Rachel Stewart: Councils must walk the climate talk.
Nails the issues, as ever.
Excerpt.
‘Greater Wellington Regional Council, pushing hard on their Water Wairarapa scheme, which would see the construction of at least one dam. Its success is based on a large water uptake by dairy farmers who would use it to both irrigate and intensify their operations.
Yet, intensification of dairy farming is probably about the last thing New Zealand needs right now. The number of dairy cows has almost doubled over the past 25 years, and methane emissions have risen steadily with them.
According to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, methane currently accounts for 43 per cent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. Over 80 per cent of it is produced by ruminant animals. Why would any council that claims to care about climate change push for more dairy intensification?’
Because global dairy production reflects global demand. If New Zealand reduces dairy output then competitor countries will increase production. Impact on methane emissions zero.
Impact on New Zealand’s methane emission, significant. Then, we do some more. Other countries will follow. Humans need leaders. We need to lead; following’s for sheep.
The US dairy industry is undergoing change and cow numbers are expected to reach 9.2m head by 2024, according to Dr Robert Johansson, Chief Economist with the US Department of Agriculture.
“We expect cow numbers to continue to recover going forward to 2018-2019 rising to its highest point in 2019,” he told over 400 delegates at the Agricultural Science Association’s conference in Co. Kilkenny.
Dr Johansson said that by 2024 individual dairy cow production is expected to increased to just over 12,250kg per cow.
What the fuck would you know Draco, didn’t you predict the end of NZ dairy a couple of years ago!
If I recall the reason was other countries had productive capacity.
You have a history of being wrong
What the fuck would you know Draco, didn’t you predict the end of NZ dairy a couple of years ago!
More than you and no.
If I recall the reason was other countries had productive capacity.
What I said was that primary produce can’t have any competitive advantages because anybody can do it. Seems to me that that’s exactly what’s happening as the price of dairy plummeted when new players enter the scene.
you’re forgetting the basics of your dark religion, spylands.
NZ can compete effectively because it can produce the same product at a lower price than the competition. If NZ reduces dairy output, then the competitors will make up production, but at a more expensive price. So volume demand will go down, and less will be produced to find a new equilibrium. Therefore NZ stopping dairy production will decrease global dairy-related emissions,
‘NZ has done ‘horrific job’ protecting most vulnerable – commissioner’
Abuse of intellectually disabled people in state care over five decades has been brought to light in a new report by the Human Rights Commission.
The report, released today, contains the stories of 17 people who were mistreated by staff in mental health facilities and hospitals between the 1950s and 1990s.
Disability Rights Commissioner Paul Gibson said many of the accounts were utterly sickening.The newly-released report follows last year’s revelations of systemic abuse in boys’ and girls’ state homes over the second half of the 20th century.
That prompted calls for an independent inquiry into the issue, which the government initially rebuffed.
Since then, the government’s line has softened, with Prime Minister Bill English signalling two weeks ago he may be open to the idea.
Mr Gibson said the abuse suffered by all of those in the state’s hands deserved nothing less than a full investigation.
Radio New Zealand running an ongoing discussion on office jargon, slavishly repeating what the’market’ tells it to say and continuing its witchhunt of Metiria Turei.
To its defenders, please explain how that is different from Garner’s show pony show.
On the bright side Ken Loach is being interviewed by Kim Hill this weekend.
He will give a different perspective I sense on the Metiria story.
I heard them too! They actually sounded like two reasonable human beings this afternoon, and even Jim Mora didn’t say anything too unctuous for a change. A far cry from the last time Franks and Pagani were on the show. On that occasion, Franks came across as reasonable and decent—well, certainly he was compared to the bloodthirsty and hysterical Pagani….
A couple of Latin versions of Toby Keith
bark out their hatred of democracy.
You’ve probably heard that Spanish pop record “Despacito” over the last few weeks, by a couple of Puerto Ricans called Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi. It’s the most popular piece of Latin nonsense since the gorgeous “Ketchup” song of fifteen years ago—indeed it’s now the most played song ever, in any language.
Among those who have heard it are supporters of the democratic government in Venezuela. One of them had the inspired idea of doing away with the inane original lyrics and turning it into an anthem of hope and support for democratic values…
Great idea, right? Improving a piece of dreck, recycling a piece of meretricious rubbish like “Despacito” is part of a timeless and honored tradition.
Sadly, however, the perpetrators of the original were not happy. Both Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have unleashed blimpish and confused outbursts against the democratic Venezuelan government: “Your dictatorial regime is a joke,” claimed Fonsi—or was it Daddy Yankee?—and the other one (Fonsi? Daddy Yankee?) claimed that “the Venezuelan people are crying out for their freedom.”
So what motivated these two Puerto Rican pop-putzes to indulge in the most absurd display of bewilderment since Jared Leto and Kevin Spacey declaimed at an awards ceremony? Well, just have a look at Daddy Yankee’s murky past: he’s a self-declared “Christian”, and a Republican, and voted for John McCain in 2008. You can be sure he’s a Rump supporter as well. He hates democracy…..
Luis Fonsi doesn’t seem to have any ideas about anything. I’m pretty sure all the energy of this anti-democracy rant came from Daddy Yankee, and that Fonsi just followed his lead.
There are many thoughtful and well informed Puerto Rican commentators, such as Juan González, Ululy Martinez and Oscar Lopez Rivera. However, as is so often the case, the Puerto Ricans getting nearly all the publicity at the moment are—thanks to the political choices of the media—two unfeasibly ignorant, lazy, and stupid ones.
There is no evidence of any sustained rising or falling trend in BHC household income inequality over the last two decades using the Gini and top 1% share measures
o The share of income received by the top 1% of tax-payers has been steady in the 8-9% range since the early 1990s, up from 5% in the late 1980s.
The Gini measure of inequality is a popular one but, because it uses information on all household incomes, it is susceptible to showing large fluctuations because of sampling issues for very high income households:
the 2015 HES (like the 2011 HES) had an unusually high number of very high income households, which led to an usually high Gini number
in the 2016 HES the number of very high income households was a little closer to normal and the Gini number dropped accordingly, back towards the trend line
for the lower 99% there is no evidence of any sustained rising or falling trend in the last 20 years, using the Gini.
Apart from a blip in 2011, the 90:10 ratio was fairly flat from 2004 to 2016. Like the top 1% measure, the 90:10 showed a large rise from the late 1980s to the early 1990s – there was a slight rise in the 90:10 ratio from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s, but much less than the earlier large rise.
Incomes after deducting housing costs (AHC incomes) are more unequal than BHC incomes, as housing costs make up a higher proportion of the household budget for lower income households than they do for higher income households. AHC income inequality was also a little higher from 2011 to 2016 compared with the mid 2000s and earlier.
[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.]
[you need to link to things you are cutting and pasting from somewhere else. Better to give a smaller cut and paste with a short explanation and the link than post big screeds of text with no analysis – weka]
• Low income (poverty) and material hardship trends for children are flat or falling depending on the start date or measure used
o For monitoring trends, the reports use as their primary measures:
– an anchored line income measure AHC, 50% and 60% of median (reference year, 2007)
– a material hardship measure with both a less and a more severe threshold.
o Child numbers using an AHC anchored 50% of median line are down from their GFC peak of 200,000 (19%) to 155,000 (14%) on average in 2015 and 2016, below pre-GFC numbers of 180,000 (17%).
o Using the higher AHC anchored 60% of median line numbers are down from 270,000 (25%) at their peak in the GFC to 220,000 (20%) on average in 2015 and 2016, a little below pre-GFC numbers of 250,000 (24%).
o Child material hardship numbers are down from 220,000 (20%) in the GFC to 135,000 (12%) on average in 2015 and 2016 using the less severe measure. 60% of this decline has come from “non-poor” households moving out of hardship as their incomes improved, a reminder of the precarious nature of household finances for some of the “near-poor” (those with incomes above a particular low-income line but below the median).
o Using the more severe measure, numbers were steady at around 80,000 to 100,000 through to 2014, but were lower at around 70,000 on average for 2015 and 2016.
o The two thresholds closely correspond to the EU ‘standard’ and ‘severe’ measures.
o For all the above measures, the 2016 numbers were lower than expected from the previous trend data, so another survey is needed to know whether this was a random statistical fluctuation or not – the finding of a net decline in recent years on these primary measures is not in doubt, it’s just the size of the fall that needs clarification with another year’s data.
o Relative income poverty trends have generally been flat and steady over the last decade and even longer – the exception is for the AHC 60% figures which have been relatively volatile, albeit still representing a flat trend.
o The falling numbers for the anchored line measures reflect the fact that there is an improvement in real terms for household incomes for some in the low-income zone … and the flat relative income trends mean that the incomes of the bulk of lower-income households are holding their own relative to the median.
o The changes from the Budget 2015 CMH package came in on 1 April 2016, so this 2015-16 survey picks up virtually nothing from this; the Budget 2017 Family Incomes package will impact on the 2018-19 survey – the 2020 reports will pick up these impacts.
o See the Appendix for detailed tables for low income and material hardship numbers for children.
[stop cut and pasting without links. See my moderation note in your comment that got moved to OM. I suggest you start paying attention to what is going on in conversations. Putting you in moderation until I see you get what needs to happen here – weka]
The task of any government is to make a difference.
This MSD report excerpt shows that after 9 years the National government they have not made a difference.
The task of good government is to make a positive difference.
There is no evidence of A Brighter Future anywhere in the excerpt.
Great reasons overall to get rid of this government and try something different.
There is an unhealthy obsession here with this government. The point of the MSD report is that it proves the lie that the left has been spreading about inequality and poverty.
Nonsense – this government has defaulted on most of its social responsibilities, often releasing partial snatches of statistical information to mislead credulous journalists and they hope the public.
So the Pentagon follows Twitter to find out whether US has started a nuclear war.
.
.
At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.
Presenting evidence here is a waste of space. It is like arguing with anti vaxxers. One Anonymous Bloke is a prime example of obtuseness and rudeness in a nuggety little package.
[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.]
Transparency International Strips United States Affiliate of Accreditation
By Editor Filed in News January 19th, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
The Berlin-based anti-corruption organization Transparency International has stripped its US affiliate — Transparency International USA — of its accreditation.
Transparency International USA appealed the decision, but last week the appeal was denied by Berlin.
It is unclear whether Transparency International USA will continue to operate and if so under what name.
Disaccredited affiliates are no longer permitted to use Transparency International’s name or logo.
Claudia Dumas, Transparency International USA’s President and CEO, did not return calls seeking comment.
Transparency International USA joins the likes of Transparency Croatia in having its credentials stripped.
The Washington, D.C. based Transparency International USA identifies itself as “a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening integrity and combating corruption in the United States and internationally.”
But increasingly it has been seen in the United States as a corporate front group, funded by multinational corporations — the same multinationals that corrupt the U.S. political system.
Its million dollar a year budget was sustained by contributions from Bechtel Corporation, Deloitte, Google, Pfizer ($50,000 or more), Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Fluor, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Marsh & McLennan, PepsiCo, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Raytheon, Realogy, Tyco ($25,000–$49,999), and Freeport-McMoRan and Johnson & Johnson (up to $24,999).
It yearly gives its annual corporate leadership award to one of its big corporate funders. Last year the award went to Bechtel.
Its board of directors is dominated by corporate lawyers, many of whom defend companies from charges of foreign bribery.
The board includes Alan Larson of Covington & Burling, Lanny Breuer, a partner at Covington & Burling, Peter Clark, a partner at Cadwalader, Brackett Denniston, senior counsel at Goodwin, Lucinda Low, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, Mark Mendelsohn, a partner at Paul Weiss, Steven Tyrrell a partner at Weil Gotshal, and Michael Bailey general counsel of Bechtel.
In a 2015 interview with Corporate Crime Reporter, Sarah Chayes, author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, was critical of Transparency International USA’s failure to tackle corruption in the United States — what she identified as a system of “legalized bribery.”
Chayes says that there are four or five parties in the United States — Wall Street, the health industry, the energy industry and the military industrial complex — that have wrested the laws to serve themselves.
“What is most dangerous is the way that those groups of people have managed to shape the legal environment in ways that suit them, including campaign finance, which allows essentially for legalized bribery in this country,” Chayes said.
“Transparency International chapters are supposed to focus on the countries in which they are resident,” Chayes said.
“Transparency International Columbia works on corruption in Columbia.
But Transparency International USA is constantly focused on corruption in Third World countries.
It’s ridiculous.
You would have thought that Transparency International USA would have been at the forefront of ensuring that the criminal bankers that gave us the financial collapse in 2008 would be criminally prosecuted.
And maybe Transparency USA should have investigated the relationship between the Treasury Department and the banking sector.
But I didn’t see any of that.”
According to Transparency International’s accreditation policy — “full accredited national chapters pass through a review process every three years, aimed at ensuring continuous compliance with our standards and strengthening the work of the chapters.”
“In instances where a chapter’s performance continually falls short of the standards, the chapter may voluntarily withdraw or face disaccreditation or suspension from the movement.”
Last year, Transparency International stripped its Croatian affiliate because “TI Croatia showed little engagement with other national advocacy organizations, TI Croatia had not raised sufficient financial resources, and the quality and impact-level of TI Croatia activities was not satisfactory.”
Transparency has yet to issue a statement as to why Transparency International USA was stripped of its credentials.
The parent organization itself has come under criticism for accepting millions of dollars from companies that have engaged in bribery.
Siemens, which donated $3 million to Transparency International in 2014, pled guilty in 2008 to bribery charges and paid more than $1.6 billion in penalties.
Siemens was implicated in corruption in Greece, Norway, Iraq, Vietnam, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela, China and Russia.
Transparency International’s policy forbids accepting money from corrupt companies.
Thames – 100 skilled employees go as old business can’t cope any more. There needs to be input from regions that give mentoring and guidance to their businesses with an eye to keeping them and building them up rather than run down. They should be able to get help from MoBie for this in a properly run country that doesn’t leave everything to chance and the whims of merchants with PPA (Personal Profit Addiction).
They need to have a Council-sponsored business section which can go out and sell their products to buyers in NZ. The people need to have explained to them that it is time for them to become part of a vibrant community where all get behind local enterprise and ensure that they have jobs for the young, money for Council basics and amenities etc. And advise them that cities in the USA have filed for bankruptcy, tell them about Clint, last seen by me advertising that they haven’t had clean water for two or more years. And that times are tough and long-term businesses aren’t safe and if they want to keep good businesses and jobs they have to be nimble, make change, not sit back apathetically and sigh ‘That’s how it is these days, nothing can be done, just have to accept it I suppose’.
There needs to be a ginger group with a good grounding of pragmatic sense, but get everyone in on regular brainstorming – let the minds flow free, and then look at what possible ideas come forward. Time for citizens to get involved and ensure that they don’t get walked over and left to rot.
business
Heartbreak and job losses for Thames engineering workers
From Morning Report, 7:17 am today
Listen duration 4′ :16″
About 100 workers at a Thames engineering firm have been told to collect their tools and leave, as the company goes into liquidation. Thames man Brian Donnelly worked at A & E Price with his brother and son. He told Morning Report it’s a very sad day.
business
Thames mayor swings into action to help redundant staff
From Morning Report, 8:10 am today
Listen duration 5′ :03″
But from what I heard it was assisting staff with looking for work managing the closure and loss. We can’t just do that any more because there is no new worthwhile work likely to arise because of the dead-hand-of-free-market-captured NZ government.
The report into the business case for greater freight efficiency in Auckland has been released in full (as opposed to a redacted version earlier). ben Ross goes over the document and discovers an interesting(but completely unsurprising) truth… Rail is better in all indicators than road.
So the question need to be asked… why are we building more roads, like the E-W link when the best option is to build more rail?
The Third Main came out solidly in second place. The Fourth Main (meaning construction of both Mains at the same time) came out as the winner despite a low BCR (NZTA’s BCR’s are a tad hopeless measuring wider economic and environment affects both positive and negative). Any attempt to shift more freight by road via more HPMV 54 tonne trucks and/or widening the Southern Motorway carried a BCR of negative 2.2.
Reality proves National (and RWNJs in general) wrong yet again.
So the question need to be asked… why are we building more roads, like the E-W link when the best option is to build more rail?
Wayne answered it the other day – rail is public sector, trucks are private sector. National would back the Road Transport Association over Kiwirail even without all those donations.
Yep, National are all about supporting profits over good economics.
That, of course, proves that the profit drive doesn’t bring about the best results as the economists and politicians have been telling us for so long now.
…it may have been Mordecai – as I said, one of the sockpuppets.
Either they’re all the same person or there’s a remarkable borg-like similarity in their comments and behaviour.
[FFS OAB, thanks for sending me on that wild goose chase. If you think there are people using sock-puppets on TS, then you can email Lynn. You need to provide detail, links and rationale. I’m not averse to someone shoulder tapping me on the front end, but they’d better be sure of what they are accusing and be ready to back it up, not just start flinging out names randomly and then changing their mind. Lynn is the only one I know that has the ability to do anything other than very rudimentary checking.
Otherwise, please don’t challenge people’s use of pseudonyms because it creates conflict and unsafety, and it wastes moderator time. – weka]
Re: your note. I didn’t change my mind. I just wasn’t sure which of the particular sockpuppet names the note applied to. I don’t really have any evidence other than to look at the striking similarities between comments and style of ‘debate’.
You made reference to a previous moderation note. You could have linked to that i.e. gone and done the leg work first. Plus provided examples of what you think are striking similarities. I think you named 3 pseudonyms, that’s a lot of work for someone to look up in the back end. What I’m saying is that if you seriously think there is a sock puppet issue for the site, then put that information together and give it to the appropriate person. Otherwise it just looks like more slagging someone off.
It’s not my intention to slag them off, btw: I just wish they’d pick a handle and stick with it, or alternatively, somehow disconnect from the weird Borg melange and say something startling or original.
I share the same suspicions as OAB. But when I saw it was not a good thing to your mind (Weka) I stopped saying so.. Yet I feel some injustice… One intuitively notices such things, but one would have to have huge intuition to start collecting up examples in advance, Impossible, in fact. Unless one is so dedicated as to spend days going back over previous posts.
So the Sock Puppets get away with what they are doing? Not that I can think of a way for Lprent or anybody to prevent it in the first place.
The last thing these bastards will do is pick a handle and stick with it, so we appear to be left with tolerating their foul behaviour.
Maybe we need something like Universities etc. use to try to detect plagiarism?
My five cents worth is regarding Mr Winston Peters and my reflection on the happier times and frivolity enjoyed by many.
His latest round in session regarding Te Reo (Mr Flavell) has probably just created more friction for him.
I would be fine for a Maori interpreter to be present in session if and when various MP’s choose not to recognise the occasional use of Te Reo on the rare occasions when other MP’s feel the need to use it.
It is an absolute shame to be repeatedly presented with the effigy of a pathetic figure that once, whether liked or not, used his wit, charm and recognised strengths
to woo many, and to at least entertain the many (like myself) who did not always see his all of his vision in much the same way as he did.
This man used to mean something to a lot of people, and although I was never one to fully support him or his party, it didn’t matter. I saw that which many seek and expect from their elected representatives, which is, at the very least, strength and a demonstration of real concern.
I am almost brought to tears to see what a broken man he has developed himself in to.
I prey that this emulation of some blind Don Quixote figure is some form of ploy or diversionary tactic, and that he might pull a rarebit out from his sleeve at the eleventh hour, not because I necessarily support his policy proposals, but because every person needs some form of encouragement when they believe that their performance matters.
I do so not because I particularly love the man, but because a once liked public figure with his dignity destroyed is a sad event for any nation.
It appears that he is fixated on “adjusting” intending resident and migrant/transient worker figures to some mystical idealised mathematical sum or product, (as if he has been peering in to some crystal ball and has received industry workforce projections from whence)
Factually, this immigration “numbers game” has already been played time and time again by various politicians for decades, and where the smarter ones know full well that such gaming is no longer bread and butter politicking, but simply a distraction which might only gain them a handful more of votes, but where they risk it hitting them on the back of the head also unless they are very careful about just how and when to apply such statistical wizardry.
More recognisable is that he has put so much effort in to responding to various media groups who see him as little more than entertainment value for their own game of cat and mouse that he loses sight of the ball, and so, walks right in to the media trap time and time again.
He is considered by many as not much more than a ranter and a wishful drunkard these days, commentary that for a person, who used to represent value in one form or another, is quite cruel, and very sad.
Many now liken him to Muldoon before his maiden departure speech.
Some from north of Auckland who once had admiration for him now express that they feel betrayed, and that they have a desire to take him out and give him an education while he is on one of his whistle stop journeys over the next two or three weeks. I hope that they are referring to a discussion over dinner or lunch.
Surely, he must be seen to still have some value, and must also be worthy of some respect?
Health, costs and older people:
Dunedin can’t keep up with the numbers requiring heart surgery, by-pass etc. How many of these are over 70 years. How many years of life in a healthy mobile and good mental state can justify spending high health $s on people over 70? 5 years, 10 years? The continual extension of life for old people is excessive care at a time when the very young aren’t treated in a timely fashion, and younger people are suffering disease or not being urgently assisted to get back to work, helped from being invalided for long periods.
And is there reasonable care for those who are in poor health, and just need care and attention and cleaning help and kindly overview to the end? I have heard it is very poor, perhaps depending on which DHB is most monetarily stretched.
We may be living longer, and living longer in good health, but we are also living longer in poor health.
Put another way, only 70–80% of the years of life gained over the past quarter century have been years lived in good health: our health system and wider society have proved more adept at preventing early death than at avoiding or ameliorating morbidity.
A greater focus on addressing the impact of non-fatal disabling conditions, whether through prevention or improved management, will enable people to live more of their ‘extra’ years of life in full health.
Some stats that need to be looked at in order to provide appropriate health services for different ages.
[You wanna do us a favour GWS? You had a previous handle associated with the email you use. I’m picking that if you revert back to that handle (begins with a ‘P’ in case you’ve forgotten) then you won’t get caught in spam all of the time and you’ll also be able to sign into the site. Give it a go, aye?] – Bill
You may remember making a similar moderation note under one of Maninthemiddle’s comments (or perhaps one of their other sockpuppets) a while back. I don’t think they ever responded, and now here’s “Norfolk Traveller” using the same tactics employing exactly the same language.
What an interesting coincidence. Just saying.
[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.]
‘ But now scientists have discovered that we are all actually part-alien.
According to US astrophysicists up to half of all matter in our Milky Way galaxy comes from distant areas in space, driven here on interstellar winds created when stars explode in spectacular supernovae.
Now scientists suspect each one of us is made, in part, from matter created when suns exploded in distant galaxies.’
You are onto it , Cinny ,…. now,… have a watch of a few of Gary Wayne’s ‘Genesis 6 ‘ ( you tube ) , he has a book , which I bought ,… it’ll explain a lot and make sense of where we are today and why.
Dr Stephen Greer is quite amazing but I believe he has gone down the wrong path in some quarters as of late , however his ‘ Disclosure Project ‘ brought together some hard hitting high official witness testimony . He is another important watch , particularly the ‘ Disclosure Project ‘ on you tube.
For those who wouldn’t have a clue what this is all about,…. here is the Disclosure Project :
The Disclosure Project – YouTube
Video for disclosure project youtube▶ 1:55:21
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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 ...
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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 ...
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 ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
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 ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
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The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
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Rachel Stewart: Councils must walk the climate talk.
Nails the issues, as ever.
Excerpt.
‘Greater Wellington Regional Council, pushing hard on their Water Wairarapa scheme, which would see the construction of at least one dam. Its success is based on a large water uptake by dairy farmers who would use it to both irrigate and intensify their operations.
Yet, intensification of dairy farming is probably about the last thing New Zealand needs right now. The number of dairy cows has almost doubled over the past 25 years, and methane emissions have risen steadily with them.
According to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, methane currently accounts for 43 per cent of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions. Over 80 per cent of it is produced by ruminant animals. Why would any council that claims to care about climate change push for more dairy intensification?’
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11894799
Because global dairy production reflects global demand. If New Zealand reduces dairy output then competitor countries will increase production. Impact on methane emissions zero.
Impact on New Zealand’s methane emission, significant. Then, we do some more. Other countries will follow. Humans need leaders. We need to lead; following’s for sheep.
No. We need a sensible system of international emissions trading. This was an important element of the Kyoto Protocol. It remains important.
No. We need to stop pouring greenhouses gases into the atmosphere. Weasel deals will always suit the weasely minority and harm the wider population.
The competitor countries are already increasing production:
We presently have around 6.5 million dairy cows.
Impact on methane +lots.
What the fuck would you know Draco, didn’t you predict the end of NZ dairy a couple of years ago!
If I recall the reason was other countries had productive capacity.
You have a history of being wrong
More than you and no.
What I said was that primary produce can’t have any competitive advantages because anybody can do it. Seems to me that that’s exactly what’s happening as the price of dairy plummeted when new players enter the scene.
[citation needed]
No what you said was that NZ dairy would never recover!
Weasel around it however you like.
[Citation needed]
tsk.
you’re forgetting the basics of your dark religion, spylands.
NZ can compete effectively because it can produce the same product at a lower price than the competition. If NZ reduces dairy output, then the competitors will make up production, but at a more expensive price. So volume demand will go down, and less will be produced to find a new equilibrium. Therefore NZ stopping dairy production will decrease global dairy-related emissions,
Pity nature bats last…..
And doesn’t take any prisoners.
I do wonder if srylands is aware of these issues….
New Zealand must investigate this.
‘NZ has done ‘horrific job’ protecting most vulnerable – commissioner’
Abuse of intellectually disabled people in state care over five decades has been brought to light in a new report by the Human Rights Commission.
The report, released today, contains the stories of 17 people who were mistreated by staff in mental health facilities and hospitals between the 1950s and 1990s.
Disability Rights Commissioner Paul Gibson said many of the accounts were utterly sickening.The newly-released report follows last year’s revelations of systemic abuse in boys’ and girls’ state homes over the second half of the 20th century.
That prompted calls for an independent inquiry into the issue, which the government initially rebuffed.
Since then, the government’s line has softened, with Prime Minister Bill English signalling two weeks ago he may be open to the idea.
Mr Gibson said the abuse suffered by all of those in the state’s hands deserved nothing less than a full investigation.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335902/nz-has-done-horrific-job-protecting-most-vulnerable
Radio New Zealand running an ongoing discussion on office jargon, slavishly repeating what the’market’ tells it to say and continuing its witchhunt of Metiria Turei.
To its defenders, please explain how that is different from Garner’s show pony show.
On the bright side Ken Loach is being interviewed by Kim Hill this weekend.
He will give a different perspective I sense on the Metiria story.
She’ll have a go at him for supporting Irish civil rights, Palestinian human rights, and for supporting Jeremy Corbyn.
Ironic that the righties refer to RNZ as red radio isn’t it?
I listened to Stephen Franks and Josie Pagani on the Panel today.
That was an error.
I heard them too! They actually sounded like two reasonable human beings this afternoon, and even Jim Mora didn’t say anything too unctuous for a change. A far cry from the last time Franks and Pagani were on the show. On that occasion, Franks came across as reasonable and decent—well, certainly he was compared to the bloodthirsty and hysterical Pagani….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06112016/#comment-1255436
“Baaaaaa-a-a-a-aaa.”
More humbug from National: its “candidate” in Ohariu is providing a lead for his flock by vowing to vote for Peter Dunne….
https://bretthudson.national.org.nz/
He looks a handsome, assured, grey-haired animal. Not likely to seem out of place in Parliament.
A couple of Latin versions of Toby Keith
bark out their hatred of democracy.
You’ve probably heard that Spanish pop record “Despacito” over the last few weeks, by a couple of Puerto Ricans called Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi. It’s the most popular piece of Latin nonsense since the gorgeous “Ketchup” song of fifteen years ago—indeed it’s now the most played song ever, in any language.
Among those who have heard it are supporters of the democratic government in Venezuela. One of them had the inspired idea of doing away with the inane original lyrics and turning it into an anthem of hope and support for democratic values…
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/remix-of-despacito-from-venezuela-s-president-nicolas-maduro-1008281667983
Great idea, right? Improving a piece of dreck, recycling a piece of meretricious rubbish like “Despacito” is part of a timeless and honored tradition.
Sadly, however, the perpetrators of the original were not happy. Both Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee have unleashed blimpish and confused outbursts against the democratic Venezuelan government: “Your dictatorial regime is a joke,” claimed Fonsi—or was it Daddy Yankee?—and the other one (Fonsi? Daddy Yankee?) claimed that “the Venezuelan people are crying out for their freedom.”
So what motivated these two Puerto Rican pop-putzes to indulge in the most absurd display of bewilderment since Jared Leto and Kevin Spacey declaimed at an awards ceremony? Well, just have a look at Daddy Yankee’s murky past: he’s a self-declared “Christian”, and a Republican, and voted for John McCain in 2008. You can be sure he’s a Rump supporter as well. He hates democracy…..
http://hollowverse.com/daddy-yankee/
Luis Fonsi doesn’t seem to have any ideas about anything. I’m pretty sure all the energy of this anti-democracy rant came from Daddy Yankee, and that Fonsi just followed his lead.
There are many thoughtful and well informed Puerto Rican commentators, such as Juan González, Ululy Martinez and Oscar Lopez Rivera. However, as is so often the case, the Puerto Ricans getting nearly all the publicity at the moment are—thanks to the political choices of the media—two unfeasibly ignorant, lazy, and stupid ones.
I can’t decide if I want to enjoy Lana Del Ray’s music, or be crooned into an anxious sleep by it:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/07/lana-del-rey-lust-for-life-review/534816/
It seems she’s got more … ahem … interesting… ideas for the effects of her music.
http://www.salon.com/2017/07/26/lana-del-rey-trump-spell-hex/
Quoted from the MSD Report:
There is no evidence of any sustained rising or falling trend in BHC household income inequality over the last two decades using the Gini and top 1% share measures
o The share of income received by the top 1% of tax-payers has been steady in the 8-9% range since the early 1990s, up from 5% in the late 1980s.
The Gini measure of inequality is a popular one but, because it uses information on all household incomes, it is susceptible to showing large fluctuations because of sampling issues for very high income households:
the 2015 HES (like the 2011 HES) had an unusually high number of very high income households, which led to an usually high Gini number
in the 2016 HES the number of very high income households was a little closer to normal and the Gini number dropped accordingly, back towards the trend line
for the lower 99% there is no evidence of any sustained rising or falling trend in the last 20 years, using the Gini.
Apart from a blip in 2011, the 90:10 ratio was fairly flat from 2004 to 2016. Like the top 1% measure, the 90:10 showed a large rise from the late 1980s to the early 1990s – there was a slight rise in the 90:10 ratio from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s, but much less than the earlier large rise.
Incomes after deducting housing costs (AHC incomes) are more unequal than BHC incomes, as housing costs make up a higher proportion of the household budget for lower income households than they do for higher income households. AHC income inequality was also a little higher from 2011 to 2016 compared with the mid 2000s and earlier.
[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.]
[you need to link to things you are cutting and pasting from somewhere else. Better to give a smaller cut and paste with a short explanation and the link than post big screeds of text with no analysis – weka]
• Low income (poverty) and material hardship trends for children are flat or falling depending on the start date or measure used
o For monitoring trends, the reports use as their primary measures:
– an anchored line income measure AHC, 50% and 60% of median (reference year, 2007)
– a material hardship measure with both a less and a more severe threshold.
o Child numbers using an AHC anchored 50% of median line are down from their GFC peak of 200,000 (19%) to 155,000 (14%) on average in 2015 and 2016, below pre-GFC numbers of 180,000 (17%).
o Using the higher AHC anchored 60% of median line numbers are down from 270,000 (25%) at their peak in the GFC to 220,000 (20%) on average in 2015 and 2016, a little below pre-GFC numbers of 250,000 (24%).
o Child material hardship numbers are down from 220,000 (20%) in the GFC to 135,000 (12%) on average in 2015 and 2016 using the less severe measure. 60% of this decline has come from “non-poor” households moving out of hardship as their incomes improved, a reminder of the precarious nature of household finances for some of the “near-poor” (those with incomes above a particular low-income line but below the median).
o Using the more severe measure, numbers were steady at around 80,000 to 100,000 through to 2014, but were lower at around 70,000 on average for 2015 and 2016.
o The two thresholds closely correspond to the EU ‘standard’ and ‘severe’ measures.
o For all the above measures, the 2016 numbers were lower than expected from the previous trend data, so another survey is needed to know whether this was a random statistical fluctuation or not – the finding of a net decline in recent years on these primary measures is not in doubt, it’s just the size of the fall that needs clarification with another year’s data.
o Relative income poverty trends have generally been flat and steady over the last decade and even longer – the exception is for the AHC 60% figures which have been relatively volatile, albeit still representing a flat trend.
o The falling numbers for the anchored line measures reflect the fact that there is an improvement in real terms for household incomes for some in the low-income zone … and the flat relative income trends mean that the incomes of the bulk of lower-income households are holding their own relative to the median.
o The changes from the Budget 2015 CMH package came in on 1 April 2016, so this 2015-16 survey picks up virtually nothing from this; the Budget 2017 Family Incomes package will impact on the 2018-19 survey – the 2020 reports will pick up these impacts.
o See the Appendix for detailed tables for low income and material hardship numbers for children.
Awww just like a seagull regurgitating dinner for the young ones – thanks nt very cute.
So things are getting worse for poor people.
[deleted]
[stop cut and pasting without links. See my moderation note in your comment that got moved to OM. I suggest you start paying attention to what is going on in conversations. Putting you in moderation until I see you get what needs to happen here – weka]
“flat” and “steady” are the only useful words to describe the performance of this government.
All good. The link is https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/monitoring/household-incomes/. The specific document I am quoting from is titled c6-headline-findings-final-21-july-2017, and is under the ‘Documents’ panel.
The task of any government is to make a difference.
This MSD report excerpt shows that after 9 years the National government they have not made a difference.
The task of good government is to make a positive difference.
There is no evidence of A Brighter Future anywhere in the excerpt.
Great reasons overall to get rid of this government and try something different.
they’ve made a difference.
After housing costs are included, inequality has risen.
They’ve made a difference: They’ve enriched the already rich while increasing poverty.
There is an unhealthy obsession here with this government. The point of the MSD report is that it proves the lie that the left has been spreading about inequality and poverty.
Nonsense – this government has defaulted on most of its social responsibilities, often releasing partial snatches of statistical information to mislead credulous journalists and they hope the public.
Thanks for proving my point.
commenters on a political blog have an unhealthy obsession with the government of the day?
Sounds unlikely /sarc
So the Pentagon follows Twitter to find out whether US has started a nuclear war.
.
.
At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/coralewis/trump-transgender-military-service?utm_term=.coRqqqw1Px#.jyPdddxJwQ
[headdesk]
it’s funny because it’s true…
Presenting evidence here is a waste of space. It is like arguing with anti vaxxers. One Anonymous Bloke is a prime example of obtuseness and rudeness in a nuggety little package.
[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.]
Presenting biased, one-sided, already revealed as false evidence here is a waste of space.
FIFY
I love OAB’s work. Cuts through the crap.
WHISTLE-BLOWER ALERT!
How genuine is Transparency International in fighting corruption?
Seen THIS?
https://www.corporatecrimereporter.com/news/200/transparency-international-strips-us-affiliate-of-accreditation/
Transparency International Strips United States Affiliate of Accreditation
By Editor Filed in News January 19th, 2017 @ 1:52 pm
The Berlin-based anti-corruption organization Transparency International has stripped its US affiliate — Transparency International USA — of its accreditation.
Transparency International USA appealed the decision, but last week the appeal was denied by Berlin.
It is unclear whether Transparency International USA will continue to operate and if so under what name.
Disaccredited affiliates are no longer permitted to use Transparency International’s name or logo.
Claudia Dumas, Transparency International USA’s President and CEO, did not return calls seeking comment.
Transparency International USA joins the likes of Transparency Croatia in having its credentials stripped.
The Washington, D.C. based Transparency International USA identifies itself as “a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening integrity and combating corruption in the United States and internationally.”
But increasingly it has been seen in the United States as a corporate front group, funded by multinational corporations — the same multinationals that corrupt the U.S. political system.
Its million dollar a year budget was sustained by contributions from Bechtel Corporation, Deloitte, Google, Pfizer ($50,000 or more), Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Fluor, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Marsh & McLennan, PepsiCo, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Raytheon, Realogy, Tyco ($25,000–$49,999), and Freeport-McMoRan and Johnson & Johnson (up to $24,999).
It yearly gives its annual corporate leadership award to one of its big corporate funders. Last year the award went to Bechtel.
Its board of directors is dominated by corporate lawyers, many of whom defend companies from charges of foreign bribery.
The board includes Alan Larson of Covington & Burling, Lanny Breuer, a partner at Covington & Burling, Peter Clark, a partner at Cadwalader, Brackett Denniston, senior counsel at Goodwin, Lucinda Low, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, Mark Mendelsohn, a partner at Paul Weiss, Steven Tyrrell a partner at Weil Gotshal, and Michael Bailey general counsel of Bechtel.
In a 2015 interview with Corporate Crime Reporter, Sarah Chayes, author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, was critical of Transparency International USA’s failure to tackle corruption in the United States — what she identified as a system of “legalized bribery.”
Chayes says that there are four or five parties in the United States — Wall Street, the health industry, the energy industry and the military industrial complex — that have wrested the laws to serve themselves.
“What is most dangerous is the way that those groups of people have managed to shape the legal environment in ways that suit them, including campaign finance, which allows essentially for legalized bribery in this country,” Chayes said.
“Transparency International chapters are supposed to focus on the countries in which they are resident,” Chayes said.
“Transparency International Columbia works on corruption in Columbia.
But Transparency International USA is constantly focused on corruption in Third World countries.
It’s ridiculous.
You would have thought that Transparency International USA would have been at the forefront of ensuring that the criminal bankers that gave us the financial collapse in 2008 would be criminally prosecuted.
And maybe Transparency USA should have investigated the relationship between the Treasury Department and the banking sector.
But I didn’t see any of that.”
According to Transparency International’s accreditation policy — “full accredited national chapters pass through a review process every three years, aimed at ensuring continuous compliance with our standards and strengthening the work of the chapters.”
“In instances where a chapter’s performance continually falls short of the standards, the chapter may voluntarily withdraw or face disaccreditation or suspension from the movement.”
Last year, Transparency International stripped its Croatian affiliate because “TI Croatia showed little engagement with other national advocacy organizations, TI Croatia had not raised sufficient financial resources, and the quality and impact-level of TI Croatia activities was not satisfactory.”
Transparency has yet to issue a statement as to why Transparency International USA was stripped of its credentials.
The parent organization itself has come under criticism for accepting millions of dollars from companies that have engaged in bribery.
Siemens, which donated $3 million to Transparency International in 2014, pled guilty in 2008 to bribery charges and paid more than $1.6 billion in penalties.
Siemens was implicated in corruption in Greece, Norway, Iraq, Vietnam, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Venezuela, China and Russia.
Transparency International’s policy forbids accepting money from corrupt companies.
_________________________
Penny Bright
‘Anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner.’
2017 Independent candidate for Tamaki.
(Exposing the $1.6 BILLION Tamaki ‘Regeneration’ – GENTRIFICATION $CAM.)
Thames – 100 skilled employees go as old business can’t cope any more. There needs to be input from regions that give mentoring and guidance to their businesses with an eye to keeping them and building them up rather than run down. They should be able to get help from MoBie for this in a properly run country that doesn’t leave everything to chance and the whims of merchants with PPA (Personal Profit Addiction).
They need to have a Council-sponsored business section which can go out and sell their products to buyers in NZ. The people need to have explained to them that it is time for them to become part of a vibrant community where all get behind local enterprise and ensure that they have jobs for the young, money for Council basics and amenities etc. And advise them that cities in the USA have filed for bankruptcy, tell them about Clint, last seen by me advertising that they haven’t had clean water for two or more years. And that times are tough and long-term businesses aren’t safe and if they want to keep good businesses and jobs they have to be nimble, make change, not sit back apathetically and sigh ‘That’s how it is these days, nothing can be done, just have to accept it I suppose’.
There needs to be a ginger group with a good grounding of pragmatic sense, but get everyone in on regular brainstorming – let the minds flow free, and then look at what possible ideas come forward. Time for citizens to get involved and ensure that they don’t get walked over and left to rot.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201852548/heartbreak-and-job-losses-for-thames-engineering-workers
business
Heartbreak and job losses for Thames engineering workers
From Morning Report, 7:17 am today
Listen duration 4′ :16″
About 100 workers at a Thames engineering firm have been told to collect their tools and leave, as the company goes into liquidation. Thames man Brian Donnelly worked at A & E Price with his brother and son. He told Morning Report it’s a very sad day.
business
Thames mayor swings into action to help redundant staff
From Morning Report, 8:10 am today
Listen duration 5′ :03″
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201852559/thames-mayor-swings-into-action-to-help-redundant-staff
Just over 90 staff at Thames engineering firm A & G Price have been told to collect their tools and hand over their keys. Thames Coromandel Mayor Sandra Goudie says the council is working to help the staff being made redundant.
But from what I heard it was assisting staff with looking for work managing the closure and loss. We can’t just do that any more because there is no new worthwhile work likely to arise because of the dead-hand-of-free-market-captured NZ government.
Also a story about the works in Thames from yesterday in Poissions comment.
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-26072017/#comment-1358014
Interesting article in the herald today, which links to a Spinoff article
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11895708
https://thespinoff.co.nz/auckland/27-07-2017/finally-revealed-report-shows-rail-destroys-roading-for-auckland-freight/
The report into the business case for greater freight efficiency in Auckland has been released in full (as opposed to a redacted version earlier). ben Ross goes over the document and discovers an interesting(but completely unsurprising) truth… Rail is better in all indicators than road.
So the question need to be asked… why are we building more roads, like the E-W link when the best option is to build more rail?
Was just reading about that over here:
Reality proves National (and RWNJs in general) wrong yet again.
Holy fuck! Does the govt know this has been released?
Considering that it seems to have been because of a court case showing National fucking with the OIA processes again – probably.
So the question need to be asked… why are we building more roads, like the E-W link when the best option is to build more rail?
Wayne answered it the other day – rail is public sector, trucks are private sector. National would back the Road Transport Association over Kiwirail even without all those donations.
Yep, National are all about supporting profits over good economics.
That, of course, proves that the profit drive doesn’t bring about the best results as the economists and politicians have been telling us for so long now.
Please read and respond to my note in Open Mike.
[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.]
Done.
I hear ya, OAB. Wasn’t that maninthemiddle a drip!
…it may have been Mordecai – as I said, one of the sockpuppets.
Either they’re all the same person or there’s a remarkable borg-like similarity in their comments and behaviour.
[FFS OAB, thanks for sending me on that wild goose chase. If you think there are people using sock-puppets on TS, then you can email Lynn. You need to provide detail, links and rationale. I’m not averse to someone shoulder tapping me on the front end, but they’d better be sure of what they are accusing and be ready to back it up, not just start flinging out names randomly and then changing their mind. Lynn is the only one I know that has the ability to do anything other than very rudimentary checking.
Otherwise, please don’t challenge people’s use of pseudonyms because it creates conflict and unsafety, and it wastes moderator time. – weka]
.
Re: your note. I didn’t change my mind. I just wasn’t sure which of the particular sockpuppet names the note applied to. I don’t really have any evidence other than to look at the striking similarities between comments and style of ‘debate’.
Anyway sorry for wasting your time.
You made reference to a previous moderation note. You could have linked to that i.e. gone and done the leg work first. Plus provided examples of what you think are striking similarities. I think you named 3 pseudonyms, that’s a lot of work for someone to look up in the back end. What I’m saying is that if you seriously think there is a sock puppet issue for the site, then put that information together and give it to the appropriate person. Otherwise it just looks like more slagging someone off.
Fair enough.
It’s not my intention to slag them off, btw: I just wish they’d pick a handle and stick with it, or alternatively, somehow disconnect from the weird Borg melange and say something startling or original.
I share the same suspicions as OAB. But when I saw it was not a good thing to your mind (Weka) I stopped saying so.. Yet I feel some injustice… One intuitively notices such things, but one would have to have huge intuition to start collecting up examples in advance, Impossible, in fact. Unless one is so dedicated as to spend days going back over previous posts.
So the Sock Puppets get away with what they are doing? Not that I can think of a way for Lprent or anybody to prevent it in the first place.
The last thing these bastards will do is pick a handle and stick with it, so we appear to be left with tolerating their foul behaviour.
Maybe we need something like Universities etc. use to try to detect plagiarism?
Maybe acrophobic went to the same college for dunces.
I do quite like when they start contradicting themselves, though. Can be quite entertaining.
My five cents worth is regarding Mr Winston Peters and my reflection on the happier times and frivolity enjoyed by many.
His latest round in session regarding Te Reo (Mr Flavell) has probably just created more friction for him.
I would be fine for a Maori interpreter to be present in session if and when various MP’s choose not to recognise the occasional use of Te Reo on the rare occasions when other MP’s feel the need to use it.
It is an absolute shame to be repeatedly presented with the effigy of a pathetic figure that once, whether liked or not, used his wit, charm and recognised strengths
to woo many, and to at least entertain the many (like myself) who did not always see his all of his vision in much the same way as he did.
This man used to mean something to a lot of people, and although I was never one to fully support him or his party, it didn’t matter. I saw that which many seek and expect from their elected representatives, which is, at the very least, strength and a demonstration of real concern.
I am almost brought to tears to see what a broken man he has developed himself in to.
I prey that this emulation of some blind Don Quixote figure is some form of ploy or diversionary tactic, and that he might pull a rarebit out from his sleeve at the eleventh hour, not because I necessarily support his policy proposals, but because every person needs some form of encouragement when they believe that their performance matters.
I do so not because I particularly love the man, but because a once liked public figure with his dignity destroyed is a sad event for any nation.
It appears that he is fixated on “adjusting” intending resident and migrant/transient worker figures to some mystical idealised mathematical sum or product, (as if he has been peering in to some crystal ball and has received industry workforce projections from whence)
Factually, this immigration “numbers game” has already been played time and time again by various politicians for decades, and where the smarter ones know full well that such gaming is no longer bread and butter politicking, but simply a distraction which might only gain them a handful more of votes, but where they risk it hitting them on the back of the head also unless they are very careful about just how and when to apply such statistical wizardry.
More recognisable is that he has put so much effort in to responding to various media groups who see him as little more than entertainment value for their own game of cat and mouse that he loses sight of the ball, and so, walks right in to the media trap time and time again.
He is considered by many as not much more than a ranter and a wishful drunkard these days, commentary that for a person, who used to represent value in one form or another, is quite cruel, and very sad.
Many now liken him to Muldoon before his maiden departure speech.
Some from north of Auckland who once had admiration for him now express that they feel betrayed, and that they have a desire to take him out and give him an education while he is on one of his whistle stop journeys over the next two or three weeks. I hope that they are referring to a discussion over dinner or lunch.
Surely, he must be seen to still have some value, and must also be worthy of some respect?
Cool, Rondo. More 10 cents than 5.
Credit where it’s due.
25 years ago Winston Peters exposed corporate tax fraud through the ‘Winebox’?
Remember that?
But is he now self-destructing?
I don’t think so – playing to a particular set, I think.
If so, I can’t say that I wish him luck.
Health, costs and older people:
Dunedin can’t keep up with the numbers requiring heart surgery, by-pass etc. How many of these are over 70 years. How many years of life in a healthy mobile and good mental state can justify spending high health $s on people over 70? 5 years, 10 years? The continual extension of life for old people is excessive care at a time when the very young aren’t treated in a timely fashion, and younger people are suffering disease or not being urgently assisted to get back to work, helped from being invalided for long periods.
And is there reasonable care for those who are in poor health, and just need care and attention and cleaning help and kindly overview to the end? I have heard it is very poor, perhaps depending on which DHB is most monetarily stretched.
http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/new-zealand-burden-diseases-injuries-and-risk-factors-study
Morbidity (ill health) is expanding
We may be living longer, and living longer in good health, but we are also living longer in poor health.
Put another way, only 70–80% of the years of life gained over the past quarter century have been years lived in good health: our health system and wider society have proved more adept at preventing early death than at avoiding or ameliorating morbidity.
A greater focus on addressing the impact of non-fatal disabling conditions, whether through prevention or improved management, will enable people to live more of their ‘extra’ years of life in full health.
Graphs:
http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/older-peoples-health-data-and-stats
Rising use 42% of health stats for 15% of population and residential care:
http://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/older-peoples-health-data-and-stats/dhb-spending-services-older-people
Some stats that need to be looked at in order to provide appropriate health services for different ages.
[You wanna do us a favour GWS? You had a previous handle associated with the email you use. I’m picking that if you revert back to that handle (begins with a ‘P’ in case you’ve forgotten) then you won’t get caught in spam all of the time and you’ll also be able to sign into the site. Give it a go, aye?] – Bill
You may remember making a similar moderation note under one of Maninthemiddle’s comments (or perhaps one of their other sockpuppets) a while back. I don’t think they ever responded, and now here’s “Norfolk Traveller” using the same tactics employing exactly the same language.
What an interesting coincidence. Just saying.
[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.]
ET’s… this in the NZ Herald today…
‘ But now scientists have discovered that we are all actually part-alien.
According to US astrophysicists up to half of all matter in our Milky Way galaxy comes from distant areas in space, driven here on interstellar winds created when stars explode in spectacular supernovae.
Now scientists suspect each one of us is made, in part, from matter created when suns exploded in distant galaxies.’
hmmmm.
Sounds like stardust, how incredible is nature, that’s freaking amazing.
Recently came across Dr. Steven Greer, really interesting outlook, his documentaries seem to be well researched. Fascinating perspective.
You are onto it , Cinny ,…. now,… have a watch of a few of Gary Wayne’s ‘Genesis 6 ‘ ( you tube ) , he has a book , which I bought ,… it’ll explain a lot and make sense of where we are today and why.
Dr Stephen Greer is quite amazing but I believe he has gone down the wrong path in some quarters as of late , however his ‘ Disclosure Project ‘ brought together some hard hitting high official witness testimony . He is another important watch , particularly the ‘ Disclosure Project ‘ on you tube.
For those who wouldn’t have a clue what this is all about,…. here is the Disclosure Project :
The Disclosure Project – YouTube
Video for disclosure project youtube▶ 1:55:21
Ah – the real reason why Gareth Morgan is standing?
Seen this?
Tweet by Gareth Morgan:
“Let’s be clear, for progressive voters, the major issue this election isn’t #ChangeTheGovt it is #AnyoneButWinston #nzpol
what ever the wanker sprouts to make him relevant.
he should go and cuddle some kittens.
Hosking ?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/26/bbc-apologises-after-tory-donor-insults-jeremy-corbyn?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=236760&subid=15166303&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2
Oh SNAP!!!