I think it is worth letting this through to see the poorly types who still inhabit our fair lands, so they can be identified and winkled out…
… which is slowly happening. Unfortunately, these are generational changes and take time. Remember, if I have it right, when you born (early 1960’s?) WWII had only just finished, so for our elders of that time the world was an entirely different place than it is today with respect to respect for diversity and the like. The poorly types of this generation will pass shortly.
Whats this topic about? Being surprised or, being shocked or, being sad or, being abusive or, world war 2, or is it to do with some other kind of brain damage?
And here they are again today, on display. hung up on the line for another airing. Could the issue have been discussed without flapping the offending articles about, or, heaven forbid, let go to blow away on the breezes of time?
So you’re saying MM shouldn’t be asking for moderation for someone whose repeatedly using hate speech on here, and that he should just let it go and forget about it?
That sort of attitude blew away on the breezes of time a long time ago. Now days we call out our racists and homophobes.
The Al1en – “So you’re saying…”
Nope. I’m saying re-presenting the offensive article is unnecessary and multiplies the effect of it’s original use. By all means call out the behaviour, though the mods are good at dealing with such without provocation, when they have the time.
TA
Empty talk concocting iterations of something to continually be scandalised by – like the looped vids of kittens jumping at an image of themselves in a mirror. Try to do better and stick to schtum when you have something worthless in mind. We try to entertain but really are thinking about politics for the future, if we have one.
Funk the videos of kittens, if you think racism and homophobia is something you do for entertainment, and a left wing forum is the place to express it while expecting no one to be rightfully offended, then it really is a problem you have to be owning up to and seeking assistance to overcome.
Being nice all day is super difficult because there’s so much misery in the world. Let a bit in, it will consume you. Best to just pay the taxes and be done with it.
Jimmy, you need to address the size of your underwear. I suspect they are a quite a few sizes on the small side. Over tight elastic in that region can cause all sorts of physical and mental stress. One known symptom is RWS (repetitive whinging syndrome)
And a quick message to those bleating that it wasn’t moderated at the time: this is a volunteer run site. The few of us that do moderation cannot be expected to read every comment, let alone do so live as they come in. Particularly so late at night.
So, if comments like these get missed, members of the TS community can raise it as marty has done (preferably without copying the offensive comment in full, because that makes it worse*) or email the site and the offending behaviour will be addressed.
*Just a link to the original comment and a request for a mod to have a look should be enough.
“(preferably without copying the offensive comment in full, because that makes it worse*) ”
That’s the aspect I support. James uses this as a weapon; writing an offending word, repeatedly, and railing against its use. That’s so low brow it’s a moustache (could’ve said something else, didn’t).
Perhaps is people had issue with the original comment then people wouldn’t make comments like that in the first place – then there is nothing to repeat.
Better than just walking on past and ignoring it.
Also read the thread last night and see how few people called him out on it.
For some, walking on past is the best option. For some, picking up the offensive goop, running around poking it under other people’s noses, is their preferred option. You choose the latter, failing to realise you’re a poop-spreader.
Walking past is not accepting, James, especially when you can see that others are attending to the issue. You seem always to jump in, even when the pool is full and delight in waving the offending article around with seeming glee. In some instances, you repeat the upsetting term or word over and over and over, rolling it around on your tongue, as if it gives you pleasure. Just saying’.
James’ racism and homophobia concerns do him credit. Has he also been working on his misogyny?
Some context – on 1 December 2018, in Open Mike @11.1.1, ourJames made this observation about Anna Rose, Australian Geographic Conservationist of the Year (2014):
“She sounds boring as all fuck. I wouldn’t have her at one of my bbqs.”
“Better than just walking on past and ignoring it.” – James; look to your sins.
James, if you had simply said that you found Anna Rose to be boring, then IMO that would have been OK; your problem, but OK.
Do you have a comprehension problem? Do you genuinely not understand why I found your comment offensive? You’re able to identify and document the offensive comments made by some others on this site, so why the blindspot?
James, I think what you said about Anna Rose indicates that you are indeed a very sad person. And I’m sad about that.
James, I asked you three questions. You failed to answer any of them, and you are 100% responsible for that failure.
James, if you keep this up, I may be inclined to remind you of some more of your self-incriminating smears on this site. But I’d rather not, unless you insist/persist.
I’m a snowflake!?? James, you are literallyunreal! And rather fond of using ‘snowflake’ to dodge simple questions.
I’m not equating misogyny with racism or homophobia, I’m simply saying that I found your casual comment about Anna Rose offensive. Surely even you can see that your comment is consistent with a misogynistic mindset. Only a misogynist wouldn’t get that.
James, no-one is perfect. Policing racist and homophobic comments on The Standard might be one route to self-improvement, but I respectfully suggest that you consider alternatives – each of us has only so much time.
Tamati is a good man who cares about his country. His comments reflect some of the feeling of the white, heterosexual, working class male. These are human feelings and I don’t think we can tell humans that they are not allowed to feel like this, because that won’t work in the end anyway.
The deeper issue at the heart of Thomas’s comment is that globalism, high immigration and the ensuing lower wages has failed the country. No wonder Trump got traction.
Abusing whole groups of people is not the same as having feelings. Get off the grass. And Chump was elected by culturally insecure tradies, not poor workers.
A fast count for No.1s amounts to 50. Started off by the complaint about language. Talk about stirring the muddy bottom of the pond. All the weeds rise to the top (myself among them). Meanwhile the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Perhaps draw attention to bad behaviour with Nos. and speak in tongues so the hoi polloi won’t understand. Marty mars – there must be a rude word in Maori – we could say ‘Mod – ‘rude word in Maori’ No. …. Name of thread date time.
And save fifty comments like dead leaves that need composting.
“Police have charged almost five people a day with strangling or suffocating their partners since a new family violence law came into force criminalising such acts in December.”
John Mark Tanner and Paul Pounamu Tainui; two good reasons for why we should consider never releasing men who murder their intimate partners.
.
For two weeks he fronted up to police, the media and the public to deny any knowledge of his girlfriend’s whereabouts.
John Tanner, with his long hair and pimples, played the concerned boyfriend and insisted that he last saw girlfriend Rachel McLean at the railway station in Oxford, where the 19-year-old was a student.
But behind the elaborate stories he concocted for Police was a sinister truth – Tanner, 22, had strangled Rachel and hidden her body under the floorboards of her flat.
[…]
Tanner, now 49, had violently assaulted his partner over a period of six months last year.
In the first incident, the couple were staying at a motel in Whanganui central when Tanner became upset with the woman and they argued. She was brushing her teeth and he walked up behind her, dragged her out of the bathroom and threw her on the bed.
He jumped on her and put his hands across her neck, restricting her breathing.
In another incident, when the woman told Tanner she was leaving him he threatened to kill her.
The worst of the violence happened when they argued at Tanner’s home in rural Pauri Road on the outskirts of Whanganui.
Tanner held his partner down by the wrists and straddled her. He yelled at her to tell him about her ex-partner and then punched her in the head. She suffered a graze and bruising.
The woman left the house and went to a motel. She sent Tanner a text that the relationship was over but he showed up and they argued. She cowered on the bed and he pulled her clothes off saying he wanted sex.
The Crown says the woman was trying to get away and fell to the ground, where Tanner punched her several times around the head.
She started to cry and Tanner said, “look what you made me do’”.
This describes the reason NZ keeps a portion of the available workforce unemployed at all times (which in turn helps create a low wage sector). When it gets serious this will be one of the main ways the Green New Deal proposals are undermined in the US.
A shallow one would be where you get lambos and get to party every day.
A deep one would be where you solve some currently intractable problem affecting the entire world.
The longer it takes to make a deal, the longer it takes to recover, the greater the required stimulus.
Except we have a lower unemployment rate that most other countries and certainly lower than nations who have far more left wing economic policies than we do (e.g. France).
Just depends what is being stimulated. If it’s for productive purposes then prices will adjust. But if it’s just for importing skilled labour then duh.
You are missing the point. Most European nations have a far less ‘neoliberal’ economic policy setting than we do. Nations such as France and Spain and Italy all have massive State intervention either directly (Through State ownership of industry) or indirectly through subsidies and regulation. This is the opposite of Neoliberal policy. It is these nations that have the higher rates of unemployment than we do. If neoliberal economic ideas need a minimum level of unemployment to maintain low inflation how come countries that don’t have as neoliberal policies as us have higher unemployment?
Sometimes I think you are on a different planet. What does that got to do with Nic the NZer’s view that Neoliberalism requires a level of unemployment ?
Marco economics can take a life time to learn. It’s the Reserve Banks full time job to manage, the Reserve Bank Govenor has probably forgotten more than I know about macro stuff.
So, my personal opinion, based on just enough economics training to be dangerous, is “it depends.” You need to look at everything, do econometric studies, make carful observations and basically stay on your toes when making any free hand inflation calculation. And you’ll need the Reserve Bank. There are times for low inflation, sometimes higher inflation, times where you should flirt with deflation, and there is no simple rule for which is which. Each with its own iterations and byproducts, people who try to tell the Reserve Bank what to do without understanding the issues or research into the topic are dumbasses who do not know what they do not know.
Do you mean Macroeconomics? If so, then it is not the Reserve Banks full time job to manage. The RBNZ manages monetary policy which is just one element of Macroeconomics. The RBNZ also manages the regulation of financial institutions which is almost microeconomics so it isn’t just involved in the macro side.
Do you have comprehension issues? You just tried to argue that the Reserve bank full time job is managing Marco economics (sic). I pointed out that is a massive over simplification.
Sure, if you’re objective is to make people take out risky loans the reserve bank could just be a number for low investment IQ individuals to borrow against. I mean what ever.
The only reason for the Reserve Bank to influence micro economic settings is for their effects on the macro economy. This is very obvious and should hardly need to be explained.
Though its not accepted by mainstream modeling (which chooses to believe the economy is in equilibrium or rapidly approaching such a state), unless the state actively suppliments deficient demand then the unemployment rate will be higher than necessary at most times. This happens regardless of most economic policy settings.
As i suggested a large part of the impact of this on inflation is fictional.
Stick to the topic. The reserve bank today estimates the NAIRU is higher than the unemployment rate. The implication of this is that they will suggest contractionary economic policy in NZ while the unemployment rate could still be reduced. This policy advice is apparently based completely on fiction.
That is not correct, the reserve bank controls interest rates for money but does not do the spending (which adds income) that treasury does. Monetary policy is relatively very weak at increasing circulation as to take effect it requires an investor.
Yes, via lending. Just as the reserve bank does. Prof Randy Ray once summed it up for me with a brilliantly terse comment (in the US context), the Fed lends, treasury spends.
Also note, commercial banks lending processes create bank deposit money (but not the reserve money they make final payments in) in the process.
Most people spend according to their income, not the interest rate on their credit. You may be an exception. Businesses tend to invest based on the anticipated income from sales on the same basis.
Here is a very good interview with Larry Wilkerson on the situation Venezuela for anyone who cares…
“Trump promises “democracy and freedom” to Venezuela, delivered by Elliott Abrams who brought you illegal wars, coups, and support for dictatorships; and Mike Pompeo and VP Pence, both with deep ties to the Koch brothers who need Venezuelan heavy crude to feed their Texas refinery – Col. Larry Wilkerson joins TRNN’s Paul Jay”
If they NEED the Venezuelan oil why have they made it harder for them to actually get it? that makes no sense. It would have been much better for them to continue to buy oil (40% of the total oil exports of Venezuela) from the country. You aren’t thinking this through really.
Sorry to just put up links, but I gotta get some work done, any way here is a really excellent piece that is well worth the time to read on propaganda and democracy from the ever reliable Media Lens….
I think the comments by a number of people in the Daily Review yesterday evening should put paid to any derision at the comments on other blogs being “The sewer” in comparison to here.
At the very time New Zealand wage earners have been told by Sir John Key and Sir Billy English that they will never be able to afford a home again, Simon Bridges is promising Tax Cuts to Wealthy people at the next Election.
This is National trampling mercilessly on the people of New Zealand ! This is so cruel !. So wicked ! so Pagan!. So Rotten ! So God Dam Evil!
It is the most Monstrous activity of the Nationals ever undertaken in this Country or in any other Democracy. Only done by Roger Douglas, John Key, Billy English, and in future by Simon Bridges.
Not only that, the Wage earners of New Zealand can barely afford Rentals; or Food.
They certainly cannot afford Heating. It is as organised by National Corruption: J.Key, B.English, Mrs P.Bennett, Simon Bridges.
Therefore, Wage Earners must find ways to mercilessly Trample on National. John Key, Billy English and Simon Bridges. Wage Earners must trample on the Wealth of the Wealthy who have raped them so savagely and mercilessly. Their families, their assets, their future – turned into poverty as they have turned workers.
Further, the wage earners must mercilessly Trample on the Media – TV and Press. To stop the low IQ splash around.
The Present Government must keep an Eagle Eye on the Crime of National and the Wealthy.
The Banks, Police and the Military must be advised by Government that all their energies must be exercised in favour of the wage earners and the Poor.
National has made no attempt to run a Democracy or Equality.
Reading about the terrible and needles negligence that took the lives of Haki Hiha, David Eparaima and Soul Raroa has elevated today’s misanthropy levels.
A very sad situation for the families and other members of their work place.
So sorry for your plight, and hoping you have love and support at this sad time.
Stuff hamilton, extend the rail to Huntley, there is already a go bus from hamilton, the base, to Huntley. no need for massive investment, build a viable route with actual passengers and then extend it. And why the base, I mean shopping center are designed to slow up people, make it hard to get in and out,just look at the current infrastructure for buses it’s a maze. Stop the northern connector on the te rapa, in fact all the buses, and then if they want rail, demand they create a striaght path from said buses to the rail station, or better just move it further out and wire up the buses without their input.
If you want a service to Auckland then don’t vote for any who talks about it, its really easy, connect the 21 bus to a rail connection at Huntley, and cut out the base, its slows the all buses down.
It is the Government that wants the rail service to Hamilton. If they want it they should pay for it. Compared to the Regional Council the Government has heaps of money.
The Central Government has heaps of $$$ from the road tax for “roads.” Double emphases on “roads.” Any self respecting National MP past or present would have even a cursory knowledge of Nationals Roads of Bling and Significance.
Hey join the Sunlight club (Sunlight Soap that is). We didn’t need physical punishment in those days eh. Just a picture of a piece of Sunlight and it was yes miss, no miss.
3.4 How are costs distributed by vehicle type?
The costs generated by vehicles differ according to size, type of fuel used etc. because of
the wear and tear they inflict on the network and the pollution they cause.
When the total charges (excluding rates) paid by users are allocated across the vehicle
fleet according to type we find that:
• cars directly pay 64% of their costs,
• trucks directly pay 56% of their costs
• buses directly pay 68% of their costs.
Although trucks were sub-divided into four categories in the STCC, data limitations
prevented the full average cost analysis from further disagreggating the allocation for
trucks according to specific truck weights and/or types.
So we won’t know if the logging trucks and behemoths that flit around the country are paying their rightful amount. But then do they calculate payment according to each set of wheels- that would go somewhere to accurately meeting real costs.
I’ve been reading about the author Gerald Kersh. He had a strange life apparently and being pronounced dead at four and sitting up in his coffin at the funeral made a spectre-cular start.
A quote – “In proper men there is hidden a light which darkness makes visible. I believe that the hope of mankind is in this buried glory; the spirit which makes true men hang on to the throats of their enemies at the very rim of the grave.”
― Gerald Kersh, Brain and Ten Fingers (GoodReads)
In his life he became a war correspondent and was buried alive during bombing raids on three separate occasions. I think he was exaggerating a bit. Perhaps two!
He wrote more than a thousand magazine pieces and more than a thousand short stories. He died at 57 in 1968. There are no books listed under his name on TradeMe – which to tell the truth is now dominated by dumps of new remaindered books from NZ sites, Australia and the UK. Thank goodness the USA haven’t bothered with us. A lifetime of hard graft – he deserves to be remembered.
I hope that can be said about us on The Standard. We have much to do. As they said on Mission Impossible – Your mission; should you decide to accept it.
Yeah, look out, it’s coming. We’re 10 years out from the last bust which is a very long run in the New Zealand, or really any context except maybe modern China or post war Japan. We’re usually lucky to get 7 years between ooops.
When I look around Queenstown it sends shivers down the spine looking at the big jobs coming along that depend on buyers settling on the due date or the principal having the cash left to pay the subbies at completion. There’s a lot of contenders.
It’s not going to be pretty when the dominos start tipping over.
But will free up heaps of capacity for a massive house building programme.
Getting someone to do something is getting really hard, everyone is over-committed and just not interested in under-resourced, and productivity has gone out the window because of the above.
I’m expecting a very different picture in 12 months, but the opportunities will be in buying rather than building as most of the builders will have gone broke. If you can find a solvent builder, or can do it yourself, there could be good times. We built a house in Frankton in 1988 for $54K, including land.
Past experience, I’ve seen enough of our economic cycles from within the construction industry to know that construction is a mugs game. The small finance the larger on up the chain, so when one goes the whole industry comes down like a pack of dominos.
What I’m seeing around here gives me the shivers. I’m glad I’ve got sod all debt, heaps of equity, and what exposure I’ve got to the industry is in a cashed up position.
Are most builders working for companies? going by the amount of ridiculously oversized expensive new utes I see everywhere I got the feeling everyone’s their own boss?
And therein lies the problem. The self employed financing the larger players. Tradies (probably sub sub tradies in reality) with million dollar mortgages on a mcmansion in Shotover Country doing work for someone who pays on contract milestones until they run out of cash. Then oh fuck.
Building state houses or flooding the market with cheap new builds?
Can’t really see the government doing the cheap new builds thing anymore, I get the feeling the penny may have dropped that it would be political suicide to push 1000’s upon 1000’s of taxpayer payer subsidised homes into a softening market.
KIwibuild is going to be wound down and put on the shelf.
In the 70’s there was a similar situation with housing affordability. The private sector (Neil, Keith Hay and Universal, and others) developed products that were quick and cheap and fitted the formula. Same thing is happening with KB, builders are coming on board. What got the thing going then was State Advances loans and capitalising the Family Benefit to assist the deposit at the bottom end. Got an awful lot of families out of hovels and garages into their own new home. Maybe there’s some opportunities for the government to do similar things with the finance / deposit.
KB is about getting the capacity in place to do something about providing decent, affordable housing for everyone, rather than “assets” for a few, once there’s some slack in the industry, which is coming very soon.
If the tourist business goes down then what? The report is that AirNz is down 34% on first half profit. However it is holding out crumbs to the regions to look as if it cares about servicing the country.
(I don’t think anyone has got them to reveal the baseline for profit on each regional airport though.) https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12207937
This firm started in 1984 and has become insolvent and had to stop and try and gather the pieces. The ambitious Queenstown air-tunnel project would have been a beggar to price. It seems that many construction firms have bitten off more than they can chew. Firms undercutting with tenders and trying to corner the market for new jobs has no doubt destabilised the industry, plus trying to access cheaper steel etc with faulty documentation as to its real quality!
Last week Foster told the NZ Herald the business had an issue with one Auckland job but was resolving that and altering its business model.
“We’re trying to wind down the amount of tender work we do and doing more negotiated work,” Foster said on Friday.
Arrow, one of this country’s larger builders with a national spread, works on retail, commercial, Government, tourism, education, retirement sports and recreation and residential work….
Nick Hamlin, Arrow’s southern general manager, said today the business had been “downsizing” for the last year in his region.
He had worked for Arrow for 19 years but said he left in the last week by mutual agreement. The Queenstown-based boss said the firm had bid and won jobs which some other firms refused to take on.
“The southern area was running well and there were about 15 staff,” he said, telling how Arrow subcontracted work out to other firms. Construction of facilities for tourism, events, leisure and adventure were the firm’s speciality in Queenstown, he said.
The iFly indoor skydiving building was one example in the sports and recreation field, he said. An 8m deep basement and wind turbines sit on top of the building. The turbines blow air around the building, into the basement and then project it up through the centre to create a flight chamber so clients can float on a column of air rising 5m.
Tourism’s woes are the result of going into high volume, low yield markets that really can’t afford to come to New Zealand. The industry is dominated by the bums on seats brigade where the only metric is volume. AIA makes just as much from someone at the back of the plane as from the front, and with a lot of airlines there’s no difference anyway. Air New Zealand has been a repeat offender in this regard, their Korean adventures nearly took them, and a lot of the industry, out in 90’s
And tourism cycles are really lucky to last 7 years. Post GFC tourism was really hard work (we’d just had to relocate our gallery so we did it hard) but was starting to get going again in 2010 / 11 when the Christchurch earthquakes hit and that was that for tourism in the South Island. It took a couple of years for new products to develop that didn’t include Christchurch and those have only just started to bed in over the last year or so wiht Wellington supplanting Christchurch as the second city on the tourist trail after Auckland. There’s about twice the airline capacity between Queenstown and Wellington as to Christchurch now, pre 2010 there wasn’t a direct flight.
But now it’s just about done it’s dash, punters have lost interest, discovered they can get better value at lower cost destinations that are more in their price range, and operators can’t get the add-ons (commissions) that provide the profit. So the wheel goes ’round again.
The higher yielding markets stay more constant, but are much smaller and more affected by external factors than what NZ tourism does, which carries most of the industry through. And the domestic market, which is around 50% of the industry depending on where in the cycle we are.
As I went on with this I got sourer and sourer. Sorry. But that’s how I feel about things as they are. I did a tourism course in my past and was impressed at how little the NZ tourist was considered or courted.
I learned that a lot of the Australian industry was long weekends and family centred, low spenders per day. The Japanese and US markets were longer stayers and bigger spenders.
The bums on seats attitude is just like the coarse bulk dried milk industry – a commodities market without much refinement or specialty effort.
Really NZ finds its satisfactions at a low level. Puffing their chests out these businessmen strut. If they make a success of something they want to sell it to some foreign buyer. As far as i can see we prostitute ourselves, and don’t even aim at the highest price.
And nothing in the country is fully planned. With the government being given the bums rush by business ‘We know what we are doing’, everything fragmented, poorly regulated or poorly monitored, we are a bunch of frauds trading on our scenic amenities. But when you look at the rest of the world, they have beaut places. And she’ll be right as ever we are busy killing off all the good things we have had with pollution, blame it on the freedom campers; unswimable rivers, blame it on the drought.
Nobody is reliable except the firemen, their test is in how they do their job while everyone watches. You can see their excellence, or not. But all these pissy little businessmen full of alcohol and self-importance; I’ll never forget that little shit that went down with about six of our good scientists. Their partners should have sued the Department for lacking their duty of care in putting them on this third-rate charter. There are too many like him. I think he died along with the others near Christchurch. But others, if they fail they can always go into real estate they think.
That caught my eye, tourism’s volume driven adventure was well and truly planned by the then government, with total buyin from major industry players. I would love to know how much the individual government members made on their AIA and Air NZ shares, along with other tourism related stocks. The volume strategy was the way it was going to be done and anyone who thought otherwise was destroyed. Smaller and value orientated players quickly learnt to keep their heads down.
But quality and excellence isn’t our thing, or it’s been beaten out of us by the mediocre knuckle draggers. Toby Morris did an excellent piece on that subject today, ” In defence of giving a shit”
I thought that Toby Harris was very good. Totally agree. I have been pushed to the outer for not doing the groupthink. I think that is part of what he is saying.
I liked this bit about people commenting with new ideas.
You see it in the comments about articles on Capital Gains Tax, or about trans rights.
You see it in the comments on Chloe Swarbrick’s posts, or on articles by Mad Chapman.
They don’t attack the argument, they attack that the argument is being made at all.
Simon Bridges will no doubt be saying, “I fully support Jenny Shipley. She is a great example of how a great Kiwi battler works hard to better her life and bring all those around her along for the ride.
She represents the full aim of a National Government to support Kiwi battlers instead of those other losers who whine and complain about their bad commercial decisions.
I say to those petty complaining subcontractors who lost millions of dollars, Get some guts! Vote National because we have the expertise to make money without fear or messing about with wishy washy morality.”
Do remember to put /sarc at the bottom. We have RW here who don’t know or want to know what satire is. They will quote you verbatim and say that you said
‘this’ quite truthfully. They will hoist you by your own petard. You have to watch out for the devious ones who have the answers pat in their mind to advance their points.
Good luck with that ianmac. But with your tongue in your cheek all the time they would think you had a tumour there. Anyway where is PR? He’s holding the ermine train of some lord or lady isn’t he? Perhaps he is guarding the Bridge of Sighs.
In the link it is looking rather like a grey old bird – we are told it connects two prisons, and with Simon he connects two Parties. It has been up since 1600 and that is a terrific example of longevity for Simon. Just keep holding in there. https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/bridge_of_sighs.htm
Good electric Railways will be the best investment for Aotearoa or any country in the long run it is much cheaper stable prices and a very low carbon footprint to fright our WORLD class foods to the rest of the world its not good having good,s stuck in a traffic jam.
To Eco Maori it looks like most westen countrys are following the ilogical road into big carbon prouducting highways WHY .The oil barron,s are using there MONEY to lead us down the wrong road that will give them billions of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and in the long run turn the westen societys into 3 world nations you see what is best for TE billionass,s is not good for the Enviroment or the 99.90 % of people .
This road of letting the billionasss make our policys will lead us into extinction
Govt forced KiwiRail to backtrack on locomotives decision, documents show
According to the Treasury, it’s the first time a state-owned enterprise has been directed by a minister to make a decision that didn’t stack up commercially.
The State-Owned Enterprises Act said an entity’s principle objective was to be a successful business.
In 2016, KiwiRail’s board decided to replace its 15 electric locomotives with diesel, arguing it would make the company more efficient and better able to take freight, and with less freight going by road, there’d be a positive environmental impact.
On 30 October last year the government put a stop to the plan instead promising a $35 million cash injection to refurbish the electric locomotives.
In a letter to Transport Minister Phil Twyford two weeks before the decision was announced, acting chief executive Todd Moyle made it clear KiwiRail didn’t have the money to refurbish the locomotives.
“KiwiRail has no funding for these additional costs and is unable to recoup the investment and there is no uplift in revenue associated with this decision,” he wrote.
But a Cabinet minute written the day before the government’s announcement, showed Cabinet agreed to use its powers under the State Owned Enterprises Act to direct the company to provide a non-commercial service.
Mr Twyford said being a successful SOE was more than just about profit and loss for a particular year, and this government wanted to grow rail.
He said previous governments had left KiwiRail on financial life support with no future vision.
“That’s not how our government sees it, we’re committed to bringing rail into the heart of the transport system, instead of treating it as the poor cousin and drip-feeding it a little bit of money year after year and barely keeping it alive,” he said.
KiwiRail uses electric locomotives on the main trunk line between Hamilton and Palmerston North.
When it said it was going to switch to diesel, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union accused it of “environmental terrorism”.
Mr Butson said that decision failed to consider the needs of a modern railway, which must have some level of variation in the types of locomotives and wagons it uses.
Engineer Roger Blakeley said the decision to scrap the electrics was at odds with the Labour government’s target of getting to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and leader Jacinda Ardern’s claim that climate change was her generation’s “nuclear free moment”.
“With the diesel locomotives, if KiwiRail went ahead with them, it would burn an extra 8 million litres of diesel fuel per year and add around 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. That’s what would have been the implications of a switch back to diesels,” he said.
The Palmerston North to Hamilton route was electrified in the 1980s and the plan then was to carry on and electrify the whole main trunk line from Wellington to Auckland. Ka kite ano P.S Eco Maori tau toko,s our FUTURE,S
It’s estimated completing the project now would cost around a billion dollars.
Elon Mus is one billionaire that is leading the world down the correct ROAD .
Video below P.S Eco Maori say that youtube should pull the ad that implies that only WAHINE carry STD and everyone knows both sex carry and transmite STD not just WAHINE ANA TO KAI.
Kia ora Newshub the seaplane crash in Auckland would have been exciting for some exhilarating for the pilot he was in the seaplane by himself when it crashed on landing in the harbour.
Lime E scooters getting cleared to be back on the streets in Auckland.
Eco Maori says that the company system is a big fail if company’s like Arrow and Mainzeal construction companies can go bankrupt owing millions to subcontractors maybe they should be legerslated to pay subbies a deposit in a government account so if they go bankrupt the small tangata don’t get ripped off because that’s what it looks like to ECO Maori common people getting ripped off and that move would protect the common people.
The big picture is the principle are not Cooperating with the government to solve the problems of a teacher shortages if they really need teachers they would work with them they are all national supporters. I can see my future and it includes good grass-fed Aotearoa meat and milk and eggs I have been eating more vegetables and cut back on the protein but I will not give it up totally.
Another country’s leader being charged with fraud WTF.
Celia the movies will be good she highlighted the plight on Wahine the justice system and poverty is it a coincidence that all the humane leaders die of CANCER.
Ka kite ano P.S condolences to Celias whanau
Kia ora Wairangi & Storm
Nice hairdo Wai Te Matatini was amazingly awesome and impressive as usual. Te whole Papatuanukue was treaded to OUR Tangata Whenua Cultures Haka Waiata with it being steamed live on the Internet . There is another awesome Waiata act in town but I will wait for the correct time before I dedicate him some Eco Maori words.
Christin Cullen you are as gray as me I mite try some blond hair dye YEA NAR. lol green would suit Eco Maori better no offence Storm just one of my dumb jokes .
Extreem Skying for a paraplegic is that correct good on them not much snow on Hukurangi
for a East Coastie tangata whenua to practice skiing.
Ka kite ano
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
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how come this shit still stands?
metaphorically speaking of course cos I know everyone’s busy. This is the latest in a long line of these type of comments over months.
“Tamati Tautuhi 2.1.1.1
27 February 2019 at 8:27 pm
Korean m8 all the gooks look the same anyway.
You aren’t allowed to bash Chinese on this RWNJ’s will go AWOL.”
“Tamati Tautuhi 2.1.1.1.1.1
27 February 2019 at 9:51 pm
James you whinging again like that other faggot Gosman, harden up you poof.”
Is this our Standard community?
That is a sorry state marty mars I agree …
I think it is worth letting this through to see the poorly types who still inhabit our fair lands, so they can be identified and winkled out…
… which is slowly happening. Unfortunately, these are generational changes and take time. Remember, if I have it right, when you born (early 1960’s?) WWII had only just finished, so for our elders of that time the world was an entirely different place than it is today with respect to respect for diversity and the like. The poorly types of this generation will pass shortly.
If codgers want to swap abusive rubbish, they can find a table at the nearest RSA or something. Don’t need it here.
sadly it doesn’t take much poison to poison a well.
Yes, and we are well past needing these people to ‘identify themselves’ more than once.
Yep, that was disgusting to stumble across last night. Abusive comments like those stop other people being here.
Moderators need to be prompt and consistent about making clear it is not ok. The standards we set are what we walk past.
It is indeed a shock to come across vile comments like that.
Pfft, at the Burswood casino 6 white guys was getting bashed by 4 islander security. How about that.
try to keep on topic dim perhaps start another thread
Whats this topic about? Being surprised or, being shocked or, being sad or, being abusive or, world war 2, or is it to do with some other kind of brain damage?
Stay away from the casinos sammy. They just suck you dry.
And here they are again today, on display. hung up on the line for another airing. Could the issue have been discussed without flapping the offending articles about, or, heaven forbid, let go to blow away on the breezes of time?
No point hiding it. Bit like outing naughty MPs eh.
And of course you are correct Robert. Im sorry for adding to the yuck factor on such a beautiful day. I didn’t think enough – sorry.
So you’re saying MM shouldn’t be asking for moderation for someone whose repeatedly using hate speech on here, and that he should just let it go and forget about it?
That sort of attitude blew away on the breezes of time a long time ago. Now days we call out our racists and homophobes.
Well done MM for fronting this on all our behalf.
“Now days we call out our racists and homophobes.”
Indeed we should.
I pointed this out to muttonbird who was quite happy to ignore it because it was pointed at me
His reply “meh”
Ignoring it make them enablers of racism and homophobia at best and supporters at worse.
Meh.
At least you own your racism and homophobia.
It’s not nice – but at least you seem ok with it.
The Al1en – “So you’re saying…”
Nope. I’m saying re-presenting the offensive article is unnecessary and multiplies the effect of it’s original use. By all means call out the behaviour, though the mods are good at dealing with such without provocation, when they have the time.
That’s okay, then, makes sense, just as long as I’m not expected to “heaven forbid, let go to blow away on the breezes of time”.
“Heaven forbid”?
That’s an extreme measure.
No need to bring in a ban from above, TA.
Just quoting your reply to MM, but if you’re walking back from it, or floating upon the ether, then I’m down with it.
You’re not tamtam then Al0on?
More tim tam, Gobby 😉
Yes well done MM
TA
Empty talk concocting iterations of something to continually be scandalised by – like the looped vids of kittens jumping at an image of themselves in a mirror. Try to do better and stick to schtum when you have something worthless in mind. We try to entertain but really are thinking about politics for the future, if we have one.
Funk the videos of kittens, if you think racism and homophobia is something you do for entertainment, and a left wing forum is the place to express it while expecting no one to be rightfully offended, then it really is a problem you have to be owning up to and seeking assistance to overcome.
Talk about not being able to read the room.
I think it’s something kiwibuggers do to lob a grenade into the works Al0on.
Would you just walk on by if someone was abusing someone like that in the street ?
People like this need to be called out.
Being nice all day is super difficult because there’s so much misery in the world. Let a bit in, it will consume you. Best to just pay the taxes and be done with it.
James I agree. People need to be called out. Well said
Yeh and Ed get a life time ban…go figure.
[Disputing moderation. Banned for the rest of the month. TRP]
Adrian Thornton’s been banned “for the rest of the month“. Does that mean he’ll be allowed back tomorrow?
Thinking of taking a holiday.
Just found Adrian in the staff room muttering away…sounded like ” Flip you melon farmer” or something. Pretty sure he was talking about ‘TRP’.
Now he’s accusing me of not wanting to get banned.
I can get banned if I want to.
Flip him.
Siobhan
Go for it you devil you.
You missed him calling farrar a “faggot” as well.
Also interesting how people like muttonbird are fine with abuse like that if it’s pointed at someone they don’t like.
I know that the mods are busy – but this is the kind of thing that needs to be addressed.
Jimmy, you need to address the size of your underwear. I suspect they are a quite a few sizes on the small side. Over tight elastic in that region can cause all sorts of physical and mental stress. One known symptom is RWS (repetitive whinging syndrome)
ffs
Righties in thier tighty whities.
Thanks, Marty. I’ll sort it out.
And a quick message to those bleating that it wasn’t moderated at the time: this is a volunteer run site. The few of us that do moderation cannot be expected to read every comment, let alone do so live as they come in. Particularly so late at night.
So, if comments like these get missed, members of the TS community can raise it as marty has done (preferably without copying the offensive comment in full, because that makes it worse*) or email the site and the offending behaviour will be addressed.
*Just a link to the original comment and a request for a mod to have a look should be enough.
Not sure if people were bleeting as such. Just trying to make sure it got looked at when you were back in here.
I hope we all appreciate that you have lives outside of the standard.
Anyway – thank you for addressing.
“(preferably without copying the offensive comment in full, because that makes it worse*) ”
That’s the aspect I support. James uses this as a weapon; writing an offending word, repeatedly, and railing against its use. That’s so low brow it’s a moustache (could’ve said something else, didn’t).
Perhaps is people had issue with the original comment then people wouldn’t make comments like that in the first place – then there is nothing to repeat.
Better than just walking on past and ignoring it.
Also read the thread last night and see how few people called him out on it.
That’s says a lot.
For some, walking on past is the best option. For some, picking up the offensive goop, running around poking it under other people’s noses, is their preferred option. You choose the latter, failing to realise you’re a poop-spreader.
And you fail to understand that by walking pass you are accepting and enabling racist and homophobic comments.
You are setting that that is an acceptable standard.
It might be ok in your home – but it’s not in mine.
Walking past is not accepting, James, especially when you can see that others are attending to the issue. You seem always to jump in, even when the pool is full and delight in waving the offending article around with seeming glee. In some instances, you repeat the upsetting term or word over and over and over, rolling it around on your tongue, as if it gives you pleasure. Just saying’.
Oh so truth-telling Robert.
James’ racism and homophobia concerns do him credit. Has he also been working on his misogyny?
Some context – on 1 December 2018, in Open Mike @11.1.1, our James made this observation about Anna Rose, Australian Geographic Conservationist of the Year (2014):
“Better than just walking on past and ignoring it.” – James; look to your sins.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-01-12-2018/#comment-1556806
I call someone boring and you find that as offensive as racist and homophobic abuse?
How snowflakish
James, if you had simply said that you found Anna Rose to be boring, then IMO that would have been OK; your problem, but OK.
Do you have a comprehension problem? Do you genuinely not understand why I found your comment offensive? You’re able to identify and document the offensive comments made by some others on this site, so why the blindspot?
Hey. If you think this is the same as calling people faggots, poofs and gooks then you are a very sad person.
Oh look, it’s the boy who cried wolf.
And his stalker the racist homophobic
I’m lost – who is James calling ‘racist’ and ‘homophobic’ now?
No one. James is the one flinging accusations around.
James does fit the racist, sexist, homophobe demographic though. Old, white, immigrant male.
But he pretends not to be.
James, I think what you said about Anna Rose indicates that you are indeed a very sad person. And I’m sad about that.
James, I asked you three questions. You failed to answer any of them, and you are 100% responsible for that failure.
James, if you keep this up, I may be inclined to remind you of some more of your self-incriminating smears on this site. But I’d rather not, unless you insist/persist.
You’re not worth answering snowflake.
Says the stale pale male who screamed and screamed because someone said old white man.
I’m a snowflake!?? James, you are literally unreal! And rather fond of using ‘snowflake’ to dodge simple questions.
I’m not equating misogyny with racism or homophobia, I’m simply saying that I found your casual comment about Anna Rose offensive. Surely even you can see that your comment is consistent with a misogynistic mindset. Only a misogynist wouldn’t get that.
James, no-one is perfect. Policing racist and homophobic comments on The Standard might be one route to self-improvement, but I respectfully suggest that you consider alternatives – each of us has only so much time.
Thanks. Sorry for reproducing – feel free to adjust my original comment.
Tamati is a good man who cares about his country. His comments reflect some of the feeling of the white, heterosexual, working class male. These are human feelings and I don’t think we can tell humans that they are not allowed to feel like this, because that won’t work in the end anyway.
The deeper issue at the heart of Thomas’s comment is that globalism, high immigration and the ensuing lower wages has failed the country. No wonder Trump got traction.
Abusing whole groups of people is not the same as having feelings. Get off the grass. And Chump was elected by culturally insecure tradies, not poor workers.
Shit there must be alot of tradies in the us.
Ran out of time. Contractors, managers, owners, etc – not the working poor. Thatmyth has been debunked many times since their election.
I hope things get better for you.
A fast count for No.1s amounts to 50. Started off by the complaint about language. Talk about stirring the muddy bottom of the pond. All the weeds rise to the top (myself among them). Meanwhile the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Perhaps draw attention to bad behaviour with Nos. and speak in tongues so the hoi polloi won’t understand. Marty mars – there must be a rude word in Maori – we could say ‘Mod – ‘rude word in Maori’ No. …. Name of thread date time.
And save fifty comments like dead leaves that need composting.
His feelings represent his views only – don’t place his hate speech onto others.
For anyone who doubted why this offence needed to be recognised separately: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12207929
“Police have charged almost five people a day with strangling or suffocating their partners since a new family violence law came into force criminalising such acts in December.”
John Mark Tanner and Paul Pounamu Tainui; two good reasons for why we should consider never releasing men who murder their intimate partners.
.
For two weeks he fronted up to police, the media and the public to deny any knowledge of his girlfriend’s whereabouts.
John Tanner, with his long hair and pimples, played the concerned boyfriend and insisted that he last saw girlfriend Rachel McLean at the railway station in Oxford, where the 19-year-old was a student.
But behind the elaborate stories he concocted for Police was a sinister truth – Tanner, 22, had strangled Rachel and hidden her body under the floorboards of her flat.
[…]
Tanner, now 49, had violently assaulted his partner over a period of six months last year.
In the first incident, the couple were staying at a motel in Whanganui central when Tanner became upset with the woman and they argued. She was brushing her teeth and he walked up behind her, dragged her out of the bathroom and threw her on the bed.
He jumped on her and put his hands across her neck, restricting her breathing.
In another incident, when the woman told Tanner she was leaving him he threatened to kill her.
The worst of the violence happened when they argued at Tanner’s home in rural Pauri Road on the outskirts of Whanganui.
Tanner held his partner down by the wrists and straddled her. He yelled at her to tell him about her ex-partner and then punched her in the head. She suffered a graze and bruising.
The woman left the house and went to a motel. She sent Tanner a text that the relationship was over but he showed up and they argued. She cowered on the bed and he pulled her clothes off saying he wanted sex.
The Crown says the woman was trying to get away and fell to the ground, where Tanner punched her several times around the head.
She started to cry and Tanner said, “look what you made me do’”.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/sunday-feature-kiwi-murdered-girlfriend-in-uk-now-nz-jail-after-new-assaults-v1?variant=tb_v_1
What a nightmare
This isn’t applicable but an indication of a desire to start looking at murder judgments by types so the ‘punisment fits the crime’ better.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379949/criminal-legislation-not-always-reflective-of-degree-of-moral-blame-lecturer
Two detailed posts on the ongoing scam at the core of neo-liberal economic policy.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=41690
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=41671
This describes the reason NZ keeps a portion of the available workforce unemployed at all times (which in turn helps create a low wage sector). When it gets serious this will be one of the main ways the Green New Deal proposals are undermined in the US.
How deep is your vision or purpose?
A shallow one would be where you get lambos and get to party every day.
A deep one would be where you solve some currently intractable problem affecting the entire world.
The longer it takes to make a deal, the longer it takes to recover, the greater the required stimulus.
Except we have a lower unemployment rate that most other countries and certainly lower than nations who have far more left wing economic policies than we do (e.g. France).
Just depends what is being stimulated. If it’s for productive purposes then prices will adjust. But if it’s just for importing skilled labour then duh.
You are missing the point. Most European nations have a far less ‘neoliberal’ economic policy setting than we do. Nations such as France and Spain and Italy all have massive State intervention either directly (Through State ownership of industry) or indirectly through subsidies and regulation. This is the opposite of Neoliberal policy. It is these nations that have the higher rates of unemployment than we do. If neoliberal economic ideas need a minimum level of unemployment to maintain low inflation how come countries that don’t have as neoliberal policies as us have higher unemployment?
Meh. When you don’t have a price on pollution and you start paying polluters you know you’re on the wrong tram.
What???
Sometimes I think you are on a different planet. What does that got to do with Nic the NZer’s view that Neoliberalism requires a level of unemployment ?
Marco economics can take a life time to learn. It’s the Reserve Banks full time job to manage, the Reserve Bank Govenor has probably forgotten more than I know about macro stuff.
So, my personal opinion, based on just enough economics training to be dangerous, is “it depends.” You need to look at everything, do econometric studies, make carful observations and basically stay on your toes when making any free hand inflation calculation. And you’ll need the Reserve Bank. There are times for low inflation, sometimes higher inflation, times where you should flirt with deflation, and there is no simple rule for which is which. Each with its own iterations and byproducts, people who try to tell the Reserve Bank what to do without understanding the issues or research into the topic are dumbasses who do not know what they do not know.
Wtf is Marco economics???
Do you mean Macroeconomics? If so, then it is not the Reserve Banks full time job to manage. The RBNZ manages monetary policy which is just one element of Macroeconomics. The RBNZ also manages the regulation of financial institutions which is almost microeconomics so it isn’t just involved in the macro side.
If you want to be an ass about it. What’s micro economics got to do with most of fucken Europe. You nutter.
Do you have comprehension issues? You just tried to argue that the Reserve bank full time job is managing Marco economics (sic). I pointed out that is a massive over simplification.
Sure, if you’re objective is to make people take out risky loans the reserve bank could just be a number for low investment IQ individuals to borrow against. I mean what ever.
The only reason for the Reserve Bank to influence micro economic settings is for their effects on the macro economy. This is very obvious and should hardly need to be explained.
Though its not accepted by mainstream modeling (which chooses to believe the economy is in equilibrium or rapidly approaching such a state), unless the state actively suppliments deficient demand then the unemployment rate will be higher than necessary at most times. This happens regardless of most economic policy settings.
As i suggested a large part of the impact of this on inflation is fictional.
Stick to the topic. The reserve bank today estimates the NAIRU is higher than the unemployment rate. The implication of this is that they will suggest contractionary economic policy in NZ while the unemployment rate could still be reduced. This policy advice is apparently based completely on fiction.
Yeah sure they will.
Government runs a surplus, takes money out of circulation. Reserve bank pumps money back in. How difficult is that to understand?
That is not correct, the reserve bank controls interest rates for money but does not do the spending (which adds income) that treasury does. Monetary policy is relatively very weak at increasing circulation as to take effect it requires an investor.
What about commercial banks? They got to get there money from some where at a certain rate then pass it on to customers at a higher rate, surley.
Yes, via lending. Just as the reserve bank does. Prof Randy Ray once summed it up for me with a brilliantly terse comment (in the US context), the Fed lends, treasury spends.
Also note, commercial banks lending processes create bank deposit money (but not the reserve money they make final payments in) in the process.
My wallet doesn’t have notes in it which is PROVE.
Proof of what?
Retail bows to reserve bank
Most people spend according to their income, not the interest rate on their credit. You may be an exception. Businesses tend to invest based on the anticipated income from sales on the same basis.
Monetary policy does have some effect however.
Pretty sure Adrian Orr is a little iffy about more long term bond buying while the NZX and wider economy is under reconstruction.
Trouble is that in NZ drugs are now available everywhere.
So many are under ‘drug induced anger and rage now.’
I see this on our roads when driving now, as no-one has any patience or consideration any more.
Police must take control out there.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/02/watch-horrifying-footage-of-reckless-near-miss-involving-three-large-trucks.html
It may well be the reason for some of the rabid ranting of some on here.
Here is a very good interview with Larry Wilkerson on the situation Venezuela for anyone who cares…
“Trump promises “democracy and freedom” to Venezuela, delivered by Elliott Abrams who brought you illegal wars, coups, and support for dictatorships; and Mike Pompeo and VP Pence, both with deep ties to the Koch brothers who need Venezuelan heavy crude to feed their Texas refinery – Col. Larry Wilkerson joins TRNN’s Paul Jay”
If they NEED the Venezuelan oil why have they made it harder for them to actually get it? that makes no sense. It would have been much better for them to continue to buy oil (40% of the total oil exports of Venezuela) from the country. You aren’t thinking this through really.
Venezualan oil sanctions is just incentivising the BRICS
Venezuelan oil sanctions really haven’t had enough time to do anything yet.
Most of the pressure is coming from Saudi Arabian attempts to manipulate the oil price. They don’t like compitition as much as America.
Sorry to just put up links, but I gotta get some work done, any way here is a really excellent piece that is well worth the time to read on propaganda and democracy from the ever reliable Media Lens….
‘We Don’t Do Propaganda’
Media Lens
27February2019
http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=896:we-don-t-do-propaganda&catid=57:alerts-2019&Itemid=252
I think the comments by a number of people in the Daily Review yesterday evening should put paid to any derision at the comments on other blogs being “The sewer” in comparison to here.
Bullshit. This incident is the exception, rather than the rule, as you well know. So pull your head in, OK?
Was he banned?
Edit: Just noticed he was. Good stuff.
Was it mention of Roger Douglas’ name that made your nostrils flare, Gosman?
I too found that distasteful.
More the abuse spewing around it Robert. You must have found that distasteful as well didn’t you?
So that’s the point of it is it gozzer.
I reckon tamtam’s a kiwibugger.
The National Cruelty
At the very time New Zealand wage earners have been told by Sir John Key and Sir Billy English that they will never be able to afford a home again, Simon Bridges is promising Tax Cuts to Wealthy people at the next Election.
This is National trampling mercilessly on the people of New Zealand ! This is so cruel !. So wicked ! so Pagan!. So Rotten ! So God Dam Evil!
It is the most Monstrous activity of the Nationals ever undertaken in this Country or in any other Democracy. Only done by Roger Douglas, John Key, Billy English, and in future by Simon Bridges.
Not only that, the Wage earners of New Zealand can barely afford Rentals; or Food.
They certainly cannot afford Heating. It is as organised by National Corruption: J.Key, B.English, Mrs P.Bennett, Simon Bridges.
Therefore, Wage Earners must find ways to mercilessly Trample on National. John Key, Billy English and Simon Bridges. Wage Earners must trample on the Wealth of the Wealthy who have raped them so savagely and mercilessly. Their families, their assets, their future – turned into poverty as they have turned workers.
Further, the wage earners must mercilessly Trample on the Media – TV and Press. To stop the low IQ splash around.
The Present Government must keep an Eagle Eye on the Crime of National and the Wealthy.
The Banks, Police and the Military must be advised by Government that all their energies must be exercised in favour of the wage earners and the Poor.
National has made no attempt to run a Democracy or Equality.
Well ok, trample etc, or you know raise their taxes a bit maybe.
This must be the ‘kiwi way of life’ he was wanking on about the other day.
Reading about the terrible and needles negligence that took the lives of Haki Hiha, David Eparaima and Soul Raroa has elevated today’s misanthropy levels.
Love and sympathy to their families and friends.
Kia kaha.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12207842
A very sad situation for the families and other members of their work place.
So sorry for your plight, and hoping you have love and support at this sad time.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/110897710/funding-shortfall-threatens-hamilton-to-auckland-passenger-rail-service
Stuff hamilton, extend the rail to Huntley, there is already a go bus from hamilton, the base, to Huntley. no need for massive investment, build a viable route with actual passengers and then extend it. And why the base, I mean shopping center are designed to slow up people, make it hard to get in and out,just look at the current infrastructure for buses it’s a maze. Stop the northern connector on the te rapa, in fact all the buses, and then if they want rail, demand they create a striaght path from said buses to the rail station, or better just move it further out and wire up the buses without their input.
If you want a service to Auckland then don’t vote for any who talks about it, its really easy, connect the 21 bus to a rail connection at Huntley, and cut out the base, its slows the all buses down.
Waikato Regional Council have failed to put any significant money towards passenger rail for decades.
They are fully rentier Nats looking for anything to stick it to Twyford.
If passenger rail is something that the people of the Waikato area really want, then local government elections are up in a few months.
If not, Twyford has to smack NZTA around the head until it does what the government policy wants.
It is the Government that wants the rail service to Hamilton. If they want it they should pay for it. Compared to the Regional Council the Government has heaps of money.
The Central Government has heaps of $$$ from the road tax for “roads.” Double emphases on “roads.” Any self respecting National MP past or present would have even a cursory knowledge of Nationals Roads of Bling and Significance.
They should listen to Bill Birch.
He’s currently preparing to build a small town next to the Papakura-Pukekohe rail line, which is about to get electrified.
Bill Birch knew how to deal with an impending energy crisis.
The Nats used to know how to plan at scale.
They’re just lost.
just saying. ignore hamilton for now. extend to Huntley, then local express bus 21 at peak hours.
Yuk, when i was a kid I said a rude word and was made to clean my mouth out with soap. Double yuk.
Anyone making up this stuff needs to swallow a whole bar. Watching it would leave a mark on the soul I think, the picture is bad enough.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383584/momo-character-popping-up-in-youtube-videos-encouraging-kids-to-self-harm
greywarshark, well said there;
yes the carbolic soup tasted the worst when the teacher shoved “sunlight soap’ into my mouth after swearing at 7yrs old.
Hey join the Sunlight club (Sunlight Soap that is). We didn’t need physical punishment in those days eh. Just a picture of a piece of Sunlight and it was yes miss, no miss.
So much for trucks paying “their fair share of road damages eh?
http://www.sef.org.nz/papers/STCC%20overview.pdf
3.4 How are costs distributed by vehicle type?
The costs generated by vehicles differ according to size, type of fuel used etc. because of
the wear and tear they inflict on the network and the pollution they cause.
When the total charges (excluding rates) paid by users are allocated across the vehicle
fleet according to type we find that:
• cars directly pay 64% of their costs,
• trucks directly pay 56% of their costs
• buses directly pay 68% of their costs.
Although trucks were sub-divided into four categories in the STCC, data limitations
prevented the full average cost analysis from further disagreggating the allocation for
trucks according to specific truck weights and/or types.
So we won’t know if the logging trucks and behemoths that flit around the country are paying their rightful amount. But then do they calculate payment according to each set of wheels- that would go somewhere to accurately meeting real costs.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/383581/auckland-council-votes-to-ask-govt-to-ban-fireworks-sales
I’d welcome a complete ban on private sales.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ModISbNyQ8I
Being in UK Labour sounds as if it was a lot more fun then than now the way that Julie Walters tells it.
I’ve been reading about the author Gerald Kersh. He had a strange life apparently and being pronounced dead at four and sitting up in his coffin at the funeral made a spectre-cular start.
A quote –
“In proper men there is hidden a light which darkness makes visible. I believe that the hope of mankind is in this buried glory; the spirit which makes true men hang on to the throats of their enemies at the very rim of the grave.”
― Gerald Kersh, Brain and Ten Fingers (GoodReads)
In his life he became a war correspondent and was buried alive during bombing raids on three separate occasions. I think he was exaggerating a bit. Perhaps two!
He wrote more than a thousand magazine pieces and more than a thousand short stories. He died at 57 in 1968. There are no books listed under his name on TradeMe – which to tell the truth is now dominated by dumps of new remaindered books from NZ sites, Australia and the UK. Thank goodness the USA haven’t bothered with us. A lifetime of hard graft – he deserves to be remembered.
I hope that can be said about us on The Standard. We have much to do. As they said on Mission Impossible – Your mission; should you decide to accept it.
another large building company folds,
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/110925407/subcontractors-packing-up-amid-concerns-about-arrow-international-nz
substantive problems with the model?
Yes!
Public sector work pipeline damaged. multiple factors.
Private sector destabilising through bank credit constraints + public policy instability + really late in market cycle.
More big failures to come.
Tens of thousands affected in the industry.
“+ really late in market cycle.
More big failures to come.”
Yeah, look out, it’s coming. We’re 10 years out from the last bust which is a very long run in the New Zealand, or really any context except maybe modern China or post war Japan. We’re usually lucky to get 7 years between ooops.
When I look around Queenstown it sends shivers down the spine looking at the big jobs coming along that depend on buyers settling on the due date or the principal having the cash left to pay the subbies at completion. There’s a lot of contenders.
It’s not going to be pretty when the dominos start tipping over.
But will free up heaps of capacity for a massive house building programme.
Sure hope so.
We held off constructing in Wanaka last yeat because the qs was just stupid.
Getting someone to do something is getting really hard, everyone is over-committed and just not interested in under-resourced, and productivity has gone out the window because of the above.
I’m expecting a very different picture in 12 months, but the opportunities will be in buying rather than building as most of the builders will have gone broke. If you can find a solvent builder, or can do it yourself, there could be good times. We built a house in Frankton in 1988 for $54K, including land.
Why do you reckon so many builders are going to tip over?
Past experience, I’ve seen enough of our economic cycles from within the construction industry to know that construction is a mugs game. The small finance the larger on up the chain, so when one goes the whole industry comes down like a pack of dominos.
What I’m seeing around here gives me the shivers. I’m glad I’ve got sod all debt, heaps of equity, and what exposure I’ve got to the industry is in a cashed up position.
Are most builders working for companies? going by the amount of ridiculously oversized expensive new utes I see everywhere I got the feeling everyone’s their own boss?
And therein lies the problem. The self employed financing the larger players. Tradies (probably sub sub tradies in reality) with million dollar mortgages on a mcmansion in Shotover Country doing work for someone who pays on contract milestones until they run out of cash. Then oh fuck.
Building state houses or flooding the market with cheap new builds?
Can’t really see the government doing the cheap new builds thing anymore, I get the feeling the penny may have dropped that it would be political suicide to push 1000’s upon 1000’s of taxpayer payer subsidised homes into a softening market.
KIwibuild is going to be wound down and put on the shelf.
In the 70’s there was a similar situation with housing affordability. The private sector (Neil, Keith Hay and Universal, and others) developed products that were quick and cheap and fitted the formula. Same thing is happening with KB, builders are coming on board. What got the thing going then was State Advances loans and capitalising the Family Benefit to assist the deposit at the bottom end. Got an awful lot of families out of hovels and garages into their own new home. Maybe there’s some opportunities for the government to do similar things with the finance / deposit.
KB is about getting the capacity in place to do something about providing decent, affordable housing for everyone, rather than “assets” for a few, once there’s some slack in the industry, which is coming very soon.
If the tourist business goes down then what? The report is that AirNz is down 34% on first half profit. However it is holding out crumbs to the regions to look as if it cares about servicing the country.
(I don’t think anyone has got them to reveal the baseline for profit on each regional airport though.)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12207937
This firm started in 1984 and has become insolvent and had to stop and try and gather the pieces. The ambitious Queenstown air-tunnel project would have been a beggar to price. It seems that many construction firms have bitten off more than they can chew. Firms undercutting with tenders and trying to corner the market for new jobs has no doubt destabilised the industry, plus trying to access cheaper steel etc with faulty documentation as to its real quality!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12208271
Construction business Arrow International has gone into voluntary administration after a contractual dispute left it with insufficient cashflow to meet operating costs…
Last week Foster told the NZ Herald the business had an issue with one Auckland job but was resolving that and altering its business model.
“We’re trying to wind down the amount of tender work we do and doing more negotiated work,” Foster said on Friday.
Arrow, one of this country’s larger builders with a national spread, works on retail, commercial, Government, tourism, education, retirement sports and recreation and residential work….
Nick Hamlin, Arrow’s southern general manager, said today the business had been “downsizing” for the last year in his region.
He had worked for Arrow for 19 years but said he left in the last week by mutual agreement. The Queenstown-based boss said the firm had bid and won jobs which some other firms refused to take on.
“The southern area was running well and there were about 15 staff,” he said, telling how Arrow subcontracted work out to other firms. Construction of facilities for tourism, events, leisure and adventure were the firm’s speciality in Queenstown, he said.
The iFly indoor skydiving building was one example in the sports and recreation field, he said. An 8m deep basement and wind turbines sit on top of the building. The turbines blow air around the building, into the basement and then project it up through the centre to create a flight chamber so clients can float on a column of air rising 5m.
Tourism’s woes are the result of going into high volume, low yield markets that really can’t afford to come to New Zealand. The industry is dominated by the bums on seats brigade where the only metric is volume. AIA makes just as much from someone at the back of the plane as from the front, and with a lot of airlines there’s no difference anyway. Air New Zealand has been a repeat offender in this regard, their Korean adventures nearly took them, and a lot of the industry, out in 90’s
And tourism cycles are really lucky to last 7 years. Post GFC tourism was really hard work (we’d just had to relocate our gallery so we did it hard) but was starting to get going again in 2010 / 11 when the Christchurch earthquakes hit and that was that for tourism in the South Island. It took a couple of years for new products to develop that didn’t include Christchurch and those have only just started to bed in over the last year or so wiht Wellington supplanting Christchurch as the second city on the tourist trail after Auckland. There’s about twice the airline capacity between Queenstown and Wellington as to Christchurch now, pre 2010 there wasn’t a direct flight.
But now it’s just about done it’s dash, punters have lost interest, discovered they can get better value at lower cost destinations that are more in their price range, and operators can’t get the add-ons (commissions) that provide the profit. So the wheel goes ’round again.
The higher yielding markets stay more constant, but are much smaller and more affected by external factors than what NZ tourism does, which carries most of the industry through. And the domestic market, which is around 50% of the industry depending on where in the cycle we are.
As I went on with this I got sourer and sourer. Sorry. But that’s how I feel about things as they are. I did a tourism course in my past and was impressed at how little the NZ tourist was considered or courted.
I learned that a lot of the Australian industry was long weekends and family centred, low spenders per day. The Japanese and US markets were longer stayers and bigger spenders.
The bums on seats attitude is just like the coarse bulk dried milk industry – a commodities market without much refinement or specialty effort.
Really NZ finds its satisfactions at a low level. Puffing their chests out these businessmen strut. If they make a success of something they want to sell it to some foreign buyer. As far as i can see we prostitute ourselves, and don’t even aim at the highest price.
And nothing in the country is fully planned. With the government being given the bums rush by business ‘We know what we are doing’, everything fragmented, poorly regulated or poorly monitored, we are a bunch of frauds trading on our scenic amenities. But when you look at the rest of the world, they have beaut places. And she’ll be right as ever we are busy killing off all the good things we have had with pollution, blame it on the freedom campers; unswimable rivers, blame it on the drought.
Nobody is reliable except the firemen, their test is in how they do their job while everyone watches. You can see their excellence, or not. But all these pissy little businessmen full of alcohol and self-importance; I’ll never forget that little shit that went down with about six of our good scientists. Their partners should have sued the Department for lacking their duty of care in putting them on this third-rate charter. There are too many like him. I think he died along with the others near Christchurch. But others, if they fail they can always go into real estate they think.
Business will be soon, if it isn’t now, like the scarifying Glengarry, Glen Ross.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQPY4LlbJ4
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wezj1ctBVc0
“And nothing in the country is fully planned”
That caught my eye, tourism’s volume driven adventure was well and truly planned by the then government, with total buyin from major industry players. I would love to know how much the individual government members made on their AIA and Air NZ shares, along with other tourism related stocks. The volume strategy was the way it was going to be done and anyone who thought otherwise was destroyed. Smaller and value orientated players quickly learnt to keep their heads down.
But quality and excellence isn’t our thing, or it’s been beaten out of us by the mediocre knuckle draggers. Toby Morris did an excellent piece on that subject today, ” In defence of giving a shit”
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/the-side-eye/28-02-2019/the-side-eye-six-out-of-ten/
I thought that Toby Harris was very good. Totally agree. I have been pushed to the outer for not doing the groupthink. I think that is part of what he is saying.
I liked this bit about people commenting with new ideas.
You see it in the comments about articles on Capital Gains Tax, or about trans rights.
You see it in the comments on Chloe Swarbrick’s posts, or on articles by Mad Chapman.
They don’t attack the argument, they attack that the argument is being made at all.
By th way who is Mad Chapman?
Simon Bridges will no doubt be saying, “I fully support Jenny Shipley. She is a great example of how a great Kiwi battler works hard to better her life and bring all those around her along for the ride.
She represents the full aim of a National Government to support Kiwi battlers instead of those other losers who whine and complain about their bad commercial decisions.
I say to those petty complaining subcontractors who lost millions of dollars, Get some guts! Vote National because we have the expertise to make money without fear or messing about with wishy washy morality.”
Do remember to put /sarc at the bottom. We have RW here who don’t know or want to know what satire is. They will quote you verbatim and say that you said
‘this’ quite truthfully. They will hoist you by your own petard. You have to watch out for the devious ones who have the answers pat in their mind to advance their points.
Oh I thought I should apply for a job as spin-doctor for Simon. Predictible you see.
Good luck with that ianmac. But with your tongue in your cheek all the time they would think you had a tumour there. Anyway where is PR? He’s holding the ermine train of some lord or lady isn’t he? Perhaps he is guarding the Bridge of Sighs.
In the link it is looking rather like a grey old bird – we are told it connects two prisons, and with Simon he connects two Parties. It has been up since 1600 and that is a terrific example of longevity for Simon. Just keep holding in there.
https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/bridge_of_sighs.htm
Good electric Railways will be the best investment for Aotearoa or any country in the long run it is much cheaper stable prices and a very low carbon footprint to fright our WORLD class foods to the rest of the world its not good having good,s stuck in a traffic jam.
To Eco Maori it looks like most westen countrys are following the ilogical road into big carbon prouducting highways WHY .The oil barron,s are using there MONEY to lead us down the wrong road that will give them billions of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and in the long run turn the westen societys into 3 world nations you see what is best for TE billionass,s is not good for the Enviroment or the 99.90 % of people .
This road of letting the billionasss make our policys will lead us into extinction
Govt forced KiwiRail to backtrack on locomotives decision, documents show
According to the Treasury, it’s the first time a state-owned enterprise has been directed by a minister to make a decision that didn’t stack up commercially.
The State-Owned Enterprises Act said an entity’s principle objective was to be a successful business.
In 2016, KiwiRail’s board decided to replace its 15 electric locomotives with diesel, arguing it would make the company more efficient and better able to take freight, and with less freight going by road, there’d be a positive environmental impact.
On 30 October last year the government put a stop to the plan instead promising a $35 million cash injection to refurbish the electric locomotives.
In a letter to Transport Minister Phil Twyford two weeks before the decision was announced, acting chief executive Todd Moyle made it clear KiwiRail didn’t have the money to refurbish the locomotives.
“KiwiRail has no funding for these additional costs and is unable to recoup the investment and there is no uplift in revenue associated with this decision,” he wrote.
But a Cabinet minute written the day before the government’s announcement, showed Cabinet agreed to use its powers under the State Owned Enterprises Act to direct the company to provide a non-commercial service.
Mr Twyford said being a successful SOE was more than just about profit and loss for a particular year, and this government wanted to grow rail.
He said previous governments had left KiwiRail on financial life support with no future vision.
“That’s not how our government sees it, we’re committed to bringing rail into the heart of the transport system, instead of treating it as the poor cousin and drip-feeding it a little bit of money year after year and barely keeping it alive,” he said.
KiwiRail uses electric locomotives on the main trunk line between Hamilton and Palmerston North.
When it said it was going to switch to diesel, the Rail and Maritime Transport Union accused it of “environmental terrorism”.
Mr Butson said that decision failed to consider the needs of a modern railway, which must have some level of variation in the types of locomotives and wagons it uses.
Engineer Roger Blakeley said the decision to scrap the electrics was at odds with the Labour government’s target of getting to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and leader Jacinda Ardern’s claim that climate change was her generation’s “nuclear free moment”.
“With the diesel locomotives, if KiwiRail went ahead with them, it would burn an extra 8 million litres of diesel fuel per year and add around 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year. That’s what would have been the implications of a switch back to diesels,” he said.
The Palmerston North to Hamilton route was electrified in the 1980s and the plan then was to carry on and electrify the whole main trunk line from Wellington to Auckland. Ka kite ano P.S Eco Maori tau toko,s our FUTURE,S
It’s estimated completing the project now would cost around a billion dollars.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/383578/govt-forced-kiwirail-to-backtrack-on-locomotives-decision-documents-show.
Elon Mus is one billionaire that is leading the world down the correct ROAD .
Video below P.S Eco Maori say that youtube should pull the ad that implies that only WAHINE carry STD and everyone knows both sex carry and transmite STD not just WAHINE ANA TO KAI.
Kia ora Newshub the seaplane crash in Auckland would have been exciting for some exhilarating for the pilot he was in the seaplane by himself when it crashed on landing in the harbour.
Lime E scooters getting cleared to be back on the streets in Auckland.
Eco Maori says that the company system is a big fail if company’s like Arrow and Mainzeal construction companies can go bankrupt owing millions to subcontractors maybe they should be legerslated to pay subbies a deposit in a government account so if they go bankrupt the small tangata don’t get ripped off because that’s what it looks like to ECO Maori common people getting ripped off and that move would protect the common people.
The big picture is the principle are not Cooperating with the government to solve the problems of a teacher shortages if they really need teachers they would work with them they are all national supporters. I can see my future and it includes good grass-fed Aotearoa meat and milk and eggs I have been eating more vegetables and cut back on the protein but I will not give it up totally.
Another country’s leader being charged with fraud WTF.
Celia the movies will be good she highlighted the plight on Wahine the justice system and poverty is it a coincidence that all the humane leaders die of CANCER.
Ka kite ano P.S condolences to Celias whanau
Kia ora Wairangi & Storm
Nice hairdo Wai Te Matatini was amazingly awesome and impressive as usual. Te whole Papatuanukue was treaded to OUR Tangata Whenua Cultures Haka Waiata with it being steamed live on the Internet . There is another awesome Waiata act in town but I will wait for the correct time before I dedicate him some Eco Maori words.
Christin Cullen you are as gray as me I mite try some blond hair dye YEA NAR. lol green would suit Eco Maori better no offence Storm just one of my dumb jokes .
Extreem Skying for a paraplegic is that correct good on them not much snow on Hukurangi
for a East Coastie tangata whenua to practice skiing.
Ka kite ano