. It is just slogans for news headlines saying we’ll remove this regulation, or we’ll throw $4 billion at something without saying where they’ll fund it from or even why it is important in the future a decade down the line. It really is hard to see National has any policy at all. But I guess that could just be because they have have had 3 radical shift in their dithering direction in the past months and haven’t managed to write any coherent directions. They sound like your kind of ‘policies’.
Perhaps you should invest in getting yourself a slightly better political and economic education rather than whining about something that hasn’t happened for decades. Then at least you won’t sound quite so much like a political dimwit.
A union representing medical laboratory workers says members taking part in partial strike action are being sent home without pay.
The company, Southern Community Laboratories, says none of those suspended are involved in Covid-19 testing.
But the union says employees who have been working long hours and extra shifts testing Covid samples are affected.
More than 700 workers at private laboratories around the country have issued strike notices for a 24-hour full withdrawal of labour from Friday, 4 September.
Five people associated with the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship have tested positive in the last two to three days.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield urged anyone who was at the services held at the church on Stoddard Road on the 8, 9 and 11 August and a wedding on 7 August to isolate and seek a test.
‘It has been said that figures rule the world. Maybe. I am quite sure that it is figures which show us whether it is being ruled well or badly.’ GoetheI was struck at a recent conference on equity for the elderly, how many presenters implicitly relied upon Statistics New Zealand. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveReporting on defence spending late last year, RNZ said the coalition government will have to make some tough calls this term to help the force address staff shortages and ageing infrastructure. “These are huge, huge amounts of government spending. It’s a significant proportion of the government’s ...
Peter Dunne writes – I am always wary when I hear that the Controller and Auditor-General has commented on or made recommendations to the government about an issue of public policy that does not relate strictly to public expenditure. According to the legislation, the role of the Controller ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought NZ to the brink of economic and cultural chaos Chris Trotter writes – TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition ...
And why did the Crown not challenge the Tribunal’s jurisdiction? Gary Judd writes – Retired District Court Judge, David Harvey, has posted on his A Halflings View Substack an excellent summary of Justice Isacs’ judgment declining to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result?As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and ...
Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
By Kaneta Naimatu in Suva Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert. Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press ...
Aldora Itunu is back in the Black Ferns squad after a three-year absence. The last of her 24 internationals was an underwhelming loss to France (7-29) in Castres to conclude the disastrous 2021 Northern Tour. The powerhouse prop won a Rugby World Cup in 2017 and thought she was done. ...
The fight to control major transport policy and projects in Auckland has burst into the open again, with councillors rejecting Mayor Wayne Brown’s latest attempt to steer things more under his influence. Councillors from the left and right broke ranks on the mayor’s bid to control Auckland Transport more directly ...
Exhausted by the general election campaign, horrified by the twilight zone of coalition negotiations, distracted by the silly season and waiting for the honeymoon to begin, Raw Politics has been in hibernation since October. From today, we’re back. Our weekly political video show and podcast returns for ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk Authorities in the small town of Boulouparis have commemorated Armistice Day on May 8 with a new memorial honouring New Zealand soldiers who were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II. The ceremony took place in the township on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Dehm, Senior lecturer, international migration and refugee law, University of Technology Sydney The High Court unanimously ruled today that the Australian government can keep asylum seekers in immigration detention indefinitely in cases where they do not “voluntarily” cooperate with their own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Munro, Lecturer, Creative Industries and Digital Media, University of South Australia Twenty-four hours after the release of Macklemore’s pro-Palestine protest song Hind’s Hall on social media on May 7, the video had already notched up over 24 million views. In ...
Failing to anticipate the complexity of the consenting system is being cited as the the current builder's shortcomings, an Infrastructure Commission review says. ...
350 Aotearoa is calling the Environment Select Committee’s decision to allow oral submissions from just 40% of individual, unique submitters who asked to speak to the committee ‘a disgraceful blight to democracy’. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Helal, Assistant Dean (Sustainability), The University of Melbourne Dubai skylineAleksandarPasaric/Pexels Since ancient times, people have built structures that reach for the skies – from the steep spires of medieval towers to the grand domes of ancient cathedrals and mosques. Today ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Edward Musole, PhD Law Student, University of New England Girts Ragelis/ShutterstockRecent trends show Australians are increasingly buying wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers. These electronics track our body movements or vital signs to provide data throughout the day, with ...
Papua New Guinea experienced a significant earthquake on 24 March in East Sepik and there has also been recent flooding there and in surrounding provinces. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yousuf Mohammed, Dermatology researcher, The University of Queensland Maridav/Shutterstock You wake up, stagger to the bathroom and gaze into the mirror. No, you’re not imagining it. You’ve developed face wrinkles overnight. They’re sleep wrinkles. Sleep wrinkles are temporary. But as your ...
The Environment Select Committee has just announced that 60 percent of individuals who asked to speak at the hearings will not be heard. This equates to almost 700 people who made individual submissions and more than 1000 more who made a form submission. ...
The Royal New Zealand Ballet is performing Swan Lake around the country. What kind of dream does the ballet sell?Before going to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet perform Swan Lake, I had about as much familiarity with the plot of this ballet as could be expected from having ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Eamonn Tee. High Tide at Local Maxima It is only going to get worse. The streams will be narrow and fickle. The week will bend and buckle like a pot-bellied waist. You will make it to the weekend with one ...
The New Zealand entrepreneur behind beauty business Ethique is gearing up to launch a new eco-venture. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Our thirst for a tasty bevvy is insatiable, but it comes with a hefty plastic price for the planet: 580 billion ...
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 James by Percival Everett (Mantle, $38) A retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from ...
By Kamna Kumar in Suva Pacific Islands Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna stressed the importance of media freedom and its link to the climate and environmental crisis at the 2024 World Press Freedom Day event organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme. Under the theme “A Planet for ...
Tara Ward previews a new local TV series offering alternative visions of motherhood. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. A woman is clambering up the side of her two-story house, clinging desperately to a drainpipe. Nearby, her child is perched on the ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) is supportive of the cross-party approach to climate adaptation announced by the Minister of Climate Change today. ...
The Sustainable Business Council (SBC) and Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC) welcome today’s announcement from Government around a bipartisan inquiry into an enduring climate adaptation framework for New Zealand. ...
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision by the Department of Internal Affairs, and Minister Brooke Van Velden, to abandon proposals to further regulate online speech. ...
Its new building in Wellington will not be nearly big enough for all its records, and it has also run out of money to build its new storage facility in Levin. ...
BusinessNZ is congratulating the Minister of Climate Change for his work in achieving cross-party consensus for a way forward on climate adaptation. ...
Recent research reveals the repeal of smokefree measures is not only bad for our health, but also the economy. The Government has repealed various smokefree measures to ensure it keeps collecting $1.2 billion a year in tobacco taxes, in order to pay for tax cuts already being delivered to ...
The club’s surprisingly good season is built on the desire to prove a random A-League YouTuber wrong… and a few other factors.“There’s no way that Wellington Phoenix play finals this year. I can’t see it happening at all.” Those are the words of Lachlan Raeside, an Australian football content ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By César Albarrán-Torres, Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Swinburne University of Technology Apple TV+ As one of billions of bilingual individuals in the world, it disappoints me when a film or TV show with characters of a non-English-speaking background is ...
The under-utilised course is a waste of space, and with a little political will, it could be turned into something better. For the duration of her stay in Wellington, my long-suffering cousin listened to me rant about golf courses. They’re bad for the environment: water intensive and pesticide heavy. They ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Ruppanner, Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of The Future of Work Lab, Podcast at MissPerceived, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock A recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows US fertility rates dropped 2% in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Corderoy, Medical doctor and PhD candidate studying involuntary psychiatric treatment, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Sydney shop_py/Shutterstock Picture two people, both suffering from a serious mental illness requiring hospital admission. One was born in Australia, the other in Asia. Hopefully, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Treby, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, RMIT University P.j.Hickox, Shutterstock Peatlands store more carbon per square metre than any other ecosystem on Earth. These waterlogged, mossy bogs beat even dense rainforests for their ability to act as carbon reservoirs. Under the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Goss, Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Research Institute, University of Canberra Government spending on health has been growing so rapidly that a decade ago the then health minister Peter Dutton called it “unmanageable” and “unsustainable”. Health spending grew in real terms by ...
New Zealand's largest electricity distributor is warning the country to hurry up with controls around charging electric vehicles or face unnecessary bills running into the billions. ...
New Zealanders have been asked to conserve energy this morning to combat a possible electricity shortfall, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A call to conserve power New Zealand is facing a possible electricity shortfall, with people up ...
Writer Rebecca K Reilly breaks down the national book awards. What are the Ockhams?The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are our annual national awards for books published for adults, and have existed in this form since 2016. There are four categories: Fiction, Poetry, General Non-fiction and Illustrated Non-fiction. There ...
Wellington City Council should keep its 34% ownership share in Wellington International Airport, argue Unions Wellington spokespeople Finn Cordwell and Ashok Jacob. Insanity, as the saying goes, is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Wellington City Council (WCC) is yet again proposing to dispose ...
New Zealand’s largest book publisher has undergone drastic changes this week, leaving its future role in local publishing uncertain. Two of the most recognisable local publishers in New Zealand are among those restructured out of Penguin Random House, it was announced this week. Head of publishing Claire Murdoch will leave ...
The Black Ferns Sevens appeared to be a mile behind Australia at the halfway point of the 2023-24 SVNS international circuit. Winless in three tournaments, a cup quarter-final exit in Perth was one of their worst results. To add insult to injury, talismanic skipper Sarah Hirini had been ruled out ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,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 10 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Successive governments have tried, and failed, to count Māori. But with the return of social investment, it’s more important than ever to get good data. The post Government looks for a better way to count Māori appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Experts in financing social investment initiatives say New Zealand is in a prime position to tackle social issues via a social investment approach The post What will Willis’ social investment fund look like? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
In 2021 the Public Interest Journalism Fund launched the Te Rito Journalism project, a $2.4 million initiative to boost diversity in New Zealand’s newsrooms. The initiative was in response to the decades-long shortage of Māori and Pacific journalists in the media industry. It was billed as New Zealand’s ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist A former Tuvalu prime minister says while the New Zealand government’s oil and gas plans show it is concerned about its economy, he is more concerned about the livelihoods and survival of the Tuvalu people. Enele Sopoaga — who still serves as an MP ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Many people who follow federal budgets know about the magnificent “budget tree” in a parliamentary courtyard, which turns a glorious red in time for the May event. This week Treasurer Jim Chalmers posed by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Bennett, Professor of Music, Australian National University Richard P J Lambert/flickr, CC BY The future belongs to the analogue loyalists. Fuck digital. As a tsunami of CDs, DAT tapes and samplers swept the recording industry in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT University This week American rapper Macklemore released a new track, Hind’s Hall, which has gained a lot of attention because of its explicitly political nature. The track is unapologetically pro-Palestine. It declares the artist’s ...
Explainer - The government from 2025 is mandating how state schools teach children to read. But what is structured literacy and how does it compare to other teaching methods? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danica Jenkins, Lecturer in European Studies, University of Sydney On a freezing spring night in March, Georgia’s national soccer team beat Greece in a nail-biter penalty shootout to qualify for the Euro 2024 championships. The atmosphere on the streets of the capital ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam G. Arian, Lecturer (Accounting & Finance), Australian Catholic University Loic Manegarium/Pexels Imagine every ton of carbon dioxide a company emits is slowly inflating its costs — not just in terms of potential fines or fees but in the capital it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Somwrita Sarkar, Senior Lecturer in Design and Computation, University of Sydney The “latte line” is the infamous, invisible boundary that divides Sydney between the more affluent north-east and the south-west. Historically, people north of the line enjoy better access to jobs and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dowdy, Principal Research Scientist in Extreme Weather, The University of Melbourne Nomad_Soul/Shutterstock In media articles about unprecedented flooding, you’ll often come across the statement that for every 1°C of warming, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture. This ...
RNZ Pacific Former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has been sentenced to one year in prison, Fiji media are reporting. Bainimarama, alongside suspended Fiji Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho appeared in the High Court in Suva today for their sentencing hearing for a case involving their roles in blocking a police ...
Kinda tough break for the Republican Convention to be shunted off news cycle by a massive climatic event on the Louisiana-Texas border.
Almost like the earth was a Speaker.
Landfall right slap between New Orleans and Houston. A few hundred km either way could've been much worse.
Entropy.
I have learned to assume the worst of our politicians…its easier that way as it avoids that awful feeling of betrayal when manifesto promises are broken and hopes for a kinder and more fair New Zealand are dashed…again.
Heavy sigh this am as the Natrad Bedwetters Club featured the news of Green Party Co Leader James Shaw's announcement of an $11.7 million handout to a Taranaki private school.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300092266/greens-caught-bending-party-policy-to-grant-117m-to-private-school-in-taranaki
Needless to say sometime State-funded schools are not happy…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018761330/teachers-fume-at-govt-s-11-point-7m-handout-to-private-green-school
…and those millions would have gone a long way towards rectifying some of the infrastructure issues faced by many Taranaki schools. Some of these issues involve leaky, damp buildings which is ironic as the major business magnates behind this private school made their fortune from selling ventilation systems.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/121938943/the-taranaki-parents-out-to-change-how-we-school-our-kids
Doubly ironic as I clearly remember a phone conversation with a telemarketer for said company. He waffled on about cold and damp and how much I needed a home ventilation system to circulate the air around our home. I politely informed helpful gentleman that we already had a ventilation system…windows and doors…
I digress. The cynic in me suspects that James, the co -leader of the party I had just about committed to voting for again, thinks the average Joe or Jane will hear "Green" and assume all is sound and ethically well with this funding and it must fit within the Party's code. Big mistake, James.
The alternative is possibly worse. James has turned traitor and has decided to torpedo the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience.
I'm with you there, Rosemary.
Your final sentence is nonsense, Rosemary. Funding a school is a laudable action. The question is; does it contravene Green Party policy and if so, how concerned should we be about that. I'd be very interested to hear from The Greens and James especially, for their explanation, before scuppering the boat I float in.
I'd be very interested to hear from The Greens and James especially, for their explanation …
I too await their explanation with bated breath.
“… before scuppering the boat …”
Too late, I fear.
Echoes of the Metiria debacle. Female co -leader attracts wider support, then along come the Party menfolk to crap all over the gains.
Greens…their own worst enemy since Rod and Jeanette.
"Too late, I fear."
Suspend your judgement till you have heard from those most closely involved, I reckon. Funding a school is not a damning act, it's a well-intentioned, widely supported action. The Greens did say ‘Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools,” (says the party’s current education policy.) but there's nothing yet to prevent them doing so. It is though, at this point, an awkward situation. I certainly don't see it as a "debacle" or even the echo of one.
Mr Guyton, I am well acquainted with the Green policies, but thank you for the link. Others here may find it helpful, although I suspicion the reading of manifesto and policy statements do not always feature as preparation to casting one's precious vote.
I fear that even here, amoungst the assumed politcally aware, there is a tendency to vote "Labour" or "Green" or goddess forbid "NZ First" just because.
Hurry up James! Rattle your dags sunshine and please explain!
Someone tending toward voting Green is unlikely to swerve violently away at the news that The Greens facilitated funding for a school, I'd have thought!
Unless they're one of those people, and there are a few about, who look as hard as they can for any reason to avoid voting lab/grn, so they can back a sub 1% party and cling to the notion they're doing the right thing by the country, even though every wasted vote brings the prospect of a nat led government closer.
Worse than right wingers to me.
Unless they're one of those people, and there are a few about, who look as hard as they can for any reason to avoid voting lab/grn …
Err…there's no need for a search. James is proud and loud over this.
Worse than right wingers to me.
Thanks for that. So pleased to see rabid tribalism alive and well.
"James is proud and loud over this" doesn't seem like a "back-room deal" then does it, or something The Greens wished to slip in unnoticed by the public. Seems kinda "up-front" wouldn't ya say?
Many of those people, The Al1en, are presently backing Billy Te Kihaka's conspiracy party now, and loudly declaring that The Greens have sold out to the Man, or whatever. I hear "The Greens support the use of 1080 so it's all over between me and Them!" and so on, levering their exit around any one of a hundred issues The Greens are "ignoring", 5G, compulsory vaccination, mask-wearing, and so on and so on. It's a phenomenon of the startlable-Left, unfortunately. Gotta learn to live with it. For people who profess to support The Greens to immediately declare, "I'm off" at the news of this school support, fits that picture, imo. Consequently, I agree with the sentiment of your comment.
Might need to do another post on 1080 and what the GP actually say on that.
I kind of understand the reactionary, emotional vote, but I mostly don't get it. We have to have someone in parliament and government, who should that be this time? It's not a hard thing to figure out, despite any disappointments along the way (and I have my own about the Greens).
The expectation that a political party could perfectly represent the needs of anyone at all, is a pipe-dream. Those who toy-toss at the slightest bump in the road seem flakey to me. Will they just as easily return to the fold if the next issue suits them better, or will they stay stubbornly out in the cold because "the party" betrayed them? This issue is de minimis, in my opinion, in the big picture; I compare it with National's most recent "the water quality regulations will be gone by lunchtime" scandal and ask myself, wtf are Green supporters thinking, throwing in the towel at the sniff of something they don't agree with (or fully understand)? Funding for a school!?! The horror!!!
I was listening yesterday to a group of young Maori men discussing Billy TK and his prophecies. Very disturbing that they have taken as Gospel his comments about 5 G / Covid conspiracies etc. They feel that because Billy TK is a great musician then he must be correct about the "ride to hell we are currently on". I fear for the vulnerable young people of NZ.
I attended a meeting of such people last night, Patricia. I don't recommend such an experience. I have been engaging in discussion/dialogue/debate with various (younger) people in my town over "Billy" and his ways, pointing out his efforts to align with Hanna Tamaki (spurned) and Jamie-Lee Ross (accepted) as well as his most recent expulsion from the White Ribbon movement because of his "separation from reality", or some such. I mentioned the very poor turnout at the Auckland "5G and everything else" march, which contradicted the followers claims that "the uprising is massive and will turn the country on its head", and have, as yet, made zero progress, despite my careful strategising and genuine concern for their wellbeing
Someone tending toward voting Green is unlikely to swerve violently away at the news that The Greens facilitated funding for a school, I'd have thought!
But it is not just any old school is it Robert?
It is a very special Private School for the offspring of the Very Wealthy of Aotearoa, and especially Overseas.
At a time when state schools are desperate for funding for remedial work to be done…which would surely have the potential to employ as many, if not more than just this one school.
Paul Goulter, NZEI Te Riu Roa national secretary said it came as a “complete surprise”.
“This comes as a complete surprise to us given the Greens’ own clear policy against public funding of private schools.
“We just can’t understand why the Government would go ahead and fund a private school with public money at a time when public schools in the Taranaki region are crying out for this type of investment,” he said.
The sheer scale of the funding is significant. When the Government announced a $400 million package to upgrade New Zealand’s ageing public school infrastructure, it was capped at $400,000. The grant to the Green School would be enough to fund nearly 30 schools at that rate.
Just up the road from Green School, New Plymouth Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools each received $400,000.
Not a violent swerve, but less inclination.
It's shit like this that makes me think of myself as a labour voter who sometimes goes green, rather than a green voter. Funding a private school is fucked, but because it has "green" in the name they'll throw out the socioeconomic principles they allegedly have.
Basically, a comprehensive and holistic platform is compromised for a single pet project because they like the vibe. Private education is capitalist, and capitalism is the enemy of the environment. An elitist enviro-wank school is the equivalent of champagne socialism.
Labour supported the choice via their local candidate.
We still don't know if the Greens wanted this, or if there wasn't much choice. I can't imagine the Greens would choose this over funding state schools or any number of other projects, so I'm guessing it came from the Infrastructure Reference Group in charge of the shovel-ready projects. That's run by Twyford and Jones afaik.
Labour are predictable in their policy blindspots.
The Greens tend to be pretty solid, then do a random announcement on some issue.
Apparently Shaw announced it as a minister – fair call, maybe it's a all-govt thing, but I've difficulty seeing which portfolio makes him the responsible cheerleader for this decisions. Associate minister of finance? Surely they could have given the role of announcing this project to someone else, given that it's in direct contradiction to Green policy?
still guessing, but yes Assoc Finance portfolio, *and the GP (according to Hipkins) advocated for it, but I'm betting it was from a pool of projects that Twyford and Jones had shortlisted.
So if the Greens had the opportunity to lobby for specific projects for the fund, and it was a choice between say a new road/coal fired power plant or a private school that has a strong green focus, what would they do?
Might still be a politically naive thing to have done of course, instead of choosing nothing.
Totally speculating here, because I'm just so sick of the whole purity politics stuff, as well as the jumping to conclusions before we even know what happened.
If people want the Greens to stick to their kaupapa the best way to ensure that is to give them more power in government. We will never get a GP or any party that is perfect for us, but I just do not believe that this idea came from the Greens originally when they would be more naturally interested in actual green projects.
and, if it turns out the Greens chose this over all the worthy green projects needing done that wouldn't have made it past Twyford and Jones, then I will rightly condemn the Greens too. I'll still vote for them though, because climate change is going to monkeys of us all for a very long time after purity ceases to be a pressing concern. Oh yeah, and because their welfare policy outstrips anything else in parliament. And their fresh water policy. And most things when it comes down to it.
If they had a list of crappy projects, they should have chosen nothing. The projects would have been done one way or the other, it's not like the Greens could have vetoed the entire list.
Or at least let Jones and Twyford announce their crappy projects.
yes, probably. But we have no idea what happened, so I'd rather wait before slagging off the Greens or changing my vote or whatever. If people want to change their vote because the Greens aren't political players, they can do that, but it's a different thing, and we still need them in govt. It's not like they have policies that will intentionally keep lots of people in poverty, that would be Labour.
Oh, Green policies are lovely.
If they stuck to them, it's be nice. Like I say, Labour's imperfections are well-advertised and predictable.
GP education policy on private schools hasn't changed afaik. What GP policies have changed?
The policy is still lovely.
Shaw shilling millions in funding for a private school isn't consistent with the policy, is it?
at the least Shaw is bungling the PR on this. No idea if that’s because he thinks funding this school is a brilliant idea and has completely misread the room, or if there’s something more pragmatic going on.
I guess the issue for me with the discussion is why people would throw out the lovely policy, along with lots of other lovely policy, over this one thing. Not least because that means voting for a party that won’t be in parliament or one that will but has worse policy. I understand the principle of the thing thing (I have my own bottom lines), but this looks like something else. Post brewing about how people still don’t trust the Greens and look for any weakness as proof of that.
Yeah I agree with that – anyone who's an enthusiastic supporter of the Greens and then ditches it because of one decision is being a bit precious, at best, in the current NZ political climate.
But then there's more the "meh, what the hell" voter. By which I mean that up to the election I look at policy and the people involved (grassroots as well as the parliamentarians), but my vote might be up in the air between a couple of parties, and it just depends on what the polls think the result will be and what my preferred result might be. I don't really know for sure what I will tick while I'm picking up the forms, and might be inclined to do something different when I leave the polling station.
I mean, I know I won't be voting National, but say labgrn looks pretty solid, maybe I won't vote either if there's a <1% party on the left – give them an extra vote, and thereby a tiny little bit more credibility. Dunno who any decent trace-element parties at the moment are, though, but there's a couple of months yet.
How often will a local candidate not support spending government money in their district? I mean, a west coast Green candidate might oppose the government subsidising the start up of a coal mine, or a Nat might object to a bit of funding to entice the Worldwide Collective Association of Socialist Parties to set up headquarters in their district. But short of something like that, a local politician will always support more jerbs in their district funded by the government.
I've been aware of this school for sometime. One of the investors is a brother of an acquaintance of mine, and as she is involved in childhood education she was invited to go and view the site and meet the founders last year.
The idea and the kaupapa make for good soundbites, but primarily from my perspective – as Rosemary suspects – it is a school that is intended to create opportunities for green entrepreneurs. And the "green" aspect is fluid.
If our society is dedicated to providing a good, quality universal education, that priority needs to be achieved first before educational funding such as this is allocated.
We are nowhere near providing a good, quality universal education. We should focus on that.
"it is a school that is intended to create opportunities for green entrepreneurs."
And that's a bad thing???
Surely, it's a school for the promotion of environmentally-friendly learning, yes? A school for children? You're attacking the worth of the school, but I would think its value and values were closely looked-at by James Shaw et al before they swung in to support the funding of it; who to believe, who to trust???
…i's a school for the promotion of environmentally-friendly learning, yes?
Surely all schools should be funded to deliver such laudable learnings Robert?
…who to believe, who to trust???
The discerning amoung us are struggling with that…
"Surely all schools should be funded to deliver such laudable learnings Robert?"
Well, yes, Rosemary but should all other progress stall until that happens? Shall we cancel the Enviroschools programme till every school has signed on? How would that work?
"Surely all schools should be funded to deliver such laudable learnings Robert?"
Might want to talk with Labour and NZF about that.
why, have the Green nothing to say about this in the government of which they are part?
or is it simply dumb and tone deaf to announce the waste of some 10 millions to a private school, while other schools in NZ are build of shacks? Oh, its the green focus of that school? Well if that is the case I hope that the Green Party will promote teh idea that all the other schools in NZ specifically the public schools should get the same amount to 'teach green focus' in school.
We are all in this together, right?
fucks sake. The GP don't control either the Education funding or the Shovel funding. That's NZF and Labour.
Looks like the GP fucked up on this, either via their PR or by their decision on the project. Tell you what, don't vote for them, or vote Labour, that will get you a way better govt /drippingsarc
And ffs, go and learn how government actually works, because this fairy dust, magic wand shit is tedious.
You missed an important part in my comment Robert: And the "green" aspect is fluid.
" Surely, it's a school for the promotion of environmentally-friendly learning, yes? A school for children? "
No surely about it. It is promoted as…
And it is accessible only to a small number of monied students. Our government funding for environmental education should be able to be accessed by all.
Do I trust James Shaw is not the question. I can see where his perspective lies from actions like this.
what is Shaw's perspective that you see? I'm struggling to see any perspective myself.
Cripes Molly the country has to move in different directions than in the past. Better education is not just returning to what we had in the 1980/90s but something that fits our needs today, more machine-minds and tech, less jobs, poor wages etc. We need to learn less about how to criticise and more on how to thing creatively and practically. Good on the Greens, if they get started then they can tune up to what is needed, change the tune, fine-tune. And at the same time ensure everyone can read, understand what they read, discuss its effect, learn psychology and how to get on with each other, and look up any facts needed on google.
Thanks for talking us down to earth quietly Robert G. I thought we were leaving Ground Zero by too far a distance there.
Thinking of getting high, has everyone else caught up with the fact that dirigibles are the thing being worked on around Europe? This was a piece from The Telegraph. I stop at the paywall, might do occasional donations though as they give gen that I don't always get here.
The UK, a leader in the airship revival, is going head to head with France in an escalating global race. Zeppelins and dirigible airships are now promising to provide the future of green transport, and if all goes well, as Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes in this fascinating column, we will be able to hop virtuously from Liverpool to Belfast in point-to-point travel.
Shaw's only comment seems to be that the spend will result in 200 jobs. What rubbish. These jobs will be temporary jobs while the build happens and not permanent new jobs. Every indication is that because the word "Green" is in the title of the school that this is the reason the funding – which equates apparently to $200k per pupil – was granted. A shonky and suspect decision.
Goodgrief: relying on anti-Green David Farrar's assessments is not sound.
@ Rosemary McDonald , Thanks for writing that response to this shameful hypocrisy, it saves me the time of writing pretty much the same thing.
Funnily enough I had just said on Sunday here on open mike (6.2.1.) that I would probably vote Greens, but lamented the day the Greens didn't choose Bradford as co leader, mainly because of her deeply held values and uncrossable lines in the sand…well this episode just proves that point, Shaw is a pragmatic centrist who is (like so many greens) willfully blind to the class war that rages all around him, and like all centrists end up entrenching a class based society further.
They just lost my vote that's for sure.
They lost your vote because they funded a school? They did indicate that, "‘Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools," – the term, "phased out" doesn't mean "immediately ceased", so their support does not baldly contravene their policy as is being claimed here and on Kiwiblog.
Again, they lost your vote because they funded a school?
Was it an evil school? A school that teaches subversive, anti-Kiwi values? A school that is nothing more than a front for…whatever?
They lost your vote because they funded a school?
No they lost my ( and others) vote because the funded a private school…or didn't you get that part?…to the tune of $100,000 (or more) per student.
Elitism at it’s most pure…John Key would be proud of this one… yuk.
Not interested to hear why?
Yes Robert…I am very interested to hear why?
But I'm guessing the justifications you have given us this morning are the same the Green Party will trot out. And those of us lesser mortals are just closet righties if we have a problem with this gross corporate welfare.
I have a pile of sleeper sized maccy to cut and wrestle into raised garden beds today…I've said my piece.
A tune for your day Sir…you've sung the Green's hymn well.
"Yes Robert…I am very interested to hear why?"
Shall we wait until we have heard, before we throw our toys from the cot?
"But I'm guessing the justifications you have given us this morning are the same the Green Party will trot out."
Guessing? That's not a great platform to throw your toys from; a guess.
Reactionary, but?
…before we throw our toys from the cot …
You're implying I am having some kind of toddler meltdown Robert?
So much for constructive discourse. I shall go sit in the naughty corner.
I'm teasing, Rosemary. And "we" is plural, not singular. In any case, some time in the corner, thinking about what you have done, will do you no harm . I'm going to do the same, except I'll do it outside and prune apple trees instead. It would be good to have some more comment from The Greens before we wade deeper into the issue.
Robert – are you aware that many teachers feel very strongly about state money being generously thrown at private schools? This particular private school charges over $20,000 per NZ student, and over $40,000 per foreign student…
This is against the spirit of Green Education Policy. When The Alliance disappeared, I, as a teacher, looked at all the parties' Education policies, liked the Greens' the most, and have party-voted Green since.
I am now in doubt. I will definitely continue my donations to Greenpeace, but I now wonder about Party vote Green. How are the Greens going to make 5% by losing any of their considerable teacher support? I do not want to waste my Party vote on a party that does not seem bothered about failing to reach 5%.
Greens need to do some damage control about this, I fear. Ill-considered..
the 5% issue existed before this, and it's entirely on left wing voters whether the GP are in parliament or not after the election. Ditto in government.
If this is a real deal breaker for you, I'd be interested to know what Labour's policy is.
In Vino – yes, and as an ex-teacher (early childhood, primary, secondary, special needs and tertiary) I feel the same way. My only argument here is for restraint around dumping on the Party before their reasons have been published. Do you know why The Greens have made this decision that surely must have tested their attachment to their policy and principles? My experience is that they don't do anything thoughtlessly. I'd like to hear what they have to say on the issue. My immediate reaction is not one I'm arguing for, as I need to hear what James and co. have to say. Perhaps they have reneged, perhaps they have rationalised their action for the furtherance of their principles; that's what I'd like to know. Thick as molasses, my decision-making machinery!
Understood, Robert, but I think some gesture of damage control will be needed for the more short-fused and less contemplative types that there are in many school staff-rooms. I hope that James Shaw can come up with something convincing.
It is an irony that Righties attack the Greens for being 'red on the inside', but the Greens then do something that would actually please the Righties, rather than their own supporters.
To me this looks like something that appeals to a small (but possibly vocal) segment of hard-core Greens. It's possible Shaw himself is firmly in that segment. But those in the Greens that made the decision to push for this totally misread how the wider public would take it.
For instance, the opportunity to (fairly) cry "hypocrisy" is always going to trump any positive feelings the right may have over any Green support for a private initiative.
I agree entirely, In Vino and would add "the more short-fused and less contemplative types" here on The Standard and across the comment-o-sphere. It'll be gleeful fun for The Greens' opponents to whip this up but it disturbs me when up-till-now supporters turn-tail so easily before the discussion has been had. Avoiding this sort of gotcha moment close to an election is, in my view, impossible; look at how many National has suffered recently! This single instance for The Greens, whether earned or not, should be measured against those various scandals/outrages. Given also, that The Greens are in Government and actually doing things, rather than say, The ACT Party who do nothing but gripe and are therefore harder to "expose", it's to be expected that a storm of some sort would whip up. This one, where the worst charge that might stick is one of hypocrisy, shouldn't really phase Green supporters, or those who were "considering" voting Green. The damage control will indeed be needed, even if the damage wasn't self-inflicted, but instead, manufactured from without. I'm as keen as anyone to hear a response from James Shaw but significantly less keen to throw in my Green towel and march indignantly off
nope, cause there is really nothing that would make wasting this much tax payer money on one PRIVATE school good and decent, specifically in these times where everyone else is supposed to do with less, some with nothing, and here the Green Party is giving 10 millions away for bumkins. But they get to feel all ‘Green’.
Oh Adrian T. you are too good for this world.
John Hardy's Green Schools are in fact not inline with "Kiwi Values"…being a touch expensive..hence the large percentage of overseas pupils..and I don't mean kids from the pacific islands…. We in fact already have schools that cover the whole plethora of "Kiwi Values" many of which include environmental and social aspects of which you might approve.
They are all desperate for funding for these programmes…infact with increased funding even more schools would embrace the very programmes we urgently need to educate ALL our NZ youngsters.
John Hardys Green Schools are well patronised by some very wealthy individuals..who I am sure could philanthropically fund his vision to their hearts content. Failing that they could organise a cake raffle…
They have also lost my vote, because it's a fucking private school. I don't care if they promote left wing views if you send your kids to private school you should pay for everything.
By the sounds of it, the parents are paying plenty enough "for it". Perhaps there is benefit in supporting the establishment of such a school, for the wider community? Assisting them over the initial "bump" with money that will indeed stimulate the economy through jobs, will benefit everyone through creating a precedent for green public schools and I expect that's what The Greens have deduced. Your reaction, "public school or bust" sounds … reactionary.
They lost your vote because they funded a school?
It might not be just one thing. For those of us looking at which party has the least unattractive pile of peaches and dead rats to choke down in order to vote for them, this may be the big dead rat tossed on top that pushes the overall balance away from the Greens.
This dosnt just taint the Greens however…this reflects poorly on all the governing parties
Yep. But it's expected behaviour for the other parties, so it doesn't change their pile. Whereas for the Greens it removes the peach labelled "principle" and adds a dead rat labelled "featherbedding their special buddies".
Have you listened to Shaw's explanation for the decision, or are you going off half-cocked?
Did James give an interview about this? I’ve only seen his Press Release as Associate Finance Minister.
I haven't heard anything yet. Maybe we could reserve our judgement/condemnation till we do?
Ta
Am thinking about doing a post on this 🙂
That would be a good thing, Incognito.
The Greens won't lose my party vote over this, but I hope Shaw isn't having a Metiria melting moment, and that he stays put.
How will National attack this decision to support a private school to the tune of $11,400,000 – that's almost half a flag referendum!
"Green School CEO Chris Edwards has thanked Green Party co-leader and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw for his support. "
Shaw's "support"? Is that what Shaw gave? You mean, this wasn't a Green initiative, driven through Parliament relentlessly, in contradiction to the Green's kaupapa? That in fact, Shaw supported something along the way? It gets even worse for the duplicitous Greens – support! Scandalous!
Reading the Stuff piece, questions I have are this:
given this comes from Shaw as a Minister and not Shaw as GP co-leader, did the Labour/NZF caucus approve this project?
given the funding was for shovel-ready projects, what were the constraints on that?
who was in the decision making process? who decided which shovel-ready projects would be approved?
why are so many lefties unaware of how government actually works?
why are so many lefties expecting a level of purity from the Greens and unwilling to figure out the compromises involved in being in government?
also, democracy in NZ would be *far better served if the public had the same access to politician's words as journos.
Sounds like it was a Green push, not someone else's they agreed to as a governing compromise:
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-08-2020/green-party-under-fire-for-11m-public-funding-of-private-green-school/
thanks Andre.
What's more likely:
1. The GP had free reign to choose whatever projects they wanted?
2. The fund was restricted to a set pool of projects and/or criteria, and the GP had to choose from those?
If it's the former, I would definitely have major concerns about why the GP chose this over many, many other things. But this seems unlikely. Good stick to beat the Greens with though.
If you end up with the time stamp for todays' covid briefing and Hipkins' comment, I'd be interested.
haven't had time to look at this yet, but…
https://twitter.com/serenity22/status/1298824038698033153
That post is being overtaken by other commitments 🙁
I've done a bit searching on the web, including on the Greens website, and found nothing yet that makes me feel this was a good decision. Or even anything hinting it might have been a good decision. Shaw directly explaining it hasn't turned up yet (if you want people to consider it, how about linking?) but I'll wait for something written to come out rather than listening to emotionally-manipulative low-fact-density blather.
"I'll wait for something written to come out rather than listening to emotionally-manipulative low-fact-density blather."
Good call. Me too.
Nope. Not persuasive.
Not persuasive? You mean, you were not persuaded, Andre; what are your reasons?
I'm not persuaded because it's not a green project. It's more of the same bullshit so beloved of the Nats, selling education to bring wealthy people here so we can relieve them of money and they'll spend lots more money buying property and businesses and stuff. But the Greens have hopped on board because of the enviro-wank (thanks McFlock) positioning of the school as their sales proposition.
I understood this money came out of the Regional pot, not the Education or Green vote? Personally I am for Public Education, but in a democracy I do support choice. I thought buildings and maintenance were provided by the State?
hoping a journalist who knows the ins and outs will cover this.
Private schools are already, and have been for yonks, assisted by "government money" – Catholic schools, for example. Why not a green school?
Catholic schools are integrated schools: they are not for those who can afford over $20,000 fees per student.
Do they receive Government funding, I wonder?
Yes, they do.
Well…I was just saying…
That funding comes with strings, which were meant to prevent them from using their fees to get better teacher:student ratios than state schools, etc. Not quite the same thing.
Robert asked whether Integrated schools receive Government funding and the answer is yes. Never said that it was the same thing though because you are right, it isn’t the same as for State schools. I have no time or interest in elaborating on the differences (a major one is the State doesn’t own the buildings & land of Integrated schools); somebody else can or Robert can use Google 😉
Given that they're state schools, it would be a bit surprising if they weren't.
Most of the funding being offered to the green school has to be paid back, yes?
@Robert you got any basis for suggesting it will be paid back? In all the articles I've seen so far there has been a complete absence of any words or even hints about repayment. But plenty of words like given and granted etc usually used in the context of a non-repayable gift.
You're quite right, Andre – I'd seen something earlier in the day, before visiting The Standard, which read: "
peterwn
“So their official policy is to ban public funding of private schools (ie the 25% subsidy per student)”.
The Government gets back 60% of that subsidy in GST (yes, parents of private school pupils do pay GST on their fees) so in reality it is only a 10% subsidy." Not quite the same thing, but perhaps a little salve to the dreadful wound.
Why oh why do they insist on shooting themselves in the foot?
https://greenschool.nz/admissions/
Why oh why can you anti-people not expand your minds about this Green Party move. Nothing you have ever thought of up till now has saved us from getting to this end moment in our world's and country's progress/regress. You set too big a store by your ethics, values, standards or whatever you choose to call them.
There are broad principles to steer by, but sometimes it is better to include something that may be different than Green Party principles. They aren't a church, po-faced about humanity fitting in with its dicta; the Greens are a Party trying to turn things around for people AND the planet so both have a future that is not dire. They need our support and our help not our pin-pricking platitudes.
How is that shooting in the foot?
Like Robert, I’m intrigued to know who all the outraged "Green voters" withdrawing their support will now vote for…
No one.
Very constructive….. Not.
well, it is a choice tho.
the beige suits of all parties in government can abstain and it is counted as a vote. Why are people supposed to choose between useless, corrupt and uninspired?
That is how i see the parties, Labour – mostly useless, National, mostly corrupt, and the greens – mostly uninspired.
oh because y'all are afraid of Judith Collins? Wow, now that is really not a good 'please vote for Labour or the Greens' point.
As late as June, I was fully expecting to vote Green. Now I really don't know, it's likely I've tipped over to Labour.
Before i move to my reply you can dial down your knee jerk Green Party defence…the foot belongs to the Gov.
Read the 'company' promo.that targets the international monied cliental from the international market…it will never be available to the local kiwi kid down the road….FFS, if you are incapable of recognising the appalling hypocrisy of funding this project when both public education and health providers are decrying the lack of resources then you are delusional.
These types of mindless decisions will cost the incumbents far more votes than Judith and Gerry's carping about Covid
The funding doesn't come from the education budget, does it? Nor the health budget. It comes from the budget that's for job creation and infrastructure development in response to Covid 19. Seems appropriate.
Good grief…it dosnt matter where the funding comes from…it comes from the public purse.
Tell that to the state school teacher that cant get a teacher aide to assist with severely dysfunctional students because resources.
This is a private venture that seeks private profit from offshore…let them fund it
"Tell that to the state school teacher that cant get a teacher aide to assist with severely dysfunctional students because resources."
What would that achieve, Pat? The money for teacher aides comes from a completely seperate budget which will not be affected at all by the spending from the one being considered here. They are seperate, unconnected issues.
Therein lies your problem Robert….you are thinking like an accountant….voters will not separate the funding streams (and nor should they) …its a question of priorities and funding the desires of the offspring of the (offshore) wealthy dosnt trump the basic needs of the locals
But we thoughtful commenters on TS will seperate the funding streams, won't we?
personally no…if theres funding available it should go to the area of greatest need first…and private schools for the children of wealthy foreigners (even if climate conscious) are way down the list of needs
But even more importantly will be how the state employed educators and the parents of the students view it…and theres a lot more of them
"it will never be available to the local kiwi kid down the road"
A successful "green" school, one that blazes the green-learning trail, risks being a front-footer, trials programmes for the first time, produces well-greened learners who will go out into the world better equiped to mend the environmental and social harms we are experiencing now, will benefit "the local kiwi kid down the road", or at least will potentially, in ways that haven't been discussed here at all. There's been a great deal of outrage at the perceived exclusiveness and privilege involved, as is to be expected from Green supporters; we've always hated on private schools, but perhaps we might pause a while to hear The Greens rationale for their decision, what their decision was, how large the part they played in the decision and whether they had considered the sort of reaction that's evident here.
If its going to be a trailblazing success then it wont need public funding….certainly when there is so much need in the state education system.
you are clutching at (synthetic) straws now Robert
yeh lets just stay in the green change slow lane. No need for anything but the market really. oh..
If the Gov wants to speed up change to a "Green economy' then there are a million more effective things they could do (that they are not)
It is not Green led government. If you want that then you need to help them get a lot more votes.
James had to pick something greenish from a pile of "shovel ready" projects. The money could be spent on more roads instead.
"It is not Green led government. If you want that then you need to help them get a lot more votes."
relevance??
K?
How pray tell does lavishly funding a private educational venture WHILE restricting support to a desperate public education sector grow the Green Party vote?….I would suggest the effect is the exact opposite.
However as stated earlier this is not confined to the Green Party
So you think that the Greens should have said to Labour "no we will withhold support for your stimulus package because we can't see any green shovel ready projects that fit with our sensibilities"?
If this is not confined to the Green Party then why have you been so quite about Labour?
"If this is not confined to the Green Party then why have you been so quite about Labour?"
Suggest you do some research
An innovative school with an deep green kaupapa, perhaps the deepest in the country so far, shouldn't get enthusiastic support from The Green's?
And, to quote weka:
“Labour candidate for New Plymouth Glen Bennett said the announcement was important for the Taranaki economy and job creation.
He said although it is a private school, the funding wasn’t taking away from public schools as it was an investment in infrastructure rather than education.
“The expansion of the school will bring more students and their families into Taranaki, adding to our economy.”
the kaupapa is debatable…and the support dosnt need to be financial
I don't want to niggle, Robert but you sound suspiciously like one of those apologists for Charter Schools at times…
I'm not at all, In Vino, nor do I gratuitously support funding a private school. I'm simply saying, let's see what The Greens say before we condemn or applaud them. I generally trust the actions they take and recognise that they are constrained, directed and thwarted by their coalition partners, so when something like this comes up and the pile-ons begin, I like to keep my powder dry till I can see the whites in the eyes of whoever is at the centre of the issue. So to speak.
Yep – I see your point, but I was also noticing echos from the past.. (Not your echoes.)
I really hope James can do a good job of explaining this.
Who else will I vote for? Only the least of all evils that is assured of getting over 5%, ie, Labour. But that will be only to keep the Nats out. Not because i have found something better than the Greens.
"The alternative is possibly worse. James has turned traitor and has decided to torpedo the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience."
Co-leaders of the Green Party don't have that kind of power.
"the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience."
Commenters here are pulling their support over this issue, for "the last political party that had any semblance of a social conscience."
Who then, will they vote for?
snort. The left has long wanted the GP to be the left's political conscience. Should have supported it better while it had the chance. If the GP has gone mainstream, that's because that's where it's getting support from.
"Who then, will they vote for?"
Oh dear, Labour thought it was a good idea too.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/122568117/new-zealands-first-private-green-school-gets-117-million-from-government-for-campus-expansion
Slim pickings now for those in pursuit of purity.
The citation is wrong at $117 million. No wonder we get false news. It should be $11.7 million. It's on a par with Sir Joseph Ward's 1928 election gaffe misreading 70 million pounds borrowed over 10 years to become 70 million pounds borrowed in one year. Factors of 10 do matter!
$11.7 million appears to be correctly used throughout the article.
Decimal points tend to get left out of URLs. Presumably because they have meaning to the software, rather than just being another alphanumeric character for making a name.
Thanks, Andre, for the URL explanation. It's like reading headlines only? In this case, I did read the article. (The URL writer could have left out the .7 and just stated 11 million, surely?)
Looks like stuff URLs are just the headline with all punctuation stripped out. That would be easy to write code to do automatically. It would take a bit more work to write code to determine that something isn't a full stop but is instead a decimal point and strip out the numbers after it.
This is done automatically without human supervision of the end product? No-one to proof read and approve?
Quite likely.
Just as well I'm not a headline writer for Stuff. I'd be trying really hard to see what kind of unintended consequences I could get to show up in the URLs.
Who owns this school?
a couple. An easy thing to look up.
The Devil’s Spawn AKA wealthy capitalists. \sarc
Foreign owners subsidised by the government. Excellent.
It does seem very Min Jin Lee.
"He said although it is a private school, the funding wasn't taking away from public schools "
Some of the arguments against this project are being snuffed-out as the day progresses..
it's a principle of the thing thing I think. Which I agree with, just not convinced this was the Greens' idea.
Nope, it is still taking form the taxpayer who may or may not have children in private schools to fund a private for profit business.
the best these guys should get is a wage subsidy when next the country goes to lockdown level 4. Nothing more nothing less, like any other business in NZ.
That's right, Sabine. I too baulk at the spending of public money on private projects such as this. However, the story has not been fully told by those most closely involved, so I'm reserving my ire or praise until I know the details, hear it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. If only others would do the same but I know as well as any other that this is the period of wild reckonings and snappy responses online whenever there's a political event, such as this is purported to be.
i actually don't care about these guys sitting down now trying to fix up a narrative to make this pig look less like a pig with smeared lipstick all over the place.
We have homeless in this country, this 10 million could have done a great job of building some hovels for these guys.
We have a lot of unemployed people currently , and we will have more at the end of this week, month , year with nothing to replace these jobs in the near future.
we have a shortage of lab staff, testing station etc, and this money could have done great there.
But we are wasting it on a school for a supposed green wash that the children in my family will never go to because we can't afford the 'private school fees' nor yours as you too will be too poor. In the meantime the girls in south auckland don't go to school cause their schools don't have funding for female hygiene products and thus when they are menstruating they stay home. (and don't tell me of the courageous little scheme of providing a few schools in the waikato region with a few tampons to feel good, cause ain't good enough)
So for what its worth, the leader of the green party can throw a ten liter bucket of green color at this and it will still stink to high heavens and it will cost the Greens more then the labour party and thus it was dumb.
dumb. tonedeaf. smug. dumb.
So why aren't you venting at Labour? Do you support any "shovel ready" projects in the stimulus project?
Farrar watch:
This morning, David has two of his special stats driven posts. In one he claims a private Green School is being funded by the Green Party to the tune of $100,000/student and nearby state schools just $330/student.
In the other he claims high speed rail between Hamilton and Auckland would require platforms 750m long. He bases that conclusion on a claim the cost of capital for the project would be 6%.
Now, Twyford isn't a very good politician and I shook my head when he released this rail study the other day knowing that the likes of Farrar would jump all over it, but…
…here's an article which examines "the ways arguments using quantitative analysis fool people into accepting misinformation to suit particular agendas".
I immediately though of our friend on the far right, David Farrar, who regularly uses his special form of statistical analysis to spread BS for political purposes.
Carl Bergstrom, How to Spot BS
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018761053
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300092282/election-2020-public-still-backing-government-and-jacinda-ardern-despite-second-outbreak-new-poll-shows
I am proud of NZders. According to this poll they see through the unrelentingly media reports and realise how lucky we are. Last might N Z had slipped even further down the covid metre to 143.
Thanks for the link to those heartening poll results anker.
Rather than join the team of almost five million, our opposition National party's main election campaign strategy under Collins' leadership is to undermine public trust in the Government. In normal times this would be politically pragmatic, but in these extraordinary times it just comes across as small-minded, and more than a little dangerous to us all.
Ross, Falloon, Walker, Woodhouse, Boag, Bridges, Muller, Collins – it’s all about trust.
Watch those eyebrows folks.
'…in these extraordinary times it just comes across as small-minded, and more than a little dangerous to us all.'
I've been wondering when the campaign strategy from this version of the National Party will come across as dangerous enough to define as treason.
Anker
"It also showed that 64 per cent of those surveyed back the Prime Minister to handle the pandemic in general, compared with 18 per cent for Judith Collins. Over a third (36 per cent) of those who said they voted for National in 2017 now backed Ardern over Collins."
The election is all over bar the shouting….unless there is another serious Covid outbreak.
If you didn't believe blacks got treated differently to whites by the police in parts of the US these two videos are mind-boggling in showing that they do.
This white guy shoots three people at least, the public are telling the police he is the shooter and the police ask the shooter, still holding his gun, for directions to the injured and tell him to get off the road.
Warning: It does show him shooting people but not in a bloody, gory way. It is simply shocking.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg8pxj/a-17-year-old-aspiring-cop-has-been-charged-with-murder-in-kenosha?fbclid=IwAR2aJDO-lF5cPipuNXVb4LD678hWZrm8yh7chKQc6TicQcAeKeykyoWHcDs
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300092251/live-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-and-megan-woods-making-announcement-on-covid19-vaccine-progress
Ad was saying the govt needed to come up with something fresh on Open Mike
No Weka posting defending her beloved Green Party, must be awaiting instructions on how to spin this….although it's going to be a tough sell to dance on the head of that particular pin.
Ohhh look, Judith has done this/said that…will do this/do that!
Now, has everyone forgotten about the money donated to that private school by the Greens yet?
Answer: NO!
[lprent: Idiots who don’t read the policy about falsely ascribing hidden motivations to authors are never right and are to be despised. You know better – so this is your warning.
Banned for 2 weeks. ]
[You were supposed to be permanently banned (see https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-12-09-2019/#comment-1654747). However, somehow this didn’t happen and I have now rectified the situation – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 10:14 AM.
"No worries, we've got this."
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12359909
Ground troops armed with (I hope) tasers arrest violent and dangerous criminal with the assistance of the Eagle helicopter.
Comforting that this footage exists for the Constabulary to promulgate…we'd hate to think that we were not safe.
(btw. The criminal is a car thief ffs, armed with a torch. Did he want to get court?)
The loudest noises about attrition as a result of the pandemic have come from the hospitality industry. The tourist industry, despite its cries of desperation and predictions of doom and gloom in the beginning, appears now to be enjoying steady times and has become less publicity seeking.
I would have thought that the hospitality industry is actually a "nice to have." Eating out is certainly not an essential and as for that coffee and muffin, at least one of our service stations, does a pretty good job of satisfying a craving for caffeine.
We often hear the patronising calls for those on meagre incomes to practice a bit of disciplined shopping and "relearning" cooking at home on a budget. Perhaps those same lecturers should spend a little more time using their eye-level ovens and ceramic hobs rather than feeling the need to be waited on. Eating out in the 70's and 80's was a treat and the sit-down coffee shops a novelty.
In the fullness of Covid Time, there will still be cafes, bars and restaurants. They just will owned and staffed by different people. Your breakfast coffee and muffin will be safe.
Nature, and capitalism abhors a vacuum.
Eating, food are the main areas providing employment in a stripped down economy such as ours after opening our borders to all comers has socked our small enterprises on the chin. I don't know what you do logie 97 but does it involve thinking kindly about our country and the rest of humanity here besides yourself.
I do not wish to add fuel to the fire. I commented here as a result of comments sought by the media from those in the hospitality industries as a result of Level 3 in Auckland. On Monday I wrote the following comment on TS and is the context I put today's comment.
quote… Various media channels have sought the views of business leaders in Auckland to what the affects of extending Level 3 'til Sunday will be. And Chamber of Commerce Barnett appeared to be reading from a prepared-script-of-anticipation. Also spokespeople for the hospitality industry, in unison, have said that it is going to be catastrophic and that there will be massive permanent closures as a result.
I hope the media channels will seek these same people out again in a fortnight or so to get their assessments and to check if their predictions were anywhere even close…unquote
I hope this clarifies somewhat.
it is a nice to have that employes hundreds of thousand people in this country via direct employment – chefs, baristas, waiters/waitresses and then down the line, butchers, bakers, grocery stores, council fees, government fees, taxes in form of GST, Payee and so on and so forth and pretty quickly you have a huge segment of hte working population making a living of it and then you might ask yourself, is it really only a nice to have.
Mind for everyone not working in this industry and making a living of it, it of course may matter not that these people are slowly but surely all losing their jobs, and for a while to be – considering that Covid (or any other pandemic) will be with us for a while. But it they may start re-considering or else try to apply their 'nice to have' to any other industry they may consider 'nice to have'.
One of the industry that i think is nice to have but that could go the way of the dodo would be the booze makers and shops that sell it. Why? I don't drink. 🙂 Also, female hygiene products, i don't need them, surely they are only a nice to have, people can use toilet paper. Doctors, a nice to have thing, for those that can afford it. Schools, ditto i don't need them, nice to have now go away. Roading, i like trains, so fuck roading. Nice to have but not needed, we have rail. 🙂
If we were to look at everything as a nice to have vs, something that was created by others to earn a living, we might end up all in ditch with no food, cause nice to have ….but i don't want to pay for it.
Sabine, please see my comment 9.1.1.1. I hope it clarifies somewhat.
So-called green entrepreneurs are Darth Vaders who have succumbed to the Dark Side of Capitalism and Class War.
The binary thinking is strong with people; there is no sensing of the good underneath and behind the mask (persona). Showing or experiencing both sides is a sign of weakness and needs to be stomped on; 100% pure is the Holy Grail.
Only when you integrate both sides, you become whole. At least some in the Green Party are further down the track with this than others are but they are despised for it and it could lead to their downfall and that of the Party.
If the Resistance is too strong then any attempts at integration and transcendence will be met by defensive mechanisms and (overly) aggressive hostility against change. In such cases, it is best to leave people be and get on with their lives as they know it [no pun] AKA BAU or SSDD and provide them with some illusory control over (their) existence.
It is my lifelong struggle – journey is too neutral and uphill battle too aggressive & destructive – to accept things as they are rather than the way I want them to be.
"It is my lifelong struggle …"
Thanks for that. In my dotage, I find a quick dip into Montaigne will usually furnish a useful aphorism or quotation to help in that struggle. e.g. "..not being able to govern events, I govern myself."
My self-governance is … a shambles. I need a new leader.
Rest assured, your new leader will be the same as the old leader
Ah, but the leader from within can emerge gloriously like a phoenix. And that is what is needed from thinking old people, to find the reserves, the depths, to nurture a new shoot and be reborn so to speak.
It's a spiritual thing and grows on experience, hope and belief out of the muck all around and past all the toxins till it can find light and flower. And I am talking about reality here. I think this is happening. I read books about others' experiences during past times of difficulty, and wonderful people arose strongly and amazingly.
So keep going, you have the reserves if you have come this far and the difficulties encountered will only sharpen your steel – to change images and similes etc.
I’m afraid any phoenix would suffocate in my tiny mental cage. I think it is better to wait until the cage has rusted away enough to pulverise into rusty-brown dust. It may not happen in my lifetime.
We all have to go Harry Potterish. In the books Harry and all the Hogwarts kids had to just adjust their minds and walk though a brick wall to get to their railway platform. I think I know its number so hope to see you there.
I don't know about his politics, but that Ray White bloke has loads of hoardings up all over the place, you could vote for him to take over. lol
You mean sell my soul to the highest bidder? That would almost be as bad as voting for the Green Party 😀
He'd probably get more votes than those idiot conspiracy theory parties soon to be favoured by the fringe faction of the ‘Dafydd left’ ™
– Willie Jackson
"Angry mouth" Hosking. I like it.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/willie-jackson-hits-out-at-mike-hosking-for-rude-interview-with-jacinda-ardern-over-covid-19-response.html
I wouldn't even call him a shock jock. He's just an idiot.
I heard the interview and thought it was downright bullying. MH spoke over Jacinda and didn't let her finish sentences. It was a very disturbing and accusatory interview. Then later in the week speaking to Grant Robertson there were no challenges at all ; all very chatty and matey. MH was subdued and almost submissive. Maybe he doesn't like women in positions of power ?
You can be sure he doesn't like women in positions of power. Particularly ones who don't subscribe to his peculiar view of the world.
The Hosk went too far with Jacinda. I bet ZB was inundated with complaints. He was told to pull his horns in or else? Robertson got the new Hosk which might, if we're lucky, last a couple of weeks.
As angry mouth Mike's voice gets smaller it grows more desperate.
He'll quit ZB in the event of a Labour led government. They all do.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/fashion/122578671/the-story-behind-green-mp-chle-swarbricks-iconic-sweatshirt
Would be interesting to know where it's made.
" finding a local manufacturer who could reproduce the original sweatshirt…"
I mean the original one.
Different world now. If it was from sometime in the last decade, where it came from might be relevant. But its actual origin is far enough removed from Swarbrick and other current Greens that it can only be of interest to tragic obsessives. And trolls.
…or historians. FIFY
… a subset of tragic obsessives.
Can remember similar Green sweat shirts on sale down at the Vic and Cook Street Markets in the good old days. Local people working hard all week manufacturing the shirts and they'd all be gone over the weekend. Very flexible market in those days ; demand dictated the sweat shirts that would be made over the next week. Not many people wandering round in National or Labour shirts in those days.
The fact that National chose the day that the Christchurch mosque shooter is getting sentenced to launch their small business policy probably tells you everything about how they think it’s going to go down with the public.
Total insensitivity and dissonance from Judith and c/o. But to be expected….cuts for workers, ruin Kiwisaver, and then……. who has this magic money to spend in their businesses?? ….same old tired failed policies that saw people living in cars.
Nats' small Business plan announced.
The new sales spin ," we won't be raising taxes."
Judith's new expert Goldsmith running finance ; the doctor of history digs up old policy, snips pieces here and there and glues them back into a new piece of policy.
Seems Judith guarantees she won't be gone by lunchtime because there won't be a lunchtime.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300092612/90day-trials-would-return-but-lunchtime-gone-by-lunchtime-under-national-small-business-policy?cid=app-android
On a trip to the home of the Labour party in Blackball, I saw a reference to the miner's strike on the issue of a 30 minute crib- a 30 minute lunchtime for the workers.
National want to return to the 19th century and starve-all stuff all worker's rights.
I've only been able to vote since 2011 so I'm not sure how labour in govt campaigns vs labour in opposition, but is there going to be any policy manifesto or announcements or is the manifesto the same as 2017 until all of it gets made law?
It's becoming incredibly frustrating and depressing that labours not releasing policy it seems arrogant.
Unless labours not running on policy so when they make reforms they can say oh we never said we wouldn't do this , this and this but I feel like it's more they are afraid to release policy because they are so polling so well that releasing policies could turn some people off.
It isn’t arrogant. It is a political reality for the major parties in a MMP environment.
This was also the case for the arrogant National party in 2011, 2014, and 2017. You can find posts here deploring the arrogance of the government party not releasing substantive policy going back to 2007.
You can also find comments running back through to the early 1990s in the usenet forums like alt.politics.nz.
I’d point out by way of comparison that so far the National party policies this election have mostly consisted of bullet points and a few reasonably vague paragraphs promising to reconsider things at some point in the future. All of it uncosted and with vague promises of money appearing out of thin air.
Mostly it is the minor parties that release policies – mostly because they know that they will never have a chance to do more (at best) than try to add a few of them in a cut down form to a coalition agreement.
The major parties know that
NZ governments are almost completely exposed to massive risks from unexpected offshore problems. That is because we are a trading nation with a tiny local economy. The last time I worked for a company that did more than 10% of their business inside NZ was in 1995. I’ve worked for 5 private sector companies since then. Most profitable companies in NZ, and therefore their employees incomes, are directly or closely directly exposed to offshore winds – from export prices to exchange rates in exports and imports. Making policy decisions at a government level when you’re guessing at overall revenue (taxes and fees) and costs (like welfare rolls) is largely an exercise in futility. You only have to look at effects on our local economy and government of the covid-19 in 2020, the GFC in 2008, the twin tower bombings in 2001, the Asian market ‘flu’ in 1997-8, etc etc over the last 30 years to see this.
That anything concrete that major parties promise as policy has to be vague and surrounded with caveats that look like dithering to simpletons. Besides, if it is a 10 year project as most of them are, and the government is unable to deliver in a 3 year term, it will be spun as a ‘broken promise’ for the headlines. So why bother announcing policies that can be measured against that daft and short-sighted yardstick.
So there is no incentive to make any concrete promises beyond minor ones and vague hand waving about longer term ones. Those kinds of concrete policy announcements really belong back at the era of a completely controlled economy with border tariffs, limits on the amount of money you could take or send off shore, and very very limited export industries (essentially the farming sector with limited processing).
The National party just indulged in their typical waving of hands with roading projects that will take decades to pursue to completion, are known to have incredibly bad returns on investment (as in they cost vastly more than they could ever return), and have no funding sources as it would exceed revenue targeted at the NZTA. They were clearly made up on the back of a envelope targeting the more stupid voters in their favoured electorates and with nice sound bites for even thicker journalists like Mike (the moron) Hosking.
The probability of any of those projects ever happening is extremely low. Is that the kind of ‘policy’ you’d like – useless pie in the sky for the credulous? Will that make you satisfied as a policy announcement? You’d have to be as thick as pigshit (or a died in the wool National supporter) to be satisfied with that.
Personally I prefer what Labour has been doing. Making policy announcements, giving timetables and budgets for them, about what they are planning to do over the next few years. Then pointing out directions where they’d like to head. There are a lot of the latter around. You can find them on the Labour party website, or the Greens website, of the NZF and even the Act website.
What you will mostly see on National’s website isn’t policy. It is just slogans for news headlines saying we’ll remove this regulation, or we’ll throw $4 billion at something without saying where they’ll fund it from or even why it is important in the future a decade down the line. It really is hard to see National has any policy at all. But I guess that could just be because they have have had 3 radical shift in their dithering direction in the past months and haven’t managed to write any coherent directions. They sound like your kind of ‘policies’.
Perhaps you should invest in getting yourself a slightly better political and economic education rather than whining about something that hasn’t happened for decades. Then at least you won’t sound quite so much like a political dimwit.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424539/covid-19-updates-in-new-zealand-and-the-world-on-27-august
A union representing medical laboratory workers says members taking part in partial strike action are being sent home without pay.
The company, Southern Community Laboratories, says none of those suspended are involved in Covid-19 testing.
But the union says employees who have been working long hours and extra shifts testing Covid samples are affected.
More than 700 workers at private laboratories around the country have issued strike notices for a 24-hour full withdrawal of labour from Friday, 4 September.
AND
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424549/mt-roskill-covid-19-mini-cluster-concerning-to-see-ahead-of-level-2-move-dr-siouxsie-wiles
Five people associated with the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship have tested positive in the last two to three days.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield urged anyone who was at the services held at the church on Stoddard Road on the 8, 9 and 11 August and a wedding on 7 August to isolate and seek a test.