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. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULGzXhjBvfY
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
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
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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”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkR9YWqfjsA
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt83FCSsHqQ
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Heqd7IH7ZTA
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULGzXhjBvfY
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