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 Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that the Government spent $133,530 on producing its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ document, a cost blowout largely driven by spending on graphic design and photography. The $133,530 price tag compares to $86,268 ...
Kahungunu Māori Language Awards. Nominations closed on 5 July 2019, and were judged by the Senior Management Team of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The judges wish to acknowledge the very high calibre of all nominations received making it a very ...
High Court of Australia Judge, Justice Stephen Gageler, will address recent criticism of court judgment delays in Australia, at the University of Canterbury (UC) on 23 July at 6.15pm. ...
This summary is provided to assist in the understanding of the Inquiry’s proceedings but does not constitute the official record. The full Minute is available at the link below. ...
The Tertiary Education Commission is laying charges under section 292A of the Education Act 1989 against three individuals for making a false representation for the purpose of receiving, or continuing to receive, free tertiary education from a tertiary education ...
New Zealand food businesses today welcomed a trio of new food safety tools, designed to make it faster, easier and more affordable to follow the rules and keep consumers safe. ...
AUT research shows that Māori children are almost four times more likely than those of European descent to be placed out of home by child protection services ...
The Government announced today that grants of up to $2,500 for energy efficient heaters are now available as part of the Government’s Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. ...
Fonterra’s use of coal has been the target of numerous grassroots campaigns in recent years. Last year 350 Aotearoa affiliated groups, Fossil Free Aoraki and 350 Nelson launched a petition dismissing the dairy giant’s initial target of no new ...
Information sessions on proposals for The Medicinal Cannabis Scheme take place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch over the next fortnight. The sessions are open to anyone with an interest in learning more about the proposed scheme. ...
“Our children are our most vulnerable, most innocent victims and we do not want to see any more children harmed by these ‘known sex offenders’. The safety of our community must be the paramount consideration.” ...
“The announcement that Fonterra will immediately stop installing any new coal boilers or increasing capacity to burn coal is the signal that the biomass fuel supply industry welcomes” said Brian Cox, Executive Officer of the Bioenergy Association. ...
18 July 2019-- Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA) today welcomed Fonterra’s commitment to build no new coal plants, a “no brainer” for the climate crisis the world faces. The group has been urging this transition for six years now and ...
The increase in demand for cage-free eggs is set to continue according to animal rights organisation SAFE, who says the egg industry should expect this and prepare. ...
Wellington, New Zealand – 350 Pacific made a formal submission to the New Zealand Government’s Environment Parliamentary Select Committee on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill, led by the Pacific Climate Warriors (PCWs) based in ...
There used to be a school of thought on the centre right side of politics that the best way to neuter the Greens as a political force would be to let them have a spell in government. Then, according to ...
Today (18 July) is Nelson Mandela International Day when the United Nations highlights the importance of humane conditions of imprisonment. In New Zealand our prisons are overcrowded and understaffed. At 214 prisoners per 100,000 people, we have the fifth ...
NZEI Te Riu Roa will take legal action over the lengthy delay in implementing pay increases for teachers. Novopay announced yesterday that teachers would have to wait until 11 September to see pay increases that they won when they settled ...
EDS has filed its submission on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill. The Bill sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions, provides for the government to set a series of carbon budgets, and sets up a new, independent, Climate ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has identified an absurd case of mission creep at Wellington City Council: the decision to spend $21,750 on two Consumer NZ investigations into different brands of bike lights. ...
The Motor Trade Association is welcoming the release of the Government’s new draft road safety strategy. MTA Chief Executive Craig Pomare says the association is pleased to see vehicle safety has been made a priority in the Road to Zero ...
The Department of Conservation continue to repeat the same old story about attacks on staff and how it is affecting their role in protecting our precious wildlife. NZ herald https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12249704 ...
The government's silence on the fact that the country's second-largest milk processor is on the brink of becoming 25% Chinese Government owned has been deafening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...
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 contentForeign affairs – Australia Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Ardern in ...
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...
ANALYSIS:By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...
ByRNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...
Fifteen tracks, 22 guests, one album. The Spinoff Music listens to Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project and considers why each track really shouldn’t work – and the sometimes surprising reasons why they do.1. Beautiful People – KhalidKhalid and Ed ...
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...
New Zealanders with life-shortening congenital conditions will have early access to their KiwiSavers after a man with Down Syndrome convinced the government to change the rules. ...
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University In a world run ragged by multiple crises and an unravelling of American global leadership, military confrontation in the Gulf poses risks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Dalton, Conjoint Senior Lecturer School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle Over recent months, the news has been saturated with headlines claiming we’re experiencing a “killer flu season”. Researchers ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Fenner, Associate Professor at UNSW Art & Design, UNSW Over the past few weeks, artists from around Australia have been creating small artworks depicting the endangered black-throated finch and sending them ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Beer, Dean, Research and Innovation, University of South Australia Australia’s biggest city is abuzz with news of yet another housing development declared unsafe for human habitation. This time it is apartments ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned.Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did ...
Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...
What are you getting out of your daily commute? University of Auckland Associate Professor Kim Dirks considers the health implications for getting from A to B. ...
If Beijing’s actions have any bearing on what will happen when the agreement of ‘one country, two systems’ expires, the Hong Kong people are unlikely to succumb quietly. ...
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...
Newsroom literary editor Steve Braunias passes his verdict on the annual list of the 100 favourite books of New Zealanders who filled out a Whitcoulls form. ...
Orchestral music performance is an art form, but how do you engage with something you’ve never experienced before? Samiyah Alghamdi and Anna Knox attend NYO Celebrates in Wellington and unpack what they hear.The National Youth Orchestra and the National Youth ...
Open Mike 27/10/2017 
In the wake of the March 15 mass-murder, the government moved swiftly to ban semi-automatic firearms, weapons for which there is really no case for being allowed to own in New Zealand. and now, it has announced phase two of ...10 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
2 days ago
2 days ago
Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...2 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...2 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...3 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
The proposed Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill treats biogenic methane emissions differently from all other carbon emissions. The latter are to be measured net so that emissions from fossil fuels can be offset by carbon stored in trees. ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...5 days ago
6 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...7 days ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...7 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...18 hours ago
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Prime Minister’s department, has cleared Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop of breaching the government’s code of ministerial standards with their ...1 hour ago
Sam Brooks reviews the second season of Big Little Lies, which generated as much social media conversation as its first season did critical acclaim, for better and worse.Light spoilers for the second season of Big Little Lies.Big Little Lies felt like the ...6 hours ago
Cross-party consensus on gun law reform was a one-time wonder. ...7 hours ago
ANALYSIS: By David Robie Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West ...7 hours ago
Taxing vacant land would be too complex to implement and achieve little - it would be better for the Government to push local councils to implement rates based on land value rather than capital value. ...7 hours ago
The Māori Affairs Select Committee has recommended that anyone wanting to use the word 'Parihaka' for commercial purposes must get permission from the Parihaka Papakainga Trust. ...8 hours ago
European politics is a strange business. Where voters can choose candidates, who disappear after the elections. Where right-wing governments nominate left-sounding candidates. ...9 hours ago
A decade on from his darkest hour, can the NZ First leader again defy the odds and keep his political career alive? ...9 hours ago
Ruby Porter’s debut novel, Attraction, is a lucid, layered story of three young women on a road trip across the North Island. It’s one of the best books we’ve read this year. Here, Ruby writes about her grandmother – who ...9 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific West Papuan fighters have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta’s road project there. State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where pro-independence forces are ...10 hours ago
In 2003 the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Cup, breaking the Australian Diamonds’ 16-year winning streak. In 2019, they’ve just done the same thing. Leana de Bruin was a rookie in that 2003 team, and talked to The Spinoff ...10 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Associate Professor, Criminology and Justice Studies, RMIT University A Perth man who pleaded guilty to distributing an intimate image of his ex-girlfriend without her consent has been sentenced to a ...10 hours ago
The second tranche of proposed far-reaching changes includes a gun register, tighter licensing rules, and five-year licences. ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Piero Moraro, Lecturer in Criminal Justice, Charles Sturt University The Morrison government has introduced new legislation responding to recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia. The bill –named The Criminal Code ...11 hours ago
One of the many unspoken rules of British life is that when one is drinking at the pub with others, one buys rounds. For the naive New Zealander, it’s stressful AF, says Elle Hunt.At the pub one Friday night in ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland Dry, moist, productive, hacking, chesty, whooping, barking, throaty. These are just some of the terms people use to describe their cough. While we’re deep ...12 hours ago
The government is planning an overhaul of biosecurity funding, but a lack of detail is making farming sectors nervous. ...12 hours ago
What if you could grow a house from seed or 3D print a new subdivision in a week? The housing sector is ripe for disruption – could technology be the magic bullet we need?Jo Aitken sounds like she’s pitching an ...13 hours ago
The architect of the incredible turnaround the Silver Ferns have enjoyed is now off-contract. So now that the World Cup has been won, how can Netball NZ keep Noeline Taurua on the books? Radio NZ’s Ravinder Hunia recounts the journey ...13 hours ago
By RNZ Pacific Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape wants Australia to close the detention centre it has been running on PNG’s Manus island for six years. According to Australian media, Marape has asked Canberra to give him ...14 hours ago
More must be done to tackle critical skill shortages in project management and leadership, the head of the Registered Master Builders Association says. ...14 hours ago
Emily Writes on her journey from reasonable trepidation to sweet love for the video game Minecraft.It was barely a week after I said to my sister “I don’t let the boys play any games” that my children’s Minecraft obsession began. ...16 hours ago
Sephora store employees may have swept some confetti down Auckland city’s drains on Saturday, and people got angry… at an entire generation. On Saturday, French cosmetics giant Sephora opened its first New Zealand store on Auckland’s Queen Street. Excited makeup enthusiasts ...17 hours ago
More than 20,000 Aucklanders don’t have access to regular showers or the ability to wash their clothing. Alice Webb-Liddall tags along on a shift with Orange Sky, who are giving homeless people back these basic needs.On an overcast Friday morning ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ashlee Curtis, Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Deakin University The Victorian government introduced 24-hour public transport on Friday and Saturday nights in Melbourne from January 1 2016. Services mostly run every hour ...18 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Kenny, Senior Fellow, Australian Studies Institute, Australian National University If the first week of the 46th Parliament was heavily ceremonial – dominated by the new governor-general, a raft of first-time MPs ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, PhD Candidate – Wildlife Cameraman, The University of Queensland Last week saw the release of the rebooted The Lion King, an attempt to capitalise on the billion-dollar success of ...19 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Craig Campbell, Associate Professor, University of Sydney New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian made a “captain’s call” in recent months that raised the ire of many parents, teachers and education groups. She ...19 hours ago
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Against all odds, the Silver Ferns have won netball's World Cup for the first time in 16 years. And fittingly, one of the legends of the game sealed their incredible victory. ...21 hours ago
Forestry NZ challenges several claims made in Dame Anne Salmond's commentary in Newsroom last week, ‘Billion Trees policy being rorted’. ...21 hours ago
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Jerome Kaino deserves to sit alongside the greats who retired from test rugby at the 2015 World Cup. ...21 hours ago
Six things councils can do right now to make the ’emergency’ worth more than the paper it’s written on.Councils are declaring climate emergencies across the country, but with only a decade to cut carbon emissions in half, it’s time for ...22 hours ago
The construction industry has a multi-pronged attack plan to fill desperately needed gaps ...22 hours ago
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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