New Zealand Cricket public affairs manager Richard Boock said 10-20 patrons were ejected from the Basin Reserve for a number of reasons, including “offensive language or behaviour, intoxication, and bringing contraband into the venue.
I think the solution to the man problem starts with trespass notices. We can already prosecute the assaults they commit, and that hasn’t worked. So, on top of proecutions for assault, ban them from all sporting venues, whether public or private, by court order, for say, twenty years. If they want to go and see their children play, perhaps the Police can issue special licenses for good behaviour.
Not really fair blaming the security guard for “losing control” where no control existed in the first place. At least they weren’t selling glitter /sarc.
“The 39-year-old was sitting on the Wellington venue’s grassy bank with her girlfriend, among a group of 100 or so men, who were mostly drunk and aged in their 30s and 40s. She said the men were chanting obscenities, skolling beer and harassing the Pakistani cricketers.”
Mostly in their 30s and 40s.
Racist
Sexist
Drunk
“ a pack of dogs.”
Now let’s look at our sports broadcasters and the message they convey, the laddish, sexist message they put out.
You didn’t blame the music industry when the man problem occurred at Rhythm and Vines. It also happens on the streets. Do you blame NZTA for that? How about when it happens in homes?
The point is the man problem has one thing in common and it isn’t the venue.
No, I think they’re a symptom of the problem. Someone has to employ them, and continue their employment (I note this is now a moot point in Veitch’s case). People have to buy advertising on their effluent, consumers have to buy the stuff in the adverts.
We reward their behaviour. No wonder they feel little incentive to change.
Yes, I do, inasmuch as they help to reinforce the problem; they may not be the root cause of it though, if that’s what you’re asking, and indeed be symptomatic.
Drunk people do what’s acceptable to their peer group. The only contribution of “drunk” is to make public what’s acceptable to that peer group. So the problem here isn’t that these guys drink, the problem is the shit that’s considered normal in their peer group.
Peer pressure or influence is not the only contribution of alcohol consumption to ‘misbehaving’. Drunks misread and misinterpret social cues (e.g. micro-expressions and body language) and even become almost completely unresponsive to any communications from others and the outside world. For example, they misinterpret certain cues (e.g. the simple fact of accidentally making eye contact or just looking in their direction) as disgust or aggression or they think that other cues signal acceptance, encouragement, or invitation even. All this can and does happen without any peer group being present and not always in a ‘social situation’ either. Let the mess start …
If people are being assaulted and the organisers can’t stop that then yes, public cricket in that ground should be discouraged. Just as well we have some other options, like limiting the amount of alcohol people consume.
I agree with the toxic masculinity argument, but before the revolution comes how about we put in some easier to access solutions as well.
If people are being assaulted and the organisers aren’t bothering to stop that then something needs to be done about the organisers, not people who drink alcohol.
Alcohol restrictions are an easy go-to for people who don’t drink, or are anti-alcohol activists to start with, like Ed. I’m not interested in sport, so my immediate knee-jerk response is that this is what sports fans are like so there should be restrictions on sporting events. Ed’s response is no different. Figuring out what problem we’re trying to solve here is a better process than leaping straight to prejudice-based solutions.
before the revolution comes how about we put in some easier to access solutions as well.
Cut off the abusers’ access to public events. Half the problem is that they drag impressionable dupes into their orbit: a visceral illustration of the way right wing political beliefs enthral generation after generation.
Remove the role models from the situation: let them fester at home during the game/gig/Cabinet Club foodfight.
The culture has to change: in the meantime lets put the needs of the victims (to be free from assault) first.
It basically comes down to having enough security staff and giving them clear rules on what is unacceptable behaviour.
Promotoers want as little security as possible (to save money) before it starts to impact on profits (event cancellation/license issues/pirate recordings). If they don’t have enough staff so everyone is in a zone of control, the staff can’t see what’s going on or aren’t in a position to do anything about it.
Security staff often just work along the lines of which box a punter should be slotted into: ignore, direct to bogs etc, start ejection process. That covers most of it.
Frankly in my opinion the way to knobble them is make it an OSH issue. If promoters aren’t providing a safe environment for members of the public, the promoters should be charged. Then you’ll see a complete sea-change in how events are run.
That scenario sounds ok for large venues. Smaller venues, small-scale promoters, utilising small town security staff, all will be disadvantaged – far better for them to be able to access a register of known problem customers.
..and I don’t much care for the idea of entertainment/hospitality workers maintaining that sort of database.
Oh, everyone has their own list of barred patrons, and some areas have “blanket bans” where trespassed from one pub means trespassed from them all. Yes, knowing jerks works to some extent, but then there’s always a first offender. And then it comes down to which box you put them in – clear guidance is often needed. I worked a few places back in the day, and they always gave the same security briefing: “hands-off, polite, use your words, it’s a good place and a good crowd, be low key”. Only one place really meant it. Others thought choke holds (not a come-along, an actual throttle) were hands off and low key.
But small scale venues are the same as gigs for several thousand people. Actually easier, because you probably have glassies or other staff on the floor as well as security, and they can give you a heads-up (or you can play their role just to let likely lads know you’ve got your eye on them). I’ve worked events and venues from sole-security up to a security team of 30 or 40. So big venue size, but not full stadium level.
Some gigs you really couldn’t control anything more than a couple of feet in front of you because of the crowd density, sound and lighting. Basically it was up to the roving folk (or if there was a mezzanine to spot it from a different angle), wade through the punters, grab the nearest static worker for backup and sort it.
Calculating the safe number of security staff comes down to access points, then a function of crowd number as what I call the radius of influence shrinks (so crowd number also as in density in venue floor area, not just crowd size).
They wouldn’t, because most punters at R&V would be from out of town.
In that case they’d be relying on alcohol service enforcement and roving security, mostly.
For bigger events, you’re normally exceeding the locally-available supply of regular security staff. Back in my day I worked a cricket match at the ‘brook (just to give the idea of the time lapse) and they had the main contractors for the tour who hired local security staff who also picked up likely locals/folks they knew.
At another gig the regular security team was supplemented by a rugby club whom we put on static/numpty positions that needed to be filled but weren’t big on nuance.
Regarding R&V, I was surprised the promoter had apparently declined anti-harrassment posters. Those would be an easy way to start the process of gently reminding people there are rules and they are being watched. Additionally, if there was drinking there then there would be empties and litter. And easy thing to do is wander around with a wheelie bin and clean up – speaking with people as you go. It’s relaxed, laid back, but still takes the edge off the “I’m wiv me mates” feedback loop that happens. It’s not an overt “I’ve got my eye on you”, it just reminds folk that other people are around.
Of course, normally it’s cheaper just to have the bare minimum security, throw some bins around, and clean up with brooms and shovels after everyone has left.
When some of my former peer group were sozzled, pretty much anything could be acceptable to them at that time. Hard to predict/control what they might do and the behaviour they might sanction in the moment; a few of them were pretty good at post-booze justifications too.
People tell themselves that, but it’s not actually true. If your peer group doesn’t have any problems with you taking a piss in a shop doorway or picking a fight with someone, you might well do those things when you’re drunk. If your peer group would be horrified by those things and would likely shun you and certainly never drink with you again if you were to do them, you just don’t do stuff like that when drunk. Or, you do and eventually you’re a drunk with no friends. Very few people end up in the latter category.
You can figure it out for yourself via a handy thought experiment: how drunk would I have to be to shout homophobic abuse at someone, grope a woman, take a shit in a shop doorway or king-hit someone for no reason? The answer should be “There is no level of drunkenness at which I’d do any of those.” If your answer identifies a level of drunkenness at which you’d do any of those things, the problem isn’t alcohol, it’s you.
I’m not against the use of alcohol and other mood-altering recreational drugs (knock yourself out!), but your peers clearly manage(d) the effects of alcohol on their behaviours and personalities better than the peers of my youth.
I see behaviour and personality as ‘products’ of the brain, a bioelectrical organ of remarkable complexity nevertheless subject to physicochemical processes. IMO it is magical thinking to contend that alcohol cannot temporarily alter what individuals ‘consider’ to be acceptable behaviour.
There are very few individuals who can, by training and/or sheer force of will, consciously (ha ha) resist general anaesthesia. Similarly, the mood-altering properties of ethanol are typically quite reliable, contributing to the popularity of the drug.
We have different experiences regarding the ability of ethanol to temporarily alter a persons judgement and behaviour – I’m happy to agree to disagree about the extent of those effects.
“As the evidence of alcohol harms accumulates, especially harm to others, we must continue to urge our elected representatives in government to enact effective legislation in order to help reduce these harms, rather than use outdated neoliberal economic models, which result in doing little more than watch from the sidelines.”
…or what you said. Plus ban ALL alcohol from the venue. (yeah, as if.)
If nothing else…at the end of the match, I’d lock the gates and not let anyone out until they picked up the bloody rubbish.
Yes, I know, local junior teams often do the grounds clean up for fundraising, but ffs, its as if the basic rules of decent behaviour completely disappear.
And its been well over a decade since I went to a cricket match…same as it ever was.
Sport is big in NZ’s dominant culture. And the way it’s dominated by implicit assumptions about masculine superiority is indicative, plus sends messages that can have all kinds of repercussions in the behaviour of men at events.
This is what the embankment at the Basin has been like for decades. It starts off with chants targeting businessmen walking past with their ties on – “Get your tie off.. “, then moves onto cat calls and “get your gear off..”
It’s more an environment thing, 1 against the rest. People walking below a crowd by themselves are easy targets and have no defence, and you only need a couple of instigators and the group will follow along.
The issue goes way beyond sport.
New Zealand is a very sexist country.
I thought this was a very well written article.
An excerpt.
“In the United Nations Report on the Status of Women published in 2011, Aotearoa New Zealand was ranked worst of all OECD countries in rates of sexual violence.
Yet we – our media, our police, our guts – instinctively sympathise with the rapists, especially if they’re rugby players, because routine sexual violence is an integral part of rugby culture.
It is a Kiwi tradition for young men to have sex with drunken, underage girls. When the Roast Busters made headlines, they did so because they talked about their alleged exploits online, which meant that people outside our culture became aware of it.”
In the same way actors in a movie who appear to get beaten up aren’t actually beaten up.
If you arrange for someone to come and ‘grope’ you in order to capture this on video this is a form of implied consent.
A question for you:
If this indeed was a case of genuine Indecent Assault (which carries a punishment of 7 years in jail) why has the ‘victim’ not made a complaint to Police?
She has perfect evidence and it would be a strike of the sisterhood against pawing neanderthals.
However if it were all fakery then her statement to Police would be false and she might end up in trouble herself but fakery is fine for generating social media publicity.
Beware, not all that glitters is gold. (Pun intended)
If this indeed was a case of genuine Indecent Assault (which carries a punishment of 7 years in jail) why has the ‘victim’ not made a complaint to Police?
I take it this is your first time reading a left-wing or feminist blog if you can ask that question without putting a /sarc on the end.
UPDATE: The woman who has become the public face of “A Glittery March for Consent”, which aims to raise awareness of issues of consent, sexual harassment and assault, now says a British news agency is only providing her with “advice” on the march.
Corporations and their predatory capitalists will do what they do anytime, anywhere, without a moral compass. The Wireless article ends:
Attempts by companies to profit from the #MeToo movement, which has been used online to help show how widespread sexual assault and harassment is, are not unheard of.
Two weeks after the New York Times first published allegations that led to the Harvey Weinstein scandal, cosmetic company Hard Candy applied to trademark#METOO.
The company’s CEO told TMZ that it was “not a straight cash grab,” but was intended to be used to “give back to women worldwide”.
Another company, Fuzzy Logic, has tried to trademark #metoo for use on silicone wristbands.
Yesterday was was first journey up the so-called “holiday highway”, with toll road, early in a holiday period, since it’s been opened. A real eye-opener. I thought at least t was going to make for an easy journey for people in cars during their hols.
I went for work, as I was working on a workplace stall at an outdoor event. Foolishly, I assumed leaving Auckland at 8.30am would mean I would get there in 45-50 minutes. But then the electronic signs started appearing saying “queues before the tunnel”. And so it was… before and for a long while after it. Crawling along – stop star, crawl, stop…..
So this magic tunnel, on a busy 2-3 lane motorway, has one lane in each direction – so of course, a major bottle neck.
These motorway designers really have some weird logic!
I would like more mass transit options – and that would alleviate the amount of cars on the motorway.
I travel up to the northern reaches of Auckland often for work. Our work policy is to use mass/public transport where possible. If that’s not possible, then take one of the work fleet cars.
At the moment the fleet cars are the only option for work to get there and back in a timely manner.
We desperately need a rail system, plus better local bus services in the north of Auckland.
Careful, much more talk like that and you’ll become a convert to the MoRONS cult! I assume you’re talking about the Johnstone’s Hill tunnels just south of Puhoi.
The logic of narrowing it down to one lane northbound before the tunnel is to ensure the bottleneck and merging happens outside the tunnel. That way the cars are moving a bit more freely through the tunnel, in theory*, and it’s less likely there will be an incident inside the tunnel. Southbound there’s two lanes through the tunnel since it’s continuous two lanes going south beyond the tunnel and it’s much less likely to be queued up through the tunnel.
*In practice, the tightest bottleneck is at Warkworth, so the slow queue usually starts there and grows southwards until it backs up traffic through the tunnel. But even so, cars are moving through the tunnel twice as fast with only one lane than they would if there were two, so there’s less time spent in the confined space with concentrated exhausts, and there’s more room for emergency access if needed.
What bunches my undies about the Puhoi-Warkworth motorway being built is there was an alternative that would deliver almost all the benefits for around a third the cost. Bevan Woodward had been pushing it for years, and my contacts in civil engineering consultancy all thought it was a better option, even just looking at it from a cars/trucks view rather than a wider whole transport system view.
Yes, Warkworth is a bottleneck, even at moderate traffic times. So a bypass there looks justified, so may as well build a new bypass to motorway standard to give a good long passing lane each way. Schedewy’s hill really is a hazard, so eliminate the corners with a cutting or tunnels under the hill. The narrow Pohuehue viaduct is a minor bottleneck, so double it up for a continuous passing lane up the hill.
Do those three upgrades, and the rest of SH1 Puhoi-Warkworth is easily upgradeable if traffic volumes ever grow enough to justify it. Meanwhile, just doing upgrades rather than a whole new motorway would free up resources to tackle problems further north like Dome Valley, a bypass around Wellsford, the Brynderwyns etc.
Warkworth needs a more comprehensive public/mass transport system. It is becoming a commuter suburb to Auckland city (ditto Wellsford), with the increasing development of greenfields development in these areas.
I know one or two long time Warkworth residents who, now given limited work choices, need to commute daily, or fairly regularly, to Auckland CBD. This means a long commute, and very early start and late end times to the day.
The biggest traffic congestion is between Albany and the CDB.
Warkworth town centre gets clogged with cars on weekdays because, for most people, currently the best way to travel around the area is by car.
That, plus eliminating the awful intersection with SHI and the Matakana, Snells Beach roads, would reduce the bottleneck.
And getting more trucks off the roads by an increase in the amount of freight travelling to the north by rail.
I don’t now the locations of places by the names you mention, though can make a guess.
Dome Valley is a major problem. It’s not so bad in good weather. However, I had to travel back from Wellsford one time during a big storm. With limited visibility, slippery conditions, and all those “high crash area” signs in the Dome Valley, it was a very stressful journey.
And there are way too many trucks travelling through the Dome Valley.
That Hill St intersection that’s such a nightmare for Matakana and Snell’s Beach residents shouldn’t be anywhere near as bad when the main road there is no longer SH1. Because it will be able to allocate much more more of the traffic light time to other users, whereas now it has to prioritise SH1 traffic.
Nevertheless, AT has a proposed Matakana Link Road. Which is of no use to Snell’s Beach residents. But surprise, it makes it very convenient for people getting off the new motorway to go to Matakana and Omaha.
Going south not far from Warkworth, there’s the long straight passing lane going up a hill, that narrows down to a two-lane bridge, then has a short passing lane after the bridge. That bridge is the Pohuehue viaduct. Then you have the straightish bit along the top of Windy Ridge, before going down the hill with some tight corners (where there’s a couple of stretches of passing lane for northbound traffic). That downhill windy bit is Schedewy’s Hill.
We regularly travel between Waikato and the Far North in our 5 ton housebus. If we opt to go down SH1 and the Pukeko Tunnel (our name for the Johnstone’s Hill ) it is that two lane/one lane each way/two lane thing happening at Pohuehue that will literally give me nightmares.
I’m not sure what can be misconstrued by the old Bus in the left lane indicating left so vehicles behind know I’m aware and its safe to for them to pass in the passing lane…then, when the passing lane is running out I do the right indicator thing to let following cars know that the passing lane is fast disappearing and I need to move right so I can cross the bridge.
And yes…I’m probably, optimistically, rocketing up the hill at 60 kph… but still no excuse for the fifth car in line behind me thinking…OH! It’s my turn to risk a head on collision on the Pohuehue Bridge today!!! Yay!!! And proceeds to floor it and pass the other four patient cars plus moi.
Result…I have to slow down/stop to let suicidal maniac pass…thereby losing my precious revs and now a steady 20kph is all I can manage from a standing start.
No amount of road building will fix the problem of the impatient psychopath behind the wheel. 🙂
I suggest adopting a somewhat more bullying attitude at the end of the passing lane.
As soon as the dashed line ends, start drifting over to the right while maintaining speed. The idiot attempting a too-late pass can slow down to your 60kph in a very short distance if need be on a fairly steep hill like that. There’s plenty of sealed road to the left if the idiot doesn’t get the message and keeps coming anyway and you need to make emergency room so there isn’t a head-on.
That’s the technique I eventually arrived at when I was regularly towing a large trailer up there at about the same speed.
Thanks. Yes, I pretty much guessed the places you were talking about.
The SH1 move will relieve the congestion around the Hill Street intersection. However, it will do nothing to relieve the road congestion, and parking issues in the town centre.
More buses in the area would be useful.
I’m told some of the residents around the Snells Beach area are from Pacific communities, attracted to the area for work. One of the main factories that employs them is some way down Woodcocks Rd – so why not better bus services through those areas? Especially with the planned increase in residential housing around the outskirts of Warkworth.
And a better bus service for retirees living out around the Matakana Road would maybe also relieve some of the congestion.
I would not call neoliberalism a 30 year old disaster.
It is a living disaster for millions of New Zealanders.
Pretending neoliberal economics doesn’t exist is one of Labour’s blind spots.
You only solve problems by confronting them.
[Same as below. Picked a point. Cut/shifted the sub-thread.] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
I call bulshit @Indiana.
I’m in a place with a billion people (not too disimilar to your handle),
Trickling down and rising tides …. like hell.
Like elswhere the wealth transfer is to the few at the expense of the many
I have in fact been banned with some frequency for sledging the Gnats. But Labour’s original defection remains relevant, because the poor require political representation whether their original party chooses to represent them or not.
Labour have said a number of things in respect of immigration changes, but although Indian student numbers have dropped significantly the expectation in rural industries remains that they have access to ‘skilled’ foreign workers. We will be able recognize material change by the volume of rightwing angst, should it materialize.
Corrupt AF right winger loots the state to finance his campaign, overrides the courts and then sez, we must sit down for dialogue openly and without barriers. ..
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sworn in for a new term in the Honduran capital Saturday, while across town tear gas drifted across flaming barricades in clashes between police and protesters angry over an election the say was marred by fraud.
[…]
The inauguration came after soldiers and riot police fired tear gas to block thousands of demonstrators from marching to the National Stadium to protest. Masked protesters shot rocks from slingshots and kicked canisters back toward security forces as barricades burned and gas billowed on the streets.
“This is how the dictator oppresses his people,” said opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla, who says the election was stolen and he was the true winner of the vote.
“We remain in the struggle to rescue the country from dictatorship and without recognizing Hernandez as president,” Nasralla told The Associated Press.
Hernandez, a 49-year-old lawyer, is Honduras’ first president to be re-elected — a key point in the protests against him.
The 1982 constitution bars presidents from seeking a new term and conservative politicians deposed a leftist president in 2009 for allegedly even considering re-election. But Hernandez won a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 to get around that prohibition.
Martin Bradbury has written a superb piece over at the Daily Blog .
It is a blunt reminder, despite the Jacindamania, that neoliberalism still has New Zealand in a vice like grip.
An excerpt.
“ We cheer Team NZ and sneer at those homeless in cars.
We property speculate ourselves to false illusions of wealth and decry public spending on state housing.
We lose ourselves in the labyrinth of neoliberal identity politics while the richest 1% own almost 30% of everything.
We cheer Lord of the Rings while trashing worker rights.
We shoot a bloody business card into the sky and tell ourselves this individual success of a medium sized enterprise is actually a metaphorical Plato-esk intellectual lantern to light the future of humanity!
The vanity of modern neoliberal NZ is Trump-like in its delusion.”
So how does that sneering remark about losing ourselves “in the labyrinth of neoliberal identity politics” square with your earlier comments about toxic masculinity (an “identity politics” issue), Ed?
Martyn Bradbury relies too much on easy (and lazy) hyperbole and sweeping generalisations for my taste.
Relying too much on easy lazy hyperbole isn’t “speaking truth to power”. Power loves easy lazy hyperbole because it’s completely nonthreatening and steals oxygen from more informed, more cogent critique.
yes Martyn did well also today on another article regarding how our political system which mirrors the US election style also now and that we need to take stock of what our Labour coalition also may face in 2020.
Warning signs are there for us to be aware of going forward.
Rereading Merchants of Doubt by Orestes and Conway.
Worth the time when you hear New Zealand scientists like Rowarth and Edmeades and journalists like Smith, and Mora deliberately muddying the waters here..
To Ed. Obviously a matter of opinion, but I think this is worth repeating.
“This is the first round of employment law changes that this government plans to make. It is the first steps towards reversing 30 years of working people having their rights diminished and losing their fair share of a growing economy”
Changes will occur in steps, over time. It was never going to be an all or nothing in one big swoop. It’s a coalition government. There’s an element of compromise. Patience is required. I’m just thankful and grateful that change has begun.
[Had to pick “somewhere” as the place to shift that huge drift off into Labour Party stuff. The post was specifically about “the standard”] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The time for incrementalism by a progressive party is past. That’s a late 20th century third way approach, when what we need right now is a significant change with strongly articulated left values and policies.
The time was ripe for a change, but the dominant people in the LP caucus chose to go to the electorate timidly, with cap in hand. (I’m looking at Parker and Robertson, particularly).
It always seemed to me the message I was getting, was that the Labour caucus leaders would prefer an alliance with NZ First to one with the Greens. I thought this before Ardern became leader, but it was reinforced by some of her early responses on becoming leader. I said so at the time.
So, in a way, they set up the conditions to weaken the vote for the Greens – that and the way they worked to adopt and weaken some of the GP policies on climate and social and economic justice.
To me, refraining from being critical of Labour is a lost cause. They have set the left in NZ back by about a decade or two. [Damn right I am angry about it!]
The only hopes are a revival of strong left wing values through a movement at the flax roots, plus a re-strengthened Green Party (with Maramar Davidson as co-leader outside cabinet or a ministry shackle), or a new left wing party.
You may think its past, but change will happen in steps. That’s what we are seeing. What we’ve got, is what we’ve got, working against that achieves what exactly? and I disagree that “they set up the conditions to weaken the vote for the Greens.” It’s not about refraining from criticism, but we should at least be constructive about it.
Julie Anne Genter is very good in all areas of the Green 3 planks. But her main focus is on the environment, much like James Shaw, and transport.
Davidson has always been for the strong and equal integration of the 3 planks, even before joining the Greens. But she puts a stronger focus on participating in community engagement at the flax roots – and does this in the crucial low income areas of South Auckland. where she has experienced first hand the struggles of brown renters, and low income people.
Davidson also engages directly with Māori and Pacific communities.
As Labour and the Greens compete for the same voter pool (in the main) they cannibalize each other’s vote. Just look at the swings before the election.
NZF was the only way to power for Labour (and the Greens). Hence Winston was always in the box seat.
For the Green Party to re-strengthen will require Labour to lose support. Unless you can convince some of the 45% or so of center – center-right voters they should swing left (a lot) it will just be the status quo.
The last thing you need is another leftwing party!
You need the Labour party to be strong while trying to also grow the Green voter base.
The first 10 minutes are hilarious. The US military are awesome at killing everyone! The US military are the world’s biggest polluter. Over all, video 32 minutes long.
You come in with punches against the new Government. As if you were wishing to floor them the first opportunity you can get.
You want them to ban 1080. Full stop.
But you do not succinctly state what you will replace 1080 with.
You go on against the Government for not having a full anti immigration policy. Again you want to floor the Government in its first days. It is a great pity that the green party had not skilled all jobless Nnew Zealanders – so that no immigrants would be required.
But they didn’t – did they.
Can you see why I The Standard gets let down Stuart.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Take a week off. The post isn’t about anything you wrote in either of the two comments you made that I had to shift over here. And I can’t be arsed to check future comments to see if you’re still wasting space/threads and attacking Stuart Munro. Come back next Sunday.] – Bill
In light of what's going on with #Dreamers, it's time to talk about Japanese internment. Because the #DACA showdown is Japanese internment 2.0.— Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) January 20, 2018
Japanese immigrants in the 19th & early 20th centuries came to the US in large part for manual farm labor in California. Sound familiar?— Sarah Taber (@SarahTaber_bww) January 20, 2018
“The Racing Minister Winston Peters made the announcement at the official opening of the annual bloodstock sales in Karaka in South Auckland today.
Several races around the country have recently been called off due to rain.
Mr Peters said the track would be funded by both taxpayers and the industry.
“The idea is a very sound idea and it will stop the huge losses that are happening because events that are clearly going to be cancelled have no alternative.””
Horse racing, second only to rodeo in the animal abuse stakes.
And we, the taxpayers, are going to be coughing up mega millions so there can be even more of it.
38% of NZ roads are unsealed. We have a rickety old single lane bridge over the Hurunui River on SH1. We have parents being driven into the arms of loan sharks to buy school uniforms and stationery. Kids go to school hungry and without adequate clothing. People live with chronic pain because of hospital waiting lists. And, and, and….. Winston’s idea of what NZ needs as a priority is an all weather racing track so he and his buddies can bet and booze – because let’s not pretend otherwise – that’s what horse racing is all about.
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The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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The man problem.
I think the solution to the man problem starts with trespass notices. We can already prosecute the assaults they commit, and that hasn’t worked. So, on top of proecutions for assault, ban them from all sporting venues, whether public or private, by court order, for say, twenty years. If they want to go and see their children play, perhaps the Police can issue special licenses for good behaviour.
Not really fair blaming the security guard for “losing control” where no control existed in the first place. At least they weren’t selling glitter /sarc.
From the article
“The 39-year-old was sitting on the Wellington venue’s grassy bank with her girlfriend, among a group of 100 or so men, who were mostly drunk and aged in their 30s and 40s. She said the men were chanting obscenities, skolling beer and harassing the Pakistani cricketers.”
Mostly in their 30s and 40s.
Racist
Sexist
Drunk
“ a pack of dogs.”
Now let’s look at our sports broadcasters and the message they convey, the laddish, sexist message they put out.
Veitch
Devlin
All two of them?
You didn’t blame the music industry when the man problem occurred at Rhythm and Vines. It also happens on the streets. Do you blame NZTA for that? How about when it happens in homes?
The point is the man problem has one thing in common and it isn’t the venue.
I agree there are more than two.
Two of the most notorious just came to mind.
Yes and the music industry has issues.
And sport plays to male stereotypes in its marketing thereby making sport a particularly bad place to see this underbelly of NZ culture.
*headdesk*
Toxic masculinity is a problem. It exists no matter the venue. But hey, try and turn this into one of your pet hate hobbyhorses by all means 🙄
I am not trying to do that.
You think sports celebs who exhibit and promote toxic masculinity aren’t part of the problem?
No, I think they’re a symptom of the problem. Someone has to employ them, and continue their employment (I note this is now a moot point in Veitch’s case). People have to buy advertising on their effluent, consumers have to buy the stuff in the adverts.
We reward their behaviour. No wonder they feel little incentive to change.
Yes, I do, inasmuch as they help to reinforce the problem; they may not be the root cause of it though, if that’s what you’re asking, and indeed be symptomatic.
Drunk people do what’s acceptable to their peer group. The only contribution of “drunk” is to make public what’s acceptable to that peer group. So the problem here isn’t that these guys drink, the problem is the shit that’s considered normal in their peer group.
+1
Peer pressure or influence is not the only contribution of alcohol consumption to ‘misbehaving’. Drunks misread and misinterpret social cues (e.g. micro-expressions and body language) and even become almost completely unresponsive to any communications from others and the outside world. For example, they misinterpret certain cues (e.g. the simple fact of accidentally making eye contact or just looking in their direction) as disgust or aggression or they think that other cues signal acceptance, encouragement, or invitation even. All this can and does happen without any peer group being present and not always in a ‘social situation’ either. Let the mess start …
I agree.
And excessive drinking is part of the problem.
Public intoxication should be discouraged.
Providing a cricket ground is also part of the problem. Should public cricket be discouraged?
I think alcohol exarcebates the sexist behaviour not cricket.
But it’s too nice a day to argue.
If people are being assaulted and the organisers can’t stop that then yes, public cricket in that ground should be discouraged. Just as well we have some other options, like limiting the amount of alcohol people consume.
I agree with the toxic masculinity argument, but before the revolution comes how about we put in some easier to access solutions as well.
If people are being assaulted and the organisers aren’t bothering to stop that then something needs to be done about the organisers, not people who drink alcohol.
Alcohol restrictions are an easy go-to for people who don’t drink, or are anti-alcohol activists to start with, like Ed. I’m not interested in sport, so my immediate knee-jerk response is that this is what sports fans are like so there should be restrictions on sporting events. Ed’s response is no different. Figuring out what problem we’re trying to solve here is a better process than leaping straight to prejudice-based solutions.
Cut off the abusers’ access to public events. Half the problem is that they drag impressionable dupes into their orbit: a visceral illustration of the way right wing political beliefs enthral generation after generation.
Remove the role models from the situation: let them fester at home during the game/gig/Cabinet Club foodfight.
The culture has to change: in the meantime lets put the needs of the victims (to be free from assault) first.
It basically comes down to having enough security staff and giving them clear rules on what is unacceptable behaviour.
Promotoers want as little security as possible (to save money) before it starts to impact on profits (event cancellation/license issues/pirate recordings). If they don’t have enough staff so everyone is in a zone of control, the staff can’t see what’s going on or aren’t in a position to do anything about it.
Security staff often just work along the lines of which box a punter should be slotted into: ignore, direct to bogs etc, start ejection process. That covers most of it.
Frankly in my opinion the way to knobble them is make it an OSH issue. If promoters aren’t providing a safe environment for members of the public, the promoters should be charged. Then you’ll see a complete sea-change in how events are run.
That scenario sounds ok for large venues. Smaller venues, small-scale promoters, utilising small town security staff, all will be disadvantaged – far better for them to be able to access a register of known problem customers.
..and I don’t much care for the idea of entertainment/hospitality workers maintaining that sort of database.
Oh, everyone has their own list of barred patrons, and some areas have “blanket bans” where trespassed from one pub means trespassed from them all. Yes, knowing jerks works to some extent, but then there’s always a first offender. And then it comes down to which box you put them in – clear guidance is often needed. I worked a few places back in the day, and they always gave the same security briefing: “hands-off, polite, use your words, it’s a good place and a good crowd, be low key”. Only one place really meant it. Others thought choke holds (not a come-along, an actual throttle) were hands off and low key.
But small scale venues are the same as gigs for several thousand people. Actually easier, because you probably have glassies or other staff on the floor as well as security, and they can give you a heads-up (or you can play their role just to let likely lads know you’ve got your eye on them). I’ve worked events and venues from sole-security up to a security team of 30 or 40. So big venue size, but not full stadium level.
Some gigs you really couldn’t control anything more than a couple of feet in front of you because of the crowd density, sound and lighting. Basically it was up to the roving folk (or if there was a mezzanine to spot it from a different angle), wade through the punters, grab the nearest static worker for backup and sort it.
Calculating the safe number of security staff comes down to access points, then a function of crowd number as what I call the radius of influence shrinks (so crowd number also as in density in venue floor area, not just crowd size).
How do local lists of banned patrons make it to organisers of eg: Rhythm & Vines or NZ Cricket? Maybe if they use the same security crew…
They wouldn’t, because most punters at R&V would be from out of town.
In that case they’d be relying on alcohol service enforcement and roving security, mostly.
For bigger events, you’re normally exceeding the locally-available supply of regular security staff. Back in my day I worked a cricket match at the ‘brook (just to give the idea of the time lapse) and they had the main contractors for the tour who hired local security staff who also picked up likely locals/folks they knew.
At another gig the regular security team was supplemented by a rugby club whom we put on static/numpty positions that needed to be filled but weren’t big on nuance.
Regarding R&V, I was surprised the promoter had apparently declined anti-harrassment posters. Those would be an easy way to start the process of gently reminding people there are rules and they are being watched. Additionally, if there was drinking there then there would be empties and litter. And easy thing to do is wander around with a wheelie bin and clean up – speaking with people as you go. It’s relaxed, laid back, but still takes the edge off the “I’m wiv me mates” feedback loop that happens. It’s not an overt “I’ve got my eye on you”, it just reminds folk that other people are around.
Of course, normally it’s cheaper just to have the bare minimum security, throw some bins around, and clean up with brooms and shovels after everyone has left.
When some of my former peer group were sozzled, pretty much anything could be acceptable to them at that time. Hard to predict/control what they might do and the behaviour they might sanction in the moment; a few of them were pretty good at post-booze justifications too.
People tell themselves that, but it’s not actually true. If your peer group doesn’t have any problems with you taking a piss in a shop doorway or picking a fight with someone, you might well do those things when you’re drunk. If your peer group would be horrified by those things and would likely shun you and certainly never drink with you again if you were to do them, you just don’t do stuff like that when drunk. Or, you do and eventually you’re a drunk with no friends. Very few people end up in the latter category.
You can figure it out for yourself via a handy thought experiment: how drunk would I have to be to shout homophobic abuse at someone, grope a woman, take a shit in a shop doorway or king-hit someone for no reason? The answer should be “There is no level of drunkenness at which I’d do any of those.” If your answer identifies a level of drunkenness at which you’d do any of those things, the problem isn’t alcohol, it’s you.
Totally agree
Alexei Sayle.
Or, don’t be drunk…
Alcohol is a masking agent
What are you masking?
What are ‘they’ masking?
Root cause…
I’m not against the use of alcohol and other mood-altering recreational drugs (knock yourself out!), but your peers clearly manage(d) the effects of alcohol on their behaviours and personalities better than the peers of my youth.
I see behaviour and personality as ‘products’ of the brain, a bioelectrical organ of remarkable complexity nevertheless subject to physicochemical processes. IMO it is magical thinking to contend that alcohol cannot temporarily alter what individuals ‘consider’ to be acceptable behaviour.
There are very few individuals who can, by training and/or sheer force of will, consciously (ha ha) resist general anaesthesia. Similarly, the mood-altering properties of ethanol are typically quite reliable, contributing to the popularity of the drug.
We have different experiences regarding the ability of ethanol to temporarily alter a persons judgement and behaviour – I’m happy to agree to disagree about the extent of those effects.
“I think the solution to the man problem….”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_castration
…or what you said. Plus ban ALL alcohol from the venue. (yeah, as if.)
If nothing else…at the end of the match, I’d lock the gates and not let anyone out until they picked up the bloody rubbish.
Yes, I know, local junior teams often do the grounds clean up for fundraising, but ffs, its as if the basic rules of decent behaviour completely disappear.
And its been well over a decade since I went to a cricket match…same as it ever was.
seriously? eugenics for anti-social behaviour? settle down mengele
The “man problem” goes right to the top in NZ sporting culture.
So, NZ women’s sevens rugby team are into the final in the tournament in Sydney this arvo. The women’s sevens runs parallel to the men’s.
Meanwhile, in the upcoming sevens tournament in Hamilton, there will only be a men’s competition.
As RNZ reports, Natalie Portman does have a point.
Sport is big in NZ’s dominant culture. And the way it’s dominated by implicit assumptions about masculine superiority is indicative, plus sends messages that can have all kinds of repercussions in the behaviour of men at events.
In your first sentence, the word “sporting” is superfluous.
This is what the embankment at the Basin has been like for decades. It starts off with chants targeting businessmen walking past with their ties on – “Get your tie off.. “, then moves onto cat calls and “get your gear off..”
It’s more an environment thing, 1 against the rest. People walking below a crowd by themselves are easy targets and have no defence, and you only need a couple of instigators and the group will follow along.
…so sexual assault is a time-honoured tradition and there’s nothing that can be done about it?
How would you deal with it OAB?
I have suggested alcohol is a key problem and been abused by you for that?
What then would you do?
I refer you to comment 1 on open mike, and please attempt to learn to distinguish between criticism of your behaviour and abuse.
As a guide to what constitutes “abuse”, see the comments I aimed at Chuck yesterday.
The issue goes way beyond sport.
New Zealand is a very sexist country.
I thought this was a very well written article.
An excerpt.
“In the United Nations Report on the Status of Women published in 2011, Aotearoa New Zealand was ranked worst of all OECD countries in rates of sexual violence.
Yet we – our media, our police, our guts – instinctively sympathise with the rapists, especially if they’re rugby players, because routine sexual violence is an integral part of rugby culture.
It is a Kiwi tradition for young men to have sex with drunken, underage girls. When the Roast Busters made headlines, they did so because they talked about their alleged exploits online, which meant that people outside our culture became aware of it.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/84167679/new-zealand-is-no-paradise-is-it-the-most-sexist-place-on-earth
Exactly.
Culture can be changed.
Specialist subject.
Why the aggro?
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/01/glittery-march-report-a-misunderstanding-organiser-says.html
Something isnt adding up here – esp when looking at the original quotes.
Looks like it might be set up to sell photos to tabloids from the original quotes that she now denies.
Are you thinking the charity to be suggested will something like Children Adult Support Helpline?
It was pretty obvious from the start that it was a set up.
More fool the msm and various commentators who were frothing at the mouth at the video captured misogyny.
This sort of fake ‘reality news’ happens for 2 reasons:
To help assist the maker’s philosophical beliefs or
To generate publicity and money for the makers.
In this case I believe the 2nd reason applies.
It is a shame as it denigrates the cases of genuine abuse which occur and the culprits of which deserve public ridicule.
So the woman who was groped by the vile prick wasn’t genuinely abused?
In the same way actors in a movie who appear to get beaten up aren’t actually beaten up.
If you arrange for someone to come and ‘grope’ you in order to capture this on video this is a form of implied consent.
A question for you:
If this indeed was a case of genuine Indecent Assault (which carries a punishment of 7 years in jail) why has the ‘victim’ not made a complaint to Police?
She has perfect evidence and it would be a strike of the sisterhood against pawing neanderthals.
However if it were all fakery then her statement to Police would be false and she might end up in trouble herself but fakery is fine for generating social media publicity.
Beware, not all that glitters is gold. (Pun intended)
Oh, so she arranged someone to come and ‘grope’ her?.
It is one posibility…and still valid at the present time…
Cartesian doubt creating rape culture…
If this indeed was a case of genuine Indecent Assault (which carries a punishment of 7 years in jail) why has the ‘victim’ not made a complaint to Police?
I take it this is your first time reading a left-wing or feminist blog if you can ask that question without putting a /sarc on the end.
Here is the version updated yesterday on the Wireless. Doesn’t make it any more clear, but suggests lawyers were involved to restrict what is being said.
Corporations and their predatory capitalists will do what they do anytime, anywhere, without a moral compass. The Wireless article ends:
Holiday highways.
Yesterday was was first journey up the so-called “holiday highway”, with toll road, early in a holiday period, since it’s been opened. A real eye-opener. I thought at least t was going to make for an easy journey for people in cars during their hols.
I went for work, as I was working on a workplace stall at an outdoor event. Foolishly, I assumed leaving Auckland at 8.30am would mean I would get there in 45-50 minutes. But then the electronic signs started appearing saying “queues before the tunnel”. And so it was… before and for a long while after it. Crawling along – stop star, crawl, stop…..
So this magic tunnel, on a busy 2-3 lane motorway, has one lane in each direction – so of course, a major bottle neck.
These motorway designers really have some weird logic!
We were caught in the same jam and I had the same thought.
I think the problem is the highway narrows back to a 2 way road directly after the tunnel and so the 2 into 1 has to occur somewhere.
With the amount of traffic heading north you would think an expressway expansion would be a priority.
I would like more mass transit options – and that would alleviate the amount of cars on the motorway.
I travel up to the northern reaches of Auckland often for work. Our work policy is to use mass/public transport where possible. If that’s not possible, then take one of the work fleet cars.
At the moment the fleet cars are the only option for work to get there and back in a timely manner.
We desperately need a rail system, plus better local bus services in the north of Auckland.
Careful, much more talk like that and you’ll become a convert to the MoRONS cult! I assume you’re talking about the Johnstone’s Hill tunnels just south of Puhoi.
The logic of narrowing it down to one lane northbound before the tunnel is to ensure the bottleneck and merging happens outside the tunnel. That way the cars are moving a bit more freely through the tunnel, in theory*, and it’s less likely there will be an incident inside the tunnel. Southbound there’s two lanes through the tunnel since it’s continuous two lanes going south beyond the tunnel and it’s much less likely to be queued up through the tunnel.
*In practice, the tightest bottleneck is at Warkworth, so the slow queue usually starts there and grows southwards until it backs up traffic through the tunnel. But even so, cars are moving through the tunnel twice as fast with only one lane than they would if there were two, so there’s less time spent in the confined space with concentrated exhausts, and there’s more room for emergency access if needed.
Yes, it is too easy to get caught up in some dodgy logic when we don’t have travel options.
I get frustrated when my only choice is to use a car, and it turns out to be a pretty poor means of travel.
What bunches my undies about the Puhoi-Warkworth motorway being built is there was an alternative that would deliver almost all the benefits for around a third the cost. Bevan Woodward had been pushing it for years, and my contacts in civil engineering consultancy all thought it was a better option, even just looking at it from a cars/trucks view rather than a wider whole transport system view.
Yes, Warkworth is a bottleneck, even at moderate traffic times. So a bypass there looks justified, so may as well build a new bypass to motorway standard to give a good long passing lane each way. Schedewy’s hill really is a hazard, so eliminate the corners with a cutting or tunnels under the hill. The narrow Pohuehue viaduct is a minor bottleneck, so double it up for a continuous passing lane up the hill.
Do those three upgrades, and the rest of SH1 Puhoi-Warkworth is easily upgradeable if traffic volumes ever grow enough to justify it. Meanwhile, just doing upgrades rather than a whole new motorway would free up resources to tackle problems further north like Dome Valley, a bypass around Wellsford, the Brynderwyns etc.
Warkworth needs a more comprehensive public/mass transport system. It is becoming a commuter suburb to Auckland city (ditto Wellsford), with the increasing development of greenfields development in these areas.
I know one or two long time Warkworth residents who, now given limited work choices, need to commute daily, or fairly regularly, to Auckland CBD. This means a long commute, and very early start and late end times to the day.
The biggest traffic congestion is between Albany and the CDB.
Warkworth town centre gets clogged with cars on weekdays because, for most people, currently the best way to travel around the area is by car.
That, plus eliminating the awful intersection with SHI and the Matakana, Snells Beach roads, would reduce the bottleneck.
And getting more trucks off the roads by an increase in the amount of freight travelling to the north by rail.
I don’t now the locations of places by the names you mention, though can make a guess.
Dome Valley is a major problem. It’s not so bad in good weather. However, I had to travel back from Wellsford one time during a big storm. With limited visibility, slippery conditions, and all those “high crash area” signs in the Dome Valley, it was a very stressful journey.
And there are way too many trucks travelling through the Dome Valley.
That Hill St intersection that’s such a nightmare for Matakana and Snell’s Beach residents shouldn’t be anywhere near as bad when the main road there is no longer SH1. Because it will be able to allocate much more more of the traffic light time to other users, whereas now it has to prioritise SH1 traffic.
Nevertheless, AT has a proposed Matakana Link Road. Which is of no use to Snell’s Beach residents. But surprise, it makes it very convenient for people getting off the new motorway to go to Matakana and Omaha.
https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/matakana-link-road/
Going south not far from Warkworth, there’s the long straight passing lane going up a hill, that narrows down to a two-lane bridge, then has a short passing lane after the bridge. That bridge is the Pohuehue viaduct. Then you have the straightish bit along the top of Windy Ridge, before going down the hill with some tight corners (where there’s a couple of stretches of passing lane for northbound traffic). That downhill windy bit is Schedewy’s Hill.
“That bridge is the Pohuehue viaduct.”
We regularly travel between Waikato and the Far North in our 5 ton housebus. If we opt to go down SH1 and the Pukeko Tunnel (our name for the Johnstone’s Hill ) it is that two lane/one lane each way/two lane thing happening at Pohuehue that will literally give me nightmares.
I’m not sure what can be misconstrued by the old Bus in the left lane indicating left so vehicles behind know I’m aware and its safe to for them to pass in the passing lane…then, when the passing lane is running out I do the right indicator thing to let following cars know that the passing lane is fast disappearing and I need to move right so I can cross the bridge.
And yes…I’m probably, optimistically, rocketing up the hill at 60 kph… but still no excuse for the fifth car in line behind me thinking…OH! It’s my turn to risk a head on collision on the Pohuehue Bridge today!!! Yay!!! And proceeds to floor it and pass the other four patient cars plus moi.
Result…I have to slow down/stop to let suicidal maniac pass…thereby losing my precious revs and now a steady 20kph is all I can manage from a standing start.
No amount of road building will fix the problem of the impatient psychopath behind the wheel. 🙂
I suggest adopting a somewhat more bullying attitude at the end of the passing lane.
As soon as the dashed line ends, start drifting over to the right while maintaining speed. The idiot attempting a too-late pass can slow down to your 60kph in a very short distance if need be on a fairly steep hill like that. There’s plenty of sealed road to the left if the idiot doesn’t get the message and keeps coming anyway and you need to make emergency room so there isn’t a head-on.
That’s the technique I eventually arrived at when I was regularly towing a large trailer up there at about the same speed.
Thanks. Yes, I pretty much guessed the places you were talking about.
The SH1 move will relieve the congestion around the Hill Street intersection. However, it will do nothing to relieve the road congestion, and parking issues in the town centre.
More buses in the area would be useful.
I’m told some of the residents around the Snells Beach area are from Pacific communities, attracted to the area for work. One of the main factories that employs them is some way down Woodcocks Rd – so why not better bus services through those areas? Especially with the planned increase in residential housing around the outskirts of Warkworth.
And a better bus service for retirees living out around the Matakana Road would maybe also relieve some of the congestion.
I would not call neoliberalism a 30 year old disaster.
It is a living disaster for millions of New Zealanders.
Pretending neoliberal economics doesn’t exist is one of Labour’s blind spots.
You only solve problems by confronting them.
[Same as below. Picked a point. Cut/shifted the sub-thread.] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Was it a disaster for the billion people lifted out of poverty?
I do not debate issues with trolls.
Yeah, but you could get one of your sock puppets to chime in.
Yes Ed there are to many snide bad remarks from the right here now that they re turning folks away now.
Indiana yours is exactly the sort of comment that is part of the unfortunate detritus that The Standard could do without.
The ‘billion people lifted out of poverty’ claim is simply neo liberal rhetoric, not fact.
I call bulshit @Indiana.
I’m in a place with a billion people (not too disimilar to your handle),
Trickling down and rising tides …. like hell.
Like elswhere the wealth transfer is to the few at the expense of the many
A billion peoples, Average dollar, income going up.
Does not equal lifting out of poverty, except in right wing fantasies.
Especially when the income lift goes to 1%, of them.
Meanwhile local farmers and suppliers have lost what little income they had.
Forcing them into city slums, work for Foxcon, and across borders, to survive.
So 42 individuals own more personally that the bottom 50%. Yeah this economic system is working so well.
Just a short piece.
https://leecamp.com/new-billionaire-created-every-2-days-millions-go-hungry/?mc_cid=731a89d5aa&mc_eid=524e48683c
Hi Stuart Munro
So why didn’t you demand all your demands from your friends the Capitalists?. You have had many years to do it. And you did nothing.
As predicted – the same old rants are pouring out.
You clearly have not even read a word of what has been written in the first 100 days of the new Government. Immigration for instance.
Really Stuart. whats wrong with you Labour Haters. ?
In the meantime, The Standard stays as the laughing stock of NZ thought and activity.
Well done Stuart.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
So what is your view about the Labour Party signing the TPP?
I have in fact been banned with some frequency for sledging the Gnats. But Labour’s original defection remains relevant, because the poor require political representation whether their original party chooses to represent them or not.
Labour have said a number of things in respect of immigration changes, but although Indian student numbers have dropped significantly the expectation in rural industries remains that they have access to ‘skilled’ foreign workers. We will be able recognize material change by the volume of rightwing angst, should it materialize.
Corrupt AF right winger loots the state to finance his campaign, overrides the courts and then sez, we must sit down for dialogue openly and without barriers. ..
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — President Juan Orlando Hernandez was sworn in for a new term in the Honduran capital Saturday, while across town tear gas drifted across flaming barricades in clashes between police and protesters angry over an election the say was marred by fraud.
[…]
The inauguration came after soldiers and riot police fired tear gas to block thousands of demonstrators from marching to the National Stadium to protest. Masked protesters shot rocks from slingshots and kicked canisters back toward security forces as barricades burned and gas billowed on the streets.
“This is how the dictator oppresses his people,” said opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla, who says the election was stolen and he was the true winner of the vote.
“We remain in the struggle to rescue the country from dictatorship and without recognizing Hernandez as president,” Nasralla told The Associated Press.
Hernandez, a 49-year-old lawyer, is Honduras’ first president to be re-elected — a key point in the protests against him.
The 1982 constitution bars presidents from seeking a new term and conservative politicians deposed a leftist president in 2009 for allegedly even considering re-election. But Hernandez won a Supreme Court ruling in 2015 to get around that prohibition.
https://www.apnews.com/fcc1e19345464dc6a5fed11a8aeb04ba/Honduran-president-starts-new-term-as-fiery-protests-erupt
Martin Bradbury has written a superb piece over at the Daily Blog .
It is a blunt reminder, despite the Jacindamania, that neoliberalism still has New Zealand in a vice like grip.
An excerpt.
“ We cheer Team NZ and sneer at those homeless in cars.
We property speculate ourselves to false illusions of wealth and decry public spending on state housing.
We lose ourselves in the labyrinth of neoliberal identity politics while the richest 1% own almost 30% of everything.
We cheer Lord of the Rings while trashing worker rights.
We shoot a bloody business card into the sky and tell ourselves this individual success of a medium sized enterprise is actually a metaphorical Plato-esk intellectual lantern to light the future of humanity!
The vanity of modern neoliberal NZ is Trump-like in its delusion.”
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/01/28/why-the-vacant-optimism-of-the-humanity-star-perfectly-sums-up-the-vanity-of-modern-neoliberal-nz/
So how does that sneering remark about losing ourselves “in the labyrinth of neoliberal identity politics” square with your earlier comments about toxic masculinity (an “identity politics” issue), Ed?
Martyn Bradbury relies too much on easy (and lazy) hyperbole and sweeping generalisations for my taste.
Fair point.
I like the fact Martin speaks truth to power.
Relying too much on easy lazy hyperbole isn’t “speaking truth to power”. Power loves easy lazy hyperbole because it’s completely nonthreatening and steals oxygen from more informed, more cogent critique.
100% Ed,
yes Martyn did well also today on another article regarding how our political system which mirrors the US election style also now and that we need to take stock of what our Labour coalition also may face in 2020.
Warning signs are there for us to be aware of going forward.
“To be forewarned is to be forearmed.”
Rereading Merchants of Doubt by Orestes and Conway.
Worth the time when you hear New Zealand scientists like Rowarth and Edmeades and journalists like Smith, and Mora deliberately muddying the waters here..
To Ed. Obviously a matter of opinion, but I think this is worth repeating.
“This is the first round of employment law changes that this government plans to make. It is the first steps towards reversing 30 years of working people having their rights diminished and losing their fair share of a growing economy”
Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11981946
Bottom line.
Changes will occur in steps, over time. It was never going to be an all or nothing in one big swoop. It’s a coalition government. There’s an element of compromise. Patience is required. I’m just thankful and grateful that change has begun.
[Had to pick “somewhere” as the place to shift that huge drift off into Labour Party stuff. The post was specifically about “the standard”] – Bill
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The time for incrementalism by a progressive party is past. That’s a late 20th century third way approach, when what we need right now is a significant change with strongly articulated left values and policies.
The time was ripe for a change, but the dominant people in the LP caucus chose to go to the electorate timidly, with cap in hand. (I’m looking at Parker and Robertson, particularly).
It always seemed to me the message I was getting, was that the Labour caucus leaders would prefer an alliance with NZ First to one with the Greens. I thought this before Ardern became leader, but it was reinforced by some of her early responses on becoming leader. I said so at the time.
So, in a way, they set up the conditions to weaken the vote for the Greens – that and the way they worked to adopt and weaken some of the GP policies on climate and social and economic justice.
To me, refraining from being critical of Labour is a lost cause. They have set the left in NZ back by about a decade or two. [Damn right I am angry about it!]
The only hopes are a revival of strong left wing values through a movement at the flax roots, plus a re-strengthened Green Party (with Maramar Davidson as co-leader outside cabinet or a ministry shackle), or a new left wing party.
I think a Marama Davidson led Green Party would provide the changes needed
Ed, she’s my pick. I think she would be an excellent co leader
My fear is that the media will attack her like they mauled Turei
That wasn’t the media’s fault that was all on Turei.
I think the media and its witch hunt is indeed at fault.
As Turei’s story started to fall apart and the father of her child and his family were thrown under the bus by Turei her fate was sealed.
Turei’s story didn’t fall apart, her points were clear, the media imo have a lot to answer for.
Turei exposed the hypocrisy, misogyny, racism and bad faith of the NZ establishment, and media.
For that, she will never be forgiven.
Much of what you say is myth and the telling by biased media. The reality is quite different.
You may think its past, but change will happen in steps. That’s what we are seeing. What we’ve got, is what we’ve got, working against that achieves what exactly? and I disagree that “they set up the conditions to weaken the vote for the Greens.” It’s not about refraining from criticism, but we should at least be constructive about it.
Whole-heartedly agree on the NZ Labour/Green/NZF dynamic.
Curious (neutrally so) as to why Maramar Davidson over Julie Ann Genter though.
Julie Anne Genter is very good in all areas of the Green 3 planks. But her main focus is on the environment, much like James Shaw, and transport.
Davidson has always been for the strong and equal integration of the 3 planks, even before joining the Greens. But she puts a stronger focus on participating in community engagement at the flax roots – and does this in the crucial low income areas of South Auckland. where she has experienced first hand the struggles of brown renters, and low income people.
Davidson also engages directly with Māori and Pacific communities.
That is it exactly Carolyn. Also Maramar is inspirational – a born leader.
Marama.
yeah! My bad I saw it too late to edit my poor spelling and hoped no one would notice.
Gotcha. 🙂
As Labour and the Greens compete for the same voter pool (in the main) they cannibalize each other’s vote. Just look at the swings before the election.
NZF was the only way to power for Labour (and the Greens). Hence Winston was always in the box seat.
For the Green Party to re-strengthen will require Labour to lose support. Unless you can convince some of the 45% or so of center – center-right voters they should swing left (a lot) it will just be the status quo.
The last thing you need is another leftwing party!
You need the Labour party to be strong while trying to also grow the Green voter base.
I agree.
I am also happy we have got rid of Key, English, Joyce, Collins….
Me too, Ed.
It was in response to Ed’s comment.
The first 10 minutes are hilarious. The US military are awesome at killing everyone! The US military are the world’s biggest polluter. Over all, video 32 minutes long.
To: Stuart Munro
You come in with punches against the new Government. As if you were wishing to floor them the first opportunity you can get.
You want them to ban 1080. Full stop.
But you do not succinctly state what you will replace 1080 with.
You go on against the Government for not having a full anti immigration policy. Again you want to floor the Government in its first days. It is a great pity that the green party had not skilled all jobless Nnew Zealanders – so that no immigrants would be required.
But they didn’t – did they.
Can you see why I The Standard gets let down Stuart.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[Take a week off. The post isn’t about anything you wrote in either of the two comments you made that I had to shift over here. And I can’t be arsed to check future comments to see if you’re still wasting space/threads and attacking Stuart Munro. Come back next Sunday.] – Bill
C’mon Federer.
I’m not too familiar with Halsey, but her poetry, oh boy,….
(careful, detailed description of sexual abuse)
And if you want to read the poem entire…http://www.popbuzz.com/music/artists/halsey/features/halsey-womens-march-poem-transcript/
And like, seriously…… trigger warning.
My old man always sneered at the notion of scouts.
He wasn’t wrong.
https://books.google.co.nz/books?redir_esc=y&id=MJJOl7SMWIoC&q=boy+scouts#v=snippet&q=boy%20scouts&f=false
It gets worse.
(1&2/30)
https://twitter.com/SarahTaber_bww/status/954774752970801152
Unrolled.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/954774752970801152.html
Nonononononono…..
The price of Winston’s handshake…
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/349096/nz-to-get-new-all-weather-horse-racing-track
I can’t bloody believe it.
“The Racing Minister Winston Peters made the announcement at the official opening of the annual bloodstock sales in Karaka in South Auckland today.
Several races around the country have recently been called off due to rain.
Mr Peters said the track would be funded by both taxpayers and the industry.
“The idea is a very sound idea and it will stop the huge losses that are happening because events that are clearly going to be cancelled have no alternative.””
Horse racing, second only to rodeo in the animal abuse stakes.
And we, the taxpayers, are going to be coughing up mega millions so there can be even more of it.
Jesus wept.
38% of NZ roads are unsealed. We have a rickety old single lane bridge over the Hurunui River on SH1. We have parents being driven into the arms of loan sharks to buy school uniforms and stationery. Kids go to school hungry and without adequate clothing. People live with chronic pain because of hospital waiting lists. And, and, and….. Winston’s idea of what NZ needs as a priority is an all weather racing track so he and his buddies can bet and booze – because let’s not pretend otherwise – that’s what horse racing is all about.