Fabio Vighi is Professor of Critical Theory at Cardiff University, and author of Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism.
He reckons it's "time to take the red pill and face reality: since the start of 2020, a macroeconomic virus disguised as a pandemic virus has taken possession of our lives, causing widespread depression and consigning entire populations to often extreme forms of legalized discrimination."
I found no evidence he's a denier of microbiology and his thesis that the control system is using the pandemic as a tool rings true. Folks who prefer to form an overview of situations ought to give his reasoning an appraisal. I'll quote a few interesting parts…
In August 2019, a white paper issued by BlackRock (the all-powerful investment fund already known as the “fourth branch of government”) had shown the Federal Reserve the way out of the coming “dramatic downturn,” urging the US Central Bank to implement an “unprecedented” monetary policy whereby large masses of money created out of thin air were to be delivered “directly into the hands of public and private spenders.” This “going direct” scheme, which according to BlackRock had to be made “permanent,” was promptly inaugurated a month later in response to the repo market crisis.
Since then, and especially after the arrival of Virus, the Fed’s balance sheet has grown by nearly 5 trillion dollars, an absolutely extraordinary expansion even when compared with the QE bailouts started at the end of 2008. And to get an idea of the global dimension of this expansion, we need to add the trillions created by other central banks around the world, as well as programs of fiscal stimulus such as ‘helicopter money.’
…the perverse logic of ‘pandemic capitalism,’ which allowed the top 1% to increase their wealth at record speed, while the middle classes are going missing… Currency depreciation appears to be a feature, not a bug, of central banking. Remember the World Economic Forum’s slogan? You will own nothing, and you will be happy! In short, it is not happening by accident but by design.
What does our macroeconomic environment look like? Its basic features are summarised below:
– Global debt of $300 trillion, growing exponentially
– Rapidly increasing deficits in most advanced and developing economies
– Colossal bubbles in the stock, bond (debt), and real estate markets
– Astronomical bubble in the derivatives market
– Surging inflation with potential for hyperinflation.
Within this explosive context, Virus and variants work as cynical cover stories whose aim is to expedite the authoritarian management of the implosive trajectory of contemporary capitalism, which cannot be contained through economic policy alone. The unrelenting manufacturing of ‘pandemic emergency’ is both a defensive strategy against collapse, and an aggressive attack on what is left of the ‘work society,’ for it allows the elites to use inflation as a means to impoverishment and domination.
The political left has opted to take the blue pill, and, as summarized by Franco Berardi (Bifo), it can only offer false perspectives: “There is no political way out of the apocalypse. For thirty years the left has been the main political instrument of the ultra-capitalist offensive, and whoever invests their hopes in the left is an imbecile who deserves to be betrayed, since betraying is the only activity that the left is capable of performing competently.”
If we want to avoid the coming tsunami of social barbarism we will need, at some point soon, to redefine the relationship between work, community and social wealth beyond its capitalist meaning. To do this we will need to take a third pill, which however will only become available after we organise meaningful popular resistance against socioeconomic tyranny legitimised by ‘emergency capitalism.’
I'm intrigued by his notion of a third pill. He doesn't explain it – and Matrix theory provides just the red/blue binary – but a green pill has aesthetic appeal…
Cheers Dennis for perusing these articles and books and passing on what you find.
I certainly can get put off by sentences with lots of big words but the bite size chunks you share give a lot of food for thought.
This virus has changed folks thinking and not in a good way by my reckoning. If we want to mitigate and adapt to CC challenges then BAU will not suffice. A simpler, humbler way of life, with sharing at the heart of it is what is needed.
5.9% inflation what does that mean ? Someone on $50k last year now in real terms will have had to have spent $3,000 less than in 2020 or obtained an increase of the same, not likely especially as many in the public sector were put on a “pay freeze”. How long can anyone substain such loss in spending power, especially as many of the essential items: rent, petroleum, food etc costs have increased at a higher rate and are inescapable to avoid?
National leader Christopher Luxon says the Government needs to stop spending money on “dumb stuff” in order to arrest rising inflation rates.
Asked for examples of wasteful spending to cut, Luxon pointed to cameras on fishing boats and consultant fees for the Three Waters reform coming out of the Covid-19 budget, and the $51m spent on the cancelled Auckland Harbour cycle bridge.
Cameras on fishing boats are estimated to cost $68m, while the policy costs from the Three Waters programme sit at around $20m. All up these costs make up about 0.1 per cent of the annual Government budget.
Spotify has begun removing Young’s music from its platform after an ultimatum issued by the star earlier this week to the company. Referring to controversial podcasts by Joe Rogan hosted by Spotify, Young said: “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Many of Young’s fans and supporters of his stance called for a boycott of the streaming platform, and for other artists to follow his lead. “I stand with Neil Young” and “#CancelSpotify” became rallying calls on social media on Thursday.
The actor and activist Mia Farrow tweeted: “Wow @Spotify you chose to keep creepy, dangerous liar Joe Rodan over the magnificent Neil Young?” There was no immediate sign of other big names in the music industry siding with Young against Spotify – an indication perhaps of its market dominance. Between 2010 and 2020, Spotify’s share of the US music market rose from 7% to 83%.
He went to visit Lynyrd Skynyrd after that was a hit & according to the report I read in RS it went okay. I also read the southern dudes got inappropriate feedback from their fans along redneck lines & the songwriter complained that "in Birmingham they love the governor, we all did what we could do" was too subtle for them…
Young’s anti-GMO rhetoric helped fuel a narrative that made it easy to spread fear and distrust about COVID vaccines, most of which used novel biotechnology methods and some of which use genetic engineering.
Foreign policy wonks have their work cut out. The international rules a small country like Aotearoa rely on are going to stretched, hopefully not beyond breaking point.
”With With this in mind I believe that 2022 will be a year where the transition from the liberal international order to something else will begin to pick up speed and as a result lead to various types of conflict between the old and new guards. What with hybrid or grey area conflict, disinformation campaigns, electoral meddling and cyberwarfare all now part of the psychological operations mix along with conventional air, land, sea and space-based kinetic military operations involving multi-domain command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and robotics (C4ISR2) systems, the ways in which conflict can be engaged covertly or overtly have multiplied. That technological fact means that it is easier for international actors, or at least some of them, to act as disruptors of the global status quo by using conflict as a systemic re-alignment vehicle“
Causes of inflation? When nobody was going anywhere two years ago except in ambulances, fuel prices plummeted. Great! Now with Putin manipulating a big war scare in Eastern Europe, fuel prices have surged. Arguably without covid, fuel may well have been in the 2.75-3.00 dollar a litre by now anyway. Most likely Russia is not invading anyone but it’s return on elevated fuel prices suits it perfectly for very little cost. Hence rapid fuel inflation which feeds on to everything else. But wait, there is a silver lining at least for us with our locally produced electricity, how much more encouragement do you need to go electric?
The other big inflation mover is the huge increase in house building big booms always raise prices, so what do you want, low inflation or not enough houses?
The other big inflation pusher that Hickey does not seem to take into account is that with 2 years of no international holiday travel Kiwis have a shitload ( proper economic term that, when you don’t know the real numbers ) of money lying around going “ spend me, spend me “. The possible real number may be close to his extra 21 billion that he says private NZers have squirrelled away or have spent it at home. How can any of these have been avoided? Almost certainly not, we didn’t get more money from wage subsidies almost certainly less, but we saved a lot of it.
The biggest single factor causing inflation is a 30% rise in fuel prices which has a huge knock on effect.
His claim people are hoarding $21 billion from cancelled overseas trips maybe true but we lost that from tourism as well.
Hickey has overlooked the number of houses being constructed is at record levels 2yrs in a row.
That has helped keep the economy ticking over nicely.
Keeping unemployment down.
Numbers on benefits are up I would say that is because of a reset during covid Nationals nasty attitude to the homeless people not able to access benefits to make their figures look good.That was changed by labour during covid.
This govt made sure homeless had accomodation,healthcare money so they didn't spread covid.
National would have left homeless to their own devices.
What role does OPEC play these days regarding fuel prices then?
We've had low inflation and 'not enough houses for years'.
Low interest rates and a lack of any other appealing asset class are 2 factors that ramped up housing prices.
Whatever the triggers, Hickey is laying out the real facts.
Tourism was supposedly NZ's biggest earner….the economy has survived that becoming irelevant ,no trouble at all.
Hickey appears to be saying the Govt did not assess the economic ramifications of Covid quickly enough.
It looks to me that it became policy to fuel the property ponzi to make GDP look good and compensate for any austerity measures(less spending/more saving)that people may have imposed on…themselves.
The next 18 months will be very interesting…indeed.
Any political theory advocating the weaponising of culture ought to cite as evidence the cultural operations of the CIA throughout history. Spooks doing cultural analysis? Who knew? Fortunately the history is becoming available via declassification:
Thomas W. Braden, the former supervisor of cultural activities at the CIA, explained the power of the Agency’s cultural assault in a frank insider’s account published in 1967: “I remember the enormous joy I got when the Boston Symphony Orchestra [which was supported by the CIA] won more acclaim for the U.S. in Paris than John Foster Dulles or Dwight D. Eisenhower could have bought with a hundred speeches.”
Perched in a privileged ivory tower, disconnected from the real world, embroiled in meaningless academic debates over specialized minutia, or floating in the abstruse clouds of high-minded theory, intellectuals are frequently portrayed as not only cut off from political reality but as incapable of having any meaningful impact on it. The Central Intelligence Agency thinks otherwise… For in an intriguing research paper written in 1985, and recently released with minor redactions through the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA reveals that its operatives have been studying the complex, international trend-setting French theory affiliated with the names of Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan and Roland Barthes.
The intelligence agency understands culture and theory to be crucial weapons in the overall arsenal it deploys to perpetuate US interests around the world. The recently released research paper from 1985, entitled “France: Defection of the Leftist Intellectuals,” examines—undoubtedly in order to manipulate—the French intelligentsia and its fundamental role in shaping the trends that generate political policy.
So to the historical origin of the triangulation adopted by the Greens towards the twin evils of the left and right:
Greg Grandin, one of the leading historians of Latin America, perfectly summarized this situation in The Last Colonial Massacre: “Aside from making visibly disastrous and deadly interventions in Guatemala in 1954, the Dominican Republic in 1965, Chile in 1973, and El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s, the United States has lent quiet and steady financial, material, and moral support for murderous counterinsurgent terror states. […] But the enormity of Stalin’s crimes ensures that such sordid histories, no matter how compelling, thorough, or damning, do not disturb the foundation of a worldview committed to the exemplary role of the United States in defending what we now know as democracy.”
The author examines how the control system uses the left as dupes:
As we know from the research on the CIA’s program of psychological warfare, the organization has not only tracked and sought to coerce individuals, but it has always been keen on understanding and transforming institutions of cultural production and distribution.
Indeed, its study on French theory points to the structural role universities, publishing houses and the media play in the formation and consolidation of a collective political ethos.
In descriptions that, like the rest of the document, should invite us to think critically about the current academic situation in the Anglophone world and beyond, the authors of the report foreground the ways in which the precarization of academic labor contributes to the demolition of radical leftism. If strong leftists cannot secure the material means necessary to carry out our work, or if we are more or less subtly forced to conform in order to find employment, publish our writings or have an audience, then the structural conditions for a resolute leftist community are weakened. The vocationalization of higher education is another tool used for this end since it aims at transforming people into techno-scientific cogs in the capitalist apparatus rather than autonomous citizens with reliable tools for social critique. The theory mandarins of the CIA therefore praise the efforts on the part of the French government to “push students into business and technical courses.”
So what to do about that? Unusually for a leftist intellectual, he sees a way forward.
develop systemic and radical critique that is as egalitarian and ecological as it is anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist… In direct opposition to the spy agency’s cultural strategy of fragment and polarize, by which it has sought to sever and isolate the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist left, while opposing it to reformist positions, we should federate and mobilize by recognizing the importance of working together—across the entire left… by working together and mobilizing our capacity to collectively create the institutions necessary for a world of cultural leftism.
For the left, the road to hell has always been paved by such good intentions. Translating them into effective action requires praxis (something leftists don't like even thinking about let alone doing) in which individual talent & flair gets synthesised in group contexts to produce collaboration.
Group-think in these contexts can be defeated by intelligent design. Principles and incentives that balance diversity of opinion with mutual commitments and agreed tasks and goals usually achieve likeminded output without infighting. Leadership to steer process towards destination can be both individual & collective. However, in our current context political activists must adapt by leaving the past failures behind them if they are serious about becoming successful…
As an old stale pale male Efeso certainly has my vote. He is a breath of fresh air. The rest of the candidates from both sides of the political divide will, in my view, be mayor of the CBD only, as Goff has proven to be. The rest of the peasantry will be ignored
It maybe a problem for Labour but I suspect they're going to have to suck it up.
Nice bloke though he is, one thing Richard Hill does not have is charisma. Efeso Collins on the other hand has it in spades. Add that to his impressive and rational thinking processes, he should be a shoo-in for the mayoralty. I believe his popularity would also transcend the Labour Party and if Labour tries to undermine him then it would likely be to their detriment.
So, the government planned to have the RAT tests available for sale in New Zealand weeks ago.
And, as the article points out, the MOH has been far too slow on approving test suppliers. Absolutely unacceptable:
"Wallis Keiller's Invitrocue rapid antigen test is banned in New Zealand – it doesn't have Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield's blessing, and very few do. It's a saliva rapid antigen test that links up to an app for a result. While approved by Germany's tough medical regulator, it's not approved here…..Keiller says his tests have a 97 percent accuracy and as soon as he gets signoff he can get loads here quickly."
Yes and they also planned to build 10,000 Kiwibuild houses a year and fix homeless and poverty and a few other things. They can't do everything at once, although they have banned plastic bags from supermarkets.
So our govt has indexed benefits to wage growth. Wage growth last year was 2.4% inflation 5.9% . Everyone faces the same struggle how to survive on less. And this decrease in spending power applies for every year that wages growth is less than inflation. But Grant Robertson said this morning “It’s really challenging people, but an awful lot of it relates to Covid, supply chain and things that unfortunately will work their way through the system this year.” Grant you and your fellow ministers are disconnected with the day to day world the rest of us live in, and our pain is due to YOUR policies.
probably, but people, the country and the health system being in the best possible position is better than letting covid run free (aka not resisting community spread). We also learn more as time goes on. At some point we may well have to make a different set of decisions, but by mid year we will have actual data on omicron and long covid.
yes, what's your point? We're in the process of developing the skills of slowing viruses that are highly contagious. That wills serve us with any new variants that are more infectious (or spread faster).
Further, it appears that there are significant numbers of people getting omicron who have already had covid. There is so much to learn yet about human immunity in response to covid, across a number of areas.
You still aren't addressing long covid, so I will assume it's a case of collateral damage in a strategy of not resisting community spread.
All of which is to say that we don't actually know what the frying pan and the fire are yet.
If "best possible position" had been a serious consideration, then there would have been over two years worth of effective public health policy, and public health messaging on what people might do to optimise their immune system. Instead we got Big Pharma's vaccinate or bust strategy that cleared the table of anything and everything that might hamper 'vaccination for all' while introducing deleterious measures that had scant regard for actual health. It has been 100% medical maleficence.
By mid- year Omicron will have washed through and the acute phase abated because people will have acquired natural immunity from infection. Covid will be endemic because it has multiple reservoirs in mammalian populations.
I'm curious as to what these imaginary skills might be (the stopping or slowing spread ones) – because we already have effective anti-virals that kill the virus (and therefor stop the spread). But they've been variously banned or not publicised. Hell. On an individual level Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo solution is a hugely effective preventative measure if used as a nasal rinse. Listerine is another effective measure if gargled. And yes. The studies have been done and were published over a year ago. And then of course, there's naturally acquired immunity from previous infection…though that was rubbished and discounted by government health agencies "everywhere" until very recently for some reason that had, honest Joe, nothing to do with any crusade.
Have you read up on the decades long health tail off from the Spanish Flu I alerted you to previously? Long Covid isn't a thing – it's Covid. Covid might have multiple health effects that will ripple for decades and that will, for some part, only ever be recognised in retrospect.
Anyway. Enough of combating denial, avoidance and fear for one day.
If Omicron BA.2 gets into the community, in lieu of Omicron BA.1 that it appears to be supplanting, the spread of Covid will be faster than it would have been, and so whatever stresses and strains on infrastructure Omicron BA.1 might have presented will be exacerbated. That was essentially all I was remarking on. Chow.
Seems NZ might have foregone the frying pan for the fire (in terms of health system capacity) by resisting community spread of Omicron BA.1.
So resisting/slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Kiwi communities is (seems / might be) unwise (frying pan –> fire), in your opinion? Still, it will be spreading fast enough within a week or two – no hurry, eh?
Most people infected with COVID-19 will be fine, but some will suffer from various long COVID symptoms, and unvaccinated people are over-represented among the unfortunate few who are hospitalised and/or die with COVID infections. The 7-day moving average for COVID deaths in Australia is ~70 per day.
Not too late to get your booster if you're eligible, and let your immune system bank a little extra protection ahead of the Omicron surge – a prudent precaution, imho.
All of New Zealand is now at Red
Protect yourself and our community by getting boosted, wearing a face mask when out and about and reducing contact with others.
So resisting/slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Kiwi communities is (seems / might be) unwise (frying pan –> fire), in your opinion?
No.
I've merely observed government policy was to keep one variant at bay "because highly transmissible), and we're possibly going to be hit by more transmissible one.
Isn't it NZ government policy (and MoH strategy) to keep all COVID variants at bay? Just thinking how the Team’s successful 'elimination strategy' shifted to a suppression strategy as the virus evolved – adapt or die!
Both the virus and civiisation are in uncharted waters – what next?
The much spruiked income from tourism is bullshit, figures from 10 to 40 billion were being talked about at the start of covid with sensible critics saying maybe 8 to 14. Covid proved them all wrong. A large number of Aussie visitors are kiwis visiting family and they don’t spend that much, the balance particularly from Asia are bought here in vertically integrated systems where pretty much all the trip costs are bought and paid for in their home countries and are to pay for services mostly owned by Asian entities, airlines, buses, accomodation etc and this money doesn’t get banked in NZ , they probably spend far less a day than than ordinary Kiwis on a tiki tour. Also most tourists don’t spend long in NZ, a matter of a few weeks or less, whereas Kiwis travelling take a lot longer on their overseas holidays.
It is not in the industry’s interest in the slightest to have the real numbers revealed, even cruise ship visits are counted as ‘ visitor nights’ when some passengers don’t even get off the boat let alone sleep ashore. This is deceitful accounting and the
reason is the leveraging power of the mythical value to the country. Just listen to the bleating over every little sensible public safety advice or instruction, and the self importance is plain to see. The economy did far better with Kiwis spending their own thwarted trip money locally on having a look around here and then putting the balance in the bank or a bit of a tart-up at home.
Looks good though, as grade separation via tunnelling along half of it works pretty well, and can always redo the southern section later on if need be. Though still need to get the North Shore section nailed down to get the full benefit and get this all started before Labour looses power. So then National can't cancel it as easily due to all the contracts involved :3
But I can sense a mighty whinge arising from National and ACT over this, partly on cost, mainly on "public transport is evils whaaaaaa!". Along with usual moaning about the time it'll take, but given how long certain National done projects (Transmission Gully, Christchurch Rebuild and Northern Motorway, etc) took or are still in progress, despite National's claims about their competency, they don't have a foot to stand on.
Now if only Labour would do the same for Public Housing already… Figure that may happen after the next election, as a Labour-Greens government is highly likely, but we shall see.
Also, I'm rather jealous Auckland's finally getting it's public transport network sorted, because Christchurch's is still kind of shit. Sure, the new bike corridors are nice and more bus lanes have helped, but the bike corridors don't have anywhere near enough reach and buses still get snarled up in rush hour traffic at chokepoints like Riccarton Road etc. But it'll be forever at this rate before heavy and light rail are accepted by ECan.
[your pre-approved user name appears to be […], so please stick with that – Incognito]
[name removed while we discuss this in the back end – weka]
I used to post here years ago, probably under TheMess or The_Mess with the same email address lawl. But depression kicked my arse so I haven't had the energy to engage here in ages…
The Mess, can you please let us know if you want to use The Mess as your username going forward, or if you want to revert back to the one you have used on TS in the past?
No idea sadly, it's mainly been Christchurch City Council pushing for it to become government policy. I probably should go read up the policy, since I now party vote Greens instead of Labour. Because despite their anti-GMO stance, they hit the mark mostly on the other social welfare and climate change stuff.
Our Future of Transport plan would set Aotearoa up for the future by:
Investing in large scale rapid rail to reboot the regions between major cities
Accelerating transformational public transportnetworks within our major cities, including busways, light rail, and rail
Setting up a $1.5 billion Cycle Superhighwayfund to provide safe, separated cycleways, with the capacity to be used by thousands of people each day
Introducing a target date for only zero emission light vehicles to be able to be imported to Aotearoa, and linking this to the date set by the UK, likely to be 2030
Incentivise heavy freight to transition to zero emissions vehicles and be 100% powered by renewable energy by 2050
Setting up a nationwide Go Anywhere transport pass that works on all public transport, and provides access to electric car share, e-bike subscriptions and e-scooters in the main cities across the country
Reducing the cost of public transport by making it free for people over 65, under 18 and community services holders, by reducing the cost by 50% for students, and by setting up weekly payment limits – so no one pays for more than eight rides a week.
National and ACT's response is at the end, and it's just as sad and useless as I suspected:
The National Party has called the plan “a dream.”
“If it ever goes ahead it will be at least $15 billion of wasted spending,” said Simeon Brown, National's transport spokesman.
Brown said, “the number one priority for Aucklanders is a second Harbour Crossing for both public transport and private vehicles.”
The ACT party said it was not opposed to light rail, but disagreed with the approach being taken by the government.
“Auckland is staring down a decade of disruption,” said ACT’s transport spokesman Simon Court.
“Questions need to be asked about whether we could be taking actions today at less cost to deliver light rail in the future. For example, options like investing in the bus network and repurposing it for light rail later could be reconsidered.”
One wonder's how it'll be wasteful Simon, when the return on investment for rail public transit systems in cities is historically very positive. It's also somewhat cheaper than filling Auckland with more highways when Auckland's running out of room for them with out very, very expensive mass buyouts of property for the space. Oh and a 2nd car bridge would result in more congestion due to pumping more cars into the network.
As for ACT, lolwut? Put light rail on bus lanes? Pray tell, how exactly is that meant to work with the sort of infrastructure light rail needs + the problems with high frequency runs vis the lack of grade separation and stations? Never mind the disruption that would entail trying to do.
Oh right, under ACT it would never happen, and instead the bus service would be entirely profit driven and thus stop serving much of Auckland bar the highest usage areas. Because Uber exists and 1 person per car/SUV is oh so much more "freedom" and everyone can totally afford it and to pay Auckland private market rents.
Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras' first female president Thursday in the capital, Tegucigalpa.
Castro, a democratic socialist, won a landslide victory in last year's presidential election after campaigning on a radical agenda to counter years of governance plagued by corruption and scandal. She promised to alleviate poverty and liberalize abortion laws.
Castro's party, the Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre) won the November 2021 vote with a lead of more than 14 points over her nearest opponent, Nasry Asfura, the capital's mayor and candidate for outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández's National Party.
Winning 51% of the vote share and 1.7 million votes, Castro garnered the largest number of votes in the country's history, underscoring the public's appetite for change.
Castro's promise to stamp out the systemic problems behind poverty, including economic insecurity, inequality, corruption and violence — some of the root causes of migration to the north — is not only popular with the electorate, but has made her an attractive ally for US President Joe Biden's administration. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is overseeing the White House's efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, was among those in attendance for the inauguration.
Her ascendancy is interesting for several reasons. Her husband was president – ousted by a coup in 2009 – for an establishment party (the liberals).
The party system is dominated by the conservative National Party of Honduras and the Liberal Party of Honduras.
This establishment duopoly prevailed for over a century!
In January 2021, Honduras changed the country's constitution to make it almost impossible to legalize abortion in the future. Before that, Honduras was already one of few countries with a complete ban on abortion. The constitutional reform was supported by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez's ruling National Party.
She defeated the Nationals decisively – therefore has a mandate to alter that constitutional roadblock to abortion! Imagine the conservative consternation.
'made her an attractive ally for US President Joe Biden's administration. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is overseeing the White House's efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, was among those in attendance for the inauguration.'
BIG…surprise.
'Honduras, where the United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. The writer O. Henry coined the term "Banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras.'-wiki
'The US intervened in numerous military coups to protect its commercial interests, embedding a conservative, Americanised elite. Contra guerrillas backed by President Ronald Reagan used Honduras as a base to attack Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s.'-Guardian.
Well the Labour Party have found a way to introduce a Capital Gains Tax without calling it that. They are also going to put it on the family home. While they are about it they are going to claim that they are also providing you with the Capital Gain so it won't actually cost you anything.
How do they do it? Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home. Aren't you going to be grateful? They will ignore the fact that thanks to their crazy policies the price of all Auckland homes has risen.
Then they will tax you some percentage of this supposed gain because the increase is all due to the tram line. It isn't a capital gain of course. It is a windfall profit according to Robbo. This "windfall' they will tax. They won't even wait till you get it of course. They will tax you…heavily….every year….even if you never use the damn tram.
What is near the line? Well all of New Zealand actually. After all. If you were ever allowed to visit Auckland the tram line would be a sight for you, a tourist, to swoon over. I'm sure you will love to contribute to Robbo's coffers.
There. Simple wasn't it. All we have to do is get it in quickly and line up all the Labour MPs to recite, in unison, and over and over again.
"This is a windfall, it is not a Capital Gain". Repeat this line over and over while interposing at intervals "Thank you Saint Jacinda for the bounty of your windfall".
You obviously haven't read what the Minister concerned has been saying. The "he" in the quote is Michael Wood.
'“It is fair and equitable that those who receive a financial windfall from significant public investment make a contribution to the project. We are clearly signalling that will happen, and that is a live prospect from today,” he said.
Levying properties to fund new infrastructure has already occurred, with new homes in the Milldale Development north of Auckland, paying an extra charge.
.A regime for light rail would be different in that it would apply to existing properties.'
So what are the homes he talks about if they do not include family homes?
"Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home. "
A correction:
Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram, that will be patronised by only a handful of people because the public transport system is shit, somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home.
The N95 etc don't seem to take a dye even if dyeing doesn't screw them up. That leaves overmasks, or possibly masquerade masks over the top of the face, lol
Australia is nearly as useless as us so far as RATs are concerned. Pity we didn't hadn't learnt from what they are doing in the UK now, where they have lots of experience with Covid.
"Rapid antigen tests in the UK have individual bar codes which people photograph after taking their free test and upload the result to the NHS website, whether they are negative or positive. This means the health authorities have a clearer idea of the spread of COVID in the community."
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No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
David Farrar writes – Newstalk ZB report: The man responsible for a horror hit and run in central Wellington last year was on a suspended licence and was so drunk he later asked police, “Did I kill someone?” Jason Tuitama injured two women when he ran a red ...
Muriel Newman writes – Former US President Ronald Reagan once said, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation.” The fight for ...
Why Courts should have said Waitangi Tribunal could not summons Karen Chhour Gary Judd writes – In the High Court, Justice Isacs declined to uphold the witness summons issued by the Waitangi Tribunal to compel Minister for Children, Karen Chhour, to appear before it to be ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The number of voices raising concerns about the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill is rapidly growing. This is especially apparent now that Parliament’s select committee is listening to submissions from the public to evaluate the proposed legislation. Twenty-seven thousand submissions have been made to Parliament ...
An average of 166 New Zealand citizens left the country every day during the March quarter, up 54% from a year ago.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy and housing market is sinking into a longer recession through the winter after a slump in business and consumer confidence in ...
The government has made it abundantly clear they’re addicted to the smell of new asphalt. On Tuesday they introduced a new term to the country’s roading lexicon, the Roads of Regional Significance (RoRS), a little brother for the Roads of National (Party) Significance (RoNS). Driving ahead with Roads of Regional ...
School is outAnd I walk the empty hallwaysI walk aloneAlone as alwaysThere's so many lucky penniesLying on the floorBut where the hell are all the lucky peopleI can't see them any moreYesterday morning, I’d just sent out my newsletter on Tama Potaka, and I was struggling to make the coffee. ...
Hi,I wanted to check in and ask how you’re doing.This is perhaps a selfish act, of attempting to find others feeling a similar way to me — that is to say, a little hopeless at the moment.Misery loves company, that sort of deal.Some context.I wish I could say I got ...
I have hitherto been fairly quiet on the new season of Rings of Power, on the basis that the underwhelming first season did not exactly build excitement – and the rumours were fairly daft. The only real thing of substance to come out has been that they have re-cast Adar ...
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 ...
“The thing is,” Chris Luxon says, leaning forward to make his point, “this has always been my thing.”“This goes all the way back to the first multinational I worked for. I was saying exactly the same thing back then. The name of our business needs to be more clear; people ...
Buzz from the Beehive It’s been a momentous few days for Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court decision which blocked a summons order from the Waitangi Tribunal for her. And today she has announced the Government is putting children first by introducing to ...
In 2014 former Australian army lawyer David McBride leaked classified military documents about Australian war crimes to the ABC. Dubbed "The Afghan Files", the documents led to an explosive report on Australian war crimes, the disbanding of an entire SAS unit, and multiple ongoing prosecutions. The journalist who wrote the ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – According to the respected Pew Research Centre, “In seven of eight [European] countries surveyed, the most trusted news outlet asked about is the public news organization in each country”. For example, “in Sweden, an overwhelming majority (90%) say they trust the public broadcaster SVT”. ...
David Farrar writes – Kata MacNamara reports: Details of Tony Blakely’s involvement in the New Zealand Government’s response to the pandemic raise serious questions about the work of the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry over which he presides. It has long been clear that Blakely, a ...
Chris Trotter writes – Are you a Brahmin or a Merchant? Or, are you merely one of those whose lives are profoundly influenced by the decisions of Brahmins and Merchants? Those are the questions that are currently shaping the politics of New Zealand and the entire West. ...
RNZ reports – It’s supposed to be a haven of healing and spiritual awakening but residents of the Kawai Purapura community say they’ve been hurt and deceived. It’s the successor to the former Centrepoint commune, and has been on the bush block opposite Albany shopping centre since 2008. It ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. Usually we have a video chat to go with this wrap, but were unable to do one this week. We’ll be back next week.Several reports ...
The Transport Minister has set a hard 'fiscal envelope' of $6.54 billion for transport capital spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The economy is settling into a state of suspended animation as the Government’s funding freezes and job cuts chill confidence and combine with stubbornly high interest rates to ...
To be precise, the term “anti- Zionism” refers to (a) criticism of the political movement that created a modern Jewish state on the historical land of Israel, and to (b)the subjugation of Palestinians by the Israeli state. By contrast, the term “anti-Semitism” means bigotry and racism directed at Jewish people, ...
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Because hurricanes are one of the big-ticket weather disasters that humanity has to face, climate misinformers spend a lot of effort muddying the waters on whether climate change is making hurricanes more damaging. With the official start to the hurricane ...
Yesterday the Mayor released what he calls his “plan to save public transport” which is part of his final proposal for the Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP). This comes following consultation on the draft version that occurred in March which showed, once again, that people want more done on transport, especially ...
And it's a pleasure that I have knownAnd it's a treasure that I have gainedAotearoa’s coalition government is fragile. It’s held together by the obsequious sycophancy of Christopher Luxon, who willingly contorts his party into the fringe positions of his junior coalition partners and is unwilling to contradict them. The ...
The Select Committee hearing submissions on the fast-track consenting legislation is starting to become a beat-up of regional councils. The inflexibility and slow workings of the Councils were prominent in two submissions yesterday. One, from the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association, simply said that the Waikato Regional Council’s planning decisions were ...
Back in April, the High Court surprised everyone by ruling that Ministers are above the law, at least as far as the Waitangi Tribunal is concerned. The reason for this ruling was "comity" - the idea that the different branches of government shouldn't interfere with each other's functions. Which makes ...
Buzz from the BeehiveTolling was mentioned when Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced the government was re-introducing the Roads of National Significance (RoNS) programme, with 15 “crucial” projects to support economic growth and regional development across New Zealand. All RoNS would be four-laned, grade-separated highways, and all funding, financing, and ...
or the past 14 years, ever since the Spanish government cheated on an autonomy deal, Catalonia has reliably given pro-independence parties a majority of seats in their regional parliament. But now that seems to be over. Catalans went to the polls yesterday, and stripped the Catalan parties of their majority. ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ report: Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer. “Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If ...
Don Brash writes – There was a rather revealing headline in the Herald on Sunday today (12 May). It read “One in 8 Auckland homes on market were bought during boom, may now sell for loss”. The first line of text noted that “New data shows one in ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – At a time when universities are understandably nervous regarding the establishment of the University Advisory Group (UAG) and the Science System Advisory Group (SSAG) it may seem strange – or even fool-hardy – to state that there are long-standing issues in the tertiary sector ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
The coalition Government is launching Roads of Regional Significance to sit alongside Roads of National Significance as part of its plan to deliver priority roading projects across the country, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The Roads of National Significance (RoNS) built by the previous National Government are some of New Zealand’s ...
A high-level New Zealand political delegation in Honiara today congratulated the new Government of Solomon Islands, led by Jeremiah Manele, on taking office. “We are privileged to meet the new Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet during his government’s first ten days in office,” Deputy Prime Minister and ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
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Fabio Vighi is Professor of Critical Theory at Cardiff University, and author of Critical Theory and the Crisis of Contemporary Capitalism.
He reckons it's "time to take the red pill and face reality: since the start of 2020, a macroeconomic virus disguised as a pandemic virus has taken possession of our lives, causing widespread depression and consigning entire populations to often extreme forms of legalized discrimination."
I found no evidence he's a denier of microbiology and his thesis that the control system is using the pandemic as a tool rings true. Folks who prefer to form an overview of situations ought to give his reasoning an appraisal. I'll quote a few interesting parts…
I'm intrigued by his notion of a third pill. He doesn't explain it – and Matrix theory provides just the red/blue binary – but a green pill has aesthetic appeal…
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/red-pill-or-blue-pill-variants-inflation-and-the-controlled-demolition-of-society/
When you look at the accelerated scale of Q.E I have no problem entertaining this..theory.
1Trillion dollars=spent @$40 a second,takes 792 years to…spend…!
Cheers Dennis for perusing these articles and books and passing on what you find.
I certainly can get put off by sentences with lots of big words but the bite size chunks you share give a lot of food for thought.
This virus has changed folks thinking and not in a good way by my reckoning. If we want to mitigate and adapt to CC challenges then BAU will not suffice. A simpler, humbler way of life, with sharing at the heart of it is what is needed.
5.9% inflation what does that mean ? Someone on $50k last year now in real terms will have had to have spent $3,000 less than in 2020 or obtained an increase of the same, not likely especially as many in the public sector were put on a “pay freeze”. How long can anyone substain such loss in spending power, especially as many of the essential items: rent, petroleum, food etc costs have increased at a higher rate and are inescapable to avoid?
I refute that!
Are you training to be a Labour candidate??
So all he needs to make his rationale compelling is a top economist agreeing that inflation is caused by 0.1% of the annual govt budget being dumb.
Unfortunately he forgot to call for volunteers to do so. Will they come to his rescue regardless? Watch this space…
Who approved transmission gully ?
You want an example of waste start there….or a vanity flag project.
From stuff — 15% expenditure was for the wage subsidy (which Luxon approved).
That is 150 x the amt that Luxon deems as dumb cause of the inflation.
So really much of the inflation probably comes from the response to covid.
WHO chief backs Neil Young over Covid misinformation row with Spotify: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/27/who-chief-backs-neil-young-over-covid-misinformation-row-with-spotify-joe-rogan
Southern man don't need him around anyhow.
He went to visit Lynyrd Skynyrd after that was a hit & according to the report I read in RS it went okay. I also read the southern dudes got inappropriate feedback from their fans along redneck lines & the songwriter complained that "in Birmingham they love the governor, we all did what we could do" was too subtle for them…
Thanks that's interesting. I will have to do some Googling.
I wonder if Mia Farrow remembers that Neil Young used to be considered dangerous?
I don't, but there is this…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/neil-youngs-long-record-of-spreading-scientific-misinformation
The new international order in 2022.
Foreign policy wonks have their work cut out. The international rules a small country like Aotearoa rely on are going to stretched, hopefully not beyond breaking point.
”With With this in mind I believe that 2022 will be a year where the transition from the liberal international order to something else will begin to pick up speed and as a result lead to various types of conflict between the old and new guards. What with hybrid or grey area conflict, disinformation campaigns, electoral meddling and cyberwarfare all now part of the psychological operations mix along with conventional air, land, sea and space-based kinetic military operations involving multi-domain command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and robotics (C4ISR2) systems, the ways in which conflict can be engaged covertly or overtly have multiplied. That technological fact means that it is easier for international actors, or at least some of them, to act as disruptors of the global status quo by using conflict as a systemic re-alignment vehicle“
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2022/01/redrawing-the-lines/
Causes of inflation? When nobody was going anywhere two years ago except in ambulances, fuel prices plummeted. Great! Now with Putin manipulating a big war scare in Eastern Europe, fuel prices have surged. Arguably without covid, fuel may well have been in the 2.75-3.00 dollar a litre by now anyway. Most likely Russia is not invading anyone but it’s return on elevated fuel prices suits it perfectly for very little cost. Hence rapid fuel inflation which feeds on to everything else. But wait, there is a silver lining at least for us with our locally produced electricity, how much more encouragement do you need to go electric?
The other big inflation mover is the huge increase in house building big booms always raise prices, so what do you want, low inflation or not enough houses?
The other big inflation pusher that Hickey does not seem to take into account is that with 2 years of no international holiday travel Kiwis have a shitload ( proper economic term that, when you don’t know the real numbers ) of money lying around going “ spend me, spend me “. The possible real number may be close to his extra 21 billion that he says private NZers have squirrelled away or have spent it at home. How can any of these have been avoided? Almost certainly not, we didn’t get more money from wage subsidies almost certainly less, but we saved a lot of it.
The biggest single factor causing inflation is a 30% rise in fuel prices which has a huge knock on effect.
His claim people are hoarding $21 billion from cancelled overseas trips maybe true but we lost that from tourism as well.
Hickey has overlooked the number of houses being constructed is at record levels 2yrs in a row.
That has helped keep the economy ticking over nicely.
Keeping unemployment down.
Numbers on benefits are up I would say that is because of a reset during covid Nationals nasty attitude to the homeless people not able to access benefits to make their figures look good.That was changed by labour during covid.
This govt made sure homeless had accomodation,healthcare money so they didn't spread covid.
National would have left homeless to their own devices.
What role does OPEC play these days regarding fuel prices then?
We've had low inflation and 'not enough houses for years'.
Low interest rates and a lack of any other appealing asset class are 2 factors that ramped up housing prices.
Whatever the triggers, Hickey is laying out the real facts.
Tourism was supposedly NZ's biggest earner….the economy has survived that becoming irelevant ,no trouble at all.
Hickey appears to be saying the Govt did not assess the economic ramifications of Covid quickly enough.
It looks to me that it became policy to fuel the property ponzi to make GDP look good and compensate for any austerity measures(less spending/more saving)that people may have imposed on…themselves.
The next 18 months will be very interesting…indeed.
Any political theory advocating the weaponising of culture ought to cite as evidence the cultural operations of the CIA throughout history. Spooks doing cultural analysis? Who knew? Fortunately the history is becoming available via declassification:
So to the historical origin of the triangulation adopted by the Greens towards the twin evils of the left and right:
'defending democracy'..American style….we have to destroy the 'country' to…save it.
The author examines how the control system uses the left as dupes:
So what to do about that? Unusually for a leftist intellectual, he sees a way forward.
For the left, the road to hell has always been paved by such good intentions. Translating them into effective action requires praxis (something leftists don't like even thinking about let alone doing) in which individual talent & flair gets synthesised in group contexts to produce collaboration.
Group-think in these contexts can be defeated by intelligent design. Principles and incentives that balance diversity of opinion with mutual commitments and agreed tasks and goals usually achieve likeminded output without infighting. Leadership to steer process towards destination can be both individual & collective. However, in our current context political activists must adapt by leaving the past failures behind them if they are serious about becoming successful…
The born to rule, rich go to great lengths to maintain the status quo and their….authority.
All the Congress and Senate members being millionaires…helps too.
Two Auckland stories to follow.
The debate for the “Labour” candidate for the mayoralty.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2022/01/efeso-yeah-yeah.html
Light rail for the isthmus.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/127610200/watch-live-auckland-light-rail-goes-for-tunnel-option-with-harbour-crossing
As an old stale pale male Efeso certainly has my vote. He is a breath of fresh air. The rest of the candidates from both sides of the political divide will, in my view, be mayor of the CBD only, as Goff has proven to be. The rest of the peasantry will be ignored
Re – the first link:
It maybe a problem for Labour but I suspect they're going to have to suck it up.
Nice bloke though he is, one thing Richard Hill does not have is charisma. Efeso Collins on the other hand has it in spades. Add that to his impressive and rational thinking processes, he should be a shoo-in for the mayoralty. I believe his popularity would also transcend the Labour Party and if Labour tries to undermine him then it would likely be to their detriment.
So, the government planned to have the RAT tests available for sale in New Zealand weeks ago.
And, as the article points out, the MOH has been far too slow on approving test suppliers. Absolutely unacceptable:
"Wallis Keiller's Invitrocue rapid antigen test is banned in New Zealand – it doesn't have Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield's blessing, and very few do. It's a saliva rapid antigen test that links up to an app for a result. While approved by Germany's tough medical regulator, it's not approved here…..Keiller says his tests have a 97 percent accuracy and as soon as he gets signoff he can get loads here quickly."
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/01/omicron-government-planned-to-have-covid-19-rapid-antigen-tests-for-sale-weeks-ago.html
Yes and they also planned to build 10,000 Kiwibuild houses a year and fix homeless and poverty and a few other things. They can't do everything at once, although they have banned plastic bags from supermarkets.
Snark!
🙂
That was more opinion than fact with much loaded and (mis)leading language.
I could not find the Invitrocue rapid antigen test on the list of approved antigen tests in Germany (https://www.bfarm.de/EN/Medical-devices/Tasks/Special-topics/Antigen-tests/_node.html), so that assertion with claimed performance cannot be verified there.
Currently, there are 9 approved RATs in NZ, but none yet for saliva samples (https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-public/assessment-and-testing-covid-19/rapid-antigen-testing#business).
So our govt has indexed benefits to wage growth. Wage growth last year was 2.4% inflation 5.9% . Everyone faces the same struggle how to survive on less. And this decrease in spending power applies for every year that wages growth is less than inflation. But Grant Robertson said this morning “It’s really challenging people, but an awful lot of it relates to Covid, supply chain and things that unfortunately will work their way through the system this year.” Grant you and your fellow ministers are disconnected with the day to day world the rest of us live in, and our pain is due to YOUR policies.
https://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/newsroom/factsheets/budget/factsheet-benefit-indexation-2019.pdf
http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/5/397995#:~:text=%22At%205.9%25%20for%202021%2C,has%20been%20in%20three%20decades.&text=%22With%20wage%20growth%20of%20only,record%20amounts%20of%20government%20spending.
So you pretty much need a 9% wage rise (before tax) to just keep 'treading water'
Hmm. Omicron BA.2 is apparently 50% more infectious than Omicron BA.1 (the original from S.A.).
Seems NZ might have foregone the frying pan for the fire (in terms of health system capacity) by resisting community spread of Omicron BA.1.
meanwhile, long covid, and there's been recent more concern about the impacts of any covid infection on human anatomy and physiology.
You're very sure of yourself on omicron being relatively harmless, but I've yet to see you address the long covid and other issues arising.
You are likely going to catch Covid. – end –
Meanwhile, were you not one of the people expressing terrible concern over NZ health care system's capacity to cope with a rapid spread of Covid?
Further, it appears that there are significant numbers of people getting omicron who have already had covid. There is so much to learn yet about human immunity in response to covid, across a number of areas.
You still aren't addressing long covid, so I will assume it's a case of collateral damage in a strategy of not resisting community spread.
All of which is to say that we don't actually know what the frying pan and the fire are yet.
If "best possible position" had been a serious consideration, then there would have been over two years worth of effective public health policy, and public health messaging on what people might do to optimise their immune system. Instead we got Big Pharma's vaccinate or bust strategy that cleared the table of anything and everything that might hamper 'vaccination for all' while introducing deleterious measures that had scant regard for actual health. It has been 100% medical maleficence.
By mid- year Omicron will have washed through and the acute phase abated because people will have acquired natural immunity from infection. Covid will be endemic because it has multiple reservoirs in mammalian populations.
I'm curious as to what these imaginary skills might be (the stopping or slowing spread ones) – because we already have effective anti-virals that kill the virus (and therefor stop the spread). But they've been variously banned or not publicised. Hell. On an individual level Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo solution is a hugely effective preventative measure if used as a nasal rinse. Listerine is another effective measure if gargled. And yes. The studies have been done and were published over a year ago. And then of course, there's naturally acquired immunity from previous infection…though that was rubbished and discounted by government health agencies "everywhere" until very recently for some reason that had, honest Joe, nothing to do with any crusade.
Have you read up on the decades long health tail off from the Spanish Flu I alerted you to previously? Long Covid isn't a thing – it's Covid. Covid might have multiple health effects that will ripple for decades and that will, for some part, only ever be recognised in retrospect.
Anyway. Enough of combating denial, avoidance and fear for one day.
If Omicron BA.2 gets into the community, in lieu of Omicron BA.1 that it appears to be supplanting, the spread of Covid will be faster than it would have been, and so whatever stresses and strains on infrastructure Omicron BA.1 might have presented will be exacerbated. That was essentially all I was remarking on. Chow.
So resisting/slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Kiwi communities is (seems / might be) unwise (frying pan –> fire), in your opinion? Still, it will be spreading fast enough within a week or two – no hurry, eh?
Most people infected with COVID-19 will be fine, but some will suffer from various long COVID symptoms, and unvaccinated people are over-represented among the unfortunate few who are hospitalised and/or die with COVID infections. The 7-day moving average for COVID deaths in Australia is ~70 per day.
Not too late to get your booster if you're eligible, and let your immune system bank a little extra protection ahead of the Omicron surge – a prudent precaution, imho.
So resisting/slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Kiwi communities is (seems / might be) unwise (frying pan –> fire), in your opinion?
No.
I've merely observed government policy was to keep one variant at bay "because highly transmissible), and we're possibly going to be hit by more transmissible one.
So far government policy has been to keep every variant at bay, because covid kills people.
Isn't it NZ government policy (and MoH strategy) to keep all COVID variants at bay? Just thinking how the Team’s successful 'elimination strategy' shifted to a suppression strategy as the virus evolved – adapt or die!
Both the virus and civiisation are in uncharted waters – what next?
The much spruiked income from tourism is bullshit, figures from 10 to 40 billion were being talked about at the start of covid with sensible critics saying maybe 8 to 14. Covid proved them all wrong. A large number of Aussie visitors are kiwis visiting family and they don’t spend that much, the balance particularly from Asia are bought here in vertically integrated systems where pretty much all the trip costs are bought and paid for in their home countries and are to pay for services mostly owned by Asian entities, airlines, buses, accomodation etc and this money doesn’t get banked in NZ , they probably spend far less a day than than ordinary Kiwis on a tiki tour. Also most tourists don’t spend long in NZ, a matter of a few weeks or less, whereas Kiwis travelling take a lot longer on their overseas holidays.
It is not in the industry’s interest in the slightest to have the real numbers revealed, even cruise ship visits are counted as ‘ visitor nights’ when some passengers don’t even get off the boat let alone sleep ashore. This is deceitful accounting and the
reason is the leveraging power of the mythical value to the country. Just listen to the bleating over every little sensible public safety advice or instruction, and the self importance is plain to see. The economy did far better with Kiwis spending their own thwarted trip money locally on having a look around here and then putting the balance in the bank or a bit of a tart-up at home.
Makes sense.
No wonder the effect of nearly zero international tourists was negiligble.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/460377/auckland-light-rail-tunnel-to-run-to-mt-roskill-before-following-sh20-to-the-airport
So much shade thrown, so much shade.
Looks good though, as grade separation via tunnelling along half of it works pretty well, and can always redo the southern section later on if need be. Though still need to get the North Shore section nailed down to get the full benefit and get this all started before Labour looses power. So then National can't cancel it as easily due to all the contracts involved :3
But I can sense a mighty whinge arising from National and ACT over this, partly on cost, mainly on "public transport is evils whaaaaaa!". Along with usual moaning about the time it'll take, but given how long certain National done projects (Transmission Gully, Christchurch Rebuild and Northern Motorway, etc) took or are still in progress, despite National's claims about their competency, they don't have a foot to stand on.
Now if only Labour would do the same for Public Housing already… Figure that may happen after the next election, as a Labour-Greens government is highly likely, but we shall see.
Also, I'm rather jealous Auckland's finally getting it's public transport network sorted, because Christchurch's is still kind of shit. Sure, the new bike corridors are nice and more bus lanes have helped, but the bike corridors don't have anywhere near enough reach and buses still get snarled up in rush hour traffic at chokepoints like Riccarton Road etc. But it'll be forever at this rate before heavy and light rail are accepted by ECan.
[your pre-approved user name appears to be […], so please stick with that – Incognito]
[name removed while we discuss this in the back end – weka]
Moderation note for you.
Bah, let my name be >_<
I used to post here years ago, probably under TheMess or The_Mess with the same email address lawl. But depression kicked my arse so I haven't had the energy to engage here in ages…
I take that as you wanting The Mess. Just check the name field next time you comment, you will probably have to retype it. Cheers.
The Mess, Glad you are beating The Black Dog. Enjoyed your comments. I agree that National say they are good managers, but facts say otherwise.
The Mess, can you please let us know if you want to use The Mess as your username going forward, or if you want to revert back to the one you have used on TS in the past?
Yeah, I'll take it 😛
I've got my gravatar so it'll work well enough for my purposes.
😎
Nice to have you back.
Good name too. I like it. Wish I'd thought of it.
did the Greens have a plan for Christchurch rail?
No idea sadly, it's mainly been Christchurch City Council pushing for it to become government policy. I probably should go read up the policy, since I now party vote Greens instead of Labour. Because despite their anti-GMO stance, they hit the mark mostly on the other social welfare and climate change stuff.
As part of the 2020 election they announced this plan:
Also connected to the 2020 Future of Transport election priority:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/127610200/auckland-light-rail-goes-for-tunnel-option-with-harbour-crossing
National and ACT's response is at the end, and it's just as sad and useless as I suspected:
One wonder's how it'll be wasteful Simon, when the return on investment for rail public transit systems in cities is historically very positive. It's also somewhat cheaper than filling Auckland with more highways when Auckland's running out of room for them with out very, very expensive mass buyouts of property for the space. Oh and a 2nd car bridge would result in more congestion due to pumping more cars into the network.
As for ACT, lolwut? Put light rail on bus lanes? Pray tell, how exactly is that meant to work with the sort of infrastructure light rail needs + the problems with high frequency runs vis the lack of grade separation and stations? Never mind the disruption that would entail trying to do.
Oh right, under ACT it would never happen, and instead the bus service would be entirely profit driven and thus stop serving much of Auckland bar the highest usage areas. Because Uber exists and 1 person per car/SUV is oh so much more "freedom" and everyone can totally afford it and to pay Auckland private market rents.
Right, lunch calls, finally…
Her ascendancy is interesting for several reasons. Her husband was president – ousted by a coup in 2009 – for an establishment party (the liberals).
This establishment duopoly prevailed for over a century!
She defeated the Nationals decisively – therefore has a mandate to alter that constitutional roadblock to abortion! Imagine the conservative consternation.
'made her an attractive ally for US President Joe Biden's administration. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is overseeing the White House's efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, was among those in attendance for the inauguration.'
BIG…surprise.
'Honduras, where the United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit Company dominated the country's key banana export sector and associated land holdings and railways, saw insertion of American troops in 1903, 1907, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1924 and 1925. The writer O. Henry coined the term "Banana republic" in 1904 to describe Honduras.'-wiki
'The US intervened in numerous military coups to protect its commercial interests, embedding a conservative, Americanised elite. Contra guerrillas backed by President Ronald Reagan used Honduras as a base to attack Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s.'-Guardian.
I wonder if they shared a banana at the civic reception later? In honour of the grand tradition I mean…
Xiomara: "Did you know your country invaded mine seven times a century ago?"
Kamala: (gulp) "Yes, I got a briefing on the history before I left."
Xiomara: "Seven is the magic number. It cast a godalmighty spell on us. We've been spell-bound ever since."
Kamala: "Well, my president is a wizard with words. He trumped Trump!"
Xiomara: "You think he could do a counter-spell for us?"
Kamala: "You need help with abortion rights. He could talk to the Pope."
Well the Labour Party have found a way to introduce a Capital Gains Tax without calling it that. They are also going to put it on the family home. While they are about it they are going to claim that they are also providing you with the Capital Gain so it won't actually cost you anything.
How do they do it? Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home. Aren't you going to be grateful? They will ignore the fact that thanks to their crazy policies the price of all Auckland homes has risen.
Then they will tax you some percentage of this supposed gain because the increase is all due to the tram line. It isn't a capital gain of course. It is a windfall profit according to Robbo. This "windfall' they will tax. They won't even wait till you get it of course. They will tax you…heavily….every year….even if you never use the damn tram.
What is near the line? Well all of New Zealand actually. After all. If you were ever allowed to visit Auckland the tram line would be a sight for you, a tourist, to swoon over. I'm sure you will love to contribute to Robbo's coffers.
There. Simple wasn't it. All we have to do is get it in quickly and line up all the Labour MPs to recite, in unison, and over and over again.
"This is a windfall, it is not a Capital Gain". Repeat this line over and over while interposing at intervals "Thank you Saint Jacinda for the bounty of your windfall".
There, done.
'They are also going to put it on the family home. '
Alwyn,I say alwyn…are you feeling…alright!
You obviously haven't read what the Minister concerned has been saying. The "he" in the quote is Michael Wood.
'“It is fair and equitable that those who receive a financial windfall from significant public investment make a contribution to the project. We are clearly signalling that will happen, and that is a live prospect from today,” he said.
Levying properties to fund new infrastructure has already occurred, with new homes in the Milldale Development north of Auckland, paying an extra charge.
.A regime for light rail would be different in that it would apply to existing properties.'
So what are the homes he talks about if they do not include family homes?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300505493/properties-around-aucklands-light-rail-likely-to-face-value-capture-tax
You've gone very quiet Blazer? Have your mates embarrassed you? When do you think the PM will quit, or veto Robertson and Wood's little ploy?
Or do you think she will behave like a typical politician and just deny she said it?
It was a revelation alwyn…I would actually like 'Tony Blair ' in high heels to quit.
This 'transformational' Govt is almost as disappointing as the Natz.
"Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home. "
A correction:
Firstly they are going to say that putting in a 19th century design tram, that will be patronised by only a handful of people because the public transport system is shit, somewhere near you is going to put up the value of your home.
If it moves (a train moves) tax it! If it doesn't move (like your house) tax it anyway!
Any thoughts on personalising masks?
The N95 etc don't seem to take a dye even if dyeing doesn't screw them up. That leaves overmasks, or possibly masquerade masks over the top of the face, lol
Australia is nearly as useless as us so far as RATs are concerned. Pity we didn't hadn't learnt from what they are doing in the UK now, where they have lots of experience with Covid.
"Rapid antigen tests in the UK have individual bar codes which people photograph after taking their free test and upload the result to the NHS website, whether they are negative or positive. This means the health authorities have a clearer idea of the spread of COVID in the community."
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-government-has-been-found-wanting-once-again-20220104-p59ltc.html
But we are so woefully unprepared so far as RATs go that our government has hit the panic button by diverting supplies away from the private sector.