Thank goodness for online grocery shopping. It means we can stay in the warm, and we will let the delivery person know how grateful we are not to have to venture out into this weather at age 79.
'Young said despite his hopes, even over the past year, not much had changed.
"Unfortunately, there's no evidence of a real improvement.
"There's no evidence of going backwards either.
"We know there's been increasing recognition of the concerns with fresh water systems over the last 10 years or so, and there is a lot of action going on.
"But there's no evidence of an improvement yet, so that suggests more effort and more time required to make those benefits show up."
He said it could take some years if not decades before improvements would be seen.'
Just shows…dont let the nats back…even any fake blue/green ones. Jacquie Dean….
Anyway let their own words speak :
“They’re gone by lunchtime,” the party’s agriculture spokesman David Bennett said in a Facebook Live last night, talking about the water policy.
His leader, Judith Collins, was critical of what she saw as bureaucrats in Wellington making all the rules when it comes to farmers, particularly in Southland.
She was sick of these people “bossing everyone else around”.
The history shows that the primary sector simply keeps taking until there is nothing left. It has only ever been intervention that has stopped the plunder. Every. Single. Time.
This is the evidence and the history.
The primary sector (and their reps the National Party) cannot be trusted.
And Labour does seem to get it…(I could have said finally).
Anyway, I couldnt imagine anyone in the nats saying this?
'Mr Parker told the meeting he had a fondness for Central Otago and the Manuherikia catchment was vitally important to the region’s people.
"This is about everyone coming together to stop the degradation and undo the damage of the past.
"The Manuherikia rises in the Hawkdun ranges and flows through some of New Zealand’s most stunning landscapes that inspired the paintings of Grahame Sydney and the poems of Brian Turner."
The river was under pressure, with water quality declining and over-allocation of water reducing the minimum flow needed for ecological processes, such as providing habitat for wildlife, and for recreational use, he said.'
The Cost of Resistance
by CHRIS HEDGES, Sept. 22, 2020
Two of the rebels I admire most, Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks publisher, and Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, are in jail in Britain. That should not be surprising. You can measure the effectiveness of resistance by the fury of the response. Julian courageously exposed the lies, deceit, war crimes and corruption of the ruling imperial elites. Roger has helped organized the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in British history, shutting down parts of London for weeks, in a bid to wrest power from a ruling class that has done nothing, and will do nothing, to halt the climate emergency and our death march to mass extinction.
The governing elites, when truly threatened, turn the rule of law into farce. Dissent becomes treason. They use the state mechanisms of control – intelligence agencies, police, courts, black propaganda and a compliant press that acts as their echo chamber, along with the jails and prisons, not only to marginalize and isolate rebels, but to
psychologically and physically destroy them. The list of rebels silenced or killed by ruling elites runs in a direct line from Socrates to the Haitian resistance leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the only successful slave revolt in human history and died in a
frigid French prison cell of malnutrition and exhaustion, to the imprisonment of the socialist Eugene V. Debs, whose health was also broken in a federal prison. Rebel leaders from the 1960s, including Mumia Abu Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Mutulu Shakur and Leonard Peltier, remain, decades later, in U.S. prisons. Muslim activists, including those who led the charity The Holy Land Foundation and Syed Fahad Hashmi, were arrested, often at the request of Israel, after the hysteria following 9/11, and given tawdry show trials. They also remain incarcerated.
Resistance, genuine resistance, exacts a very, very high price. Those in power drop even the pretense of justice when they face an existential threat. …
It's quite remarkable how the world's corporate media is ignoring the Assange case, and Matt Kennard in this short 10 minute interview outlines some of the measures being taken by the state and the conflicts of interest.
If you get to the end, the result sounds depressingly familiar to many of the social welfare policies and stupendously huge budget allocations of this government including benefit levels, child poverty, Oranga Tamariki, and mental health:
Domestic violence budget line got $320 million in the 2019 budget, and
$250 million in the COVID19 response.
That's over half a billion dollars, with no result.
The biggest attack line Nation should be using against this government is simply this:
Not quite. Hard to tell exactly what has happened there until the documents are released, but lots of conflict between the people wanting transformational, the people resisting that, Logie being given the responsibility but not the authority to act and so on. I'll wait until the documents are released and analysed before forming an opinion on whether the plan was unworkable in reality, or was too radical, or a combination of both. Am really curious to see if the plan doesn't work for Pākehā or how it works was missed.
Reading between the lines, my guess is that Labour will take over the project, water it down and implement something that makes some improvements but fails the agreement of transformation.
It's pretty hard to see a Green MP keeping it that's for sure. Logie was clear that she just didn't have the seniority to effectively push it – a curious admission.
If the Greens get in and want a serious portfolio outside of plants, they could always propose someone for Minister of Social Welfare, and Minister for Children. Clearly the big program changes and big budget moves need more heft at Cabinet beyond budget allocations.
Question is, should they be in the position to ask: if it's beyond Jan Logie, who in the Green caucus would want it?
"Logie was clear that she just didn't have the seniority to effectively push it – a curious admission."
How so? Wouldn't it have been Ardern who decided that she should be an under secretary and thus have limited authority? And hence the oversight from the Labour and NZF Ministers.
"Question is, should they be in the position to ask: if it's beyond Jan Logie, who in the Green caucus would want it?"
I'm not clear yet that it was beyond Logie, as opposed to being a poor set up with substantial conflicts, and then covid.
That's over half a billion dollars, with no result.
The biggest attack line Nation should be using against this government is simply this:
Failure to execute.
Bugger the attack line. That’s for headline writers in MSM, for the Party spin-doctors, for the National Party’s Meme Working Groups on Facebook, and for lazy commenters on SM who want to score easy points. They don’t do anything to help solve problems. Where’s National’s viable and realistic alternative that has been costed (but not by Paora)? Which party has a compelling policy platform to deliver and do anything better?
Has that half a billion dollar been all spent? Has it absolutely nothing to show for it? Where has it gone? Should we expect quick and easy solutions?
The Stuff article is in-depth and nuanced and it goes into much background context. It would be great if the author could follow up with an analysis of National Party policy to tackle family violence in Aotearoa-New Zealand. As far as I can tell, National is framing it as a Law & Order issue and treats it like it treats crime instead of approaching it as a social-cultural issue. They are bloody dinosaurs when it comes to complex social inequalities and inequities. In fact, their outmoded thinking has no place in Government.
Nope. This is where the government is held to account.
If I wanted to do the National Party social welfare policy, I would. As would Stuff.
It always amazes me how the tiniest piece of criticism of the Greens requires a wall of self-righteous defence, no matter how irrational.
It's an election: that time where you evaluate performance, to help figure out if parties are worth another go or not.
Whereas Labour and NZF Ministers take it on the chin. They reform, or they get fired, or they get their funding taken. Even Shane Jones figured that out.
Seriously if the Greens can't figure out how to get critiqued and improve, and on as easy a topic as domestic violence, rather than ranting with rhetorical questions and doing another turn of Whataboutthemism, then maybe politics just isn't for them.
Referring to the “biggest attack line Nation [sic] should be using against this government” is engaging in attack and negative antagonistic opposition, not holding the Government to account. Personally, I think this is mind-numbingly stupid 🙁
In an election campaign, Parties present their policies and engage in a contest of ideas. If you want to suggest an attack line to and for National to attack this Coalition Government with then you should at least mention the other side of the coin too.
It's an election: that time where you evaluate performance, to help figure out if parties are worth another go or not.
There you go. If they (as in Labour, NZF, and the Greens) are not worth another go then we need to look at and know Plan B, don’t we? This is not holding the Government to account but really about making choices (i.e. electing) for the next one.
If you insist on framing this as a criticism of the Greens per se then knock yourself out with that. I did not take it as such from the Stuff article nor from your comment @ 6 and to me it comes across as unnecessary needling of Green Party supporters on this site but hey, whatever floats your boat 🙂 However, if you think my comment @ 6.3 was intended as a defence of the Greens, in general or against you, then you need to take remedial reading lessons ASAP.
I rather liked the National leader's attack on Jacinda about looking out for the poorest. Though she should have out-skirted her. Anyone who thinks on the social democratic side despise this govt for talking but not doing for the neediest.
Domestic/family violence, ACC settlement compensation for sexual assaults, settlement compensation of abuse (sexual, physical and psychological) in state or religious faith based care, this is all a priority. The cost is enormous and a timely response is required so as to not re abuse the claimant.
Housing to go to and be safe is imited, so is no cost counselling and addiction services and legal services may also be required. Clients accessing a service or several services, advocates who know what they are doing are required.
Children who are exposed to poverty and any form of abuse and violence also require the appropriate intervention, care or service.
Those already in the system, the system is failing many.
I have had to do this link in long hand. It is an example of how sick ACC legislation is for an historical childhood sexual assault case. I was aware of this.
Out dated unfit for purpose legislation which disadvantages children who were sexually assaulted prior to their 18th birthday because they did not make a complaint or did not seek treatment for their injury.
National had been trying to push a more gentle side to Collins. They know they can't out-kindness Labour's Jacinda Ardern, but they thought a few soft Labour voters could be tempted back to supporting National if Collins could only smooth off some of those sharp corners.
I think Collins scrapped that strategy about 7.36pm on Tuesday evening. Throughout the debate, she steadily brought back the snark. She had the Muldoon grin going and was peacocking in the post-debate interviews.
He captured the left/right banality thing nicely in a couple of sentences:
There was no blue sky thinking. The debate perfectly exposed Labour and National's total lack of courageous policy when it comes to addressing some of our biggest issues.
So 44% definitely would, plus 32% likely makes three-quarters of the nation willing to sacrifice themselves as guinea pigs in the cause of science & public health.
Definitely not comes in at 10%, but with another 11% unlikely, we have one person in five willing to gamble on nature alone.
Nature? Everything with humans is perception – the prejudiced's 'idea' of nature is what they pay attention to plus their idea of them being exceptional and anyone who disagrees is part of a giant conspiracy against the 'sensitives' or'more informed'.
Personally have no problem taking a vaccination for it, but would quietly prefer if it was a year or two after released for other people, given how fast it will hopefully come through compared to other medicinal.
Just so I can see if people taking it start growing an extra arm, having fits, or their bits fall off etc (joke, but would prefer a larger testing sample)
sacrifice themselves as guinea pigs in the cause of science & public health.
Nope. The people who do that are the ones who participate in the clinical trials. Getting a vaccine post-trial is lower-risk than waiting to catch the disease.
That is an excellent article. Collins claiming to speak on behalf of 'farmers' is just not true. Federated Farmers are a lobby group but Fonterra and all those other companies are the business leaders in rural NZ, and they are looking forward not back.
Yip if your the ag minister forget about the fed farmers, talk to the CEOs of Fonterra ,Silver fern farms and alliance,they have the power to drive change., probably wasting your time with the talley owned affco though.
Well spotted Robert. Thanks. If only some of the non-laggard could get a platform to explain their forward momentum. As for the destructive Collins and Federated Farmers, expose the blighters!
As with farming and water standards, it shows the difference between working with business who want to move forward and pandering to backward-looking, loud lobby groups, whether fringe farmers or bad landlords.
If you read the article, it is very clear that changes implemented now can have a huge lag in their impact, i.e. improving water quality. Similarly, much crap, literally, is working its way through the ecosystem, which means we could see things actually getting worse, because of past polluting behaviours, despite our (best?) efforts at present. This is a problem with setting policy and selling it to stakeholders and the general public in order to get it initiated and actioned but then to keep following up and persevering over a prolonged period of time. The further out the ‘reward’ the less one can rely on the ‘instant gratification’ mechanism of people to comply. If this is not acknowledged and communicated clearly and properly from the outset then these policies will lack the required resilience to be sustainable in the long-term and they end up being ineffective. A further consequence is that they could end up being counter-productive because they could (be used to) turn public and political ‘sentiment’ against future efforts to make meaningful changes. It is the proverbial one-step-forward-two-steps-backward scenario.
If this is not acknowledged and communicated clearly and properly from the outset then these policies will lack the required resilience to be sustainable in the long-term and they end up being ineffective.
Quite specifically, we'd have National get in power, point to reports like this, say that its not working and drop them all. And thing's would just get worse.
Quite specifically, we’d have National get in power, point to reports like this, say that its not working and drop them all. And thing’s would just get worse. [my italics]
We watched these rivers being degraded in our lifetimes, and it is reasonable to expect that they be restored within the same period, however inconvenient that might be for politicians who prefer not to act meaningfully, if they must act at all. If we wait, and let these lazy troughers get away with doing nothing, nothing is all we will have to show for it. One would expect that significant risks to ecosystem health would stimulate prudent and timely responses. Experience teaches us otherwise.
It's often only a matter of a bit of planting and some aeration to speed up breakdown of organics and prevent rivers going anaerobic.
We are headed for a collision with the consequences of our environmental delinquency – and to avoid collisions you take early and substantial action. Does “hard and early” ring a bell?
We don't have time to 'fluff' about, the kinds of change that made Oz's fire season are still rolling along. Likely we'll need to make substantial changes to farming, fishing, and water supply, with a sporting chance of needing to accommodate or support Pacific climate refugees in place.
This is not the time to go demonstrating the fungibility of neolib 'policy' in hopes of a few donations.
Early & substantial action is from navigation – but the parallel holds. If an intervention is warranted, it is more effective to intervene earlier rather than later. Same holds with ecology – the best time to plant trees was ten years ago – now is only second best.
Frittering away our time with bullshit gameplaying is a luxury more suited to the halcyon days before the anthropocene got the bit between its teeth. When Parker set a nitrate level eight times higher than China's, he should have accompanied it with his resignation – since he had decided not to do his job.
Except if there's a delayed response between input and measurement, you end up "chasing the gauges" (a flight control term), overcorrecting each time, and pile into the ground.
Not to mention the fact that no policy should be considered in isolation. That's why the government had a good covid response, but didn't follow every single MoH recommendation to the letter.
I mean, we could just shoot hundreds of thousands of cows to help solve the problem, but that would have unexpected [figurative] downstream effects on society in the regions.
Well there's certainly no danger of an overshoot at the levels Parker set. Cancer, and infant deaths maybe, but no overreaction.
We are so privileged to live under a government so backward it promises generational change so slow it cannot even be measured. At which point there is no reason to assume that there is any change contemplated at all – which would be par for the course from these career neolibs.
I don’t think anyone was calling for mass culling of cattle – though moving some to other catchments might be appropriate if they blow nitrate levels out – bit of a straw man really.
Perhaps we can worry about over correction somewhat after there is evidence that there has been any correction at all.
You know what? We are privileged/lucky to have this government. Look around the world. Yes, things need improving, in so many areas. But by and large this government is doing pretty bloody well. I'm not going to gnash my teeth and demand resignations just because I think I could run things better.
They are not doing well on freshwater – or Mike Joy & Dr Death wouldn't be condemning their actions.
They have done well on Covid, but there are a lot of other issues. This is one that they have handled particularly badly, and polling has consistently shown rivers to be the public's leading environmental concern.
They need to be reminded of this by ordinary members of the public, because the current opposition is not fit for the purpose.
demand resignations just because I think I could run things better
Setting nitrate levels eight times higher than the WHO recommendations doesn't seem prudent to me. And I suspect Parker is not sufficiently expert to rebut them on any objective grounds.
I think that nobody really knew what ‘hard and early’ meant in reality but people dropping like flies in Lombardy and Wuhan was a good incentive to doing something. That sense of immediacy is missing from water quality or anything environmental for that matter with the possible exception of the measures to prevent the spreading of Kauri disease.
It's a general principle for some kinds of response, but of course the unique circumstances of each required intervention are very different. I imagine historians of futurity, if we have one, will have a task explaining to students quite how difficult it was to make such a decision over Covid, with political consequences on one side, and public health on the other, even with the relatively abundant examples (compared to those other countries had when they were forced to choose) at our disposal.
There have been a number of expositions of NZ's level process, and the clarity it generated for the public, when health services were, behind the scenes, in a state of flux as they conformed to meet a threat for which they had few treatment options. The verdict has been very positive, with minor errors like the stance on masking, and some frankly odd attitudes among testing authorities noted, but not diluting the overall positive perception and the compliance it generated contributing to the strong result.
A hard and early response to water quality would mean different things in different catchments, with restrictions likely in oversubscribed and rapidly nitrifying areas like south Canterbury. But it need not be introduced in a draconian fashion, it can be phased in over a reasonable period as it is expected is happening with emissions, allowing farmers time to weigh mitigation options, or possibly limit some types of intensification on a regional or catchment basis.
What it should not have done was to allow lobbying to get across the objective part of regulations – the nitrate levels, because these are set on a physiological basis, and, like any other physical constants, they do not make allowances for the human capacity for self or habitat destruction.
As has been noted elsewhere, the standard broadly adopted internationally, 1mg/l, will become a customer expectation, and willing or not, NZ farmers will be obliged to meet it, or suffer a price and a reputational loss in the market.
Better then to lay that out clearly at the beginning, and put efforts into supporting the transition, than to prop up a poor standard that will ultimately need to be revised, but will still incur the price and reputational and ecological and public health cost.
I agree with all that. My point is that for many (but not all!) people there’s no greater motivator than death knocking on your door at any moment. People are also scared shitless of stuff they don’t understand such as a killer virus, just think of the many Hollywood movies featuring runaway viruses and diseases decimating the human population and turning survivors into monstrous zombies. Turds floating in rivers or streams just don’t have the same impact on people’s minds and behaviours.
The idea of Covid testing before getting on a flight has often been suggested as a means of improving border control. Dubai in the UAE already requires it. One of our latest cases detected in managed isolation had transited through Dubai, so would have required a clean test before being allowed on that flight.
Which illustrates the point: pre-flight screening would do nothing to change what needs to be done on the ground here, and just adds another layer of complexity and expense to the whole border control situation.
One person arrived on a flight from Germany on 21 September via the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia.
All passengers travelling to Dubai from any destination, including passengers connecting in Dubai, must have a printed negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate to be accepted on the flight.
The test must be taken a maximum of 96 hours before departure.
The certificate must be for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Other test certificates including antibody tests and home testing kits are not accepted in Dubai.
Bring an official, printed certificate to check-in – SMS and digital certificates are not accepted. Without a printed negative test certificate, you will not be accepted on the flight.
Yes, but extra the testing probably isn't there to protect the people but as another form of profit making. Because you can be sure that it will be private enterprise that's doing it and, if National get in and puts in place legislation requiring such testing before coming to NZ then you can be sure that they will require testing on the way out and they will have private enterprise doing it.
Its the same for many uneconomic actions that exist in society. They produce more profit and more jobs and so getting rid of them then becomes impracticable, as far as the capitalists and government are concerned, to remove them.
Probably already exists. After all, even laser printers are cheap these days and its not as if such a business would need a commercial grade printer capable of printing hundreds of thousands a day.
As I say above, such requirements are there just for the profit opportunities that it generates.
Family member travelling back from UK soon. She is required to take a test 3 days prior to departure she’s flying Etihad. She quite worried about being able to get the test done and completed on time as UK cases surge. Adding a lot of stress for her as she tried to get home in March and flight canceled. She is unwell so not at all easy.
I understand the rationale for the pre flight tests and it may help passengers like who stay safe, but as we all know it’s no guarantee passengers are covid free.
good to see the likes of the conservative party and regress NZ party showing up in polls. want to see them get another 2 or 3 % of votes yet. that way when combined with TOP and NZF it will guarantee a Labour lead govt even if the greens don't make it in. I wonder if conservative voters realise that as things stand every 1 out of 2 conservative votes will go to Labour
apparentley not all is well in the conspiracy party (advance,nzpp). many of their members and candidates are walking away in disgust. splitters! hah!so the judean peoples front and the peoples front of judeah cant agree. , many of the tin hit brigade are yet again, wandering in the wilderness, looking for another conspiracy.
Will Billy's nose-pokey-outey refusal to mask-up properly on board Flight 666 to Nowhere endear him to his flock of flockers, or will they see through his charade and shift their voting preference to the Eminently More Sensible "New Conservatives"???
think some will follow brian,sorry, billy all the way down the rabid hole, some will drift off to new cons, some to maori party, most will probably not vote cause its just a government plot to harvest and store their dna!
Hate speech. Labors new law they'd propose to govern hate speech. Where can i find info on exactly what it will be that the labor government might propose?. This proposal is a bit worrying, i feel. Will freedom of speech be soon to be deemed to be hate speech. Will it?. How will labor intend to decide?. Will it be soon to become hate speech for Dennis Gates to be saying what he does in this following article https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/09/top-lawyer-compares-gloriavale-s-leadership-to-islamic-state.html
I'm certainly interested to see some sort of rock solid detail before i make my decision up on who i'd vote for.
Yeah i agree that certain limits should apply. But how would we decide what limits would allow. And who would decide. And how can we make sure that these limits wouldn't suppress discussion what should need to take place, even if somebody might interpret this discussion as being hateful. The way like what i suspect that some gloriavale citizen might interpret Dennis Gates opinion to be. I hope that labor government might enter into discussion about this subject more before final date of election. Citizen should have a right to know. Hopefully the other parties might begin to push labor into discussing this matter more
And how can we make sure that these limits wouldn't suppress discussion what should need to take place, even if somebody might interpret this discussion as being hateful.
Ask a linguist or three?
The way like what i suspect that some gloriavale citizen might interpret Dennis Gates opinion to be.
I figure that he's pointing out similarities and if they don't like that then their only option is to become better.
But the most important point is that he's not actually stirring up hatred against them.
Yeah. Hate speech. We should be free to spout hate, whenever, wherever. I too am concerned that Big Government is anti-hate! Give hate a chance, I say! #sarc
Sarc can have its place. But hey, its a reasonable question to think about. At what point should freedom of speech be deemed to be hate speech. How would you decide. And who should be the one who'd get to decide. Can you actually provide an answer to those question?. Or is sarc about all you'd be able to come up with. I'd love to see you answer
That's interesting Incognito. I'm fairly certain i saw Jacinda promising that she would intend to strengthen hate speech law if Labor government is re-elected . I'm not exactly sure what she had meant by this. Perhaps it might just be to strengthen law against inciting hate speech what could lead to acts of violence. Which i feel would be fair enough. But exactly what her intention would be, i really don't know
Is there deliberate creation of confusion and misinformation employed when using terms like 'hate speech' to create an assumption that freedom of speech under the Bill of Rights is being taken away?
It's election time and a newer 'falsehood' is thrown out there fuelled by Seymour.
There is NO current new law Labour is passing. Since 2019 a review has been underway, scheduled since 2018. There is an outdated set of laws needing inspection and people's rights to be safe need strengthening.
The Justice Ministry has looked at relevant aspects of laws that already exist – the Human Rights Act, the Harmful Digital Communications Act, and sections of the Crimes Act to see what laws may need to be changed or added. A REVIEW by the Human Rights has been underway, including Section61 constructed some years back to see if it is fit for purpose; particularly needed with the fast paced development of social media and the current section61 not protecting all people.
Seymour last Friday, took words from Jacinda's mouth, invented a sinister twist omitting any fuller information on the day. Jacinda was unveiling the plaque at the mosque on Friday. It wasn't coincidental timing, there is no " hate speech" NEW law per say. Seymour was playing to ignorance of the existing laws and unfounded fears.
" By law in the Bill of Rights Act, everyone in New Zealand has the right to freedom of expression, including the "freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form".
IMO Seymour is rallying to a hard core of haters having choosen that day specifically as JA spent time with Muslim victims. The timing of Seymour's rant was despicable as he drew the media and public attention away from NZers and the Muslim community commemorating victims of a massacre.
What the public are now led to assume in advance of an election from Seymour's release is that your freedoms are being denied. The exact fear effect ACT was hoping to instil has been uptaken. MSM happily disseminated this also in a shallow, click bait way.
" Existing law makes no explicit reference to hate speech, but under Section 61 of the Human Rights Act, it’s unlawful to broadcast, publish or distribute material that is “threatening, abusive or insulting” and “likely to excite hostility against, or bring into contempt, any group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins”. The Christchurch shooter under this law could arguably say what he liked about "Islam" or gays, or any disabled person he likes in any manner.
Under current law, unjustly so, there are vulnerable groups NOT protected. What was being reviewed as mentioned by Jacinda was that the current law does NOT give protection from hate that incites 'hostility' towards people in categories of genderidentity, sexualorientation, religion or disability.
The Human Rights Commission review was, as mentioned, not only to look at lack of all vulnerable person's protections but to see if that older law needed changes to encompass modern developments.
The HR review tribunal consultations etc. were put on hold with Covid19 's emergence; Andrew Little believes those findings when completed should be dealt with post election as an issue for the new parliament. Rightly so.
Facebook's stance had rules updated in 2018, New Zealand has not updated with the times.
" Facebook, which recently adopted stricter controls on what users can post online, uses more specific criteria. Its policy targets direct attacks on people’s “protected characteristics” such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, serious disability or disease."
Janet Anderson-Bidois, the HR commission’s chief legal adviser has talked of the confusion of people around issues , confusing hate speech with hate crime and freedom of expression just as Seymour has done with his deliberate misinformation mash up.
"Anderson-Bidois insists that the commission isn’t bent on rewriting the laws governing hate speech. All it’s doing, she says, is suggesting they should be reviewed to ensure they’re still “fit for purpose" …
"New Zealand has become culturally far more diverse since the Human Rights Act was passed and the internet was then still in its infancy. Anomalieshavearisen, she says."
"Of course freedom of speech comes into it, “but with rights come responsibilities. Peoplealsohavea right to be safe. "
A person's right to exercising free speech, even if extremely offensive, is still upheld by NZ law. An example of this was the Human Rights Commission not ruling in favour of Louisa Wall's case she brought over racist cartoons published by Fairfax. In other words the cartoonist's right to freedom of expression were upheld not Wall's feelings of taking offence.
Unlike Seymour's supposition on his FB page, ideas can still be freely attacked and even offensive opinion expressed.
The HRC review will also hopefully bring clarity in helping " to distinguish attacks on people from attacks on ideas and beliefs?"
In 2018 Labour’s Duncan Webb, who was a lawyer and legal academic before entering Parliament, "
says he’s acutely aware of the tension between freedom of expression and hate speech, but he doesn’t think the free-speech defence can be applied in cases where speech is calculated to injure or terrorise people."…
" But there’s a real danger of confusing honestly held opinion with attacks on people, and by lumping it all into this category of hate speech they conflate targeted speech, aimed at destroying or bullying people, with honest expression of opinion.”
There is a scenario to help illustrate when a line is crossed, the difference between hate speech and free speech in the Listener at the time of Lauren Southern's and Stefan Molyneux's NZ visit.
" Wellington business consultant Dave Moskovitz brought a touch of levity to the proceedings, describing himself as a “walking bullseye” for purveyors of hate speech: “middle aged, Pākehā, cis, hetero, male, geek, property owner, investor, company director, immigrant, American, religious, Jew, and – wait for it – Zionist”.
But the tone turned serious when Moskovitz told of a New Zealand white nationalist blogger who published an online guide to “Zionists in your neighbourhood” and included a photo of Moskovitz’s house. The blogger went on to say that Jews were a slap in the face to the human race and were not welcome in this country.
Moskovitz said the same man later said in a newspaper interview that Jews should have been exterminated – “and that’s where the line was crossed. Saying you do not like a group of people, while repugnant, is exercising free speech. Implying that they should all have been killed is quite another thing. That borders on incitement.”
Currently the hate speech laws in New Zealand make it illegal to "excite hostility against or bring into contempt any group of persons … on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins".
But that protection doesn't extend to gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
"I think everyone would agree no one should be discriminated against for their religion," Ardern said.
Ooooh, give him a few favourable polls and Rimmer starts getting all coq-y. He better be careful. If he gets too mouthy, that cuppa tea in Remmers might not happen next time he needs it.
Im really looking forward to the new parliament. with act's very chequered history of having m.p.s resign in disgrace, not resigning but staying in disgrace, commiting fraud, going to jail etc, as well as having general sc*mbags as m.p.s. seymour will be busy holding hands, putting ot fires, etc. wonder who the first act m.p. will be that carries on this proud tradition.
"Alongside National, the poll's other casualty is New Zealand First. It's on 1.9 percent down 0.1 points. Despite leader Winston Peters' best attention grabs, NZ First is goneburger."
Always revealing to see the difference between hype and reality.
"Advance", the anti-lockdown mob. No support whatsoever. Maybe their rants shouldn't be headline news, given they represent fewer people than the NZ underwater hockey community.
"Immigration New Zealand says three German yachties treated New Zealand's Covid 19 laws with contempt and have to face the consequences of their actions."
I don't get it with these claims that the cyclone season is such a hazard to be feared. It appears that even during an El Nino season, Tahiti and northwest from there are very low risk, possibly lower risk than New Zealand.
For the coming summer, it appears most likely that it will be La Nina or slightly less likely neutral, with only a very low probability of El Nino conditions.
Allegedly they were last at Taiohae, which is well to the northeast of Tahiti and even further out of the way of likely cyclone tracks, as far as I can tell.
Dead right. There are normally plenty of E.U. yachts that spend the summer cyclone season in French Polynesia on the way west and many that are based there for years. In a La Nina, French Poly is probably safer than NZ as cyclones are more common further west and with climate change more are spinning off down NZs way. I think the yachtie outrage thing is overblown MSM nonsense and most yachties originally intending to keep going will just spend a lovely time floating around in the tropics instead. The MoH has made the right decision to exclude non NZ yachts. If they can be allowed to get in, what about the rest of the Pacific islands? Living in a home built vale is not much fun with a cyclone bearing down!
CEO Shaun Maloney says Seequent’s software solutions are being used on hundreds of projects around the world to enable a clear view of groundwater and contaminants. “Users such as the Water Replenishment District, the largest groundwater agency in the state of California, can readily communicate to end clients, regulators, and the general public with 3D models of groundwater systems and contaminated sites in a fully auditable data-driven approach across the entire lifecycle of site management."
Sure hope NZTE is finding ways to support these guys.
The National Part’s agricultural policy will pacify the angriest of Federated Farmers’ members who believe townies and the Labour-led government are trying to drive them out of business. Or to”oblivion,” as Judith Collins, party leader, said as she launched the policy on the campaign trail on Thursday.
But the policy will dismay any farmer, processor or marketer who knows what’s going on out in the real world where our food is sold. Out there, the best of our competitors are working hard and fast to make farming and food deeply sustainable. They are intently focused on revolutionising their businesses to meet the demands of consumers and the environment.
But all National knows is how to cut regulations. So if a National-led government simply fiddled with farming, our competitors would delight in telling their customers, from individuals to huge supermarket chains, how superior their practices and products were to ours.
Plamondon expected laws drafted in anticipation of recreational cannabis being legal would eventually change to allow cheaper, imported products.
He said New Zealand was his company’s first export target market…
A Nelson-based medical cannabis firm, Medical Kiwi has already sold its first two years of production to Hektares, a global player in the medical cannabis industry, equating to $30 million for 2021, and $60 million in 2022.
It recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2 million to get production underway in Christchurch and help fund its Nelson development and technology purchases.
Co-founder and chair, Aldo Miccio, said Plamondon’s statement was interesting, especially around Thai product being potentially a tenth of the cost of New Zealand cannabis.
“There are reasonably good margins involved – which is why a lot of people are investing, but we aim with our pricing to be way cheaper than products imported at the moment.”
Miccio said cannabis grown outdoors, such as that at grown at tropical altitudes in Thailand was certainly cheaper to produce, but only indoor-grown product would pass the scrutiny of pharmaceutical standards.
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 ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?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 ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
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. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
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 ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
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 ...
Acting Chief Human Rights Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Dr Karanina Sumeo says, “Addressing violence and abuse remains New Zealand’s most significant human rights issue affecting women. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Symons, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie University Michael Schiffer / Unsplash Life has transformed our world over billions of years, turning a dead rock into the lush, fertile planet we know today. But human activity is currently transforming Earth ...
One woman’s quest to watch Challengers without ruining her body clock. Every Saturday morning, I wake up with a screaming demon inside my head urging me to “Do. Something. This. Weekend.” I run through the possibilities in my head in a defensive mental crouch, reminiscent of that one time I ...
The PSA is alarmed that ACC is proposing to shed 309 jobs including 29 dedicated injury prevention jobs at a time when the number and cost of injuries is rising. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Baker, Associate Professor in Human Geography, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images As local and regional councils struggle with inadequate infrastructure and unsustainable costs, New Zealand will be hearing a lot more about the potential solution offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Sacks, Professor of Public Health Policy, Deakin University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock In recent years, there’s been increasinghype about the potential health risks associated with so-called “ultra-processed” foods. But new evidence published this week found not all “ultra-processed” foods are linked ...
Fears that New Zealand is relying too heavily on low-cost forests to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions have been reignited by a report from the OECD. ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed the total dollar savings target from public sector cuts has been met, but the reductions have not been felt evenly across public agencies. Government departments were told to make savings set at 6.5 percent or 7.5 percent where headcount had grown by more than ...
She doesn’t have a single kind word for me and it’s getting under my skin.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,I have two amazing friends that I absolutely adore. Grace (all names have been changed) and I lived together across 2023 and Olivia moved in with us this ...
Can Western science and Māori science work together to support our well-being? The Te Ohu Mō Papatūānuku (TOMP) Trials Project was a landmark case for healing the land and people with the guidance of Māori science and leadership. This is what happened when Papatūānuku (Earth) was contaminated by toxic discharge, ...
The District Plan is a blueprint for a bigger, better Wellington, through tens of thousands of new apartments and townhouses and a new approach to urban growth. Joel MacManus lays out the vision. The process of putting together Wellington’s new District Plan has been long and excruciating. As a city, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Williams Veazey, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney DavideAngelini/Shutterstock In the 2007 film The Bucket List Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two main characters who respond to their terminal cancer diagnoses by rejecting experimental treatment. Instead, they go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Singh, Professor of Agri-Food Biotechnology, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne Tanja Esser/Shutterstock Australia’s vital agriculture sector will be hit hard by steadily rising global temperatures. Our climate is already ...
The Acumen Edelman Trust barometer reported that New Zealand’s political trust score now sits below the global average, a topic explored in a recent discussion paper by Maxim Institute. ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman says, "The Fast-Track Bill is the most damaging piece of environmental legislation any Government has introduced in living memory. People are angry, and it’s time to march." ...
The school lunches programme has been retained – and will be extended to some preschoolers. So how is it going to cost $107 million less? To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. The minister with many hats David Seymour wears a number of hats, but this week ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
In 2019, an Auckland woman woke up from surgery to find that she had undergone a treatment she didn’t consent to. She tells Alex Casey about her experience. From her very first period at the age of 14, Laura experienced “debilitating” levels of pain that forced her to withdraw from ...
Comment: Concerns about the state of the economy are creeping up to the top of firms’ list of challenges. That’s evident in both surveys and the tone of our recent client discussions. Skimming the past few weeks of eco-news, it’s not hard to see why. – Retail card spending fell ...
Opinion: Could former co-leader James Shaw still make a difference to working with National? The post How the Greens could be contenders appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: What if we got rid of our existing drug laws and replaced them with a new law that legalised and carefully regulated all psychoactive substances, from cannabis to MDMA, methamphetamine and LSD to magic mushrooms? And which also included legal drugs such as alcohol and nicotine. “Wow,” you might ...
In the gloom following director-general Al Morrison’s job cuts in 2013, the Department of Conservation restructured its operations arm. Eleven conservancy districts were whittled into six new “conservation delivery” regions, under which the Rēkohu/Wharekauri/Chatham Islands area, comprising 40 scattered islands more than 800km east of Christchurch, was tethered to the ...
One of th e country’s top litigation lawyers says New Zealand is seeing a lift in court action between companies. Chapman Tripp partner Justin Graham, who oversees a team of around 80 litigation specialists, says the courts are now so log-jammed that it’s taking over two years to get cases ...
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, Thursday 9 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government is talking up the crucial role of gas as a transition fuel “through to 2050 and beyond”. In a gas strategy to be released on Thursday, the government envisages the fuel’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Next week the government will again next try to get its legislation through to deal with non-citizens who won’t cooperate with efforts to deport them. The bill, which the opposition and crossbench refused to rush ...
A long-term project that will set out an alternative vision for Aotearoa that looks beyond the narrow confines of the policy straight jacket adopted by successive governments. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bree Hurst, Associate Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, QUT, Queensland University of Technology TK Kurikawa/Shutterstock A much-awaited report into Coles and Woolworths has found what many customers have long believed – Australia’s big supermarkets engage in price gouging. What started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Ghezelbash, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney The Albanese government wanted to avoid an inquiry into its migration amendment bill. The report, handed down yesterday by a senate committee that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joo-Cheong Tham, Professor, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne Lobbying is at the heart of government. Who has access to and influence over key government officials shapes the decisions governments make – and how they make them. The ability to influence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Myfany Turpin, Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics and Ethnobiology, University of Sydney The act representing Australia at this year’s Eurovision contest has sadly not qualified for the grand final. Yet for Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross, the duo that makes up Electric Fields, ...
In announcing changes to the school lunches programme, David Seymour said kids would no longer be served ‘woke’ foods. To clear up any confusion, The Spinoff has compiled a guide to the wokeness levels of some common food items. Apple = NOT WOKE Avocado = WOKE Avocado, smashed = EVEN ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Thank goodness for online grocery shopping. It means we can stay in the warm, and we will let the delivery person know how grateful we are not to have to venture out into this weather at age 79.
Even after 10 Years…
'Young said despite his hopes, even over the past year, not much had changed.
"Unfortunately, there's no evidence of a real improvement.
"There's no evidence of going backwards either.
"We know there's been increasing recognition of the concerns with fresh water systems over the last 10 years or so, and there is a lot of action going on.
"But there's no evidence of an improvement yet, so that suggests more effort and more time required to make those benefits show up."
He said it could take some years if not decades before improvements would be seen.'
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427008/water-quality-of-rivers-and-streams-not-improving-study-shows
Just shows…dont let the nats back…even any fake blue/green ones. Jacquie Dean….
Anyway let their own words speak :
“They’re gone by lunchtime,” the party’s agriculture spokesman David Bennett said in a Facebook Live last night, talking about the water policy.
His leader, Judith Collins, was critical of what she saw as bureaucrats in Wellington making all the rules when it comes to farmers, particularly in Southland.
She was sick of these people “bossing everyone else around”.
“We should just boss out those regulations.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12359810
(And yes I do note Urban Streams too…: (
National's attitude to clean water is simply disgusting.
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/l/f/i/z/s/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.1lfi0o.png/1504501119377.jpg
Hmmm…that definitely needed an Advisory heads up : )
Look at the evidence.
The history shows that the primary sector simply keeps taking until there is nothing left. It has only ever been intervention that has stopped the plunder. Every. Single. Time.
This is the evidence and the history.
The primary sector (and their reps the National Party) cannot be trusted.
And Labour does seem to get it…(I could have said finally).
Anyway, I couldnt imagine anyone in the nats saying this?
'Mr Parker told the meeting he had a fondness for Central Otago and the Manuherikia catchment was vitally important to the region’s people.
"This is about everyone coming together to stop the degradation and undo the damage of the past.
"The Manuherikia rises in the Hawkdun ranges and flows through some of New Zealand’s most stunning landscapes that inspired the paintings of Grahame Sydney and the poems of Brian Turner."
The river was under pressure, with water quality declining and over-allocation of water reducing the minimum flow needed for ecological processes, such as providing habitat for wildlife, and for recreational use, he said.'
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/funding-boost-manuherikia-river-work
I still think Labour needs the Greens…to remind
The Cost of Resistance
by CHRIS HEDGES, Sept. 22, 2020
Two of the rebels I admire most, Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks publisher, and Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, are in jail in Britain. That should not be surprising. You can measure the effectiveness of resistance by the fury of the response. Julian courageously exposed the lies, deceit, war crimes and corruption of the ruling imperial elites. Roger has helped organized the largest acts of mass civil disobedience in British history, shutting down parts of London for weeks, in a bid to wrest power from a ruling class that has done nothing, and will do nothing, to halt the climate emergency and our death march to mass extinction.
The governing elites, when truly threatened, turn the rule of law into farce. Dissent becomes treason. They use the state mechanisms of control – intelligence agencies, police, courts, black propaganda and a compliant press that acts as their echo chamber, along with the jails and prisons, not only to marginalize and isolate rebels, but to
psychologically and physically destroy them. The list of rebels silenced or killed by ruling elites runs in a direct line from Socrates to the Haitian resistance leader Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the only successful slave revolt in human history and died in a
frigid French prison cell of malnutrition and exhaustion, to the imprisonment of the socialist Eugene V. Debs, whose health was also broken in a federal prison. Rebel leaders from the 1960s, including Mumia Abu Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Kojo Bomani Sababu, Mutulu Shakur and Leonard Peltier, remain, decades later, in U.S. prisons. Muslim activists, including those who led the charity The Holy Land Foundation and Syed Fahad Hashmi, were arrested, often at the request of Israel, after the hysteria following 9/11, and given tawdry show trials. They also remain incarcerated.
Resistance, genuine resistance, exacts a very, very high price. Those in power drop even the pretense of justice when they face an existential threat. …
Read more…
https://scheerpost.com/2020/09/22/chris-hedges-the-cost-of-resistance/
Thank you Morrissey.
A really interesting article.
It's quite remarkable how the world's corporate media is ignoring the Assange case, and Matt Kennard in this short 10 minute interview outlines some of the measures being taken by the state and the conflicts of interest.
A very articulate man
thanks AJ
He expresses the whole bizarre nightmarish scenario so well
It is entirely predictable how the world's corporate media is ignoring the Assange case.
You just have to look at who owns them.
https://www.webfx.com/blog/internet/the-6-companies-that-own-almost-all-media-infographic/
"In fact, the milquetoast offerings of National are a window into their soul – and it is disappointing viewing."
Milquetoast indeed but said with aggression and steely eyes beneath lowered eyebrows sound so credible.
Link please, Robert!
https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/4/y/n/z/f/8/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.215ynv.png/1601125780112.jpg?format=pjpg&optimize=medium
haha
Really interesting self-acknowledged failure from Green MP jan Logie here on her delegated field of domestic violence:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300116850/strategy-to-transform-family-violence-written-off-as-too-mori
If you get to the end, the result sounds depressingly familiar to many of the social welfare policies and stupendously huge budget allocations of this government including benefit levels, child poverty, Oranga Tamariki, and mental health:
Domestic violence budget line got $320 million in the 2019 budget, and
$250 million in the COVID19 response.
That's over half a billion dollars, with no result.
The biggest attack line Nation should be using against this government is simply this:
Failure to execute.
Not quite. Hard to tell exactly what has happened there until the documents are released, but lots of conflict between the people wanting transformational, the people resisting that, Logie being given the responsibility but not the authority to act and so on. I'll wait until the documents are released and analysed before forming an opinion on whether the plan was unworkable in reality, or was too radical, or a combination of both. Am really curious to see if the plan doesn't work for Pākehā or how it works was missed.
Reading between the lines, my guess is that Labour will take over the project, water it down and implement something that makes some improvements but fails the agreement of transformation.
It's pretty hard to see a Green MP keeping it that's for sure. Logie was clear that she just didn't have the seniority to effectively push it – a curious admission.
If the Greens get in and want a serious portfolio outside of plants, they could always propose someone for Minister of Social Welfare, and Minister for Children. Clearly the big program changes and big budget moves need more heft at Cabinet beyond budget allocations.
Question is, should they be in the position to ask: if it's beyond Jan Logie, who in the Green caucus would want it?
"Logie was clear that she just didn't have the seniority to effectively push it – a curious admission."
How so? Wouldn't it have been Ardern who decided that she should be an under secretary and thus have limited authority? And hence the oversight from the Labour and NZF Ministers.
"Question is, should they be in the position to ask: if it's beyond Jan Logie, who in the Green caucus would want it?"
I'm not clear yet that it was beyond Logie, as opposed to being a poor set up with substantial conflicts, and then covid.
The admission was in the article provided.
why is it curious?
Winston vetoed any cabinet positions for Greens.
Hard to tell if Ad is blaming Logie for that 😉
Somehow I can sense Winston's sticky little fjngers in this mess
Because that's easier than holding your own party responsible for their own work.
Bugger the attack line. That’s for headline writers in MSM, for the Party spin-doctors, for the National Party’s Meme Working Groups on Facebook, and for lazy commenters on SM who want to score easy points. They don’t do anything to help solve problems. Where’s National’s viable and realistic alternative that has been costed (but not by Paora)? Which party has a compelling policy platform to deliver and do anything better?
Has that half a billion dollar been all spent? Has it absolutely nothing to show for it? Where has it gone? Should we expect quick and easy solutions?
The Stuff article is in-depth and nuanced and it goes into much background context. It would be great if the author could follow up with an analysis of National Party policy to tackle family violence in Aotearoa-New Zealand. As far as I can tell, National is framing it as a Law & Order issue and treats it like it treats crime instead of approaching it as a social-cultural issue. They are bloody dinosaurs when it comes to complex social inequalities and inequities. In fact, their outmoded thinking has no place in Government.
Nope. This is where the government is held to account.
If I wanted to do the National Party social welfare policy, I would. As would Stuff.
It always amazes me how the tiniest piece of criticism of the Greens requires a wall of self-righteous defence, no matter how irrational.
It's an election: that time where you evaluate performance, to help figure out if parties are worth another go or not.
Whereas Labour and NZF Ministers take it on the chin. They reform, or they get fired, or they get their funding taken. Even Shane Jones figured that out.
Seriously if the Greens can't figure out how to get critiqued and improve, and on as easy a topic as domestic violence, rather than ranting with rhetorical questions and doing another turn of Whataboutthemism, then maybe politics just isn't for them.
Bollocks!
Referring to the “biggest attack line Nation [sic] should be using against this government” is engaging in attack and negative antagonistic opposition, not holding the Government to account. Personally, I think this is mind-numbingly stupid 🙁
In an election campaign, Parties present their policies and engage in a contest of ideas. If you want to suggest an attack line to and for National to attack this Coalition Government with then you should at least mention the other side of the coin too.
There you go. If they (as in Labour, NZF, and the Greens) are not worth another go then we need to look at and know Plan B, don’t we? This is not holding the Government to account but really about making choices (i.e. electing) for the next one.
If you insist on framing this as a criticism of the Greens per se then knock yourself out with that. I did not take it as such from the Stuff article nor from your comment @ 6 and to me it comes across as unnecessary needling of Green Party supporters on this site but hey, whatever floats your boat 🙂 However, if you think my comment @ 6.3 was intended as a defence of the Greens, in general or against you, then you need to take remedial reading lessons ASAP.
I hope you’re enjoying watching the MMA.
I rather liked the National leader's attack on Jacinda about looking out for the poorest. Though she should have out-skirted her. Anyone who thinks on the social democratic side despise this govt for talking but not doing for the neediest.
Domestic/family violence, ACC settlement compensation for sexual assaults, settlement compensation of abuse (sexual, physical and psychological) in state or religious faith based care, this is all a priority. The cost is enormous and a timely response is required so as to not re abuse the claimant.
Housing to go to and be safe is imited, so is no cost counselling and addiction services and legal services may also be required. Clients accessing a service or several services, advocates who know what they are doing are required.
Children who are exposed to poverty and any form of abuse and violence also require the appropriate intervention, care or service.
Those already in the system, the system is failing many.
I have had to do this link in long hand. It is an example of how sick ACC legislation is for an historical childhood sexual assault case. I was aware of this.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/dreadful-acc-loophole-preventing-child-sexual-abuse-victims-qualifying-weekly-compensation
Out dated unfit for purpose legislation which disadvantages children who were sexually assaulted prior to their 18th birthday because they did not make a complaint or did not seek treatment for their injury.
Watched the Q&A this morning. What a pity Jack didn't get to be the one to ask his quality questions in the Leaders Debate.
Focussed questions versus Woolley questions.
He seems to have developed an aversion to bland: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12368210
He captured the left/right banality thing nicely in a couple of sentences:
The Centre doesn't have courageous policy either. There is some courageous policy on the left though.
Had a skype with an old female friend this morning, sharing views on other old friends who succumbed to new-age mystique in the '90s and are now hooked on conspiracy theories. We both declared that we'd do a covid vaccine, which puts us in the largest population category – but still a minority: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/most-kiwis-would-likely-get-covid-19-vaccine-if-one-becomes-available-1-news-poll
So 44% definitely would, plus 32% likely makes three-quarters of the nation willing to sacrifice themselves as guinea pigs in the cause of science & public health.
Definitely not comes in at 10%, but with another 11% unlikely, we have one person in five willing to gamble on nature alone.
Nature? Everything with humans is perception – the prejudiced's 'idea' of nature is what they pay attention to plus their idea of them being exceptional and anyone who disagrees is part of a giant conspiracy against the 'sensitives' or'more informed'.
Personally have no problem taking a vaccination for it, but would quietly prefer if it was a year or two after released for other people, given how fast it will hopefully come through compared to other medicinal.
Just so I can see if people taking it start growing an extra arm, having fits, or their bits fall off etc (joke, but would prefer a larger testing sample)
Nope. The people who do that are the ones who participate in the clinical trials. Getting a vaccine post-trial is lower-risk than waiting to catch the disease.
"Because National listens to laggards not leaders, it is setting itself up for a mighty fall."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/rod-oram-why-national-is-no-longer-the-party-of-business
That is an excellent article. Collins claiming to speak on behalf of 'farmers' is just not true. Federated Farmers are a lobby group but Fonterra and all those other companies are the business leaders in rural NZ, and they are looking forward not back.
Yip if your the ag minister forget about the fed farmers, talk to the CEOs of Fonterra ,Silver fern farms and alliance,they have the power to drive change., probably wasting your time with the talley owned affco though.
Well spotted Robert. Thanks. If only some of the non-laggard could get a platform to explain their forward momentum. As for the destructive Collins and Federated Farmers, expose the blighters!
This article shows a similar approach – even Barfoot & Thompson realise healthy homes are a good thing:
Group letter on healthy homes
As with farming and water standards, it shows the difference between working with business who want to move forward and pandering to backward-looking, loud lobby groups, whether fringe farmers or bad landlords.
The problem with expecting instant results AKA impatience.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427008/water-quality-of-rivers-and-streams-not-improving-study-shows
how so?
If you read the article, it is very clear that changes implemented now can have a huge lag in their impact, i.e. improving water quality. Similarly, much crap, literally, is working its way through the ecosystem, which means we could see things actually getting worse, because of past polluting behaviours, despite our (best?) efforts at present. This is a problem with setting policy and selling it to stakeholders and the general public in order to get it initiated and actioned but then to keep following up and persevering over a prolonged period of time. The further out the ‘reward’ the less one can rely on the ‘instant gratification’ mechanism of people to comply. If this is not acknowledged and communicated clearly and properly from the outset then these policies will lack the required resilience to be sustainable in the long-term and they end up being ineffective. A further consequence is that they could end up being counter-productive because they could (be used to) turn public and political ‘sentiment’ against future efforts to make meaningful changes. It is the proverbial one-step-forward-two-steps-backward scenario.
Quite specifically, we'd have National get in power, point to reports like this, say that its not working and drop them all. And thing's would just get worse.
Exactly!
We watched these rivers being degraded in our lifetimes, and it is reasonable to expect that they be restored within the same period, however inconvenient that might be for politicians who prefer not to act meaningfully, if they must act at all. If we wait, and let these lazy troughers get away with doing nothing, nothing is all we will have to show for it. One would expect that significant risks to ecosystem health would stimulate prudent and timely responses. Experience teaches us otherwise.
Stuart M +100
Entropy. It's easier to destroy things than rebuild them.
It's often only a matter of a bit of planting and some aeration to speed up breakdown of organics and prevent rivers going anaerobic.
We are headed for a collision with the consequences of our environmental delinquency – and to avoid collisions you take early and substantial action. Does “hard and early” ring a bell?
We don't have time to 'fluff' about, the kinds of change that made Oz's fire season are still rolling along. Likely we'll need to make substantial changes to farming, fishing, and water supply, with a sporting chance of needing to accommodate or support Pacific climate refugees in place.
This is not the time to go demonstrating the fungibility of neolib 'policy' in hopes of a few donations.
I'm no expert in water ecology, but I'm not sure an ideal pandemic response would be an ideal response to every dire situation we face.
Early & substantial action is from navigation – but the parallel holds. If an intervention is warranted, it is more effective to intervene earlier rather than later. Same holds with ecology – the best time to plant trees was ten years ago – now is only second best.
Frittering away our time with bullshit gameplaying is a luxury more suited to the halcyon days before the anthropocene got the bit between its teeth. When Parker set a nitrate level eight times higher than China's, he should have accompanied it with his resignation – since he had decided not to do his job.
Except if there's a delayed response between input and measurement, you end up "chasing the gauges" (a flight control term), overcorrecting each time, and pile into the ground.
Not to mention the fact that no policy should be considered in isolation. That's why the government had a good covid response, but didn't follow every single MoH recommendation to the letter.
I mean, we could just shoot hundreds of thousands of cows to help solve the problem, but that would have unexpected [figurative] downstream effects on society in the regions.
Well there's certainly no danger of an overshoot at the levels Parker set. Cancer, and infant deaths maybe, but no overreaction.
We are so privileged to live under a government so backward it promises generational change so slow it cannot even be measured. At which point there is no reason to assume that there is any change contemplated at all – which would be par for the course from these career neolibs.
I don’t think anyone was calling for mass culling of cattle – though moving some to other catchments might be appropriate if they blow nitrate levels out – bit of a straw man really.
Perhaps we can worry about over correction somewhat after there is evidence that there has been any correction at all.
So go hard, but not that hard, huh?
You know what? We are privileged/lucky to have this government. Look around the world. Yes, things need improving, in so many areas. But by and large this government is doing pretty bloody well. I'm not going to gnash my teeth and demand resignations just because I think I could run things better.
They are not doing well on freshwater – or Mike Joy & Dr Death wouldn't be condemning their actions.
They have done well on Covid, but there are a lot of other issues. This is one that they have handled particularly badly, and polling has consistently shown rivers to be the public's leading environmental concern.
They need to be reminded of this by ordinary members of the public, because the current opposition is not fit for the purpose.
demand resignations just because I think I could run things better
Setting nitrate levels eight times higher than the WHO recommendations doesn't seem prudent to me. And I suspect Parker is not sufficiently expert to rebut them on any objective grounds.
"Ordinary members of the public" do not look up WHO nitrate recommendations.
I think that nobody really knew what ‘hard and early’ meant in reality but people dropping like flies in Lombardy and Wuhan was a good incentive to doing something. That sense of immediacy is missing from water quality or anything environmental for that matter with the possible exception of the measures to prevent the spreading of Kauri disease.
It's a general principle for some kinds of response, but of course the unique circumstances of each required intervention are very different. I imagine historians of futurity, if we have one, will have a task explaining to students quite how difficult it was to make such a decision over Covid, with political consequences on one side, and public health on the other, even with the relatively abundant examples (compared to those other countries had when they were forced to choose) at our disposal.
There have been a number of expositions of NZ's level process, and the clarity it generated for the public, when health services were, behind the scenes, in a state of flux as they conformed to meet a threat for which they had few treatment options. The verdict has been very positive, with minor errors like the stance on masking, and some frankly odd attitudes among testing authorities noted, but not diluting the overall positive perception and the compliance it generated contributing to the strong result.
A hard and early response to water quality would mean different things in different catchments, with restrictions likely in oversubscribed and rapidly nitrifying areas like south Canterbury. But it need not be introduced in a draconian fashion, it can be phased in over a reasonable period as it is expected is happening with emissions, allowing farmers time to weigh mitigation options, or possibly limit some types of intensification on a regional or catchment basis.
What it should not have done was to allow lobbying to get across the objective part of regulations – the nitrate levels, because these are set on a physiological basis, and, like any other physical constants, they do not make allowances for the human capacity for self or habitat destruction.
Think of nitrogen in a river like it's alcohol in our bloodstream. Setting a nitrogen limit at the toxicity level is like setting the drink-driving limit at the toxicity level. You're not dealing with all the bad things that happen before you've been poisoned.
As has been noted elsewhere, the standard broadly adopted internationally, 1mg/l, will become a customer expectation, and willing or not, NZ farmers will be obliged to meet it, or suffer a price and a reputational loss in the market.
Better then to lay that out clearly at the beginning, and put efforts into supporting the transition, than to prop up a poor standard that will ultimately need to be revised, but will still incur the price and reputational and ecological and public health cost.
I agree with all that. My point is that for many (but not all!) people there’s no greater motivator than death knocking on your door at any moment. People are also scared shitless of stuff they don’t understand such as a killer virus, just think of the many Hollywood movies featuring runaway viruses and diseases decimating the human population and turning survivors into monstrous zombies. Turds floating in rivers or streams just don’t have the same impact on people’s minds and behaviours.
A man's flesh is his own; the water belongs to the tribe. Fremen custom.
Variety is the spice of life.
The idea of Covid testing before getting on a flight has often been suggested as a means of improving border control. Dubai in the UAE already requires it. One of our latest cases detected in managed isolation had transited through Dubai, so would have required a clean test before being allowed on that flight.
Which illustrates the point: pre-flight screening would do nothing to change what needs to be done on the ground here, and just adds another layer of complexity and expense to the whole border control situation.
Test requirements for Dubai:
Yes, but extra the testing probably isn't there to protect the people but as another form of profit making. Because you can be sure that it will be private enterprise that's doing it and, if National get in and puts in place legislation requiring such testing before coming to NZ then you can be sure that they will require testing on the way out and they will have private enterprise doing it.
Its the same for many uneconomic actions that exist in society. They produce more profit and more jobs and so getting rid of them then becomes impracticable, as far as the capitalists and government are concerned, to remove them.
I question Malaysia as having good controls generally. Anyone know enough to rate them?
Their measures seem not too different to our own, albeit complicated by their geography and mix of cultures. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7293423/
They had it under control by June/July, but a second wave has them on about 1000 active cases at present. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/malaysia/
That seems reasonably professional.
And how long before a negative certificate printing industry springs up to cater for the businessperson in a hurry.
Probably already exists. After all, even laser printers are cheap these days and its not as if such a business would need a commercial grade printer capable of printing hundreds of thousands a day.
As I say above, such requirements are there just for the profit opportunities that it generates.
good to see the likes of the conservative party and regress NZ party showing up in polls. want to see them get another 2 or 3 % of votes yet. that way when combined with TOP and NZF it will guarantee a Labour lead govt even if the greens don't make it in. I wonder if conservative voters realise that as things stand every 1 out of 2 conservative votes will go to Labour
All those split+redistributed votes give me a warm feeling all over.
apparentley not all is well in the conspiracy party (advance,nzpp). many of their members and candidates are walking away in disgust. splitters! hah!so the judean peoples front and the peoples front of judeah cant agree. , many of the tin hit brigade are yet again, wandering in the wilderness, looking for another conspiracy.
Will Billy's nose-pokey-outey refusal to mask-up properly on board Flight 666 to Nowhere endear him to his flock of flockers, or will they see through his charade and shift their voting preference to the Eminently More Sensible "New Conservatives"???
think some will follow brian,sorry, billy all the way down the rabid hole, some will drift off to new cons, some to maori party, most will probably not vote cause its just a government plot to harvest and store their dna!
Hate speech. Labors new law they'd propose to govern hate speech. Where can i find info on exactly what it will be that the labor government might propose?. This proposal is a bit worrying, i feel. Will freedom of speech be soon to be deemed to be hate speech. Will it?. How will labor intend to decide?. Will it be soon to become hate speech for Dennis Gates to be saying what he does in this following article https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/09/top-lawyer-compares-gloriavale-s-leadership-to-islamic-state.html
I'm certainly interested to see some sort of rock solid detail before i make my decision up on who i'd vote for.
Freedom of speech should not be carte blanche to say anything you please. There are limits.
Probably not.
Yeah i agree that certain limits should apply. But how would we decide what limits would allow. And who would decide. And how can we make sure that these limits wouldn't suppress discussion what should need to take place, even if somebody might interpret this discussion as being hateful. The way like what i suspect that some gloriavale citizen might interpret Dennis Gates opinion to be. I hope that labor government might enter into discussion about this subject more before final date of election. Citizen should have a right to know. Hopefully the other parties might begin to push labor into discussing this matter more
Ask a linguist or three?
I figure that he's pointing out similarities and if they don't like that then their only option is to become better.
But the most important point is that he's not actually stirring up hatred against them.
Yeah. Hate speech. We should be free to spout hate, whenever, wherever. I too am concerned that Big Government is anti-hate! Give hate a chance, I say! #sarc
Sarc can have its place. But hey, its a reasonable question to think about. At what point should freedom of speech be deemed to be hate speech. How would you decide. And who should be the one who'd get to decide. Can you actually provide an answer to those question?. Or is sarc about all you'd be able to come up with. I'd love to see you answer
Labour Party: No policies found
https://policy.nz/topic/community-and-inclusion#Free%20expression%20and%20hate%20speech
That's interesting Incognito. I'm fairly certain i saw Jacinda promising that she would intend to strengthen hate speech law if Labor government is re-elected . I'm not exactly sure what she had meant by this. Perhaps it might just be to strengthen law against inciting hate speech what could lead to acts of violence. Which i feel would be fair enough. But exactly what her intention would be, i really don't know
Is there deliberate creation of confusion and misinformation employed when using terms like 'hate speech' to create an assumption that freedom of speech under the Bill of Rights is being taken away?
It's election time and a newer 'falsehood' is thrown out there fuelled by Seymour.
There is NO current new law Labour is passing. Since 2019 a review has been underway, scheduled since 2018. There is an outdated set of laws needing inspection and people's rights to be safe need strengthening.
The Justice Ministry has looked at relevant aspects of laws that already exist – the Human Rights Act, the Harmful Digital Communications Act, and sections of the Crimes Act to see what laws may need to be changed or added. A REVIEW by the Human Rights has been underway, including Section61 constructed some years back to see if it is fit for purpose; particularly needed with the fast paced development of social media and the current section61 not protecting all people.
Seymour last Friday, took words from Jacinda's mouth, invented a sinister twist omitting any fuller information on the day. Jacinda was unveiling the plaque at the mosque on Friday. It wasn't coincidental timing, there is no " hate speech" NEW law per say. Seymour was playing to ignorance of the existing laws and unfounded fears.
" By law in the Bill of Rights Act, everyone in New Zealand has the right to freedom of expression, including the "freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form".
IMO Seymour is rallying to a hard core of haters having choosen that day specifically as JA spent time with Muslim victims. The timing of Seymour's rant was despicable as he drew the media and public attention away from NZers and the Muslim community commemorating victims of a massacre.
What the public are now led to assume in advance of an election from Seymour's release is that your freedoms are being denied. The exact fear effect ACT was hoping to instil has been uptaken. MSM happily disseminated this also in a shallow, click bait way.
" Existing law makes no explicit reference to hate speech, but under Section 61 of the Human Rights Act, it’s unlawful to broadcast, publish or distribute material that is “threatening, abusive or insulting” and “likely to excite hostility against, or bring into contempt, any group of persons in New Zealand on the ground of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins”. The Christchurch shooter under this law could arguably say what he liked about "Islam" or gays, or any disabled person he likes in any manner.
Under current law, unjustly so, there are vulnerable groups NOT protected. What was being reviewed as mentioned by Jacinda was that the current law does NOT give protection from hate that incites 'hostility' towards people in categories of gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
The Human Rights Commission review was, as mentioned, not only to look at lack of all vulnerable person's protections but to see if that older law needed changes to encompass modern developments.
The HR review tribunal consultations etc. were put on hold with Covid19 's emergence; Andrew Little believes those findings when completed should be dealt with post election as an issue for the new parliament. Rightly so.
Facebook's stance had rules updated in 2018, New Zealand has not updated with the times.
" Facebook, which recently adopted stricter controls on what users can post online, uses more specific criteria. Its policy targets direct attacks on people’s “protected characteristics” such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, serious disability or disease."
Janet Anderson-Bidois, the HR commission’s chief legal adviser has talked of the confusion of people around issues , confusing hate speech with hate crime and freedom of expression just as Seymour has done with his deliberate misinformation mash up.
"Anderson-Bidois insists that the commission isn’t bent on rewriting the laws governing hate speech. All it’s doing, she says, is suggesting they should be reviewed to ensure they’re still “fit for purpose" …
"New Zealand has become culturally far more diverse since the Human Rights Act was passed and the internet was then still in its infancy. Anomalies have arisen, she says."
"Of course freedom of speech comes into it, “but with rights come responsibilities. People also have a right to be safe. "
A person's right to exercising free speech, even if extremely offensive, is still upheld by NZ law. An example of this was the Human Rights Commission not ruling in favour of Louisa Wall's case she brought over racist cartoons published by Fairfax. In other words the cartoonist's right to freedom of expression were upheld not Wall's feelings of taking offence.
Unlike Seymour's supposition on his FB page, ideas can still be freely attacked and even offensive opinion expressed.
The HRC review will also hopefully bring clarity in helping " to distinguish attacks on people from attacks on ideas and beliefs?"
In 2018 Labour’s Duncan Webb, who was a lawyer and legal academic before entering Parliament, "
says he’s acutely aware of the tension between freedom of expression and hate speech, but he doesn’t think the free-speech defence can be applied in cases where speech is calculated to injure or terrorise people."…
" But there’s a real danger of confusing honestly held opinion with attacks on people, and by lumping it all into this category of hate speech they conflate targeted speech, aimed at destroying or bullying people, with honest expression of opinion.”
There is a scenario to help illustrate when a line is crossed, the difference between hate speech and free speech in the Listener at the time of Lauren Southern's and Stefan Molyneux's NZ visit.
" Wellington business consultant Dave Moskovitz brought a touch of levity to the proceedings, describing himself as a “walking bullseye” for purveyors of hate speech: “middle aged, Pākehā, cis, hetero, male, geek, property owner, investor, company director, immigrant, American, religious, Jew, and – wait for it – Zionist”.
But the tone turned serious when Moskovitz told of a New Zealand white nationalist blogger who published an online guide to “Zionists in your neighbourhood” and included a photo of Moskovitz’s house. The blogger went on to say that Jews were a slap in the face to the human race and were not welcome in this country.
Moskovitz said the same man later said in a newspaper interview that Jews should have been exterminated – “and that’s where the line was crossed. Saying you do not like a group of people, while repugnant, is exercising free speech. Implying that they should all have been killed is quite another thing. That borders on incitement.”
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-social-issues/free-speech-hate-speech-where-should-we-draw-line
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12367481
Currently the hate speech laws in New Zealand make it illegal to "excite hostility against or bring into contempt any group of persons … on the ground of the colour, race, or ethnic or national origins".
But that protection doesn't extend to gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
"I think everyone would agree no one should be discriminated against for their religion," Ardern said.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121922974/hate-speech-law-stalled-until-after-election–no-support-yet-from-nz-first
Thanks PaddyOT . Very helpful . Great information. Cheers
House shook @ 4.50pm – quakes in New Plymouth are rare. Wonder how soon it'll show up here: https://earthquaketrack.com/p/new-zealand/recent
According to Geonet, it was a 5.2 roughly halfway between Mt Taranaki and Mt Ruapehu.
I barely felt it here in Titirangi. I wonder what's going on with the drama queen somewhere in Mt Albert that reported it as "extreme" shaking.
Thanks, somewhat less power rating here: https://earthquaketrack.com/quakes/2020-09-27-03-47-26-utc-4-7-35
Reaction from the 'Naki to the loss of a lump of wood?
Barrett-less Taranaki. Playmakers win games. Lack of depth. Analogy to Labour comes to mind, eh? Yeah, okay, analogy to National even more evident.
best anology would be taranaki lost because they couldnt decide what game plan to use. too centrist, non commital .
Ooooh, give him a few favourable polls and Rimmer starts getting all coq-y. He better be careful. If he gets too mouthy, that cuppa tea in Remmers might not happen next time he needs it.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300117874/election-2020-david-seymour-tells-voters-to-skip-the-knockoff-cover-band-and-choose-act-over-national
Wonder if we should inform him that ACT was originally Labour.
Im really looking forward to the new parliament. with act's very chequered history of having m.p.s resign in disgrace, not resigning but staying in disgrace, commiting fraud, going to jail etc, as well as having general sc*mbags as m.p.s. seymour will be busy holding hands, putting ot fires, etc. wonder who the first act m.p. will be that carries on this proud tradition.
No evident difference to CB! Neocons edging above NZF. Greens looking safe for now.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/nz-election-2020-newshub-reid-research-poll-shows-labour-governing-alone-as-national-languishes-in-the-20s.html
"Alongside National, the poll's other casualty is New Zealand First. It's on 1.9 percent down 0.1 points. Despite leader Winston Peters' best attention grabs, NZ First is goneburger."
Tempting fate?
Always revealing to see the difference between hype and reality.
"Advance", the anti-lockdown mob. No support whatsoever. Maybe their rants shouldn't be headline news, given they represent fewer people than the NZ underwater hockey community.
Nope, not a parody account.
https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1309938304268279811
"Immigration New Zealand says three German yachties treated New Zealand's Covid 19 laws with contempt and have to face the consequences of their actions."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427031/german-yachties-had-blatant-disregard-for-new-zealand-law-immigration-nz
Certainly
I don't get it with these claims that the cyclone season is such a hazard to be feared. It appears that even during an El Nino season, Tahiti and northwest from there are very low risk, possibly lower risk than New Zealand.
https://www.bwsailing.com/cyclones-in-french-polynesia/
For the coming summer, it appears most likely that it will be La Nina or slightly less likely neutral, with only a very low probability of El Nino conditions.
https://public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate/climate/el-ni%C3%B1ola-ni%C3%B1a-update
were they sailing from Tahiti?
Allegedly they were last at Taiohae, which is well to the northeast of Tahiti and even further out of the way of likely cyclone tracks, as far as I can tell.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12368207
Dead right. There are normally plenty of E.U. yachts that spend the summer cyclone season in French Polynesia on the way west and many that are based there for years. In a La Nina, French Poly is probably safer than NZ as cyclones are more common further west and with climate change more are spinning off down NZs way. I think the yachtie outrage thing is overblown MSM nonsense and most yachties originally intending to keep going will just spend a lovely time floating around in the tropics instead. The MoH has made the right decision to exclude non NZ yachts. If they can be allowed to get in, what about the rest of the Pacific islands? Living in a home built vale is not much fun with a cyclone bearing down!
🥶
OK this is the kind of thing I just love discovering.
A New Zealand company, based in Christchurch, is now one of four global partners to Microsoft about water quality and conservation.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2009/S00473/seequent-and-microsoft-partner-in-global-water-sustainability-commitments.htm
CEO Shaun Maloney says Seequent’s software solutions are being used on hundreds of projects around the world to enable a clear view of groundwater and contaminants. “Users such as the Water Replenishment District, the largest groundwater agency in the state of California, can readily communicate to end clients, regulators, and the general public with 3D models of groundwater systems and contaminated sites in a fully auditable data-driven approach across the entire lifecycle of site management."
Sure hope NZTE is finding ways to support these guys.
Nice little news piece linked on MSN
“Why National is no longer the party of business”
by Rod Oram
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/why-national-is-no-longer-the-party-of-business/ar-BB19scRQ?li=BBqdg4K
This story is a good read and I love the quote of “National listens to laggards not leaders” in the story.
Surely not. Undercut by foreign imports on this?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427029/thai-cannabis-company-says-projected-economic-benefits-won-t-materialise
Plamondon expected laws drafted in anticipation of recreational cannabis being legal would eventually change to allow cheaper, imported products.
He said New Zealand was his company’s first export target market…
A Nelson-based medical cannabis firm, Medical Kiwi has already sold its first two years of production to Hektares, a global player in the medical cannabis industry, equating to $30 million for 2021, and $60 million in 2022.
It recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2 million to get production underway in Christchurch and help fund its Nelson development and technology purchases.
Co-founder and chair, Aldo Miccio, said Plamondon’s statement was interesting, especially around Thai product being potentially a tenth of the cost of New Zealand cannabis.
“There are reasonably good margins involved – which is why a lot of people are investing, but we aim with our pricing to be way cheaper than products imported at the moment.”
Miccio said cannabis grown outdoors, such as that at grown at tropical altitudes in Thailand was certainly cheaper to produce, but only indoor-grown product would pass the scrutiny of pharmaceutical standards.