Actions speak louder than words.
The New Zealand police are being hailed by the corporate media for a ‘hilarious video to lure recruits.’ The video was ‘ was targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds, women, Māori, Pacific Islanders, and people from all other ethnicities and backgrounds “to better reflect the communities we serve”.’ according to the police.
Pity then the police act like this then in South Auckland against Tongan supporters.
‘We witnessed this @nzpolice man aggressively grab 2 #Tongan flags out the hands of the occupants of this moving car, then snap the flag poles & walk off. When confronted for an explanation, he signalled to 3 more officers to talk to the occupants. Disgusting.’
‘My 15 year old daughter just got her flagpole taken off her by the police because said it might be used as a weapon . I’m furious this racist heavy handed policing had killed off the community coming out to celebrate together ‘
‘Papatoetoe resident Ema Tavola was in Otāhuhu last night, and described the atmosphere as “something I had really been looking forward to, to see my community in such a happy state.” She was alarmed at the large police presence.
“It felt like they were in a riot mode. They definitely wanted their presence to be felt in a really assertive way. Their presence was aggressive and didn’t feel like they were there to support the energy, which was really disappointing.”’
‘The aggressive style of policing contrasted markedly with the friendly facilitation of the Lions tour, and the swiftly-planned community events which followed the America’s Cup win. Tavola lamented the way they dealt with the crowd’s Tongan flags, which had become the enduring image of the tournament.
“The manner in which flags were ripped out of people’s hands and broken was a really aggressive way of saying ‘we’re in charge’. That’s not how you broker safety with a community, that’s how you intimidate people.”
That kind of policing is really going to recruit from a diverse sector of the population.
Our friends in the corporate media have a lot to answer for too.
‘Many people have voiced concerns about the portrayal of Tongan and Pacific Island supporters in the media, which they feel has exacerbated the police response.’
The police should be in touch with the population they work within and what the mosh pit of the media says should be just part of their understanding of the situation, not a main ‘intelligence’ source.
I remember that dopey farmer-type with a sign about Jacinda being a pretty communist or something. He had two poles on his sign and was being provocative – I wonder did he have his poles snatched and broken?
It’s a pity that these RWNJs cannot take in the fact that they have lost the election.
Those spiteful losers, born-to-govern attitude will continue to come to the surface.
National were indictrinated by S Joyce into a brainwashed state of believing they were “invincible” but here comes the crunch.
Labour are doing a deep auditing of the finacial books of the National MPs activities
Goinng back nine years and anomilies are being found so national MPs are sitting nerviously waiting for the phone to ring nbecause they dont know how deep the financial auditing is going on.
They may be found out using public funding inappropriately and be charged with fraud.
I am not privy to the specifics here but labour are finding some interseting stuff we are informed.
So the Nat’s MPs are trying to construct a diversion to take the heat off themselves.
Barry Soper characterises as wasteful Pike River decision making intended to be evidence based. It’s not encouraging that Soper conflates Key’s duplicitous disaster milking with respect for evidence. His claim – “Essentially it doesn’t advance the issue greatly from when National was running the shop, safety has always been the key.” The article otherwise ? Facile. So Barry and Heather……especially the headline.
Yep, Barry’s turn today. A very poorly constructed piece of journalism from “Newstalk ZB’s Political Editor”.
“Say anything slightly critical of Jacinda Ardern and you do so at your peril. The social media trolls, or at least those who live in the Labour cave, can’t abide anything close to criticism of the woman anointed by Winston Peters just over a month ago and who, not surprisingly Donald Trump thought was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s missus.
What? Tortured nonsense.
“So with her obviously not in mind there have been a couple of decisions made by her subordinates over the past week that have, or will, dip into the taxpayers’ pockets, raising a few eyebrows”.
So it’s not about Ardern then, but the headline – “Barry Soper: Criticise Jacinda Ardern At Your Peril” – screams that it is. Confused? I am.
The opening paragraph (which the provocative headline has been based on) stands in isolation as there are no supporting references in the piece itself. Soper doesn’t even seem to understand the meaning of the term “troll” and what trolls do. But maybe he does and it’s just a lazy way to score some points.
What trolls? What cave? Where are some examples of this “can’t abide anything close to criticism”? There aren’t any.
It reads like something thrown together without conviction or deep thought. So I guess it’s business as usual then.
This is a diversion as labour are carrying out a deep audit of the financial books of the last nine years and finding some stark interesting stuff so national MP’s are shitting themselves now and taking the heat off them is there first call, so that’s why they are ‘freaking out’ now, I feel so so sorry for them now.
They must feel as we did under their rule as squashed in a ‘sardine can’ for the last nine years of torment.
Yep sour faces all round at the Allen house. Plastic road markers make more sense and offer viable commentary comparred to their horror house of horseshit.
Ed (2) … NZH and it’s pathetic columnists (note not journalists) are still dancing to the tune of its major benefactor Natz. So obviously orchestrated by Joyce.
This is it. They don’t have the same access to the decision-makers which was a process fostered by the corrupt Nats. The only people they can get exclusives from now is the opposition.
Here’s a suggestion – why not try to build trusting relationships with government ministers? That is part of their job.
Our Farmers are the envy of OUR world and We have to help feed all the people of OUR. So we can’t make changes that dramatically reduce there out put. Now all the talk of our world having a food shortage will come true in the near future. So we need to invest in research on Organic farming as this type of farming boost our topsoil and more topsoil is what we need to my coal could be used to boost our topsoil I’m not sure they used charcoal in the past.
It was about 25 before I learned that I was cack handed I can use both hands just as good while working so in any job I all ways catch up to the fastest person. I’m going to learn the Taiaha and increase my skills and Mana.
But I cannot write with both hands as my writing is bad my granddaughter writing is better Many thanks to OUR New coalition government for doing a excellent job great that you gave OUR young people that are studying a rise in income they are our future. I’m off to work now I wonder what my view escorts have planed for me today. Kia kaha
Is this National’s way of indirectly implying Labour should have increased core benefit rates? Or are they merely implying Labour shouldn’t have increased student allowances?
As for their concern, the safeguards are there. And they should know as they installed them.
Anyone moving from the Job Seeker Support to Student Allowance would lose their Accomodation Supplement, so they wouldn’t be all that better off anyway. No caviar and Meet just yet…
According to Judith Collins it was Kiwirail’s responsibility to release the NZTA report commissioned in 2016 that highlights the $1.5 billion of benefits that investment in passenger and freight rail brings to the economy EVERY YEAR!
Wasn’t there an idea of using the line to Gisborne or Napier for a cycle track for overseas visitors ?
Another case of going forward with the latest money-maker and bugger the rest of the population and the services they need.
Has anyone noticed that everything seems to be important for overseas folks like cycle ways, but for the local community who are paying rates and taxes there seems to be a general reluctance to invest in public services for recreation for locals?
In Auckland just getting the parks or lawns mown seems to be an issue.They hate it so much they try to pave every square inch and then dig it up every 2 minutes for piecemeal infrastructure, first metro water, then chorus, then new paving, then cycleway then repeat and create traffic and walking chaos and little paving patches littered all around. (p.s. grass is cheap, permeable and easy to dig up, but clearly out of vogue for the last 30 years). Then they wonder why there is so much flooding. Go figure!
Last year went to Long Bay regional park in Auckland where they are doing MASSIVE multimillion dollar development with property and the beach was absolutely full of people, every square inch taken, it was like Europe with 3rd world planning, all the parking was taken and then people were parking on areas that had meter high lawn growth. Nobody bothered to mow the lawns over the holidays.
The council takes the money from the development but does not seem to understand that they that means more people and more money needed for public services and actually more recreational areas. If they don’t want to pay for this, don’t develop and put more people there!
In typical neoliberalism they take money in at one end of the council for one budget and then starve the other end and since it’s someone else’s budget they don’t seem to be able to link up the two. They will be coining it for rates but who knows where it is going – gold paving? road maintainance? America’s cup? Consultants on stadiums, Lawyer mates? CEO wages?
Drove one hour in Auckland yesterday. There was 2 detours, around 4 roadworks digging up the road or verge. And we only have 4 million people and some people want 35 million! A generation will spend their entire lives in roadworks, who knows what it will do to health.
The local economy for business is suffering as nobody wants to navigate through Auckland anymore. I’m sure lovely for big business like hotels and casino’s for tourists who never need leave central Auckland, so why worry? sarcasm.
Are the current Government really planning to give $114 million to Grant Dalton and his millionaire mates in order to have the ultimate rich men’s toys race around the Waitemata Harbour?
That is $114,000,000.00 when you write it right out.
What are the poor bloody tax-payers of New Zealand supposed to get out of that? Apart that is from drinkies for the Politicians on Superyachts while the event is on.
How many hip operations would that pay for?
How many houses could you build?
How many trees could you plant.
What the hell do they think they are doing?
Let the bloody thing go to The Emirates. Anyone who wants to can watch it on TV. That is as close as a normal New Zealander is going to get anyway.
What I was trying to say Alwyn, before I dashed off to work, was that given the Sth Canterbury Finance, Mediaworks and Tiwai Point bailouts and the Saudi Sheep Deal debacle and the incredibly close relationship with SkyCity, anyone who supported the previous government is in no position to criticise the current government of wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.
As far as they go.
I would never have included SCF in the guarantee in the first place. Once they were in there was no way to avoid paying out or dropping them from the scheme. That, I am afraid was Cullen. It wasn’t a bailout either. The company was wound up.
Mediaworks wasn’t a bailout. They changed the rules to make media companies pay up for the next 20 years or so in one go rather than yearly and then let them, at a very high and quite risk free interest rate, pay it off in something like 5 year chunks. That was actually a spectacularly good deal.
I wouldn’t have offered a deal to the Smelter.
I have never been sure what the Saudi deal was. I never comment on things about which I am ignorant.
It is very hard to see how a deal with Sky City cost New Zealand anything. We didn’t pay them anything and I assume we have some sort of a Convention Centre.
So no. National supporting the America’s Cup was stupid. The others, with the exception of the smelter weren’t.
What are the poor bloody tax-payers of New Zealand supposed to get out of that?
Development of the economy, particularly R&D in materials.
It’s just a pity that all those benefits will only accrue to a few rich people due to the way that capitalism works.
How many hip operations would that pay for?
None. It’s a different set of resources. Unless you want to forcefully retrain all boat builders and marine engineers into being doctors.
How many houses could you build?
Well, I suppose we could use it to support the training of a few unemployed into carpenters and plumbers. Or, perhaps, we could use the R&D from the race into producing better houses more cheaply.
How many trees could you plant.
Depends upon how many people that can be employed over what time frame.
What the hell do they think they are doing?
The same thing that governments all around the world think that they’re doing when they support these sorts of things – boosting the economy.
Unfortunately, they’re doing it wrong.
Far better to put that money directly into government research and then make the results of that research publicly available so that anyone can use it. That would actually develop the economy. The way that they’re doing it leaves the results developed in the hands of a few private individuals and prevents the overall development of the economy.
Put that money into supplying Councils with an allowance of $s to get some of their deferred jobs done as Task Force Green.
Offer maraes a set number of apprenticeships for some young people who would train and then would return and add value to the marae.
Fund the women’s refuges to run assertiveness training for the women and their children, and have workshops on goal setting and communication, and family outdoor camps. See if they can form little co-operatives to organise a project, run it successfully and have a certificate and trip to Wellington and the Beehive for the winners. Let’s have some recognition of movers, shakers and achievers at the grassroots level.
Invest in the people, so as to unlock the pathways to the mind and get thinking going at a higher level than just how to cope with the oppressing government that everyone thinks is supposed to be helping. Fund small initiatives, a small music tour, small personal initiatives, big outcomes. Get something going.
We had SHAs and they were prompting people to start housing initiatives different from the office blocks that are built for housing by present day developers. Then Labour is cancelling SHAs. No it isn’t. Well the information seems to be that… We can’t be sure yet, keep trying.
This is what is happening. A lack of commitment to getting ordinary people mixing in, putting their own muscle in – a fund of $100 million would produce a whole lot of small projects with multiplier effects, all round the country. But not as showy as the snobs want. The ordinary people are so boring, unstylish often not even picturesque, and probably not even picaresque.
Who do you think you are talking to Marty?
Your comment is numbered as being a reply to my original one but it then seems to be blaming me for something I never said.
You talk about “WE”. If you read what I actually wrote you will discover that I never once used the word “WE”. The closest I came to it is when I mentioned the “poor bloody tax-payers of New Zealand”.
Are all tax-payers “right wingers”?
Are all tax-payers “selfish pricks”?
What do you really mean Marty?
Or is the “WE” referring to yourself? Are you just a selfish prick?
What WE are you? Hmm definately a wee wee probably even a wee wee wee but I’m not into judgment. Are you a wee wee wee wee? Well we’ll let history be the judge of that I think alwyn.
Yep, 114m of taxpayers money to America’s cup is corporate welfare. They should raise the money themselves. It’s a sport for billionaires – get their wallets out. A tax on accomodation for example. Apparently the hotels raise up the prices to triple when there is an event on – they profit and they should pitch in to the sport that contributes to that profit.
I would be just as pissed off.
And yes I did complain about the Government, any Government, putting money into this foolish event at that time.
You can believe your first sentence if you like I suppose.
It certainly isn’t the way Parker is going on though, is it?
alwyn does post about spending on events using ratepayer or taxpayer money, even when National were in power. One issue where I find myself in agreement with him.
“Snowden should, in my opinion, be welcomed home with honors for his service to his country, and for his courage and integrity in the manner in which he performed this service. Apart from exceptional circumstances, citizens have every right to know what their government is doing, in particular what it is doing to them – in the present case, as Snowden revealed to us, keeping citizens under extensive and deeply intrusive surveillance.”—NOAM CHOMSKY, September 2014
“Heroes” is a series devoted to those courageous and brilliant people who show us that, in a world seemingly run by crooks, abusers, bullies, scoundrels, mass murderers and liars, there are still reasons for optimism.
Exactly. Also not doing west reputation any good when all these whistle blowers have to hide out in Russia or embassies because they the truth hurts and the west wants to shut that down.
Denmark is 1st.
( 1. Denmark – For the second consecutive year – and fifth time in eight years – Denmark has been declared the best country in the world to do business. Forbes said Denmark, one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, ranks well for its personal and monetary freedom as well as low corruption. There are only four procedures needed to start a new business )
NZ 2nd, No details – was 1st in 2012.
Norway 3rd $67,200 GDP per capita 2nd highest in top 20.
Ireland 4th with 5.2% growth GDP.
Sweden 5th.
Could we match up to the description of Denmark’s attributes that have put it in top place many times?
I said that addressing child poverty will address adult poverty. You said child poverty could be reduced by excluding adults. I asked how. You said removing the children from those poor conditions was one option.
How do you interpret that discussion other than you suggesting that Labour might solve child poverty by rounding up the children of the poor?
After explaining to you (in the post before) how Labour are planning to largely exclude those in poverty that don’t have dependent children from the improvements they plan to make. I went on to answer your question, pointing out (one way and hypothetically of course) how a Government could avoid benefiting the parents of the children.
Which should have been clear as not only did I explain what Labour plan to do (and provided a link) I also agreed with you (up above) that the parents of the children will most likely gain in the improvements made under Labour.
Speaking of dodgy, I questioned you on your assertion that solving child poverty will solve almost all adult poverty. And you have yet to produce the numbers (how many people in poverty have dependent children, opposed to those in poverty that don’t?).
Another way the cash benefits could avoid going to the parents is free meals in schools. While those that can afford to feed their kids will make a little savings, those most hard up that can’t afford to feed their kids (thus send them to school hungry) won’t be able to save what they didn’t have to spend in the first place. Hence, apart from their kids being fed, there will be no fiscal benefit for them.
Has there been any article or links including white papers on this subject of labour wanting to take children off their parents. I don’t see how it would alleviate poverty for anyone – why do you like the idea?
Additionally, Marty, the notion isn’t totally unheard of.
Anne Neale, one of the report’s authors, said: “Charges of neglect are used to punish, especially single-mother families, for their unbearably low incomes.
Donna Clarke, whose granddaughter was taken from her teenage mother and handed to adoptive parents, will speak on Wednesday at the launch. She said families were being punished for living in poverty. “It is a form of social cleansing,” she said. “Vulnerable people are having their children taken away. It is all about them judging the risk of significant harm but if they spent the money on putting in the support that was needed many of these families would be able to keep their children.”
So you’re concerned that Labour will copy UK Tory social policies.
Although with the numbers needed to halve child poverty in NZ, it’s more the Aussie “Stolen Generation”.
I don’t need numbers if you can’t produce a method of helping kids without passing on some similar assistance to adults.
That thread started at you being concerned that Labour was only focussed on child poverty. You have yet to name a method that would manage to exclude adults from the resulting poverty reduction.
Free meals in schools will not increase the household income, so poverty levels will not change. Removing 100,000 kids from poor families is just a weird proposal – and will stimulate the foster care industry, anyway.
On the other hand, if 10,000 or 20,000 households got a boost in income in the most deprived areas of the country, that’s got to be good for economic activity in those areas. And therefore the poor adults in those areas. Maybe even almost all the poor adults.
What can’t be done is eliminating child poverty without knocking off the majority chunk of adult poverty. And even if you finally come up with a way of doing so, that just makes the decision to leave people poor more stark, making it easier to lobby for that final step.
“That thread started at you being concerned that Labour was only focussed on child poverty. You have yet to name a method that would manage to exclude adults from the resulting poverty reduction.”
Not sure what you are meaning there exactly, but I think it’s pretty obvious that Labour’s policies at the moment are targeting families with children, which by definition exclude adults without children and leave them in poverty.
Equally obviously, adults in families that have children will have poverty reduced.
Well, to extend the targeting terminology, I’d be impressed if they managed to relive the poverty of 100,000 or 200,000 children without a significant amount of collatoral damage – as in relieving the poverty of tens of thousands of adults not in households with dependent children.
People don’t live in a vacuum. There will have to be socioeconomic flow-on. It won’t solve all poverty, but it will solve more than enough to make the final step achievable and politically normal.
ah, the sideways seep theory. A trickle down theory for poor people.
Here’s how I would frame that. You poor, disabled people wait over there, we might get to you. Not sure how long that will be, sorry.
Just listened to a bit on RNZ about MMP. The guy was talking about how National did the major lifting on Treaty issues in the 90s despite that being against what some of the party and their own support based believed should happen (Bolger and Graham made the moves). So I think there are ways to implement things that are right and change the culture as you go.
That’s one way of framing it. I don’t think it’s particularly accurate, however.
National could progress the Treaty because it was against type. Labour poosting benefits to the living wage tomorrow would just hand 2020 on a plate to the tories, and they’d reverse it equally as quickly.
Implementing a policy that requires major change requires multi-government consistency. Labour or the nats working to far to their stereotype just encourages pushback by the following government.
I don’t think anyone has suggested lifting benefits to a living wage immediately. I get your general argument about the value of incremental change in establishing that change in society, but your example belies that.
We’re essentially arguing over two things. One is whether Labour can be trusted on this to be actually intending to lift all benefits and just isn’t talking about it for pragmatic reasons. The other is timeframes. Not sure how long is valid or reasonable.
Labour have (knowingly or unknowingly) put themselves into a corner to measure and solve poverty, not just child poverty. Voters will see homeless people in the street and go “didn’t the government promise to fix this?”
As soon as the government stop moving forward on issues like poverty, they will stagnate. I think NZ will move much further this time than under Lab5.
I was under the impression when people assert things as fact here they are obligated to back up their claim.
Raising family tax credits excludes those in poverty that don’t have dependent children.
Raising the income threshold for family tax credits excludes those in poverty that don’t have dependent children.
Giving all families with newborn babies an extra $60 a week “Best Start” payment for the first year, regardless of income, and for two further years on an income-tested basis, again does nothing for those in poverty that don’t have a newborn.
And these (above) are the ways Labour plan to directly exclude those in poverty without dependent children.
However, I agree, that indirectly (via the expected economic stimulus it will generate) some others may benefit. But how many and by what degree is yet to be established.
“What can’t be done is eliminating child poverty without knocking off the majority chunk of adult poverty “
Here you go again, stating an assertion as fact. How do you know eliminating child poverty will knock off the “majority” chunk of adult poverty? Where are your numbers to substantiate this claim?
Not every claim needs numbers. They simply require effort and patience.
For example, now you agree that Labour’s child poverty plan may benefit adults not in households that have dependent children, so it is merely the number of people and degree to which they will be assisted that we are quibbling over.
Well yours does if you want to substantiate the premiss of your argument.
While I agree to some extent that there may be some that will indirectly benefit, in this case, the degree to which people will benefit is vital to whether or not they are lifted out of poverty.
Which, of course, is an unknown at this stage.
Therefore, although some may benefit, we can’t affirmatively say the stimulus from the trickle down will lift any others out of poverty.
For example, employment opportunities may improve from the stimulus, but merely securing a job isn’t a guarantee one will be lifted out of poverty. Around half the kids in poverty today come from working families.
Then there are those that are unable to work, therefore a stimulus is unlikely to produce any mass difference for them.
There is one policy where Labour (and I like this one) may possibly have a major impact and that’s in their job creation policy of planting more trees.
However, and this is vital, if they fail to offer employees a living wage, the opportunity will be largely wasted.
Oh well, if we’re looking at policies beyond those revolving around families in need, it’s lucky there’s more than tree planting in things like the regional development policy, and then there’s the housing policy (lots of building jobs), paying employers the equivalent of the dole for every apprentice they take on, yadda yadda yadda.
“Trickle down” is the wrong way to put it – that was the theory that if you gave rich people more money, they’re throw some crumbs at the plebs.
My position is that income to poor families is more of a resource well – disadvantaged people have more kids (for a variety of reasons), and tend to clump together geographically (for a variety of reasons). They also have to spend their money more immediately and more directly in the local community (which is why GST is a regressive tax). Even in a modest amount, it’s actually a bloody good way of developing and rejuvenating depressed areas. If you give 2000 homes in a depressed region $60/wk more, that’s an extra half million dollars straight into the local economy every year. The equivalent of funding an SME.
England has to come up with some hard and acceptable proposal within the next week if they want to start trade talks with the rest of the EU. The three prereqs are:
#The Divorce Settlement Stg40-60M
#No Border in Ireland.
#Rights of EU and UK Citizens in each area.
The solution that works for the EU and Ireland is to put the border in the Irish Sea. While Northern Ireland will remain in the UK it will also remain in the Single Market and the Customs Union. This has the Unionist and Brexiteers spitting bile and racism on the pages of the Telegraph and Mail.
However the border in the Irish Sea looks acceptable even to the Unionist population.
from Slugger O’Toole
“In September, we asked a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population to react to the statement that: ‘People should be prepared to accept border controls between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, if this is agreed in the Brexit negotiations between the Government and the EU’.
Overall, 49% agreed with this, and 39% disagreed (with 12% neither agreeing or disagreeing). But, perhaps surprisingly, willingness to accept such controls was stronger among Leave voters (64% agreed), supporters of unionist parties (59%) and Protestants (54%).”
Camille Paglia: there’s no female Mozart because there’s no female Jack the Ripper. These gender traits go along together.
[CV, I’m going to ask you to not comment in that thread. There’s a long history on TS of problematic threads for women, and you’ve often been part of that. At the moment the focus is on TS becoming a place that is attractive and easily accessible for women to take part especially on issues that affect them directly. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
“Irrigation, when carefully managed, is a “great boon” to the environment,” Environmental Protection Authority chief scientist Dr Jacqueline Rowarth says.
The devil is in the detail of what “carefully managed” means.
She then said, “The major problem with swimmability was with sediment and sediment problems were caused by forestry, construction, cropping and then pastoral. New Zealand’s rivers were some of the best in the world.”
Hmmmm……
She then stepped outside of her scientific expertise to become an economist and a political commentator.
“There was a large amount of water in New Zealand and most of it went “out to sea”.
“I wouldn’t be taxing it when it’s supporting the rest of the economy,” she said, referring to Labour’s pre-election plans for a water tax.”
Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal evolution. The award-winning science fiction author of 2312, the Mars Trilogy, and Aurora shares his vision for how the world must change in advance of his 02017 novel New York 2140. Hosted by Stewart Brand. From May 02016.
We have been hoodwinked by the likes of the ‘road transport forum’ and their CEO Ken Shirley this week.
This when he snarled at assusations from the daming report out on NZ rail vs road freight emissions, – showing road freight is the main culprit in climate change transport emissions.
This is all featured in this weeks listener, entitled on the front page as; “The great rail revial,- can we rid roads of killler trucks”
Apparently a report was prepared by EY a consultancy agency for Ministry of Transport and NZTA a year ago that meassured the emmissions of all transport systems and made road freight look so bad that it was somehow held back from being released by Treasury and the national party then or the ministry of transport or NZTA, so it paints a picture of National while in Government holding back important documentation we had a right to see released so we could get action sooner on climate change.
This is what we had long complained about with the Nats with holding evidence on so much stuff over the years including the panama papers, TPPA, Afganistan, Todd barclay and Winston peters leaked private information.
Now we see a laughable act of national jamming up labour MP’s with over 6000 questions claiming “it is our right to know what the Government are doing”!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am feardful that labour need to act strongly and foercefully now on climate change issues.
Consider ; Importance of rail.
All motorised transport produces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) one of the so called “greenhouse gases” that contribute to climate change.
Trains are an energy-efficient carrier of people and goods and hence produce
relatively less CO2 emissions per passenger than other modes.
Travelling by rail reduces your contribution to climate change. Emissions of CO2 per passenger/Km are, on average, approximately half that of travel by car.
In 1998 rail produced only 1% of the U.K’s total emissions, road transport meanwhile accounted for 23%
Climate change – Freight Transport
The majority of our freight in the UK travels by road. Switching some of this to rail would result in a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. Carrying freight by rail results in an 80% cut in CO2 emissions per Kilogram carried compared to road haulage.
Public Health
Up to 24,000 vulnerable people are estimated to die prematurely each year because of poor air-quality and transport is a major contributor to this problem through engine exhaust emissions.
Although rail carries 7% of U.K traffic it emits only 0.2% of Carbon Monoxide, 2% of Nitrous Oxide, 1% of Volatile Organic Compounds and 2.5% of Sulphur Dioxide emissions
Electric trains are also pollution free at point of use, and do not contribute to localised air quality problems in urban centres.
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 ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
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 ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
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 ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
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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, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Actions speak louder than words.
The New Zealand police are being hailed by the corporate media for a ‘hilarious video to lure recruits.’ The video was ‘ was targeted at 18- to 24-year-olds, women, Māori, Pacific Islanders, and people from all other ethnicities and backgrounds “to better reflect the communities we serve”.’ according to the police.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11948014
Pity then the police act like this then in South Auckland against Tongan supporters.
‘We witnessed this @nzpolice man aggressively grab 2 #Tongan flags out the hands of the occupants of this moving car, then snap the flag poles & walk off. When confronted for an explanation, he signalled to 3 more officers to talk to the occupants. Disgusting.’
‘My 15 year old daughter just got her flagpole taken off her by the police because said it might be used as a weapon . I’m furious this racist heavy handed policing had killed off the community coming out to celebrate together ‘
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/26-11-2017/it-felt-like-they-were-in-a-riot-mode-police-tactics-turn-ugly-in-otahuhu/
More from that article.
‘Papatoetoe resident Ema Tavola was in Otāhuhu last night, and described the atmosphere as “something I had really been looking forward to, to see my community in such a happy state.” She was alarmed at the large police presence.
“It felt like they were in a riot mode. They definitely wanted their presence to be felt in a really assertive way. Their presence was aggressive and didn’t feel like they were there to support the energy, which was really disappointing.”’
‘The aggressive style of policing contrasted markedly with the friendly facilitation of the Lions tour, and the swiftly-planned community events which followed the America’s Cup win. Tavola lamented the way they dealt with the crowd’s Tongan flags, which had become the enduring image of the tournament.
“The manner in which flags were ripped out of people’s hands and broken was a really aggressive way of saying ‘we’re in charge’. That’s not how you broker safety with a community, that’s how you intimidate people.”
That kind of policing is really going to recruit from a diverse sector of the population.
Our friends in the corporate media have a lot to answer for too.
‘Many people have voiced concerns about the portrayal of Tongan and Pacific Island supporters in the media, which they feel has exacerbated the police response.’
The police should be in touch with the population they work within and what the mosh pit of the media says should be just part of their understanding of the situation, not a main ‘intelligence’ source.
I remember that dopey farmer-type with a sign about Jacinda being a pretty communist or something. He had two poles on his sign and was being provocative – I wonder did he have his poles snatched and broken?
“Actions speak louder than words.”
Indeed, when the opening shots, forgive the pun, feature the NZ Police Summary Execution Squad…. https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2017/11/under-fire/
As for the rest of the recruitment video, I must be getting crankier in my advancing years because I found it adolescent.
Pretty much sums up the culture and mindset of the boyz and girlz of the NZ Police.
I must be getting crankier in my advancing years because I found it adolescent.
An amateurish performance all round.
Another day, another whingeing comment from the Soper household.
Yesterday it was Heather.
Today it’s Barry.
And the Herald continues its relentless whining about the new government. ‘Granny’ Herald sounds more like ‘grumpy right wing’ Herald.
It’s a pity that these RWNJs cannot take in the fact that they have lost the election.
Those spiteful losers, born-to-govern attitude will continue to come to the surface.
100% Johan,
National were indictrinated by S Joyce into a brainwashed state of believing they were “invincible” but here comes the crunch.
Labour are doing a deep auditing of the finacial books of the National MPs activities
Goinng back nine years and anomilies are being found so national MPs are sitting nerviously waiting for the phone to ring nbecause they dont know how deep the financial auditing is going on.
They may be found out using public funding inappropriately and be charged with fraud.
I am not privy to the specifics here but labour are finding some interseting stuff we are informed.
So the Nat’s MPs are trying to construct a diversion to take the heat off themselves.
Barry Soper characterises as wasteful Pike River decision making intended to be evidence based. It’s not encouraging that Soper conflates Key’s duplicitous disaster milking with respect for evidence. His claim – “Essentially it doesn’t advance the issue greatly from when National was running the shop, safety has always been the key.” The article otherwise ? Facile. So Barry and Heather……especially the headline.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11947781
“Essentially it doesn’t advance the issue greatly from when National was running the shop, safety has always been the key.”
I think Soper’s confused: “safety” and “arse-covering” are two different things.
Yep, Barry’s turn today. A very poorly constructed piece of journalism from “Newstalk ZB’s Political Editor”.
“Say anything slightly critical of Jacinda Ardern and you do so at your peril. The social media trolls, or at least those who live in the Labour cave, can’t abide anything close to criticism of the woman anointed by Winston Peters just over a month ago and who, not surprisingly Donald Trump thought was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s missus.
What? Tortured nonsense.
“So with her obviously not in mind there have been a couple of decisions made by her subordinates over the past week that have, or will, dip into the taxpayers’ pockets, raising a few eyebrows”.
So it’s not about Ardern then, but the headline – “Barry Soper: Criticise Jacinda Ardern At Your Peril” – screams that it is. Confused? I am.
The opening paragraph (which the provocative headline has been based on) stands in isolation as there are no supporting references in the piece itself. Soper doesn’t even seem to understand the meaning of the term “troll” and what trolls do. But maybe he does and it’s just a lazy way to score some points.
What trolls? What cave? Where are some examples of this “can’t abide anything close to criticism”? There aren’t any.
It reads like something thrown together without conviction or deep thought. So I guess it’s business as usual then.
Well said GA. The troll is Soper going by the article.
“What trolls? What cave? Where are some examples of this “can’t abide anything close to criticism”? There aren’t any.”
Oh the irony .
Lol from you that is funny
Oh the funny irony..
Your wit is showing halfly
“There aren’t any” is referring to Soper not providing any examples to back up his claim. Citation needed.
The social media trolls, or at least those who live in the Labour cave, can’t abide anything close to criticism of [Jacinda Ardern]…
Oh noes! Have they started calling anyone who criticises her a sufferer of Ardern Derangement Syndrome or something? That would be terrible!
Some of these columnists look to be feeling the heat, Duncan Garner was moaning about the flak he was getting on social media too.
Perhaps Soper might want to ask himself why he needs to criticise Ardern in the first place.
Perhaps you could read why he was?
Yep he was racist and got called out didn’t he.
Why he was what James?
Perhaps Garner needs to ask himself why he’s getting flak. Here’s a clue – Taika Waititi “treasonous” according to him.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2017/10/duncan-garner-taika-waititi-threw-nz-under-the-bus.html.
Get the puffed up vainglory and the ‘look at ME look at ME’ of Garner will ya’.
This is a diversion as labour are carrying out a deep audit of the financial books of the last nine years and finding some stark interesting stuff so national MP’s are shitting themselves now and taking the heat off them is there first call, so that’s why they are ‘freaking out’ now, I feel so so sorry for them now.
They must feel as we did under their rule as squashed in a ‘sardine can’ for the last nine years of torment.
Yep sour faces all round at the Allen house. Plastic road markers make more sense and offer viable commentary comparred to their horror house of horseshit.
😆
Ed (2) … NZH and it’s pathetic columnists (note not journalists) are still dancing to the tune of its major benefactor Natz. So obviously orchestrated by Joyce.
NZH, Natz a pair of prickly sore losers!
well said mary-a.
Joyce is freakingout as they have something on hhis $11.7 billion hole now.
I have a belief he has left some dabts undeclared.
I believe he knows it, as it is his fault, so he probably has undeclared debts he amassed and left for labour.
The issue for Soper and his ilk, is that now they are no longer in the inner sanctum they have no relevance. Don’t feed them and they wither and die.
This is it. They don’t have the same access to the decision-makers which was a process fostered by the corrupt Nats. The only people they can get exclusives from now is the opposition.
Here’s a suggestion – why not try to build trusting relationships with government ministers? That is part of their job.
Our Farmers are the envy of OUR world and We have to help feed all the people of OUR. So we can’t make changes that dramatically reduce there out put. Now all the talk of our world having a food shortage will come true in the near future. So we need to invest in research on Organic farming as this type of farming boost our topsoil and more topsoil is what we need to my coal could be used to boost our topsoil I’m not sure they used charcoal in the past.
It was about 25 before I learned that I was cack handed I can use both hands just as good while working so in any job I all ways catch up to the fastest person. I’m going to learn the Taiaha and increase my skills and Mana.
But I cannot write with both hands as my writing is bad my granddaughter writing is better Many thanks to OUR New coalition government for doing a excellent job great that you gave OUR young people that are studying a rise in income they are our future. I’m off to work now I wonder what my view escorts have planed for me today. Kia kaha
Quite a few people have written that we are returning to the medieval feudalism
brought on by the Neo-Cons. Well, it is now happening.
https://renegadeinc.com/britains-ifeudalism/
Many thanks to breakfast for showing all the positive effects that a well funded railway system will have on NZ Ka pai
Is this National’s way of indirectly implying Labour should have increased core benefit rates? Or are they merely implying Labour shouldn’t have increased student allowances?
As for their concern, the safeguards are there. And they should know as they installed them.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/11/national-claims-jobless-will-pretend-to-be-students-for-money.html
‘…sensible beneficary taking advantage…’
That sums up the gnat false concern – and the way they work – scums
Anyone moving from the Job Seeker Support to Student Allowance would lose their Accomodation Supplement, so they wouldn’t be all that better off anyway. No caviar and Meet just yet…
Exactly. Which further brings into question what exactly are National on about?
Best laugh you’ll have all day,
According to Judith Collins it was Kiwirail’s responsibility to release the NZTA report commissioned in 2016 that highlights the $1.5 billion of benefits that investment in passenger and freight rail brings to the economy EVERY YEAR!
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/11/trains-save-nz-1-5-billion-a-year-report.html
National’s agenda was to close down the rail network and sell it for scrap.
More like cheaply to mates.
Wasn’t there an idea of using the line to Gisborne or Napier for a cycle track for overseas visitors ?
Another case of going forward with the latest money-maker and bugger the rest of the population and the services they need.
Has anyone noticed that everything seems to be important for overseas folks like cycle ways, but for the local community who are paying rates and taxes there seems to be a general reluctance to invest in public services for recreation for locals?
In Auckland just getting the parks or lawns mown seems to be an issue.They hate it so much they try to pave every square inch and then dig it up every 2 minutes for piecemeal infrastructure, first metro water, then chorus, then new paving, then cycleway then repeat and create traffic and walking chaos and little paving patches littered all around. (p.s. grass is cheap, permeable and easy to dig up, but clearly out of vogue for the last 30 years). Then they wonder why there is so much flooding. Go figure!
Last year went to Long Bay regional park in Auckland where they are doing MASSIVE multimillion dollar development with property and the beach was absolutely full of people, every square inch taken, it was like Europe with 3rd world planning, all the parking was taken and then people were parking on areas that had meter high lawn growth. Nobody bothered to mow the lawns over the holidays.
The council takes the money from the development but does not seem to understand that they that means more people and more money needed for public services and actually more recreational areas. If they don’t want to pay for this, don’t develop and put more people there!
In typical neoliberalism they take money in at one end of the council for one budget and then starve the other end and since it’s someone else’s budget they don’t seem to be able to link up the two. They will be coining it for rates but who knows where it is going – gold paving? road maintainance? America’s cup? Consultants on stadiums, Lawyer mates? CEO wages?
Drove one hour in Auckland yesterday. There was 2 detours, around 4 roadworks digging up the road or verge. And we only have 4 million people and some people want 35 million! A generation will spend their entire lives in roadworks, who knows what it will do to health.
The local economy for business is suffering as nobody wants to navigate through Auckland anymore. I’m sure lovely for big business like hotels and casino’s for tourists who never need leave central Auckland, so why worry? sarcasm.
bang on savenz,
Make tourists pay for their way here, we dont need ‘free-loaders” high-jacking us here.
We want equal rights as a safe low cost place to live and enjoy with our children and families thanks.
Are the current Government really planning to give $114 million to Grant Dalton and his millionaire mates in order to have the ultimate rich men’s toys race around the Waitemata Harbour?
That is $114,000,000.00 when you write it right out.
What are the poor bloody tax-payers of New Zealand supposed to get out of that? Apart that is from drinkies for the Politicians on Superyachts while the event is on.
How many hip operations would that pay for?
How many houses could you build?
How many trees could you plant.
What the hell do they think they are doing?
Let the bloody thing go to The Emirates. Anyone who wants to can watch it on TV. That is as close as a normal New Zealander is going to get anyway.
No doubt you’d prefer the government to give the money to the House of Saud so they can build an America’s Cup racetrack in the desert?
Your comment apparently must mean something to you.
God knows what and he isn’t talking.
“Right wing altruism rockets upwards under PM Ardern.”
What I was trying to say Alwyn, before I dashed off to work, was that given the Sth Canterbury Finance, Mediaworks and Tiwai Point bailouts and the Saudi Sheep Deal debacle and the incredibly close relationship with SkyCity, anyone who supported the previous government is in no position to criticise the current government of wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.
As far as they go.
I would never have included SCF in the guarantee in the first place. Once they were in there was no way to avoid paying out or dropping them from the scheme. That, I am afraid was Cullen. It wasn’t a bailout either. The company was wound up.
Mediaworks wasn’t a bailout. They changed the rules to make media companies pay up for the next 20 years or so in one go rather than yearly and then let them, at a very high and quite risk free interest rate, pay it off in something like 5 year chunks. That was actually a spectacularly good deal.
I wouldn’t have offered a deal to the Smelter.
I have never been sure what the Saudi deal was. I never comment on things about which I am ignorant.
It is very hard to see how a deal with Sky City cost New Zealand anything. We didn’t pay them anything and I assume we have some sort of a Convention Centre.
So no. National supporting the America’s Cup was stupid. The others, with the exception of the smelter weren’t.
In total agreement with you on this Alwyn.
Development of the economy, particularly R&D in materials.
It’s just a pity that all those benefits will only accrue to a few rich people due to the way that capitalism works.
None. It’s a different set of resources. Unless you want to forcefully retrain all boat builders and marine engineers into being doctors.
Well, I suppose we could use it to support the training of a few unemployed into carpenters and plumbers. Or, perhaps, we could use the R&D from the race into producing better houses more cheaply.
Depends upon how many people that can be employed over what time frame.
The same thing that governments all around the world think that they’re doing when they support these sorts of things – boosting the economy.
Unfortunately, they’re doing it wrong.
Far better to put that money directly into government research and then make the results of that research publicly available so that anyone can use it. That would actually develop the economy. The way that they’re doing it leaves the results developed in the hands of a few private individuals and prevents the overall development of the economy.
Put that money into supplying Councils with an allowance of $s to get some of their deferred jobs done as Task Force Green.
Offer maraes a set number of apprenticeships for some young people who would train and then would return and add value to the marae.
Fund the women’s refuges to run assertiveness training for the women and their children, and have workshops on goal setting and communication, and family outdoor camps. See if they can form little co-operatives to organise a project, run it successfully and have a certificate and trip to Wellington and the Beehive for the winners. Let’s have some recognition of movers, shakers and achievers at the grassroots level.
Invest in the people, so as to unlock the pathways to the mind and get thinking going at a higher level than just how to cope with the oppressing government that everyone thinks is supposed to be helping. Fund small initiatives, a small music tour, small personal initiatives, big outcomes. Get something going.
We had SHAs and they were prompting people to start housing initiatives different from the office blocks that are built for housing by present day developers. Then Labour is cancelling SHAs. No it isn’t. Well the information seems to be that… We can’t be sure yet, keep trying.
This is what is happening. A lack of commitment to getting ordinary people mixing in, putting their own muscle in – a fund of $100 million would produce a whole lot of small projects with multiplier effects, all round the country. But not as showy as the snobs want. The ordinary people are so boring, unstylish often not even picturesque, and probably not even picaresque.
What do we get ? What do WE get. Typical right winger – selfish pricks
Who do you think you are talking to Marty?
Your comment is numbered as being a reply to my original one but it then seems to be blaming me for something I never said.
You talk about “WE”. If you read what I actually wrote you will discover that I never once used the word “WE”. The closest I came to it is when I mentioned the “poor bloody tax-payers of New Zealand”.
Are all tax-payers “right wingers”?
Are all tax-payers “selfish pricks”?
What do you really mean Marty?
Or is the “WE” referring to yourself? Are you just a selfish prick?
What WE are you? Hmm definately a wee wee probably even a wee wee wee but I’m not into judgment. Are you a wee wee wee wee? Well we’ll let history be the judge of that I think alwyn.
Would someone please wipe the little chap’s mouth.
He is dribbling down his pinafore again.
‘ and with that one last statement the 2nd age of the dinosaurs ended – known as the moaning epoch it was thankfully very short.’
100% mm,
To many negative nat’s around tioday, they need to get over loosing eh!
Yep, 114m of taxpayers money to America’s cup is corporate welfare. They should raise the money themselves. It’s a sport for billionaires – get their wallets out. A tax on accomodation for example. Apparently the hotels raise up the prices to triple when there is an event on – they profit and they should pitch in to the sport that contributes to that profit.
Considering the timing these negotiations and agreement were probably done under National and this government’s just supported that agreement.
So, would you have been just pissed of about this if National were still in power? Did you, as a matter of fact, complain when National supported the previous America’s Cup challenge?
I would be just as pissed off.
And yes I did complain about the Government, any Government, putting money into this foolish event at that time.
You can believe your first sentence if you like I suppose.
It certainly isn’t the way Parker is going on though, is it?
alwyn does post about spending on events using ratepayer or taxpayer money, even when National were in power. One issue where I find myself in agreement with him.
Good stuff molly,
Where was the “user pays policy” when we need one.
Heroes
No. 1: EDWARD SNOWDEN
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/edward-snowden-interview-there-is-still-hope-a-1166752.html
“Heroes” is a series devoted to those courageous and brilliant people who show us that, in a world seemingly run by crooks, abusers, bullies, scoundrels, mass murderers and liars, there are still reasons for optimism.
Exactly. Also not doing west reputation any good when all these whistle blowers have to hide out in Russia or embassies because they the truth hurts and the west wants to shut that down.
Snowden et al risked all to get the truth out there.
Look forward to more info from you on this topic. Excellent stuff you are producing Morrissey (9). Many thanks.
Thanks for your kind thoughts, mary.
https://media.tenor.com/images/1d37fae7c763ec15d88031819fae348c/tenor.gif
1000% there to mary-a
We need to celebrate our freedom fighters now.
+1
Looking through The Telegraph list of the 20 best countries to do business in the world, with lovely scenic pics to go with each listing. Don’t know which year the info refers to – could be 2015 or 2016.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/globalbusiness/12051361/Revealed-The-20-best-countries-in-the-world-to-do-business.html?frame=endScreen
Denmark is 1st.
( 1. Denmark – For the second consecutive year – and fifth time in eight years – Denmark has been declared the best country in the world to do business. Forbes said Denmark, one of the most entrepreneurial countries in the world, ranks well for its personal and monetary freedom as well as low corruption. There are only four procedures needed to start a new business )
NZ 2nd, No details – was 1st in 2012.
Norway 3rd $67,200 GDP per capita 2nd highest in top 20.
Ireland 4th with 5.2% growth GDP.
Sweden 5th.
Could we match up to the description of Denmark’s attributes that have put it in top place many times?
Council says it will be more than 10 years before all of its 2300 houses and units would meet its own WOF standards.
The council is in the middle of a 20-year, $400 million upgrade programme, expected to be finished by 2028.
However, MacLean said even some of the housing upgraded since the programme started in 2008 may not tick all the boxes.
The WOF standards were “demanding”, but every property was expected to meet the standards by the end of the upgrade programme, he said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/99203316/council-flats-would-fail-rental-wof-they-ought-to-fix-their-own-properties-first
Open and transparent or shady and dodgy?
Where has the 38 page addendum gone?
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/11/government-insists-there-is-no-secret-document-with-nz-first.html
Speaking of dodgy, just a wee reminder that you’ve yet to explain how Labour might solve child poverty by taking tens of thousands of children from their parents.
I wasn’t explaining how Labour might solve child poverty. That’s largely already out there. I was merely answering a question you put forward.
OK, well, when Labour start rounding up the children of poor people in order to meet their child poverty reduction target, I’ll believe your answer.
That wasn’t the question nor was it what my answer was referring too.
So why are you attempting to tar me and mislead other readers?
The link is above.
I said that addressing child poverty will address adult poverty. You said child poverty could be reduced by excluding adults. I asked how. You said removing the children from those poor conditions was one option.
How do you interpret that discussion other than you suggesting that Labour might solve child poverty by rounding up the children of the poor?
No.
After explaining to you (in the post before) how Labour are planning to largely exclude those in poverty that don’t have dependent children from the improvements they plan to make. I went on to answer your question, pointing out (one way and hypothetically of course) how a Government could avoid benefiting the parents of the children.
Which should have been clear as not only did I explain what Labour plan to do (and provided a link) I also agreed with you (up above) that the parents of the children will most likely gain in the improvements made under Labour.
Speaking of dodgy, I questioned you on your assertion that solving child poverty will solve almost all adult poverty. And you have yet to produce the numbers (how many people in poverty have dependent children, opposed to those in poverty that don’t?).
Another way the cash benefits could avoid going to the parents is free meals in schools. While those that can afford to feed their kids will make a little savings, those most hard up that can’t afford to feed their kids (thus send them to school hungry) won’t be able to save what they didn’t have to spend in the first place. Hence, apart from their kids being fed, there will be no fiscal benefit for them.
Has there been any article or links including white papers on this subject of labour wanting to take children off their parents. I don’t see how it would alleviate poverty for anyone – why do you like the idea?
“Why do you like the idea?”
I don’t.
“Has there been any article or links including white papers on this subject of labour wanting to take children off their parents.”
Not to my knowledge. I posted a link on what Labour largely plan to do.
Here it is again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11942007
Don’t what? You’re promoting the idea ffs
“Don’t what?”
Like the idea.
I wasn’t promoting it. I was merely answering a question, providing an example of how it could be done.
So you say you’re not and then you do. Lowering the bar again I see. Hmmm…
Additionally, Marty, the notion isn’t totally unheard of.
Anne Neale, one of the report’s authors, said: “Charges of neglect are used to punish, especially single-mother families, for their unbearably low incomes.
Donna Clarke, whose granddaughter was taken from her teenage mother and handed to adoptive parents, will speak on Wednesday at the launch. She said families were being punished for living in poverty. “It is a form of social cleansing,” she said. “Vulnerable people are having their children taken away. It is all about them judging the risk of significant harm but if they spent the money on putting in the support that was needed many of these families would be able to keep their children.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/18/children-parents-foster-social-care-families-adoption
So you’re concerned that Labour will copy UK Tory social policies.
Although with the numbers needed to halve child poverty in NZ, it’s more the Aussie “Stolen Generation”.
I don’t need numbers if you can’t produce a method of helping kids without passing on some similar assistance to adults.
That thread started at you being concerned that Labour was only focussed on child poverty. You have yet to name a method that would manage to exclude adults from the resulting poverty reduction.
Free meals in schools will not increase the household income, so poverty levels will not change. Removing 100,000 kids from poor families is just a weird proposal – and will stimulate the foster care industry, anyway.
On the other hand, if 10,000 or 20,000 households got a boost in income in the most deprived areas of the country, that’s got to be good for economic activity in those areas. And therefore the poor adults in those areas. Maybe even almost all the poor adults.
What can’t be done is eliminating child poverty without knocking off the majority chunk of adult poverty. And even if you finally come up with a way of doing so, that just makes the decision to leave people poor more stark, making it easier to lobby for that final step.
“That thread started at you being concerned that Labour was only focussed on child poverty. You have yet to name a method that would manage to exclude adults from the resulting poverty reduction.”
Not sure what you are meaning there exactly, but I think it’s pretty obvious that Labour’s policies at the moment are targeting families with children, which by definition exclude adults without children and leave them in poverty.
Equally obviously, adults in families that have children will have poverty reduced.
That’s two different sets of adults.
I assume that TC was referring to the first.
Well, to extend the targeting terminology, I’d be impressed if they managed to relive the poverty of 100,000 or 200,000 children without a significant amount of collatoral damage – as in relieving the poverty of tens of thousands of adults not in households with dependent children.
People don’t live in a vacuum. There will have to be socioeconomic flow-on. It won’t solve all poverty, but it will solve more than enough to make the final step achievable and politically normal.
ah, the sideways seep theory. A trickle down theory for poor people.
Here’s how I would frame that. You poor, disabled people wait over there, we might get to you. Not sure how long that will be, sorry.
Just listened to a bit on RNZ about MMP. The guy was talking about how National did the major lifting on Treaty issues in the 90s despite that being against what some of the party and their own support based believed should happen (Bolger and Graham made the moves). So I think there are ways to implement things that are right and change the culture as you go.
That’s one way of framing it. I don’t think it’s particularly accurate, however.
National could progress the Treaty because it was against type. Labour poosting benefits to the living wage tomorrow would just hand 2020 on a plate to the tories, and they’d reverse it equally as quickly.
Implementing a policy that requires major change requires multi-government consistency. Labour or the nats working to far to their stereotype just encourages pushback by the following government.
I don’t think anyone has suggested lifting benefits to a living wage immediately. I get your general argument about the value of incremental change in establishing that change in society, but your example belies that.
We’re essentially arguing over two things. One is whether Labour can be trusted on this to be actually intending to lift all benefits and just isn’t talking about it for pragmatic reasons. The other is timeframes. Not sure how long is valid or reasonable.
On either point I’m not too worried.
Labour have (knowingly or unknowingly) put themselves into a corner to measure and solve poverty, not just child poverty. Voters will see homeless people in the street and go “didn’t the government promise to fix this?”
As soon as the government stop moving forward on issues like poverty, they will stagnate. I think NZ will move much further this time than under Lab5.
“I don’t need numbers …”
I was under the impression when people assert things as fact here they are obligated to back up their claim.
Raising family tax credits excludes those in poverty that don’t have dependent children.
Raising the income threshold for family tax credits excludes those in poverty that don’t have dependent children.
Giving all families with newborn babies an extra $60 a week “Best Start” payment for the first year, regardless of income, and for two further years on an income-tested basis, again does nothing for those in poverty that don’t have a newborn.
And these (above) are the ways Labour plan to directly exclude those in poverty without dependent children.
However, I agree, that indirectly (via the expected economic stimulus it will generate) some others may benefit. But how many and by what degree is yet to be established.
“What can’t be done is eliminating child poverty without knocking off the majority chunk of adult poverty “
Here you go again, stating an assertion as fact. How do you know eliminating child poverty will knock off the “majority” chunk of adult poverty? Where are your numbers to substantiate this claim?
Not every claim needs numbers. They simply require effort and patience.
For example, now you agree that Labour’s child poverty plan may benefit adults not in households that have dependent children, so it is merely the number of people and degree to which they will be assisted that we are quibbling over.
Incrementalism well illustrated, I think.
“Not every claim needs numbers”
Well yours does if you want to substantiate the premiss of your argument.
While I agree to some extent that there may be some that will indirectly benefit, in this case, the degree to which people will benefit is vital to whether or not they are lifted out of poverty.
Which, of course, is an unknown at this stage.
Therefore, although some may benefit, we can’t affirmatively say the stimulus from the trickle down will lift any others out of poverty.
For example, employment opportunities may improve from the stimulus, but merely securing a job isn’t a guarantee one will be lifted out of poverty. Around half the kids in poverty today come from working families.
Then there are those that are unable to work, therefore a stimulus is unlikely to produce any mass difference for them.
There is one policy where Labour (and I like this one) may possibly have a major impact and that’s in their job creation policy of planting more trees.
However, and this is vital, if they fail to offer employees a living wage, the opportunity will be largely wasted.
Oh well, if we’re looking at policies beyond those revolving around families in need, it’s lucky there’s more than tree planting in things like the regional development policy, and then there’s the housing policy (lots of building jobs), paying employers the equivalent of the dole for every apprentice they take on, yadda yadda yadda.
“Trickle down” is the wrong way to put it – that was the theory that if you gave rich people more money, they’re throw some crumbs at the plebs.
My position is that income to poor families is more of a resource well – disadvantaged people have more kids (for a variety of reasons), and tend to clump together geographically (for a variety of reasons). They also have to spend their money more immediately and more directly in the local community (which is why GST is a regressive tax). Even in a modest amount, it’s actually a bloody good way of developing and rejuvenating depressed areas. If you give 2000 homes in a depressed region $60/wk more, that’s an extra half million dollars straight into the local economy every year. The equivalent of funding an SME.
Brexit…tick…tock
England has to come up with some hard and acceptable proposal within the next week if they want to start trade talks with the rest of the EU. The three prereqs are:
#The Divorce Settlement Stg40-60M
#No Border in Ireland.
#Rights of EU and UK Citizens in each area.
The solution that works for the EU and Ireland is to put the border in the Irish Sea. While Northern Ireland will remain in the UK it will also remain in the Single Market and the Customs Union. This has the Unionist and Brexiteers spitting bile and racism on the pages of the Telegraph and Mail.
However the border in the Irish Sea looks acceptable even to the Unionist population.
from Slugger O’Toole
“In September, we asked a representative sample of the Northern Ireland population to react to the statement that: ‘People should be prepared to accept border controls between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, if this is agreed in the Brexit negotiations between the Government and the EU’.
Overall, 49% agreed with this, and 39% disagreed (with 12% neither agreeing or disagreeing). But, perhaps surprisingly, willingness to accept such controls was stronger among Leave voters (64% agreed), supporters of unionist parties (59%) and Protestants (54%).”
https://sluggerotoole.com/2017/11/26/exclusive-poll-unionist-supporters-content-with-east-west-post-brexit-border-controls/
Camille Paglia: there’s no female Mozart because there’s no female Jack the Ripper. These gender traits go along together.
[CV, I’m going to ask you to not comment in that thread. There’s a long history on TS of problematic threads for women, and you’ve often been part of that. At the moment the focus is on TS becoming a place that is attractive and easily accessible for women to take part especially on issues that affect them directly. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Well I dunno about that: https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-female-serial-killers/reference
Camille Paglia is an authoritative source on gender.
Weka: so now a man cannot now comment on a post written by a man about men and the historical creative contribution of men?
[2 week ban. Time enough to have a think about what I said in my comment and not give me disingenuous shit about it. – weka]
Someone should tell Wang Jie she doesn’t exist.
Rowarth is a corrupt and compromised scientists.
I’d love to know who sponsors her research.
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/farming/epa-chief-scientist-says-irrigation-good-environment
“Irrigation, when carefully managed, is a “great boon” to the environment,” Environmental Protection Authority chief scientist Dr Jacqueline Rowarth says.
The devil is in the detail of what “carefully managed” means.
She then said, “The major problem with swimmability was with sediment and sediment problems were caused by forestry, construction, cropping and then pastoral. New Zealand’s rivers were some of the best in the world.”
Hmmmm……
She then stepped outside of her scientific expertise to become an economist and a political commentator.
“There was a large amount of water in New Zealand and most of it went “out to sea”.
“I wouldn’t be taxing it when it’s supporting the rest of the economy,” she said, referring to Labour’s pre-election plans for a water tax.”
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/11/ghahraman_defended_not_prosecuted_the_genociders_in_rwanda.html
https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2017/11/golriz-ghahraman-defender-human-rights-genocidal-maniacs/
Normally wouldn’t link to whaleoil but its mostly screen grabs of twitter and its backed up by kiwiblog but Phil Quin certainly isn’t a happy chappy
You can’t have a successful trial without defence lawyers, or the rest of the court staff. Farrar and Slater are trash, but what’s your excuse?
Its more that shes wasn’t exactly forth coming with what she actually did as opposed to what she did
What part of putting someone on trial* doesn’t involve defence lawyers? It’s more that you’re clutching at straws.
*the term used in her resume.
Actually you seem to exclusively link to them – ah well gotta do what you gotta do….
Kim Stanley Robinson discusses how climate change will affect capitalism and society:
https://theinterval.org/salon-talks/02016/may/11/how-climate-will-evolve-government-and-society
Humanity’s adaptation to climate change will require novel, global cooperation and societal evolution. The award-winning science fiction author of 2312, the Mars Trilogy, and Aurora shares his vision for how the world must change in advance of his 02017 novel New York 2140. Hosted by Stewart Brand. From May 02016.
An example from today of another nappy being peed in.
“Has any Government every[sic] been so secretive and arrogant after just one month in office?”
We have been hoodwinked by the likes of the ‘road transport forum’ and their CEO Ken Shirley this week.
This when he snarled at assusations from the daming report out on NZ rail vs road freight emissions, – showing road freight is the main culprit in climate change transport emissions.
This is all featured in this weeks listener, entitled on the front page as; “The great rail revial,- can we rid roads of killler trucks”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99257012/rail-has-saved-new-zealand-15b-a-year-study-shows
Apparently a report was prepared by EY a consultancy agency for Ministry of Transport and NZTA a year ago that meassured the emmissions of all transport systems and made road freight look so bad that it was somehow held back from being released by Treasury and the national party then or the ministry of transport or NZTA, so it paints a picture of National while in Government holding back important documentation we had a right to see released so we could get action sooner on climate change.
This is what we had long complained about with the Nats with holding evidence on so much stuff over the years including the panama papers, TPPA, Afganistan, Todd barclay and Winston peters leaked private information.
Now we see a laughable act of national jamming up labour MP’s with over 6000 questions claiming “it is our right to know what the Government are doing”!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am feardful that labour need to act strongly and foercefully now on climate change issues.
Consider ; Importance of rail.
All motorised transport produces Carbon Dioxide (CO2) one of the so called “greenhouse gases” that contribute to climate change.
Trains are an energy-efficient carrier of people and goods and hence produce
relatively less CO2 emissions per passenger than other modes.
Travelling by rail reduces your contribution to climate change. Emissions of CO2 per passenger/Km are, on average, approximately half that of travel by car.
In 1998 rail produced only 1% of the U.K’s total emissions, road transport meanwhile accounted for 23%
Climate change – Freight Transport
The majority of our freight in the UK travels by road. Switching some of this to rail would result in a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. Carrying freight by rail results in an 80% cut in CO2 emissions per Kilogram carried compared to road haulage.
Public Health
Up to 24,000 vulnerable people are estimated to die prematurely each year because of poor air-quality and transport is a major contributor to this problem through engine exhaust emissions.
Although rail carries 7% of U.K traffic it emits only 0.2% of Carbon Monoxide, 2% of Nitrous Oxide, 1% of Volatile Organic Compounds and 2.5% of Sulphur Dioxide emissions
Electric trains are also pollution free at point of use, and do not contribute to localised air quality problems in urban centres.