In this mornings news I detect a change; – it is showing a positive note of the new Government I would note, – and is a wonderful change from the drab negative cloud that national had placed over us all for the last nine years.
I even had a wonderful warm letter from Jacinda late last night (I removed my name) but I want to share with you all now as it sent a nice warm feeling to a often depressed 73 yr old man who had almost lost all hope of positive change before now, but today I regard as the first day of a new beginning of our return to the NZ we all knew and loved.
God bless “Aunty Cinda”
ilove jacinda, “lets do this”
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Dear ………
This morning, the new Government was sworn into office and a new era for New Zealand began. It’s official now – and we did this together.
Our Government will be one that faces up to and addresses the biggest issues facing our country. We will fix the housing crisis, make sure Kiwis get the healthcare they need, clean up our rivers, take serious action on climate change and rebuild our regions.
We will put people first. We won’t try and gloss over bad bits and turn a blind eye when things aren’t going as well as they could. Instead, we will use our resources and initiative to fix them. Because that’s fundamentally what our Government is about: making New Zealand better. And it’s about making it better for everyone.
I am incredibly honoured and proud to be leading our country, alongside a fantastic team of Ministers and MPs. I am so very grateful to every single person who helped us get here. This is your day, and your Government.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister of New Zealand
I noticed a change on RNZ yesterday, when after several days of them failing to break the habit of talking to National Party figures, we had soon to be ministers of our new government talking about doing stuff. So refreshing after years of the corrupt muppets always saying what they couldn’t or wouldn’t do.
I’ll still be watching Labour, especially over TPP, but it feels good to have a hand on the tiller other than a dead one. We appear to have a government that understands what governing is rather than selling our country out from underneath us.
‘Mayors outside of Auckland hope the city’s fuel tax will pave the way for new ways of funding their own massive infrastructure costs.
Local Government NZ head Dave Cull said the announcement, alongside a coalition commitment to review local government cost and revenue, showed the new government was looking at getting away from the “very narrow property-based ratings system”.
“It’s absolutely imperative that other forms of funding are provided for local government in the near future.
“There’s a host of infrastructure that’s needed and the lack of it is actually holding our communities’ economic and social development back, but we need other funding mechanisms to achieve that.”
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim BoultJim Boult Photo: Supplied
Jim Boult, the mayor of the rapidly growing Queenstown district, said it was good news for cities like his in the midst of growing pains.
“I’m really pleased that they’ve come up with this idea for Auckland because it does send a signal that they’re prepared to look at individual communities and their problems.’
Jacinda said yesterday, “‘I want the government…to bring kindness back’
This is the best thing a new leader of our wonderful country could say as we all have been crushed under nine years of a draconian regime that held us all in fear and stress for so long almost it broke my spirit.
Depression was setting in which was not my character as I was formerly a very positive guy as I and my family had been a well travelling unit together also before 1998 when we came home to live again.
Then nine years ago a big shock came to my famly.
We were living in Canada from 1988 and only came home in 1998 just before Helen Clark took over.
So now we have been through the nasty combative abrasive penny pinching John Key era and now we have been blessed with the second coming of another change to a warm, kindness, caring Government, we are elated again.
Thankyou jacinda very much for this, we feel very proud to be born kiwi’s again.
Why, because he wants jobs for the regions and for young people to get off the dole and go to work.
A job and productive work is one of the essentials for a good physical and mental sense of well-being and purpose.
If Shane is too blunt for you he isn’t for those he wants to help.
“As we plant indigenous trees I’m going to get my indigenous nephews off their nono and they’re going to go to work,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast.
He actually said that. Classic NZ First.
I’m sure Jones would see an upside to this article…
@ (2.3) Ed … thank you so much for that delightful version of Happy Talk. Goes hand in hand with our great new version of government.
Hee hee, wonder if there’s any chance of our Parliamentary sessions opening with that song?
Yep, such a refreshing change of attitude, with our Jacinda wanting to bring some kindness back into government. Happy talk indeed and we are the lucky cuss’s to have had the good sense to vote for what is right for NZ.
One thing’s for sure. Natz most definitely won’t be talking any Happy Talk anytime soon.
Children’s advocates are excited to see the new government’s plans to reduce child poverty but question how quickly things can improve.
Child Poverty Action Group economic spokesperson Susan St John said having a Minister for Child Poverty Reduction was the best news low income families have had for a long time.’
‘Solar panels could cut schools’ power bills by $20m a year’
‘New Zealand’s schools could soon sport rooftop solar panels to help tackle climate change – and cut up to $20 million a year off their power bills.
The Labour and Green Parties have said in their governing agreement this week that “solar panels on schools will be investigated” as part of moving electricity to 100 per cent renewable, non-carbon-burning sources by 2035.
Panama Rd School in Mt Wellington, is using charitable funding to install 30 solar panels on its roof this weekend, and will use the $2000 a year it will save off its power bill to buy devices and other learning tools to prepare its decile 1 children for their future.
“We’ll put it back into our students’ learning,” said principal Jane Dold.
I don’t get it’,regarding solar.NZ has plentiful renewable electricity resources with hydro.Making electricity less costly for schools would be doable ,surely.
NZ hydro power only meets a bit over half of our current energy requirements (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectric_power_in_New_Zealand). And there is a limited supply of rivers you could add to the mix, and that can have large environmental impacts.
Solar is getting amazingly cheap – most houses in sunny locales could have some. (I have a mix of microhydro and solar – it isn’t free, but I haven’t paid a power bill in over 25 years)
We have solar panels and our last bill was $79. I put a smaller 2kw water element in and a timer on the he water heater so that it only draws power to heat water during the sunny part of each day. Soon the heat pump will not be used. Can’t afford the storage batteries but…
I agree. Either nationalise the power companies or legislate for schools and hospitals to be provided with cheap electricity. If RIo Tinto can get subsidised power so can the the services that benefit us all.
Although I do like the idea of PV solar panels everywhere because eventually we’ll be able to do without fossil fuel.
Solar panels are being made so that the roads and footpaths can be huge solar panels, and house windows are see through panels and roofing tiles are panels. Huge future for solar renewables.
The purpose of those panels appears to just provide a little light to walk on. How pretty. But not the type proposed for roadway where it is just to generate the power for storage etc. That bunch of sceptics were watching a sort of domestic solar light. Please ignore.
A domestic solar light certainly wasn’t the concept the promoters were selling. These people were deadly serious about paving huge swaths of roadway in the US with that crap.
Every time I look into how rugged those need to be made to stand up to roadway or footpath use, I can’t help wondering if it wouldn’t be cheaper to just put standard panels on canopies above the road.
The linked article shows a 7.5 year payback ignoring inflation. If thats correct I guess it is worthwhile. Although the cost benefit comes from a solar proponent, so I am reluctant to accept it as gospel without seeing the workings…
I think the outlay for Renwick school paid for itself in less than two years. And of course the use time is the school day. Still should be giving for 20 years.
Most payback calculators suggest a payback time of around 6 years for a complete residential system. But I would expect schools to do better than most, since 9 to 3 is daylight pretty much year round everywhere in NZ. So they use the power when it’s generated, don’t have much concern about storage or the buyback rate from the supplier.
Lets be pessimistic and say the payback is 5 years, so that would be a $100M investment to save $20M per year. And after that the $20M worth of electricity is free every year for the next fifteen to twenty five years while the panels last.
Ok, let’s assume suppliers are trying to milk the government for extra profit and are over-optimistic about the performance, and the payback time is actually ten years.
A homeowner or business might balk at that since they might need to move somewhere else before getting a net benefit, but schools can expect to be there for a lot longer. So it’s still pretty much a no-brainer. There aren’t many other things a government can put money into that give that much direct financial payback, guaranteed.
It could be quite a bit more than 10. The original 7.5 ignores discounting and maintenance costs. Then underperformance or cost blowouts could worsen the situation by an arbitrary amount. Meanwhile, the electricity pricing structure could shift to higher fixed, lower per unit cost which would further worsen the return.
I’d rather (a) wait until solar prices had come down a bit more, or (b) just put the money into e.g. hip replacements.
Antoine, waiting gets more waiting.
This is a no brainer, I have helped do a few solar installations over the last decade.
The maths stack up.
When I went off grid 12years ago, the cost (installed) was around 10-12$ a watt, now it is closer to $1.50 a watt.
The sooner they are up the sooner the benefits start to flow.
Even a home owner should be looking at this.
Nowadays the panels and inverter etc. can be taken with you if you leave. Although, it would make the house more attractive to purchase.
If the maths stack up then go for it. I’m not sure they stack up in this case. It may work out best if only schools in areas with high solar input are done.
Happy Talk.
My lovely grandchildren will not have to put up with National Standards any more – especially the 5 year old whose teacher will be ecstatic 🙂
It’s not a strong list, is it?
As Patrick Gower has said, this is not an impressive opposition.
“I also want to come up with a different analysis to many people, regarding the National Party. All this talk about it being this great big strong Opposition because it’s got such big numbers is actually a bit of nonsense.
“The key word in all of that is ‘Opposition’. National has no power – it has no friends.
“It’s on 44 percent and it has absolutely maxxed that out, due to a sublime performance by Bill English on the campaign trail and a scare campaign that was actually based on a couple of really big lies.”
Gower said there was no clear path back into power for National, due to its lack of coalition partners.
“National has got nowhere to go, in my view, above 44 percent,” he said.
Interesting from Gower. He always seemed to have the inside running with Labour centrists/careerists when they leaked stuff against the more strongly left wing leaders like Cunliffe.
So, now Gower is going with Team Ardern. Not sure that’s a good recommendation, as I think Gower wll support a centrist Labour-led government, but not anyone strongly left like Turei (who he went after with a vengeance).
I read the Wireless piece and had to think “is that the best you’ve got?” And the answer is yes.
I’ve always been pleased to have English and Bennett at the head of the National Party. They highlight National’s lack of talent, ability and integrity. And there’s very little of substance lining up behind them.
I see a group of people with baggage and skeletons. I wonder who the national voters would prefer as leader? I think english is over it/not into it anymore.
Just watching paula and Mr Twyford on tv3, she’s very excited about having some more time to spend on herself.
Yes Nikki Kaye is the only choice National could have made, – as she has a softer side as they desperately need to counter our warm jacinda they must know.
Also all the other ladies in contention in Nationals lineup are combative nasty charaters.
Nikki Kaye is somewhat a warmer character than any of the other choice they had available to them.
The time for hard politics is now over well and truly.
So look for Bill to now step aside as Andrew did nicely for labour to get us all the new queen of our hearts, Jacinda.
‘there’s going to be a lot of fucked off people in the near future’. I’m sure there are a lot of nasties plotting behind closed doors right now, waiting for their moment to hatch their devious little plots – bring it on! (such fun!)
“there’s going to be a lot of fucked off people in the near future, you want someone with a bit of fire who can channel that anger …[t]he person who ticks that box is Judith Collins”
Or a small number of very, very f*cked off people who have suffered some erosion of their unearned wealth and privilege and then turn to Judith Collins for salvation, but instead experience derision and failure.
Please list Collins’ achievements over the last 9 years, also her perfidy.
In a similar number of weeks Jacinda Ardern got her party into contention, and then through good negotiation skill into parliament with a workable plan.
What is airy-fairy about that?
Judith Collins is too close to Dirty politics Whale oil and schemes to get like minded horrors into the National Party.
That you admire her tells us a great deal about your values.
Even Peters gets that it is time for a new guard… hence the 37 yr old PM instead of the English Lit graduate who jas been sucking at the public teat for over 30 years.
I think your right, however Bill English gained the highest party vote so please show respect Bill will get up again. You know third time lucky and all.
@ Cleangreen (3.4) … I’d love Bingles to step aside. For his deputy, the ghastly Bennett woman to take over National. That move would guarantee Natz completely unelectable.
I wonder if Paula is still paying her lawyers to make sure her shady past is kept in the distant past? Not a good look, having a leader with a bit of dodgy history.
As for Nikki Kaye. I doubt she comes anywhere near our Jacinda for genuine warmth, humanity and character. She’s a Natz politician, remember!
Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros claims in a new lawsuit that former senator Scott Brown made sexually inappropriate comments to her while on set and put his hands on her lower waist.
[…]
Tantaros asserts halfway through the 37-page suit that Brown, while appearing on her show “Outnumbered” in August 2015, “made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set.”
She claims that he told her, “in a suggestive manner,” that she “would be fun to go to a nightclub with.”
“After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist,” the lawsuit says. “She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to ‘stop.’ ”
It’s a euphamism and got zero to do with a nightclub.
I also note bush senior from his wheelchair is a bit that way inclined from recent reports – good this is all coming out and shows just how widespread this shit is.
Some unscrupulous individuals target high profile people .I note these euphemistic advances were made in 2015.Since then Fox have made many deserved payouts to disgruntled employees subjected to unwanted attention by various media figures.
Sometimes things can go too far.The procreation of the human race would be in danger if social intercourse is outlawed as a pre cursor to sexual intercourse.No male could make an approach for fear of being categorised as engaging in inappropriate conduct.’Good morning,you’re looking lovely today’!How dare you,you chauvinistic,sexist ,potential nuisance.
There are many and varied ways both sexes can indicate they want or are seeking sex or a potential lovers. Unasked for or unwanted or unexpected lines are designed for the perp not the person being addressed. The power is uneven and abused in the later scenario imo.
Well these are things you learn as you grow up and as I have thankfully no idea of your sexual preferences, attitudes or even what gender you may identify with it would be inappropriate for me to offer ideas to you. If you have friends perhaps ask them or even Google it.
Finding a willing sexual partner requires a certain amount of social competence. This includes recognising various power relationships and whether the other person is just trying to do their job.
If you can’t handle it, better go for celibacy rather than risking sexually assaulting someone. When I’m drunk, I try to avoid “flirting”, because when I’m drunk I don’t have the social competence to recognise when it might be inappropriate.
Are you saying if men cannot be the definers of what is “flirtation” the race dies? I sure as hell hope you meant something that paints men as having more self control and dignity than that.
If her case relies on those very mild attempts at flirtation…
If you’re under the impression that sneaking up behind women and putting your hands on them is a “mild attempt at flirtation,” review your definitions before you end up getting arrested.
Mike Hosking: Petrol tax is just the beginning” HZHerald headline
Well after many years of 50-70k net migration, and the dramatic increase of tourist numbers. How is the underfunding of infrastructure suppose to happen?
There are a few cases within coys I have worked in, where to “make the books” look good maintenance is halted and expenditure that has a future benefit is delayed, staff numbers downsized. So you have a year or 2 of great profits then a slide those that implemented the policy leave (with banked incentives) and the new regime is brought in to attend to this new problem !! Sounds familiar ???
Some are quick to decry this but what other solutions are there ?
There are a few cases within coys I have worked in, where to “make the books” look good maintenance is halted and expenditure that has a future benefit is delayed, staff numbers downsized.
Yep, been in a few companies like that myself. It seems endemic to the neo-liberal capitalists. They don’t seem to realise that to have a viable business/society stuff has to be built, that it’s impossible to continue on what was done before. But that’s what our business people and National do.
If Andrew Little had been sworn in as PM yesterday, the imagery of a 50-something guy in a suit replacing a 50-something guy in a suit would have been “meh.” But the symbolism of the new PM as a young woman walking up Parliament’s steps hand-in-hand with two small children? No amount of National-party donor funding could buy that, because it was real. Allow yourself to feel good about this, because that shit is going to be hard for National to beat.
Exactly how I saw it – the response was more like that expected for a princess – loved it – keep having tearful moments.
It’s strange, isn’t it, how you get so used to pain and then it stops – wow!!
I feel so relieved and a bg weight has now been lifted off my shoulders after nine years of very stressful worry is suddenly beginning to leave me.
My focus now is getting our rail to Gisborne restored now after five long apprehensive years without any rail and truck gridlock while everyone else got their rail fixed only northland and HB/Gisborne got left out.
@JanM – being there, it certainly did feel like that! I was tearful too. It was such a nice atmosphere – there was a sense of butterflies seeking the light after nine years of darkness! I was making friends with strangers all around me, and I managed to give the lovely Tamati Coffey a hug 🙂
+ 1 yep puts the awe in awesome and the zing in amazing.
Hard to believe those very challenging times before Andrew stepped down were real because the world has changed so much. But they were real and we held the line and have been rewarded with a change that seems to be an actual change. I suspect under this new government non voters will fall as people especially the young see this change. Part of our role is to keep encouaging people to enrol and get involved. Still many issues to deal with in our society and now we have the ability to improve and even eliminate those issues.
Talking of Andrew Little… he’s looking on top of the world. He’s got the portfolios he wanted and he’ll be a top-notch minister. So pleased for him because he deserves it.
I see AL quite frequently Anne as we live in the same suburb, go to the same supermarket etc and he looked dreadful the day after he handed over to Jacinda. Since then he has lost years in the way he looks and is bouncing around the place with a spring in his step. In talking to him the week after the election, he had all faith that Labour would win through in the end. I – and I know others – have thanked him to his face for what he did in bringing the factions within the Labour parliamentary arm together before handing over to Jacinda. If this had not happened, then IMO Labour would have stood no chance despite Jacinda’s skills
I have no doubt that he will do well with the portfolios he has got; and he will probably get a little ‘background’ and ‘advice’ from myself and others around here that have worked in some the particular Ministries and Departments involved. Some could sorely do with his management/leadership skills. LOL
Interestingly, Chris Finlayson was interviewed the day the portfolios were announced and he spoke of… being delighted that Little had been given the
Justice, Treaty and Intelligence portfolios because he knows he has the skills to do the job well and will be a safe pair of hands . (words to the effect anyway.)
My wife commented that he looked much happier when she saw him on the news the other night. It must suck on a personal level to have everyone saying you did the right thing by stepping down as leader, but being the leader sure looked like it was shortening his lifespan. I wish him all the best as a cabinet minister.
It spoke volumes to me that he stayed on. Many in his position bugger off as though if they cant be the big cheese they aint interested. I am glad he stayed and glad he telinquished the leadership. There are lots of ways to be a leader
Jacinda is so real and warm and speaks to people as if they matter. The Nats so often just wanted to slap people down and have them shut up and go away. She also knows it won’t be easy, there will be mistakes and bad days, but I think she is smart enough to be up-front with the public when that happens. The grey clouds have lifted from NZ today and those not on the top rungs of the ladder have a government for them.
The size of the crowd at Parliament said it all. A wonderful atmosphere, even Paddy Gower was affected!
What strikes me is that the gathered crowd is made up of a huge diversity. Racially, gender, age ranges are all there. (My impression of National gatherings was of grey heads and mostly white older folk. Look at National Party pics.) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937114
We all feel the jacinda magic here, and we wondered what jacinda’s mum meant when in August the press interviewed her in the islands she said jacinda was a “very special person”.
Does mark Richardson practise being a total dick or does it come naturally? He comes across as mentally and intellectually underdeveloped. Garner should kick him off his show. He’s a bluddy liability with a Trump tan.
Not really. Purely accidental. It was on st my daughters house. I just don’t see why he is able to use his position on the am show to make detrimental comments about the Labour Party.
People have lauded her warmth , speaking naturally fro a level of consciousness that’s not busy filtering verbal output through a screen of caution and conditioning which fits the dialogue to the long established habit of maintaining the spin-generated paradigm.
Kindness? Its something as a nation we could/should embrace more fully to give substance and follow-through to the new government’s commitment.
An investigation this year by the National Association of Scholars, an independent body of academics in the US, recommended the immediate severing of universities’ ties with the institutes, which often grant students credits towards their degrees. Campuses made too many concessions to accept Institute funding, the report found, resulting in entanglement between the Institutes and host universities’ operations.
It appears things like educational freedom are now for sale by cash strapped facilities.
Mike Hosking “You can’t bump the minimum wage telling us that 16 bucks is not enough to live on and then hit us with a car tax. There is no point in making life cheaper one day and more expensive the next.”
Can’t? Who says? Why not? For most $4 more in hourly wages and 10 cents extra for a litre of petrol would leave them ahead of the game financially. For those out of AKL petrol will not increase in price but they will get a real wage increase. The vast majority will be better off, and Aucklanders will stand a chance of having a cheaper, convenient, and quicker way of getting to the airport.
And it is not like the petrol tax is simply evaporating into thin air – it is building infrastructure, so you aren’t “poorer” – it is simply swapping one asset (cash) for another (better shared transport infrastructure).
Hosking is a numbskull with as much insight as a road cone.
If a tax (or its rate – or any other policy for that matter) gives poor social or community outcomes, then it should be looked at.
People who have a general gut hatred of tax are often short of any evidence that tax is generally and inherently harmful. Often tax leads to a lot of good.
As successful countries have a State share of the economy between 40 and 65%, there is a lot of room to move. (Ours is 30% and you can see the effects in our run down towns and infrastructure).
The first post-election poll will be interesting. Now that Labour / Green / NZ1 policies and people are in the public spotlight, I think the worm may have really turned (plus the “back a winner” effect).
Won’t mean much in the long term, but will be interesting.
Read yesterday’s comments about Joyce this morning and thought , I wonder what the TS regulars are saying about him today? Nothing , really come on don’t let him of the hook so easily .
How about we start a fund to buy Joyce a new shovel, or even better , a digger, so that he can keep digging bigger holes for his nasty anti-Labour ideas to drop into and maybe he will also.
Just thinking.
I oppose work for dole schemes – please labour and greens do not let this happen. As Sue Bradford on fbook says
“It would be an utter betrayal of employed & unemployed workers alike if the new govt supports this. I hope Labour & Greens will knock any prospect of workfare on the head immediately. ‘Yes’ to full waged, useful job creation – ‘no’ to forced, ununionised work.”
Let’s address the real problem and not sticky plaster an outdated and demeaning pretend solution please.
I think it’s great, get all those left-wing slackers out there panting pines in the middle of nowhere, good character building stuff.
As they’re toiling away in the hot sun or cold winters, they can all sing songs about doing their bit for the collective and how great this left-wing government is for giving them an opportunity to contribute.
Yep you would say that wouldn’t you. You don’t care about anyone except yourself – not the young, not the old, not the disadvantaged and sure as hell not Māori – bet you hogg the remote too eh cuz. Sad.
The new government has pledged to double the size of a six-week programme for young jobseekers run by the NZ Defence Force and Ministry of Social Development. It’s been dubbed a “boot camp”. David Fisher went inside.
yeah, sorry, I thought it would be obvious what the trolling stuff was. It’s in the previous comment, I just used that latter one because of the time flow.
That’s what my father-in-law did after returning from WW2 having contracted TB from service in the Arctic convoys and also being torpedoed in Tarranto harbour.
Acknowledgements to your father-in-law mac1 who along with many other New Zealanders toiled to plant and manage our state forests that were eventually sold by Roger Douglas and the New Right neoliberals to foreign buyers for a song.
BM is ignorant of the fact that the forests are no longer owned by us, and thinks that its morally OK for corporate foreign interests to extract personal gain by means of our Government making people work in similar circumstances as your father, but without a real wage or the satisfaction that they are doing something for the benefit of their country.
BM is a nasty troll, but his idea might work if the forests were nationalised and offered work to people again – and in doing so recognised not just the value of the timber but the intrinsic value in the workers and the social communities that would build around such a revitalised industry.
Why have workers for regular wage that the company will have to pay when the same company can hire workers at the local WINZ offce for the cost of the dole – cost of the dole comes courtesy of the tax payer.
This is my issue that i have with ‘working for the dole’.
> Why have workers for regular wage that the company will have to pay when the same company can hire workers at the local WINZ offce for the cost of the dole
That might not be how it would work. They might only be working in areas that didn’t compete with paid jobs.
Yes, improve pay and conditions at workplaces, and offer abundant free education and training. If there remains a shortage of jobs, the taxpayer should fund other useful employment (there is loads that can be usefully done – infrastructure work, conservation work, expand hospital services etc).
After doing the above, I doubt there would be any problem remaining that required boot camps / workhouses.
i don’t think we have a shortage of jobs its just that we don’t want to pay for these jobs.
We are going to force people to work for what 250$ benefit per week all the while we raise the min wage to $ 20? And i thought that the right to the dole is essentially a service that is prepaid by the taxes the government collect. I.e. one pays taxes that fund these programmes to have access to them in case of unemployment, sickness etc. So we fund them in the first place and then we ‘work for them’? IS that even legal? And would government then be found to undercut wages with its ‘dole for work’ scheme if businesses found it more lucrative to let go of its $20 a min wage staff and then hire the newly unemployed on the ‘work for dole’ scheme? Does anyone else see the bullshittery?
Also, costs of transport, lunches, work clothes etc are also covered by the ‘government’ or is the ‘worker for the dole’ to be responsible for these costs and is to take them out of their 250$ per week living allowance? Also will a permit needed to live under a bridge and how much will it cost to apply for such a permit? Same for dumpster diving?
that then would not be ‘working for the dole’?
Yeah, i would like to see some more feedback on this. I personally believe that this ‘working for dole/subsidizing a boss for his staff’ should only apply to people that would have a really hard time getting employed.
It should not be used say for a cafe that wants a ‘less then minimum wage cost’ baristas and kitchen staff and thus only hires people on the subsidy and then will fire said staff once the subsidy has run its course. – this is what i have heard coming is happening in the UK.
Fantastic surfy hair for someone whose had a bullet travel inside their head for 7 centimetres a couple of days ago. Can’t see much restriction of head movement either, you would think it would be quite sore still.
Yeah and the doctor worked around the hair on the back of his head because it was just too beautiful to touch. I have a large head injury here and lots of blood loss but I will perform surgery or stitch up his head without touching the flowing locks, because it’s so much easier do deal with wounds with this long mass of matted hair in my way. Oh, and make sure its shampooed before he goes to media and I’ll make sure no bandages will be visible.
In the video, he talks about the bullet going into the back of his head and exiting 3 inches away. I’ll guess that’s in the fleshy bit of the back of the neck below the base of the skull. Where you wouldn’t see it from the front even if the doctors had shaved quite a lot around the wounds. So it’s a crowded field, but those comments from maui really are in the front-running for most fuckwitted comments on The Standard ever.
Might have skipped around the outside of the skull a wee bit – ballistics get complicated when spinning objects meet hard spheres, even if it’s not a ricochet.
In the first few seconds of the clip he said that it grazed his skull under the skin. Relatively clean. Reminds me of George Orwell’s comment about being shot in the throat by a sniper in the Spanish Civil War – he was a tall man, so if he’d been normal height, he would have been killed.
Might have skipped around the outside of the skull a wee bit…
Punctured the skin but didn’t go through the skull. The skin and flesh then keeping the bullet close for a short time.
And, yeah, there’d be a hell of a lot of blood even though it’d a somewhat minor wound in itself – head wounds bleed profusely – ask anyone who’s cut themselves shaving. Big one would be the concussion and bruising that follows.
oh yeah, defs on the blood. I’ve been first responder to a couple of head cuts – nothing serious but they still bled disproportionately. Much more than a finger cut to the bone (lol that one was mine, unfortunately)
Ok, so we’re resorting to guesses on where he got shot, I guess we have to do that when we’ve got great views of the front, left and right side of his head and there is no sign of… anything. If he was wounded in the fleshy part of the neck (even though we can see that part from a side on view) it would be painful to turn his head like he does to his girlfriend in the clip – and he does it unflinchingly and quickly.
Anyway the clincher is the interview of the second survivor at the bottom of the story. The interview is so ridiculous, if you believe that you’ll believe anything I spose.
You’re using the term “grazing” to explain why we don’t see more of an injury. He clearly says in the video that the bullet entered, “grazed his skull” and then exited 3 inches later. He also says there was shitloads of blood. To a non-expert that doesn’t appear to me to be a grazing shot.
Ok, my guess was wrong about where the bullet hit. There’s a photo of the wounds at 0:55 in the video that’s part of the “escaped” AP link in the third paragraph of the Guardian article.
A couple of people on here have said what Mike Hosking wants. I’ve read some of his recent articles including his “Petrol tax is just the beginning.”
I know he doesn’t want public transport. I think he wants attention. Maybe he would get a lot of attention if he said what he thought the answers were to the growth and infrastructural problems of the city and region.
He is the sniper taking shots at the ideas of anyone who has ideas and solutions. He attacks those who have the heavy responsibility of coming up with solutions in an environment which seemingly is impossible.
Mike Hosking, step forward with your plans for developing Auckland, coping with the growth and infrastructural problems and how you would have those funded.
Or do you only care enough to rant and rave and bleat about how things affect you? You, only one of about 1.6 million.
Yes Roger me and you have something in common we have both got strong voices and you are a leader at the Rock 25 year’s Good work just because we back different Gov party’s don’t mean we can’t have a laugh together ka pai. I heard you guys talk about dangerous encounters one has had I’v had a few but here’s a funny one with me and my step dad we were fishing it was about 9 am and I spotted a large Bull killer whale I was watching him for about 15 minutes the step dad was in the bunk asleep as far as I new well i went on deck to watch the Killer whale with his huge dorsal fin bent over that’s how I new he was a bull as well as being huge .well I heard this yelp from my step dad what I did not see was he had shot out the back of the boat to go toilet and in those days one just sat on the bulwarks and did your business . Well my step dad did not no the whale was around and while he was doing his business the Bull killer whale had popped up about 5 mtr away from were my step dad was doing his business he got a hell of a fright and nearly fell in the drink fuck I laugh my ass off he was pale and shaken he was a humorous man so he handled my fit of laughter .Before I started fishing I had sleep problems the mind going 100 mile a hour well working 20 hour’s straight when one is 14 soon eliminates the sleeping problem .So I had no problems sleeping till I was 21 when I was told something that turn my world up side down we had one child at the time so I tried the natural sleep remedy I had tryed it once before and it did not impress me but this time it was not just sleep I was stressed out .
Well It worked this time and stress levels dropped and hay It is something Mother Earth gave us so I thought no big deal well that not how the system see it this is how most Maori see the subject I have stopped many times when life is good. But when external factors out of my control are stressing me out well I go buy my medicine .
Now let’s look at It from a different angle which I say can kill 2 bird’s with one stone is that OUR agricultural exports are at a guest 20 Billon and this is our main income earner . So we can end up the creak with out a paddle if our bio security is breached by many millions of these threats ot our agricultural exports so I say this is a national
security risk and should be taken very very seriously as this is our main weakness as some farmers have pointed out .And we need to pour a lot of resources in to minimizing this risk as it will be a lot cheaper than the disaster that will happen if we don’t in vest in minimizing this risk now. How are we going to pay for this extra vigilant boarder security we need . Well I say we are pissing billions of dollar’s on controlling an medical product and spending billion’s locking up people whom with a bit of guidance and help will be good productive citizens . So I say lets take all the resources we waste on this dum ass fight and use them to protect our National security this is a cheap and innovative why to Insure we have a Healthy happy wealthy FUTURE enough said Kia Kaha lets do this
eco maori
Please put double spacing between paragraphs and have paragraphs where it’s all about the same thought. Then a couple of enters and the next one. Otherwise it’s too hard to read. And it is surprising how long it takes to put all those words and thoughts down as in No.19.
Eco maori
I’m interested and want to both write and read here and that takes time from things I have promised to do for others and things I should be doing for me. So time is short for me and for you, and if you are going to be moved to write please cut it into bits so others mind can sort it and take it in. Otherwise as Andre says I’ll just skip it.
Reminds me I am often writing about something and explaining my point of view. CV used to tell me TLDR (too long didn’t read). He used to throw
remarks like that around. Very hurtful but true! He didn’t have time for fools.
“Over the next 30 years, the number of people living in Auckland is expected to increase by up to one million – mostly due to natural population growth. Along with this comes the need to expand and improve Auckland’s transport system.”
“MYTH ONE: Here we go again, this ‘million more people’ myth and urban legend is now being regurgitated as a primary underpinning reason to expand Auckland transport infrastructure,” says Auckland Mayoral candidate, Penny Bright.
“No disrespect, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that the use of the Department of Statistics ‘high’ population growth projections, ( the one million more people coming to Auckland in the next 30 years), instead of their recommended ‘medium’ population growth projections, is now being investigated by the Social Services Select Committee?”
Requesting that Parliament declines to proceed with the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill until the lawfulness of the reliance of Auckland Council on the New Zealand Department of Statistics’ “high”population growth projections, instead of their “medium” population growth projections for the Auckland Spatial Plan, has been properly and independently investigated, taking into consideration that both Auckland Transport and Watercare Services Ltd, have relied upon “medium” population growth projections for their infrastructural asset management plans.
Petition number: 2011/64
Presented by: Holly Walker
Date presented: 30 May 2013
Referred to: Social Services Committee
__________________________
” How about checking with a ‘fine-tooth comb’ EXACTLY where Auckland Council (and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) rates monies are currently being SPENT, and cutting back rates SPENDING?”
“No disrespect intended, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that Auckland Council ‘books’ are still not open, and citizens and ratepayers do not know exactly how much public rates monies are being spent on private ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ consultants and contractors?”
“No disrespect intended, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that in an an Auckland Council Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) reply dated 21 November 2011:
(QUESTION)
“1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ way, going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the
‘devilish’ detail, so we can see exactly where our rates monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
2) a) .Are the names of the consultants/contractors; the scope, term and value of these contracts going to be published in the Auckland Council Annual Report so that they are available for public scrutiny?
b) if not- why not?
(ANSWER)
Not at this stage. There are 5,000, contracts related to 12,500 suppliers. To collate and pub!ish these would be a major exercise logistically and cost~wise. ….. ”
“Did the ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group investigate how much public money could be freed up to serve the interests of the public majority, (including Auckland transport funding), by CUTTING OUT THE CONSULTANTS and PRIVATE CONTRACTORS, and returning core Council services ‘in-house’?
“If there is no ‘cost-benefit’ analysis which proves that private provision of Council services is more cost-effective for the public majority, then as an Auckland Mayoral candidate, I believe that this long-term corporate welfare must cease forthwith.”
” My recommendation is that citizens and ratepayers in the Auckland region do your own ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. Since this so-called Auckland ‘$upercity’ was forced upon the Auckland region, have YOUR rates gone up or down?”
“See? The public majority of the Auckland region have been ‘CONNED’ by the CONsultants, and the CONtractors, and those who serve their interests – arguably the NZ Property Council and the Committee for Auckland,”
“As an Auckland Mayoral candidate – this is where I stand:
NO road tolls/ fuel taxes or rates increases to fund Auckland transport infrastructure.
Open the books.
Cut out all the consultants and contractors who are effectively on ‘corporate welfare’.
Get rid of these ‘corporate-controlled’ CCOs, with their appointed Boards of arguably self-serving business people.
Bring core Council services back ‘in-house’, and employ Council Officers who have a ‘public service’ background and ethos, not private sector functionaries who are now running Auckland Council as if it were their own private company.
Take back public ownership, operation and control of Auckland passenger transport.
Why should the public subsidise what we no longer own?
Change the uniforms and the business cards, and Auckland Council take back operation and management of Auckland Rail, from French multinational Transdev, (formerly known as Veolia Transport Auckland)
Use public monies for the benefit of the public majority, not the private sector, particularly multi-national corporations.”
– Nope, we really are going into the accelerated population growth phase here. Well documented . So you are wrong there.
– Nope, Auckland Transport’s books are fully open already. Some stuff during commercial negotiations is confidential and always will be. You will already have noticed too that the Minister has taken immediate steps to ensure more efficient use of taxpayer money by preparing to cancel the East-West expressway and redeploy it to light rail. So you are wrong there.
– Road tolls are not the only source of funding – in fact most of the funding will be debt financed through bonds, which are in turn serviced by the property owners from the new developments that the finding is used for. That is what the Minister has already indicated. So you are wrong there.
Wrong on all counts so far.
You have never got elected or even close, never been appointed to anything, and your one useful task has been the application of the Public Records Act, other than that you have had no influence on society at all.
But that is the record you always fail to disclose.
Harsh Ad
I hope that no-one will have cause to say similar to you. Penny does try to draw people’s attention to matters of concern. But according to you her points are not correct. It is good that you indicated which ones. But you didn’t need the sting at the end.
Your background apparently makes you very wise and invulnerable to criticism.
Hi Penny, I found this very difficult to follow – but I think I can support and like the core of your message. Perhaps a more minimal style may help communicate your message more effectively 🙂
From the link-‘Brown is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit’so its mischievious ,unsubstantiated ,hearsay.
Her statement about our limited on-air, green-room interactions are false,” Brown said. “There were never any circumstances of any kind whatsoever in which I had any interaction with her or any other employee at Fox, outside the studio.”-The bits Joe90,left out.
Zorb6
Could you give some foundation for your comment about Joe90, the number, date etc. so that your comment has some connection to something that others can check out.
I know there’s some consternation about a potential work for the dole scheme, but Labour has a policy to employ young NEETs for 6 months at minimum wage on various community projects (DOC was mentioned at the time), so hopefully any work schemes will be along those lines. Planting trees is an excellent opportunity there.
It should be work for the dole plus. After starting in a scheme and working at something that shows results, there would be monthly talks with immediate bosses with work reviewed and with a reasonable record, they start receiving wage rises, small but steady. A feeling of being valued and recognition of effort and higher skills acquired would buck up quite a few. Also a willingness by government to pay for vocational training at that stage, with firms willing to give them jobs. The more people working and earning a better wage, the more money circulating, the more employment. We could start being a good place to live for the strugglers.
What we want to do is restore the right that all workers should have in New Zealand to be able to bargain collectively if they choose to,” Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said.
Restoring peoples rights to them. This is a Good Thing.
Employment lawyer Megan Richards advises the industry and says there are real reservations about repealing the law.
“It would change how the industry’s been operating for the last seven odd years and I think there’s acknowledgment that it would put our film industry in threat,” she told 1 NEWS.
The well paid people in the industry don’t like it and don’t seem to realise that it’s actually just making the law apply equally to everyone.
I want repeals of laws affecting the film and creative industries, to help NZs get jobs that pay fairly but not ones that lessen the amount of work we can get here, and create here, and the money that we receive here we want to stay here in NZ.
Unions have to box clever, not just demand wages now because they have better somewhere else, and they have to work with the firms, and if not with, find a way to work the firms and the system to turn out the product and get a share of the profits, a bonus, a payment into a company that will make pilot features, something that always leads into something else.
I have been looking up the story of the 9 year old autistic boy who was held down while others fired a BB gun at him. The parents weren’t told about it and didn’t know until some crappy message was put on Facebook with a picture of it. The Principal advised the boy apparently to avoid theo ther boys and go to the library or whatever, an d the perpetrators were allowed b ack to school on a strict contract.
In Nelson some one with a snitcher on the Principal has been graffiting something about him on the school. The Deputy Principal in trying to prevent some little shit from pulling his trousers down, apparently the latest craze of the dilettantes at Nelson College, knocked the boys face and swore at him (What are you bloody doing etc. might be a phrase I’d be likely to use). It seems that this is regarded as very terrible for a teacher to do, but I don’t know if the boy/s is being charged with assault. No doubt this boy has parents that vote for the National Party, which follows a practice of not having respect for anybody. People like that are likely to send their kids to a good (boarding?) school as they can’t be spending their time with their children teaching them to be good people. Where is the money in that?
While looking at Tauranga Boys College and other Tauranga schools I notice a new private one, with a purpose built campus, and promoting itself as being the bees knees. The advert is dated 2017, and it is part of a group with others.* I can’t really identify it as it has adopted that crap practice used too often these days, just giving itself letters for a legal definition followed by Ltd. There is no meaning to letters, not unless they are used as a logo for a full name that is provided!
The facilities sound superior to state schools:
Purpose-built campus
Our campus features a brand new sports complex equipped for multiple sports including badminton, basketball, netball and futsal. Alongside this we have traditional outdoor rugby and soccer fields. The campus also boasts state-of-the-art learning facilities including science labs, multi-purpose areas, music and art rooms.
I see Roy Morgan gone done a poll – but quite out of date because was conducted before Winston made his announcement and the government formed. I suspect things are changing rapidly right now.
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The following was released yesterday (Tues, October 8) by the women’s liberation organisation Speak Up for Women. On 23 September Speak Up For Women announced that we would be holding an event at the Massey University Theaterette in Wellington. The event is called Feminism 2020. The intention of the event ...
The government is currently consulting on plans to improve freshwater quality. So naturally, farmers oppose it:South Taranaki farmers are preparing to fight proposed national freshwater changes that some fear will bankrupt them. The Government's proposed National Environment Standard on Freshwater Management, released in September, rated the Waingongoro River as one ...
Yesterday was the last day for (reliably) posting your vote away in local body elections. Turnouts are mostly much lower than the equivalent time last year (Palmerston North is down 2.3%), and so naturally people are pushing their online-voting snake oil again. Because the online census worked so well, lets ...
This essay, on the political legacy of the eugenics movement, by Kenan Malik was originally published in the Observer on 6 October 2019, under the headline ‘The spirit of eugenics is still with us, as immigrants know to their cost’. Birth control. Intelligence tests. Town planning. Immigration controls. It’s striking how ...
Another year, and the government has announced another enormous government "surplus". And just like last year, its nothing of the sort. When we have people homeless and sick and hungry, when we have schools and hospitals still falling down, when we have underpaid public servants and infrastucture unmaintained or unbuilt, ...
James Forsyth at The Spectator (I know, I know) has tapped one of his contacts inside Number Ten for an insight into the Johnson administration's thinking and strategy.It is fascinating, unsettling and quite, quite mad. Some key points:Negotiations have stalled and the Johnson administration are keen to blame the EU: ...
Fatal Contact: With the arrival of captain James Cook in October 1769, the islands of what would become New Zealand ceased to be the preserve of Polynesian navigators and settlers and became a part of both the world’s map and the world’s history.THE MAORI NATIONALIST assault upon the historical meaning ...
Another round of tactical talks about forming a Government of National Unity have come to nothing with the Liberal Democrats still refusing countenance putting Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street:Opposition talks on Monday made little headway over when to try and vote down Boris Johnson's government and who might succeed him as ...
by Nick Rogers The debate around the meaning of sex and gender made an appearance at this year’s British Labour Party conference in Brighton. Women’s Place UK – an organisation that questions the demand that biological males who self-identify as woman should have access to women’s spaces, to all-women shortlists, ...
Yesterday I went down to Wellington to participate in the Extinction Rebellion protest. Its part of the latest global wave of XR actions, with actions happening all over the world. Some of those protests are massively disruptive: in Canada, XR is blocking major bridges, stopping people from getting to work. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
A six-member independent working group selected the option of moving Auckland’s port to Northport, in Whangarei, ahead of other options. In what could be New Zealand’s most ambitious infrastructure project yet, a major expansion of the Marsden Point port could happen within 15 years. The project, officially called the “Upper ...
The final Electricity Price Review recommended prohibiting prompt payment discounts but allowing “reasonable” late fees. The findings of this review was welcomed by the Coalition Government, but they hope companies will follow through with its recommendations without regulations needed to be passed. Meridian Energy had already stopped prompt payment discounts, ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF)through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi,will invest nearly $600,000 to ensure work opportunities for locals in Turangia and Whanganui, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “I’m pleased to announce the PGF ...
An export-led economy is one of New Zealand First’s key principles, and our commitment to achieving this is shown by the continuing skyrocketing demand for our beef and sheep meat exports. Beef + Lamb New Zealand's New Season Outlook 2019-20 report forecasts beef, lamb and mutton prices to lift from ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today in Gisborne an investment of $17.27m into bringing “world-leading” food-growing technology and the creation of more than 100 new jobs in the East Coast city. The funding comes from the Provincial Growth Fund, and included a $15 million loan to LeaderBrand, a ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development More than 100 people in Tairāwhiti’s Tolaga Bay will benefit from two employment initiatives supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today. “Tolaga Bay is an incredibly tight-knit community, but one in ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is supporting Gisborne business Leaderbrand to produce salad vegetables year round and create more jobs in the Tairāwhiti region, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Our support for Leaderbrand will help them build large greenhouses ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has praised the promise by New Zealand’s biggest banks not to close any provincial branches while the Coalition Government trials regional banking hubs across the country. The Minister said the announce was the “first sign of hope for regional communities”, many of which have ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First is proud to have delivered an upgrade of the SuperGold Card website and a new smartphone app, which will help unlock the full benefits of the SuperGold Card for 750,000 New Zealand seniors.Party Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters, ...
Delivering a key election campaign promise, New Zealand First is proud to have accomplished a long overdue upgrade of the SuperGold Card today. At an event in Auckland, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters joined Minister for Seniors Hon. Tracey Martin in unveiling the new website and smartphone app which ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand continues to have serious concerns for peace and stability in north-east Syria. “Recent reports that hundreds of ISIS-affiliated families have fled from a camp are deeply concerning from a humanitarian and security perspective”, Mr Peters says. “While we acknowledge Turkey’s domestic security ...
Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor is warning travelling Kiwis to be vigilant as the high-season for the crop-eating brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is under way. “We’re on high alert to stop BMSB arriving in NZ. The high season runs until April 30 and we’ve strengthened our measures to stop stink ...
The Government is moving swiftly to change the law to improve the welfare and pastoral care of students living in university halls of residence and other tertiary hostels. Cabinet has agreed to several changes, including creating a new mandatory Code of Practice that sets out the duty of pastoral care ...
The Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage has launched a new comprehensive trapping guide for community trappers to help them protect our native birds, plants and other wildlife, at Zealandia in Wellington today. ‘A practical guide to trapping’, has been developed by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and was launched during ...
Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter welcomes PHARMAC’s move to improve access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARCs). PHARMAC has today announced it will fund the full cost of Mirena and Jaydess for anyone seeking long term contraception, lifting previous restrictions on access to Mirena. “I welcome women having greater choices ...
The Government has approved the next stage of a major redevelopment of Taranaki Base Hospital, which will deliver new and improved facilities for patients. Health Minister Dr David Clark has announced details of a $300 million dollar project to build a new East Wing at the New Plymouth hospital. It ...
Extra funding will allow Rural Support Trusts to help farming families, says Minister for Rural Communities and Agriculture Damien O’Connor. “I know that rural families are worried about some of the challenges facing them, including the ongoing uncertainty created by the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak. “Those concerns sit alongside ongoing worries ...
Thank you for the opportunity to be here to present certificates to the 16 graduates who have completed a beekeeping course delivered by the Howard League. Let us start by acknowledging Auckland Prison’s Deputy Prison Director Tom Sherlock, and Acting Assistant Regional Commissioner of Corrections Northern Region Scott Walker - ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves this weekend to attend the APEC Finance Ministers meeting in Santiago, Chile. Discussions between APEC Finance Ministers at the meeting will include the effects of the current global economic uncertainty, risks for APEC economies and sustainable development of the region. While at APEC Grant Robertson ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says for Pacific people, language can be a source of strength. It can help ground us and give us confidence. When we speak them, our languages provide us with an immediate and intimate access to our identity and our story - and ...
The Coalition Government has announced an action plan to improve the wellbeing of disabled New Zealanders by addressing inequalities in play, active recreation and sport. The initiative includes training to develop a workforce that understands the needs of children and young people with a range of impairments, advocacy for fit ...
The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act. “Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and ...
US justice reform activists Deborah Small and asha bandele say white supremacy and colonialism are at the heart of punitive drug laws. They spoke to Teuila Fuatai about how drug reform can reverse their effects on minority communities. Deborah Small sees Donald Trump as the US Dorian Gray. “He’s the physical ...
Madeleine Chapman spent a day learning about Christchurch through its most famous dishes.What is there do with with a day in Christchurch? Thanks to the inexplicably early check-out times at hotels all over the world and a 7pm flight back to Auckland, I had a full day to wander the ...
Winston Peters says his party is a handbrake on bad ideas and a "supercharged turbo" for good ones - but will it be in the driver's seat come 2020? ...
Our former prime minister secured a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping outside all normal diplomatic channels. Interest’s Jenée Tibshraeny asks what it means for New Zealand’s evolving relationship with the superpower.Former prime minister John Key secured a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week without the involvement of ...
David Robiecontinues his three-part series about travelling in Iran. I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out at the media, in particular, MediaWorks, just a day after the company announced it was selling off its television arm. ...
About a hundred disgruntled licensed gun owners have descended on the New Zealand First conference to tell the party leader Winston Peters that they feel like victims. ...
New Zealand First members will vote on a policy today that would allow businesses of all sizes to enforce 90-day trials when they employ people straight out of prison. ...
"Each time she held her lighter underneath the pipe and sucked the smoke into the back of her throat, the promise was there": a New Zealand tragedy by Alice Tawhai. ...
With the future of Mediaworks’ TV business hanging in the balance, Al Jazeera news presenter Kamahl Santamaria reflects on what the imperilled channel meant, and continues to mean, to him.I always liked the logo. The fresh bright colours, the nod to a koru in its shape, and just the fact ...
There are still many barriers preventing people from voting in local elections. Laura O’Connell Rapira proposes some social solutions.The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.To vote in the local elections, I cast ...
What’s really stood out for me being back in Tokyo is the unique qualities of Japan’s spectators, writes Richard Light, professor of sport coaching at the University of Canterbury.The Rugby World Cup has thrown a global spotlight on Japan over recent weeks. Not just the rugby: the distinctive culture and ...
As the New Zealand First Party gathers for its annual conference, the question swirling in the year is how it can carve out a path to avoid electoral defeat in 2020, writes Jo Moir for RNZ. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s a familiar break up excuse that’s used ...
To the early intervention therapists, to the teachers, to the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, music therapists, diabetes nurses and all: you change the world.When I was married almost a decade ago we had the following reading at our wedding:You are holding up a ceilingwith both arms. It is very ...
The faces said it all. The smiles of the European leaders crowded round Boris after the Brexit deal was struck. The deal his opponents – no, pretty much everyone – said was impossible.So what’s in it? The detail is still opaque, but subject to gremlins in the fine print, ...
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several weeks travelling in the country on sabbatical and finds the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra [embedded content]University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan discusses the week in politics with Michelle Grattan. They talk about Alan Jones accusing Prime Minister Scott Morrison of failing the immediate needs of drought-striken farmers, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Senior Research Fellow in Geometallurgy/Applied Geochemistry, The University of Queensland Last month, scientists uncovered a mineral called Edscottite. Minerals are solid, naturally occurring substances that are not living, such as quartz or haematite. This new mineral was discovered after an ...
The Auckland-based collective talk origins, ambitions and making the rave accessible to everybody.Friendly Potential is an outfit that defies easy summary. They’re among the country’s most ambitious and prolific club promoters. In their almost five-years of operation, they’ve been responsible for the local debuts of electronic music icons including Detroit ...
Analysis: Two polls show support for Labour sliding, the government is accused of breaking another promise and the Greens's refusal to back a bill forces Labour to rely on National to get it through. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kiera Lindsey, University of Technology Sydney One spring morning in 1850, over 8,000 Sydneysiders marched through town to protest the resumption of transportation – the act of sending British criminals to Australia. It was the largest protest in Australia thus far, an ...
Two shareholders of failed insurance firm company CBL are leading a class action against the firm's former directors seeking compensation for financial losses. ...
Sam Brooks recaps the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and wonders why some of these queens don’t know how to sew.This episode asks, and sort of answers the main question that millions of people across the world: why would you come on Drag Race and not know how to sew?!There ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John M Clarke, Team Leader, Regional Projections, CSIRO Last month we lost Dr Penny Whetton – one of the world’s most respected climate scientists and a brilliant mentor to the next generation of researchers. Penny will also be remembered as a passionate ...
Ten moose were upended into the Dusky Sounds in 1910. Now, their descendants are getting their day in the sun.The climate crisis is affecting wildlife all over the country: rockhopper penguin populations are in drastic decline, tuatara eggs aren’t hatching females, and the ice walls keeping predators away from kea ...
Security footage of NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell being thrown out of a Tauranga bar looks unlikely to ever be aired - despite his leader Winston Peters promising a screening. ...
Amnesty International is concerned that Justice Minister Andrew Little's Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill could have the potential to undermine human rights in New Zealand. The Bill would give the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to ...
Expect the old campaigner Winston Peters to be at his belligerent best as he gears up for another election. He’s kept his party alive for 27 years and he shows no sign of quitting. The omens may be bleak—polls this week showed his party below the 5% threshold– but Peters ...
The National Party has agreed to take down any videos breaching the current rules around the use of parliamentary TV footage, as all parties try to reach consensus. ...
Recently the Health Promotion Agency released a report into hazardous drinking in New Zealand. The report shows that Māori who drink alcohol and live in deprived circumstances are less likely to have a harmful relationship with alcohol if they ...
Turkey-US joint-statement on military ops within Syria’s territory.The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand issued Evening Report this unabridged United States of America-Republic of Turkey joint-statement detailing what both sides agreed to regarding Turkey’s military operations within the so-called security zone within Syrian territory near Turkey’s southern border. It is ...
Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash didn’t mention what winners will receive, when he proudly called for entries for a new public award “to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector”. Nor did he mention the cost to taxpayers of this initiative. Point of Order’s checks with the website where more details have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fiona R Martin, Senior Lecturer in Convergent and Online Media, University of Sydney One of the basic tenets of the ABC Act is independence from government. Yet once again, in contravention to that principle, the federal government is trying to push through ...
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway.modernity to globalisationwhen I get there as still life and landscape and also portraitureseeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globeslices of pie offer up the vision after the sermonexpressing emotions without coherent narrative supportbecause no artist responded to this callemploying ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Broadcasting Minister Kris Faafoi to rule out any taxpayer-funded purchase or bailout for Mediaworks’s channel Three. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “For the last few months Mediaworks ...
The Police Commissioner's announcement that squadcars of officers with automatic rifles will patrol New Zealand's streets is dangerous and unnecessary, according to the criminal justice community organisation People Against Prisons Aotearoa. The ...
News broke this morning that Mediaworks is seeking to sell off, and even contemplating closing, its TV division. What might that mean for journalism?For journalism in New Zealand, the loss of Three’s TV division is a devastating blow. It is not yet known whether any of the news properties will ...
In our defence of our coalition Government policy on climate change, we fully support Government plan to use rail funding for rail infrastructure upgrades to promote use rail infrastructure for freight around NZ. ...
The billions of tonnes of plastic in our oceans isn’t going away any time soon, but innovative companies here and abroad are working together to find silver linings to this daunting problem.Fishing boats head out to sea and set their nets. They go back to shore. They head back out, ...
An EveningReport.nz investigation by Kevin ListKiwibank services. Image by Kevin List.Evening Report looks into the separation of Kiwibank from New Zealand Post, and considers the impact on the public’s access to banking services in their communities.Kiwibank. What’s going on? Kiwibank and New Zealand Post are in the ...
Local Government New Zealand today confirmed what many local election commentators have observed; that more of the voting public cast their ballots in favour of women candidates than ever before. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington (this week we totted up the data a day early, on Wednesday, to let our books ed. ...
New Zealand's mineral manufacturing sector is expected to face some testing times, with softer prices, tighter margins and sluggish export markets. ...
Portugal has been painted by pro-cannabis legalisation groups as a model to follow. Yet just last month, the mayor of Porto contradicted his previous pro-harm reduction position and endorsed reintroducing criminal penalties for drug use in public spaces. ...
Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short announced today the inclusion of six Cook Island First World War soldiers in the New Zealand and Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s official rolls of honour. ...
The latest statistics released by the Health Promotion Agency showing a dramatic fall in the numbers of cigarettes being sold in supermarkets, service stations, and liquor stores are being welcomed by the Vaping Trade Association of New Zealand (VTANZ). ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.NZ First Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Where to from here? How NZ First will win in ...
Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE), a climate change network, will host a conference in Wellington on 11 November (Armistice Day) to promote holding a Citizens Assembly in 2020, as a way of breaking the current political deadlock on treating climate ...
MediaWorks’ owners have called time after years of losses from its TV division. Sources say the company will announce it is for sale – if no buyers emerge, it will close within months.Three is facing the biggest crisis in its three decade history today, as its ownership will soon announce ...
Sam Brooks reviews Amazon Prime’s Modern Love, an anthology series based on the New York Times column dedicated to ‘love in all its forms’. A first date that ends up in the emergency room. A flagging marriage that finds new energy through tennis. The founder of a dating app who doesn’t ...
If we want to grow support for New Zealand’s aid, we need to get better at partnering with the ‘unlike-minded’ as well as the ‘like-minded’, and much better at telling people what we do with the money they give, says Josie Pagani, Executive ...
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In this mornings news I detect a change; – it is showing a positive note of the new Government I would note, – and is a wonderful change from the drab negative cloud that national had placed over us all for the last nine years.
I even had a wonderful warm letter from Jacinda late last night (I removed my name) but I want to share with you all now as it sent a nice warm feeling to a often depressed 73 yr old man who had almost lost all hope of positive change before now, but today I regard as the first day of a new beginning of our return to the NZ we all knew and loved.
God bless “Aunty Cinda”
ilove jacinda, “lets do this”
———————————————————————–
Dear ………
This morning, the new Government was sworn into office and a new era for New Zealand began. It’s official now – and we did this together.
Our Government will be one that faces up to and addresses the biggest issues facing our country. We will fix the housing crisis, make sure Kiwis get the healthcare they need, clean up our rivers, take serious action on climate change and rebuild our regions.
We will put people first. We won’t try and gloss over bad bits and turn a blind eye when things aren’t going as well as they could. Instead, we will use our resources and initiative to fix them. Because that’s fundamentally what our Government is about: making New Zealand better. And it’s about making it better for everyone.
I am incredibly honoured and proud to be leading our country, alongside a fantastic team of Ministers and MPs. I am so very grateful to every single person who helped us get here. This is your day, and your Government.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister of New Zealand
I noticed a change on RNZ yesterday, when after several days of them failing to break the habit of talking to National Party figures, we had soon to be ministers of our new government talking about doing stuff. So refreshing after years of the corrupt muppets always saying what they couldn’t or wouldn’t do.
I’ll still be watching Labour, especially over TPP, but it feels good to have a hand on the tiller other than a dead one. We appear to have a government that understands what governing is rather than selling our country out from underneath us.
Happy Talk
Happy talk.
‘This Government is going to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2020. ‘
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11936966
Happy talk.
‘Mayors outside of Auckland hope the city’s fuel tax will pave the way for new ways of funding their own massive infrastructure costs.
Local Government NZ head Dave Cull said the announcement, alongside a coalition commitment to review local government cost and revenue, showed the new government was looking at getting away from the “very narrow property-based ratings system”.
“It’s absolutely imperative that other forms of funding are provided for local government in the near future.
“There’s a host of infrastructure that’s needed and the lack of it is actually holding our communities’ economic and social development back, but we need other funding mechanisms to achieve that.”
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Jim BoultJim Boult Photo: Supplied
Jim Boult, the mayor of the rapidly growing Queenstown district, said it was good news for cities like his in the midst of growing pains.
“I’m really pleased that they’ve come up with this idea for Auckland because it does send a signal that they’re prepared to look at individual communities and their problems.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/342447/fuel-tax-what-the-regions-think
Happy Talk
‘I want the government…to bring kindness back’
Jacinda said yesterday, “‘I want the government…to bring kindness back’
This is the best thing a new leader of our wonderful country could say as we all have been crushed under nine years of a draconian regime that held us all in fear and stress for so long almost it broke my spirit.
Depression was setting in which was not my character as I was formerly a very positive guy as I and my family had been a well travelling unit together also before 1998 when we came home to live again.
Then nine years ago a big shock came to my famly.
We were living in Canada from 1988 and only came home in 1998 just before Helen Clark took over.
So now we have been through the nasty combative abrasive penny pinching John Key era and now we have been blessed with the second coming of another change to a warm, kindness, caring Government, we are elated again.
Thankyou jacinda very much for this, we feel very proud to be born kiwi’s again.
Does Shane Jones “work for dole’ scheme fit within this.
Jacinda needs to stamp on Shane early. He is an idiot.
How is she supposed to stamp on him? He’s not a member of her party.
A.
By announcing publicly that there will be no work for the dole scheme under this government.
That is Don Brash type policy that continues the theme of demonising beneficiaries.
> By announcing publicly that there will be no work for the dole scheme under this government.
Not sure she’s in a position to do that. Shall we wait and see?
A.
She is the Prime Minister, she leads the government, so yeah I think she is in a position to say that.
Let’s see whether she does then. Check back in a week’s time?
A.
I have no idea whether she will.
If she doesn’t say anything and allows more beneficiary bashing through a work for the dole scheme then I will be very disappointed.
Why, because he wants jobs for the regions and for young people to get off the dole and go to work.
A job and productive work is one of the essentials for a good physical and mental sense of well-being and purpose.
If Shane is too blunt for you he isn’t for those he wants to help.
well said Adrian, particularly your second sentence.
Yes – And that’s a job which should be paid a living wage.
It’s not work for the dole.
“Yes – And that’s a job which should be paid a living wage.”
+100
Work for the dole is a stupid an ineffective way of bludgeoning poor people into labouring for less-than-subsistence incomes.
If these projects are government funded, then the people they employ should be paid a living wage.
kick him in the …
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018619532/work-for-dole-scheme-being-considered-by-govt
“As we plant indigenous trees I’m going to get my indigenous nephews off their nono and they’re going to go to work,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast.
He actually said that. Classic NZ First.
I’m sure Jones would see an upside to this article…
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/08/indigenous-groups-say-work-for-the-dole-scheme-racially-discriminatory
@ (2.3) Ed … thank you so much for that delightful version of Happy Talk. Goes hand in hand with our great new version of government.
Hee hee, wonder if there’s any chance of our Parliamentary sessions opening with that song?
Yep, such a refreshing change of attitude, with our Jacinda wanting to bring some kindness back into government. Happy talk indeed and we are the lucky cuss’s to have had the good sense to vote for what is right for NZ.
One thing’s for sure. Natz most definitely won’t be talking any Happy Talk anytime soon.
Happy talk.
‘Poverty portfolio ‘gives children a voice’
Children’s advocates are excited to see the new government’s plans to reduce child poverty but question how quickly things can improve.
Child Poverty Action Group economic spokesperson Susan St John said having a Minister for Child Poverty Reduction was the best news low income families have had for a long time.’
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/342399/poverty-portfolio-gives-children-a-voice
Happy Talk
‘Solar panels could cut schools’ power bills by $20m a year’
‘New Zealand’s schools could soon sport rooftop solar panels to help tackle climate change – and cut up to $20 million a year off their power bills.
The Labour and Green Parties have said in their governing agreement this week that “solar panels on schools will be investigated” as part of moving electricity to 100 per cent renewable, non-carbon-burning sources by 2035.
Panama Rd School in Mt Wellington, is using charitable funding to install 30 solar panels on its roof this weekend, and will use the $2000 a year it will save off its power bill to buy devices and other learning tools to prepare its decile 1 children for their future.
“We’ll put it back into our students’ learning,” said principal Jane Dold.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11936758
Renwick School near Blenheim placed about 80 solar panels on their roof about 4 years ago with outstanding effect.
I don’t get it’,regarding solar.NZ has plentiful renewable electricity resources with hydro.Making electricity less costly for schools would be doable ,surely.
NZ hydro power only meets a bit over half of our current energy requirements (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroelectric_power_in_New_Zealand). And there is a limited supply of rivers you could add to the mix, and that can have large environmental impacts.
Solar is getting amazingly cheap – most houses in sunny locales could have some. (I have a mix of microhydro and solar – it isn’t free, but I haven’t paid a power bill in over 25 years)
We have solar panels and our last bill was $79. I put a smaller 2kw water element in and a timer on the he water heater so that it only draws power to heat water during the sunny part of each day. Soon the heat pump will not be used. Can’t afford the storage batteries but…
I agree. Either nationalise the power companies or legislate for schools and hospitals to be provided with cheap electricity. If RIo Tinto can get subsidised power so can the the services that benefit us all.
Although I do like the idea of PV solar panels everywhere because eventually we’ll be able to do without fossil fuel.
Solar panels are being made so that the roads and footpaths can be huge solar panels, and house windows are see through panels and roofing tiles are panels. Huge future for solar renewables.
Solar panels are being made so that the roads and footpaths
Like this prototype?
More work needed I fear
Yeah, the Greeks didn’t think much of the steam engine when it was first prototyped.
The purpose of those panels appears to just provide a little light to walk on. How pretty. But not the type proposed for roadway where it is just to generate the power for storage etc. That bunch of sceptics were watching a sort of domestic solar light. Please ignore.
A domestic solar light certainly wasn’t the concept the promoters were selling. These people were deadly serious about paving huge swaths of roadway in the US with that crap.
More background
Best not to put your fingers in your ears.
Every time I look into how rugged those need to be made to stand up to roadway or footpath use, I can’t help wondering if it wouldn’t be cheaper to just put standard panels on canopies above the road.
> Solar panels could cut schools’ power bills by $20m a year
At what cost? Like, how many times $20M?
A.
All in the linked article.
The linked article shows a 7.5 year payback ignoring inflation. If thats correct I guess it is worthwhile. Although the cost benefit comes from a solar proponent, so I am reluctant to accept it as gospel without seeing the workings…
Did you note the per year bit? The important bit that tells us that it will pay for itself and save us money over time.
I think the outlay for Renwick school paid for itself in less than two years. And of course the use time is the school day. Still should be giving for 20 years.
I dont believe it. No one can get a two year payback out of solar. Unless you’re not counting the donated funds on the cost side.
A.
Most payback calculators suggest a payback time of around 6 years for a complete residential system. But I would expect schools to do better than most, since 9 to 3 is daylight pretty much year round everywhere in NZ. So they use the power when it’s generated, don’t have much concern about storage or the buyback rate from the supplier.
Lets be pessimistic and say the payback is 5 years, so that would be a $100M investment to save $20M per year. And after that the $20M worth of electricity is free every year for the next fifteen to twenty five years while the panels last.
Not pessimistic enough, the article says the payback is more than 7 years even ignoring discounting.
A.
Maybe the suppliers figure that since they’d be dealing with the government they can milk a bit of extra profit.
Maybe they figure they can get the scheme started by promising a good ROI on the basis of an overestimate of likely performance
A.
Ok, let’s assume suppliers are trying to milk the government for extra profit and are over-optimistic about the performance, and the payback time is actually ten years.
A homeowner or business might balk at that since they might need to move somewhere else before getting a net benefit, but schools can expect to be there for a lot longer. So it’s still pretty much a no-brainer. There aren’t many other things a government can put money into that give that much direct financial payback, guaranteed.
It could be quite a bit more than 10. The original 7.5 ignores discounting and maintenance costs. Then underperformance or cost blowouts could worsen the situation by an arbitrary amount. Meanwhile, the electricity pricing structure could shift to higher fixed, lower per unit cost which would further worsen the return.
I’d rather (a) wait until solar prices had come down a bit more, or (b) just put the money into e.g. hip replacements.
A.
Antoine, waiting gets more waiting.
This is a no brainer, I have helped do a few solar installations over the last decade.
The maths stack up.
When I went off grid 12years ago, the cost (installed) was around 10-12$ a watt, now it is closer to $1.50 a watt.
The sooner they are up the sooner the benefits start to flow.
Even a home owner should be looking at this.
Nowadays the panels and inverter etc. can be taken with you if you leave. Although, it would make the house more attractive to purchase.
If the maths stack up then go for it. I’m not sure they stack up in this case. It may work out best if only schools in areas with high solar input are done.
A.
Best to get a contract that puts the performance risk on the supplier
Like this (today’s news): https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/98321385/meridian-kiwi-property-sign-solar-power-deal
Happy Talk.
My lovely grandchildren will not have to put up with National Standards any more – especially the 5 year old whose teacher will be ecstatic 🙂
National’s next leader? Nikki Kaye? The Wireless sizes up the contenders.
It’s not a strong list, is it?
As Patrick Gower has said, this is not an impressive opposition.
“I also want to come up with a different analysis to many people, regarding the National Party. All this talk about it being this great big strong Opposition because it’s got such big numbers is actually a bit of nonsense.
“The key word in all of that is ‘Opposition’. National has no power – it has no friends.
“It’s on 44 percent and it has absolutely maxxed that out, due to a sublime performance by Bill English on the campaign trail and a scare campaign that was actually based on a couple of really big lies.”
Gower said there was no clear path back into power for National, due to its lack of coalition partners.
“National has got nowhere to go, in my view, above 44 percent,” he said.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/10/national-in-very-very-dark-place-patrick-gower.html
Interesting from Gower. He always seemed to have the inside running with Labour centrists/careerists when they leaked stuff against the more strongly left wing leaders like Cunliffe.
So, now Gower is going with Team Ardern. Not sure that’s a good recommendation, as I think Gower wll support a centrist Labour-led government, but not anyone strongly left like Turei (who he went after with a vengeance).
“As Patrick Gower has said, this is not an impressive opposition.”
Then what has changed in the last couple of weeks then Gower?
If they are not an impressive opposition, then they were also not an impressive government. But I don’t recall ever hearing you say that…
Why do you bother giving air to this fuckwit?
His view is whatever he thinks he can create headlines from, that’s it.
Next week it will be the opposite.
Why do you bother giving air to this fuckwit?
Because ‘Gower is Gulible’ o/k?
Sounds just like you BM.
I read the Wireless piece and had to think “is that the best you’ve got?” And the answer is yes.
I’ve always been pleased to have English and Bennett at the head of the National Party. They highlight National’s lack of talent, ability and integrity. And there’s very little of substance lining up behind them.
100% excellent wrap there Grey Area.
I see a group of people with baggage and skeletons. I wonder who the national voters would prefer as leader? I think english is over it/not into it anymore.
Just watching paula and Mr Twyford on tv3, she’s very excited about having some more time to spend on herself.
I’d look at someone like Mark Mitchell personally
Ah, now there’s a closet and skeleton factory if ever there was one…
Do tell…
Isn’t he the guy who was paying whaleoil to do attack politics on rivals for National selection for Rodney?
Google bro
Yes Nikki Kaye is the only choice National could have made, – as she has a softer side as they desperately need to counter our warm jacinda they must know.
Also all the other ladies in contention in Nationals lineup are combative nasty charaters.
Nikki Kaye is somewhat a warmer character than any of the other choice they had available to them.
The time for hard politics is now over well and truly.
So look for Bill to now step aside as Andrew did nicely for labour to get us all the new queen of our hearts, Jacinda.
Disagree there’s going to be a lot of fucked off people in the near future, you want someone with a bit of fire who can channel that anger.
The person who ticks that box is Judith Collins, airy-fairy Jacinda will have her arse handed to her on a plate.
‘there’s going to be a lot of fucked off people in the near future’. I’m sure there are a lot of nasties plotting behind closed doors right now, waiting for their moment to hatch their devious little plots – bring it on! (such fun!)
“there’s going to be a lot of fucked off people in the near future, you want someone with a bit of fire who can channel that anger …[t]he person who ticks that box is Judith Collins”
Or a small number of very, very f*cked off people who have suffered some erosion of their unearned wealth and privilege and then turn to Judith Collins for salvation, but instead experience derision and failure.
Please list Collins’ achievements over the last 9 years, also her perfidy.
In a similar number of weeks Jacinda Ardern got her party into contention, and then through good negotiation skill into parliament with a workable plan.
What is airy-fairy about that?
Judith Collins is too close to Dirty politics Whale oil and schemes to get like minded horrors into the National Party.
That you admire her tells us a great deal about your values.
Even Peters gets that it is time for a new guard… hence the 37 yr old PM instead of the English Lit graduate who jas been sucking at the public teat for over 30 years.
I think your right, however Bill English gained the highest party vote so please show respect Bill will get up again. You know third time lucky and all.
Let’s do this BM
@ Cleangreen (3.4) … I’d love Bingles to step aside. For his deputy, the ghastly Bennett woman to take over National. That move would guarantee Natz completely unelectable.
I wonder if Paula is still paying her lawyers to make sure her shady past is kept in the distant past? Not a good look, having a leader with a bit of dodgy history.
As for Nikki Kaye. I doubt she comes anywhere near our Jacinda for genuine warmth, humanity and character. She’s a Natz politician, remember!
Brutal evisceration of some talentless wannabe on Shub.
“It’s far from the first time Max has tried to use a famous person for self-promotion”
I think Mr E might win that particular Rap Battle…
Mr Ambassador has form.
Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros claims in a new lawsuit that former senator Scott Brown made sexually inappropriate comments to her while on set and put his hands on her lower waist.
[…]
Tantaros asserts halfway through the 37-page suit that Brown, while appearing on her show “Outnumbered” in August 2015, “made a number of sexually inappropriate comments to Tantaros on set.”
She claims that he told her, “in a suggestive manner,” that she “would be fun to go to a nightclub with.”
“After the show was over, Brown snuck up behind Tantaros while she was purchasing lunch and put his hands on her lower waist,” the lawsuit says. “She immediately pulled back, telling Brown to ‘stop.’ ”
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2016/08/23/scott-brown-named-fox-sexual-harassment-lawsuit/boWnrCcWqz6v3RYyuCkQHI/story.html
If her case relies on those very mild attempts at flirtation,she has no show.’that she “would be fun to go to a nightclub with.”Laughable.
It’s a euphamism and got zero to do with a nightclub.
I also note bush senior from his wheelchair is a bit that way inclined from recent reports – good this is all coming out and shows just how widespread this shit is.
Some unscrupulous individuals target high profile people .I note these euphemistic advances were made in 2015.Since then Fox have made many deserved payouts to disgruntled employees subjected to unwanted attention by various media figures.
I did a reply but the ether ate it. So again
Some unscrupulous individuals ARE high profile people. That is just a fact.
Sometimes things can go too far.The procreation of the human race would be in danger if social intercourse is outlawed as a pre cursor to sexual intercourse.No male could make an approach for fear of being categorised as engaging in inappropriate conduct.’Good morning,you’re looking lovely today’!How dare you,you chauvinistic,sexist ,potential nuisance.
There are many and varied ways both sexes can indicate they want or are seeking sex or a potential lovers. Unasked for or unwanted or unexpected lines are designed for the perp not the person being addressed. The power is uneven and abused in the later scenario imo.
I’m a bit naive,can you list a few you recommend.I don’t want to dress up and strut and signal like a Peacock or Bird of Paradise.
Well these are things you learn as you grow up and as I have thankfully no idea of your sexual preferences, attitudes or even what gender you may identify with it would be inappropriate for me to offer ideas to you. If you have friends perhaps ask them or even Google it.
Finding a willing sexual partner requires a certain amount of social competence. This includes recognising various power relationships and whether the other person is just trying to do their job.
If you can’t handle it, better go for celibacy rather than risking sexually assaulting someone. When I’m drunk, I try to avoid “flirting”, because when I’m drunk I don’t have the social competence to recognise when it might be inappropriate.
Nicely said
Are you saying if men cannot be the definers of what is “flirtation” the race dies? I sure as hell hope you meant something that paints men as having more self control and dignity than that.
If her case relies on those very mild attempts at flirtation…
If you’re under the impression that sneaking up behind women and putting your hands on them is a “mild attempt at flirtation,” review your definitions before you end up getting arrested.
Mike Hosking: Petrol tax is just the beginning” HZHerald headline
Well after many years of 50-70k net migration, and the dramatic increase of tourist numbers. How is the underfunding of infrastructure suppose to happen?
There are a few cases within coys I have worked in, where to “make the books” look good maintenance is halted and expenditure that has a future benefit is delayed, staff numbers downsized. So you have a year or 2 of great profits then a slide those that implemented the policy leave (with banked incentives) and the new regime is brought in to attend to this new problem !! Sounds familiar ???
Some are quick to decry this but what other solutions are there ?
His whining is quite pathetic
Yep, been in a few companies like that myself. It seems endemic to the neo-liberal capitalists. They don’t seem to realise that to have a viable business/society stuff has to be built, that it’s impossible to continue on what was done before. But that’s what our business people and National do.
And this shit is why NZ lags on productivity.
They don’t seem to realise that to have a viable business/society stuff has to be built
Yep, Neolibtards don’t build wealth, they extract it.
When Andrew Little stepped down in favour of Jacinda Ardern, I saw it as a last, desperate move by a party heading for crushing defeat. The fact I was wrong showed up pretty quickly, but I didn’t realise just how badly wrong I was until Ardern’s arrival back at Parliament yesterday, particularly when I saw the ending of this video: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/watch-these-my-nieces-and-today-nephew-born-double-delight-jacinda-ardern-in-touching-family-moment-parliaments-steps.
If Andrew Little had been sworn in as PM yesterday, the imagery of a 50-something guy in a suit replacing a 50-something guy in a suit would have been “meh.” But the symbolism of the new PM as a young woman walking up Parliament’s steps hand-in-hand with two small children? No amount of National-party donor funding could buy that, because it was real. Allow yourself to feel good about this, because that shit is going to be hard for National to beat.
Leave her hair alone Clark! 🙂
The video puts me in mind of the Royal family. A warm response.
Exactly how I saw it – the response was more like that expected for a princess – loved it – keep having tearful moments.
It’s strange, isn’t it, how you get so used to pain and then it stops – wow!!
JanM,
Truly very well said there JanM,
I feel so relieved and a bg weight has now been lifted off my shoulders after nine years of very stressful worry is suddenly beginning to leave me.
My focus now is getting our rail to Gisborne restored now after five long apprehensive years without any rail and truck gridlock while everyone else got their rail fixed only northland and HB/Gisborne got left out.
@JanM – being there, it certainly did feel like that! I was tearful too. It was such a nice atmosphere – there was a sense of butterflies seeking the light after nine years of darkness! I was making friends with strangers all around me, and I managed to give the lovely Tamati Coffey a hug 🙂
Brilliant Frida, If i was there i hug him too!!
I’m in Australia at the moment, so the nearest I got to Jacinda’s meet and greet from parliament steps, was through Tamati’s video of the event.
He lives in Rotorua, my home town, and is as genuine as Jacinda is. I had the great pleasure of being in the same room as Tamati Andrew and Jacinda.
They are the most natural wonderful people. Andrew is more formal, but absolutely honest and true. I too shed a few relieved happy tears.
I have never felt this excited about a new government. Ever.
Aunty Cinda is going to be great and that feeling of change in the air after 9 years of stagnation is a welcome change.
The Royal family as in The Royal family or as in the Royale family the comedy ?.
If you are really in mental health you would consider her special, and definitely not a joke.
Thanks PM, that’s brilliant!
+ 1 yep puts the awe in awesome and the zing in amazing.
Hard to believe those very challenging times before Andrew stepped down were real because the world has changed so much. But they were real and we held the line and have been rewarded with a change that seems to be an actual change. I suspect under this new government non voters will fall as people especially the young see this change. Part of our role is to keep encouaging people to enrol and get involved. Still many issues to deal with in our society and now we have the ability to improve and even eliminate those issues.
Talking of Andrew Little… he’s looking on top of the world. He’s got the portfolios he wanted and he’ll be a top-notch minister. So pleased for him because he deserves it.
Time will tell
A.
Shit you are a depressing arsehole.
It’s true.
Little has never been a Minister before, so personally, I’m going to wait to see whether he is actually any good.
A.
How do you intend measuring it?
‘National’ Standards I suppose.
Touche
nice
> How do you intend measuring it?
By whether he achieves the things he sets out to achieve and whether those turn out to be good things?
A.
I see AL quite frequently Anne as we live in the same suburb, go to the same supermarket etc and he looked dreadful the day after he handed over to Jacinda. Since then he has lost years in the way he looks and is bouncing around the place with a spring in his step. In talking to him the week after the election, he had all faith that Labour would win through in the end. I – and I know others – have thanked him to his face for what he did in bringing the factions within the Labour parliamentary arm together before handing over to Jacinda. If this had not happened, then IMO Labour would have stood no chance despite Jacinda’s skills
I have no doubt that he will do well with the portfolios he has got; and he will probably get a little ‘background’ and ‘advice’ from myself and others around here that have worked in some the particular Ministries and Departments involved. Some could sorely do with his management/leadership skills. LOL
His intregity will be important as Treaty minister. I wish him the best on that part of his journey.
Interestingly, Chris Finlayson was interviewed the day the portfolios were announced and he spoke of… being delighted that Little had been given the
Justice, Treaty and Intelligence portfolios because he knows he has the skills to do the job well and will be a safe pair of hands . (words to the effect anyway.)
I think Finlayson might finally have been let free now that they’re in opposition.
My wife commented that he looked much happier when she saw him on the news the other night. It must suck on a personal level to have everyone saying you did the right thing by stepping down as leader, but being the leader sure looked like it was shortening his lifespan. I wish him all the best as a cabinet minister.
It spoke volumes to me that he stayed on. Many in his position bugger off as though if they cant be the big cheese they aint interested. I am glad he stayed and glad he telinquished the leadership. There are lots of ways to be a leader
Yes, absolutely brilliant. He will have Jacinda’s back with the spy portfolios also.
Jacinda is so real and warm and speaks to people as if they matter. The Nats so often just wanted to slap people down and have them shut up and go away. She also knows it won’t be easy, there will be mistakes and bad days, but I think she is smart enough to be up-front with the public when that happens. The grey clouds have lifted from NZ today and those not on the top rungs of the ladder have a government for them.
The size of the crowd at Parliament said it all. A wonderful atmosphere, even Paddy Gower was affected!
What strikes me is that the gathered crowd is made up of a huge diversity. Racially, gender, age ranges are all there. (My impression of National gatherings was of grey heads and mostly white older folk. Look at National Party pics.)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937114
Reality,
Again so well sighted correctly here Reality,
We all feel the jacinda magic here, and we wondered what jacinda’s mum meant when in August the press interviewed her in the islands she said jacinda was a “very special person”.
Now we have truly seen this in reality.
Aye, it is Paula Bennet who now has to “zip it sweetie” (thank goodness)
Does mark Richardson practise being a total dick or does it come naturally? He comes across as mentally and intellectually underdeveloped. Garner should kick him off his show. He’s a bluddy liability with a Trump tan.
well ffloyd, it is working as clearly you are watching/listening to him, stay tuned and see how you might be outrged tomorrow.
Not really. Purely accidental. It was on st my daughters house. I just don’t see why he is able to use his position on the am show to make detrimental comments about the Labour Party.
Fair enough.
He rates, so as a filler between advertisements, he is doing his job.
it’s what he’s paid to do. Garners hardly an intellectual giant.
Having met him in person, it comes naturally, I can assure you.
“I want the government to bring kindness back.”
People have lauded her warmth , speaking naturally fro a level of consciousness that’s not busy filtering verbal output through a screen of caution and conditioning which fits the dialogue to the long established habit of maintaining the spin-generated paradigm.
Kindness? Its something as a nation we could/should embrace more fully to give substance and follow-through to the new government’s commitment.
Lets do it.
Yes – let’s do it!
A great photo essay from Newsroom Lynn Grieveson. The first photo demonstrates the great diversity at the Parliamentary welcome.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/26/56279/photo-essay-new-government-sworn-in
Thank you ianmac for posting that That is uplifting. Such real liking between her and Winston.
Such a wonderful diverse group (800+) to greet her on our behalf.
A nice dark article on China’s economic ambitions and possible negative consequences:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-26/china-s-global-ambition-could-split-the-world-economy
Confucius Institutes: cultural asset or campus threat?
It appears things like educational freedom are now for sale by cash strapped facilities.
Mike Hosking “You can’t bump the minimum wage telling us that 16 bucks is not enough to live on and then hit us with a car tax. There is no point in making life cheaper one day and more expensive the next.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11937277
Can’t? Who says? Why not? For most $4 more in hourly wages and 10 cents extra for a litre of petrol would leave them ahead of the game financially. For those out of AKL petrol will not increase in price but they will get a real wage increase. The vast majority will be better off, and Aucklanders will stand a chance of having a cheaper, convenient, and quicker way of getting to the airport.
And it is not like the petrol tax is simply evaporating into thin air – it is building infrastructure, so you aren’t “poorer” – it is simply swapping one asset (cash) for another (better shared transport infrastructure).
Hosking is a numbskull with as much insight as a road cone.
So how many more taxes need to be applied for this to be an issue?
Take a guess.
If a tax (or its rate – or any other policy for that matter) gives poor social or community outcomes, then it should be looked at.
People who have a general gut hatred of tax are often short of any evidence that tax is generally and inherently harmful. Often tax leads to a lot of good.
As successful countries have a State share of the economy between 40 and 65%, there is a lot of room to move. (Ours is 30% and you can see the effects in our run down towns and infrastructure).
+111
Nope road cones have a use.
Yeah. But Hosking wants private luxury and if the price of that is public squalor he really doesn’t care.
The first post-election poll will be interesting. Now that Labour / Green / NZ1 policies and people are in the public spotlight, I think the worm may have really turned (plus the “back a winner” effect).
Won’t mean much in the long term, but will be interesting.
Read yesterday’s comments about Joyce this morning and thought , I wonder what the TS regulars are saying about him today? Nothing , really come on don’t let him of the hook so easily .
How about we start a fund to buy Joyce a new shovel, or even better , a digger, so that he can keep digging bigger holes for his nasty anti-Labour ideas to drop into and maybe he will also.
Just thinking.
I oppose work for dole schemes – please labour and greens do not let this happen. As Sue Bradford on fbook says
“It would be an utter betrayal of employed & unemployed workers alike if the new govt supports this. I hope Labour & Greens will knock any prospect of workfare on the head immediately. ‘Yes’ to full waged, useful job creation – ‘no’ to forced, ununionised work.”
Let’s address the real problem and not sticky plaster an outdated and demeaning pretend solution please.
I think it’s great, get all those left-wing slackers out there panting pines in the middle of nowhere, good character building stuff.
As they’re toiling away in the hot sun or cold winters, they can all sing songs about doing their bit for the collective and how great this left-wing government is for giving them an opportunity to contribute.
Yep you would say that wouldn’t you. You don’t care about anyone except yourself – not the young, not the old, not the disadvantaged and sure as hell not Māori – bet you hogg the remote too eh cuz. Sad.
With NZ First involved I’m expecting to see boot camps make an appearance in the near future as well.
a friendly warning to dial back the trolling a bit BM.
The new government has pledged to double the size of a six-week programme for young jobseekers run by the NZ Defence Force and Ministry of Social Development. It’s been dubbed a “boot camp”. David Fisher went inside.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11936346
But it’s not actually a Boot Camp and it’s voluntary and isn’t filled with criminals with major socialisation problems.
yeah, sorry, I thought it would be obvious what the trolling stuff was. It’s in the previous comment, I just used that latter one because of the time flow.
BM=Bullshit Master.
Fuck off, troll.
That’s what my father-in-law did after returning from WW2 having contracted TB from service in the Arctic convoys and also being torpedoed in Tarranto harbour.
He planted trees.
For a living.
To feed his family.
For the NZFS.
Acknowledgements to your father-in-law mac1 who along with many other New Zealanders toiled to plant and manage our state forests that were eventually sold by Roger Douglas and the New Right neoliberals to foreign buyers for a song.
BM is ignorant of the fact that the forests are no longer owned by us, and thinks that its morally OK for corporate foreign interests to extract personal gain by means of our Government making people work in similar circumstances as your father, but without a real wage or the satisfaction that they are doing something for the benefit of their country.
BM is a nasty troll, but his idea might work if the forests were nationalised and offered work to people again – and in doing so recognised not just the value of the timber but the intrinsic value in the workers and the social communities that would build around such a revitalised industry.
I never met him, left_forward, and he never saw what happened in the Eighties.
I really wanted to point out to BM in his smarty pants point-scoring that he also dishonoured honourable and heroic men with his scoffing.
My father-in-law did not need to have his character built. It already had been. And proved.
Nga mihi ki a koe me tou matua tupuna.
Kia ora hoki mo ou kupu aroha, e hoa.
Sort of agree. It would be good to make the overprivileged, and idle, children of the rich do some useful work. But I doubt that will happen.
Funny how we have “low unemployment” but we have all these “slackers” out there?
BM, is BM short for bloody minded?
I think Bullshit Mountain was named after BM.
Why have workers for regular wage that the company will have to pay when the same company can hire workers at the local WINZ offce for the cost of the dole – cost of the dole comes courtesy of the tax payer.
This is my issue that i have with ‘working for the dole’.
If people had jobs they would not be on the dole.
> Why have workers for regular wage that the company will have to pay when the same company can hire workers at the local WINZ offce for the cost of the dole
That might not be how it would work. They might only be working in areas that didn’t compete with paid jobs.
(I don’t support the idea BTW)
A.
well I call bollocks on that, given that people will do damned near anything for money.
If the govt has work for people to do, it should pay fair rates for them to do it. If there’s no work, invest in the regions so that there is work.
Yes, improve pay and conditions at workplaces, and offer abundant free education and training. If there remains a shortage of jobs, the taxpayer should fund other useful employment (there is loads that can be usefully done – infrastructure work, conservation work, expand hospital services etc).
After doing the above, I doubt there would be any problem remaining that required boot camps / workhouses.
i don’t think we have a shortage of jobs its just that we don’t want to pay for these jobs.
We are going to force people to work for what 250$ benefit per week all the while we raise the min wage to $ 20? And i thought that the right to the dole is essentially a service that is prepaid by the taxes the government collect. I.e. one pays taxes that fund these programmes to have access to them in case of unemployment, sickness etc. So we fund them in the first place and then we ‘work for them’? IS that even legal? And would government then be found to undercut wages with its ‘dole for work’ scheme if businesses found it more lucrative to let go of its $20 a min wage staff and then hire the newly unemployed on the ‘work for dole’ scheme? Does anyone else see the bullshittery?
Also, costs of transport, lunches, work clothes etc are also covered by the ‘government’ or is the ‘worker for the dole’ to be responsible for these costs and is to take them out of their 250$ per week living allowance? Also will a permit needed to live under a bridge and how much will it cost to apply for such a permit? Same for dumpster diving?
not wearing any rosy colored glasses i can see this scheme only to the benefit of employers.
We’re both just speculating at this point
A.
I understood that employers would have the dole as a subsidy on wages, but the worker would be paid at least the minimum?
that then would not be ‘working for the dole’?
Yeah, i would like to see some more feedback on this. I personally believe that this ‘working for dole/subsidizing a boss for his staff’ should only apply to people that would have a really hard time getting employed.
It should not be used say for a cafe that wants a ‘less then minimum wage cost’ baristas and kitchen staff and thus only hires people on the subsidy and then will fire said staff once the subsidy has run its course. – this is what i have heard coming is happening in the UK.
Conspiracy theorists aren’t all amusing cranks. Some are truly sick and sadistic people:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/26/las-vegas-shooting-conspiracy-theories-social-media
Fantastic surfy hair for someone whose had a bullet travel inside their head for 7 centimetres a couple of days ago. Can’t see much restriction of head movement either, you would think it would be quite sore still.
Oh FFS. Are you a doctor?
Yeah and the doctor worked around the hair on the back of his head because it was just too beautiful to touch. I have a large head injury here and lots of blood loss but I will perform surgery or stitch up his head without touching the flowing locks, because it’s so much easier do deal with wounds with this long mass of matted hair in my way. Oh, and make sure its shampooed before he goes to media and I’ll make sure no bandages will be visible.
Batshit…
Sad.
“No” is much more economical.
You want slide 54.
Wow unbelievable comment m (deleted)
Where does it say that he had a bullet inside his head?
In the video, he talks about the bullet going into the back of his head and exiting 3 inches away. I’ll guess that’s in the fleshy bit of the back of the neck below the base of the skull. Where you wouldn’t see it from the front even if the doctors had shaved quite a lot around the wounds. So it’s a crowded field, but those comments from maui really are in the front-running for most fuckwitted comments on The Standard ever.
Bloody lucky (for a given value of “luck”).
Might have skipped around the outside of the skull a wee bit – ballistics get complicated when spinning objects meet hard spheres, even if it’s not a ricochet.
In the first few seconds of the clip he said that it grazed his skull under the skin. Relatively clean. Reminds me of George Orwell’s comment about being shot in the throat by a sniper in the Spanish Civil War – he was a tall man, so if he’d been normal height, he would have been killed.
Punctured the skin but didn’t go through the skull. The skin and flesh then keeping the bullet close for a short time.
And, yeah, there’d be a hell of a lot of blood even though it’d a somewhat minor wound in itself – head wounds bleed profusely – ask anyone who’s cut themselves shaving. Big one would be the concussion and bruising that follows.
oh yeah, defs on the blood. I’ve been first responder to a couple of head cuts – nothing serious but they still bled disproportionately. Much more than a finger cut to the bone (lol that one was mine, unfortunately)
Ok, so we’re resorting to guesses on where he got shot, I guess we have to do that when we’ve got great views of the front, left and right side of his head and there is no sign of… anything. If he was wounded in the fleshy part of the neck (even though we can see that part from a side on view) it would be painful to turn his head like he does to his girlfriend in the clip – and he does it unflinchingly and quickly.
Anyway the clincher is the interview of the second survivor at the bottom of the story. The interview is so ridiculous, if you believe that you’ll believe anything I spose.
No. He was hit in the back of the head by a grazing shot. One that punctured the skin but not the bone.
You’re at the point now where you’re simply reaching for anything that will confirm your conspiracy theory.
You’re using the term “grazing” to explain why we don’t see more of an injury. He clearly says in the video that the bullet entered, “grazed his skull” and then exited 3 inches later. He also says there was shitloads of blood. To a non-expert that doesn’t appear to me to be a grazing shot.
“grazed” vs “grazing”? Seriously?
So you think it’s a big conspiracy – that he is an actor and whatnot. Why did they do it? Shoot all those people or do you think they weren’t shot?
Ok, my guess was wrong about where the bullet hit. There’s a photo of the wounds at 0:55 in the video that’s part of the “escaped” AP link in the third paragraph of the Guardian article.
Ok my bad, good they got evidence of it because it is pretty unbelievable.
Iceland’s Jacinda Ardern
https://jacobinmag.com/2017/10/iceland-election-left-greens-katrin-jakobsdottir
(albeit a little further Left)
A couple of people on here have said what Mike Hosking wants. I’ve read some of his recent articles including his “Petrol tax is just the beginning.”
I know he doesn’t want public transport. I think he wants attention. Maybe he would get a lot of attention if he said what he thought the answers were to the growth and infrastructural problems of the city and region.
He is the sniper taking shots at the ideas of anyone who has ideas and solutions. He attacks those who have the heavy responsibility of coming up with solutions in an environment which seemingly is impossible.
Mike Hosking, step forward with your plans for developing Auckland, coping with the growth and infrastructural problems and how you would have those funded.
Or do you only care enough to rant and rave and bleat about how things affect you? You, only one of about 1.6 million.
Hope Hoskings gets a ticket for driving.
Yes Roger me and you have something in common we have both got strong voices and you are a leader at the Rock 25 year’s Good work just because we back different Gov party’s don’t mean we can’t have a laugh together ka pai. I heard you guys talk about dangerous encounters one has had I’v had a few but here’s a funny one with me and my step dad we were fishing it was about 9 am and I spotted a large Bull killer whale I was watching him for about 15 minutes the step dad was in the bunk asleep as far as I new well i went on deck to watch the Killer whale with his huge dorsal fin bent over that’s how I new he was a bull as well as being huge .well I heard this yelp from my step dad what I did not see was he had shot out the back of the boat to go toilet and in those days one just sat on the bulwarks and did your business . Well my step dad did not no the whale was around and while he was doing his business the Bull killer whale had popped up about 5 mtr away from were my step dad was doing his business he got a hell of a fright and nearly fell in the drink fuck I laugh my ass off he was pale and shaken he was a humorous man so he handled my fit of laughter .Before I started fishing I had sleep problems the mind going 100 mile a hour well working 20 hour’s straight when one is 14 soon eliminates the sleeping problem .So I had no problems sleeping till I was 21 when I was told something that turn my world up side down we had one child at the time so I tried the natural sleep remedy I had tryed it once before and it did not impress me but this time it was not just sleep I was stressed out .
Well It worked this time and stress levels dropped and hay It is something Mother Earth gave us so I thought no big deal well that not how the system see it this is how most Maori see the subject I have stopped many times when life is good. But when external factors out of my control are stressing me out well I go buy my medicine .
Now let’s look at It from a different angle which I say can kill 2 bird’s with one stone is that OUR agricultural exports are at a guest 20 Billon and this is our main income earner . So we can end up the creak with out a paddle if our bio security is breached by many millions of these threats ot our agricultural exports so I say this is a national
security risk and should be taken very very seriously as this is our main weakness as some farmers have pointed out .And we need to pour a lot of resources in to minimizing this risk as it will be a lot cheaper than the disaster that will happen if we don’t in vest in minimizing this risk now. How are we going to pay for this extra vigilant boarder security we need . Well I say we are pissing billions of dollar’s on controlling an medical product and spending billion’s locking up people whom with a bit of guidance and help will be good productive citizens . So I say lets take all the resources we waste on this dum ass fight and use them to protect our National security this is a cheap and innovative why to Insure we have a Healthy happy wealthy FUTURE enough said Kia Kaha lets do this
eco maori
Please put double spacing between paragraphs and have paragraphs where it’s all about the same thought. Then a couple of enters and the next one. Otherwise it’s too hard to read. And it is surprising how long it takes to put all those words and thoughts down as in No.19.
K just in a rush but I’m sure everyone get,S it
Nope, not everyone gets it. If it looks like it’s going to be hard work reading it I’ll just skim straight past. Pretty sure I’m not the only one.
Eco maori
I’m interested and want to both write and read here and that takes time from things I have promised to do for others and things I should be doing for me. So time is short for me and for you, and if you are going to be moved to write please cut it into bits so others mind can sort it and take it in. Otherwise as Andre says I’ll just skip it.
Reminds me I am often writing about something and explaining my point of view. CV used to tell me TLDR (too long didn’t read). He used to throw
remarks like that around. Very hurtful but true! He didn’t have time for fools.
NZ WHISTLE-BLOWER ALERT!
27 October 2017
Make Ak Transport PUBLIC again!
Along with many others – I worked very hard to #ChangeTheGovernment.
How I choose to work is on an ‘issue by issue’ basis, supporting issues where there is ‘common cause’ – but agreeing to disagree where there is not 🙂
Make Ak Transport PUBLIC again!
It’s PUBLICLY subsidised PRIVATELY owned, operated & managed passenger transport.
NO Ak Regional Fuel Tax.
___________________
Persistently and consistently, I have opposed an Auckland ‘user pays’ regional fuel tax.
Here’s what I said over 4 years ago, which explains why:
Press Release from Auckland Mayoral candidate Penny Bright:
“The ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group report on Auckland transport funding options is fundamentally and fatally flawed”.
16 July 2013
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/newseventsculture/OurAuckland/News/Pages/keepaucklandmoving.aspx
“Over the next 30 years, the number of people living in Auckland is expected to increase by up to one million – mostly due to natural population growth. Along with this comes the need to expand and improve Auckland’s transport system.”
“MYTH ONE: Here we go again, this ‘million more people’ myth and urban legend is now being regurgitated as a primary underpinning reason to expand Auckland transport infrastructure,” says Auckland Mayoral candidate, Penny Bright.
“No disrespect, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that the use of the Department of Statistics ‘high’ population growth projections, ( the one million more people coming to Auckland in the next 30 years), instead of their recommended ‘medium’ population growth projections, is now being investigated by the Social Services Select Committee?”
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Petitions/5/0/5/50DBHOH_PET3157_1-Petition-of-Penelope-Mary-Bright-requesting-that.htm
Petition of Penelope Mary Bright
Requesting that Parliament declines to proceed with the Housing Accords and Special Housing Areas Bill until the lawfulness of the reliance of Auckland Council on the New Zealand Department of Statistics’ “high”population growth projections, instead of their “medium” population growth projections for the Auckland Spatial Plan, has been properly and independently investigated, taking into consideration that both Auckland Transport and Watercare Services Ltd, have relied upon “medium” population growth projections for their infrastructural asset management plans.
Petition number: 2011/64
Presented by: Holly Walker
Date presented: 30 May 2013
Referred to: Social Services Committee
__________________________
‘Supplementary Evidence’:
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Housing-Accord-and-Special-Housing-Areas-Bil-Supplementary-Evidence-13-Juna-2013.pdf
__________________________
“MYTH TWO: The only sources of monies available for ‘improving Auckland’s transport system’ are: road tolls, or higher rates and fuel taxes’,”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10898450
” How about checking with a ‘fine-tooth comb’ EXACTLY where Auckland Council (and Auckland Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) rates monies are currently being SPENT, and cutting back rates SPENDING?”
“No disrespect intended, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that Auckland Council ‘books’ are still not open, and citizens and ratepayers do not know exactly how much public rates monies are being spent on private ‘piggy-in-the-middle’ consultants and contractors?”
“No disrespect intended, but are / were all the members of this ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group, aware that in an an Auckland Council Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) reply dated 21 November 2011:
(QUESTION)
“1) Is the Auckland Council, in a truly ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ way, going to ensure that citizens and ratepayers of the Auckland region are going to be given the
‘devilish’ detail, so we can see exactly where our rates monies are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
2) a) .Are the names of the consultants/contractors; the scope, term and value of these contracts going to be published in the Auckland Council Annual Report so that they are available for public scrutiny?
b) if not- why not?
(ANSWER)
Not at this stage. There are 5,000, contracts related to 12,500 suppliers. To collate and pub!ish these would be a major exercise logistically and cost~wise. ….. ”
[See Item 6 ]
http://www.occupyaucklandvsaucklandcouncilappeal.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/OCCUPY-AUCKLAND-APPEAL-APPLICATION-BY-APPELLANT-BRIGHT-TO-ADDUCE-NEW-EVIDENCE-pdf.pdf
“I checked today on the Auckland Council website, and can still find no such publicly available details of ‘contracts issued’”
http://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/EN/AboutCouncil/HowCouncilWorks/Pages/working_with_council.aspx
“Did the ‘Conned Senseless’ Building Group investigate how much public money could be freed up to serve the interests of the public majority, (including Auckland transport funding), by CUTTING OUT THE CONSULTANTS and PRIVATE CONTRACTORS, and returning core Council services ‘in-house’?
“If there is no ‘cost-benefit’ analysis which proves that private provision of Council services is more cost-effective for the public majority, then as an Auckland Mayoral candidate, I believe that this long-term corporate welfare must cease forthwith.”
” My recommendation is that citizens and ratepayers in the Auckland region do your own ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. Since this so-called Auckland ‘$upercity’ was forced upon the Auckland region, have YOUR rates gone up or down?”
“See? The public majority of the Auckland region have been ‘CONNED’ by the CONsultants, and the CONtractors, and those who serve their interests – arguably the NZ Property Council and the Committee for Auckland,”
“As an Auckland Mayoral candidate – this is where I stand:
NO road tolls/ fuel taxes or rates increases to fund Auckland transport infrastructure.
Open the books.
Cut out all the consultants and contractors who are effectively on ‘corporate welfare’.
Get rid of these ‘corporate-controlled’ CCOs, with their appointed Boards of arguably self-serving business people.
Bring core Council services back ‘in-house’, and employ Council Officers who have a ‘public service’ background and ethos, not private sector functionaries who are now running Auckland Council as if it were their own private company.
Take back public ownership, operation and control of Auckland passenger transport.
Why should the public subsidise what we no longer own?
Change the uniforms and the business cards, and Auckland Council take back operation and management of Auckland Rail, from French multinational Transdev, (formerly known as Veolia Transport Auckland)
Use public monies for the benefit of the public majority, not the private sector, particularly multi-national corporations.”
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption, anti-privatisation’ campaigner
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
______________________________
#MakeAucklandTransportPublicAgain
#StopPublicSubsidiesOfPrivatePassengerTransportOperators
#NoAucklandRegionalFuelTax
#Meow
Paddles, is that you?
– Nope, we really are going into the accelerated population growth phase here. Well documented . So you are wrong there.
– Nope, Auckland Transport’s books are fully open already. Some stuff during commercial negotiations is confidential and always will be. You will already have noticed too that the Minister has taken immediate steps to ensure more efficient use of taxpayer money by preparing to cancel the East-West expressway and redeploy it to light rail. So you are wrong there.
– Road tolls are not the only source of funding – in fact most of the funding will be debt financed through bonds, which are in turn serviced by the property owners from the new developments that the finding is used for. That is what the Minister has already indicated. So you are wrong there.
Wrong on all counts so far.
You have never got elected or even close, never been appointed to anything, and your one useful task has been the application of the Public Records Act, other than that you have had no influence on society at all.
But that is the record you always fail to disclose.
Harsh Ad
I hope that no-one will have cause to say similar to you. Penny does try to draw people’s attention to matters of concern. But according to you her points are not correct. It is good that you indicated which ones. But you didn’t need the sting at the end.
Your background apparently makes you very wise and invulnerable to criticism.
Hi Penny, I found this very difficult to follow – but I think I can support and like the core of your message. Perhaps a more minimal style may help communicate your message more effectively 🙂
The Russian Revolution centenary was this month, and we almost went without marking it:
http://www.dw.com/en/the-real-october-artists-and-revolution/av-41093675
So here it is, through the eyes of the artists who went through it.
From the link-‘Brown is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit’so its mischievious ,unsubstantiated ,hearsay.
Her statement about our limited on-air, green-room interactions are false,” Brown said. “There were never any circumstances of any kind whatsoever in which I had any interaction with her or any other employee at Fox, outside the studio.”-The bits Joe90,left out.
Zorb6
Could you give some foundation for your comment about Joe90, the number, date etc. so that your comment has some connection to something that others can check out.
SAY NO TO THE TPP11 HERE:
https://our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/open-letter-to-jacinda-ardern-put-people-before-planet-in-tppa11
Enjoy this, about time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11937347
Aussie govt on a knifes edge after court rules Deputy PM has to go.
So Labour back in in Aus??
I know there’s some consternation about a potential work for the dole scheme, but Labour has a policy to employ young NEETs for 6 months at minimum wage on various community projects (DOC was mentioned at the time), so hopefully any work schemes will be along those lines. Planting trees is an excellent opportunity there.
It should be work for the dole plus. After starting in a scheme and working at something that shows results, there would be monthly talks with immediate bosses with work reviewed and with a reasonable record, they start receiving wage rises, small but steady. A feeling of being valued and recognition of effort and higher skills acquired would buck up quite a few. Also a willingness by government to pay for vocational training at that stage, with firms willing to give them jobs. The more people working and earning a better wage, the more money circulating, the more employment. We could start being a good place to live for the strugglers.
The Labour policy to pay the dole to employers who take on apprentices seems like a good fit with that ☺️.
Hobbit law to be scrapped in first 100 days
Restoring peoples rights to them. This is a Good Thing.
The well paid people in the industry don’t like it and don’t seem to realise that it’s actually just making the law apply equally to everyone.
And Labour wouldn’t want to be agreeing to TPP ISDS restrictions before they repeal the law, surely?
I want repeals of laws affecting the film and creative industries, to help NZs get jobs that pay fairly but not ones that lessen the amount of work we can get here, and create here, and the money that we receive here we want to stay here in NZ.
Unions have to box clever, not just demand wages now because they have better somewhere else, and they have to work with the firms, and if not with, find a way to work the firms and the system to turn out the product and get a share of the profits, a bonus, a payment into a company that will make pilot features, something that always leads into something else.
Writing the laws so that we can have cheaper wages is part of the problem of the last thirty plus years.
I have been looking up the story of the 9 year old autistic boy who was held down while others fired a BB gun at him. The parents weren’t told about it and didn’t know until some crappy message was put on Facebook with a picture of it. The Principal advised the boy apparently to avoid theo ther boys and go to the library or whatever, an d the perpetrators were allowed b ack to school on a strict contract.
In Nelson some one with a snitcher on the Principal has been graffiting something about him on the school. The Deputy Principal in trying to prevent some little shit from pulling his trousers down, apparently the latest craze of the dilettantes at Nelson College, knocked the boys face and swore at him (What are you bloody doing etc. might be a phrase I’d be likely to use). It seems that this is regarded as very terrible for a teacher to do, but I don’t know if the boy/s is being charged with assault. No doubt this boy has parents that vote for the National Party, which follows a practice of not having respect for anybody. People like that are likely to send their kids to a good (boarding?) school as they can’t be spending their time with their children teaching them to be good people. Where is the money in that?
While looking at Tauranga Boys College and other Tauranga schools I notice a new private one, with a purpose built campus, and promoting itself as being the bees knees. The advert is dated 2017, and it is part of a group with others.* I can’t really identify it as it has adopted that crap practice used too often these days, just giving itself letters for a legal definition followed by Ltd. There is no meaning to letters, not unless they are used as a logo for a full name that is provided!
The facilities sound superior to state schools:
Purpose-built campus
Our campus features a brand new sports complex equipped for multiple sports including badminton, basketball, netball and futsal. Alongside this we have traditional outdoor rugby and soccer fields. The campus also boasts state-of-the-art learning facilities including science labs, multi-purpose areas, music and art rooms.
*Schools listed are: ACG Tauranga, ACG Parnell College, ACG Senior College,
ACG Strathallan, ACG Schools Jakarta, ACG Sunderland, AIS Vietnam.
The link for the Tauranga school student attack is
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11936970
I see Roy Morgan gone done a poll – but quite out of date because was conducted before Winston made his announcement and the government formed. I suspect things are changing rapidly right now.
http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/7379-roy-morgan-new-zealand-voting-intention-october-2017-201710270443