I don't like the taxpayers union and sit at the other end of the political spectrum from them. But what I find refreshing is a lobby group calling the government to account, despite it being a government that they voted for.
It annoys me when people support or oppose simply based on what party has proposed it.
A perfect example is increasing the age of Super. Labour proposed increasing the age the last time it was in opposition, and Key opposed the age increasing. You just have to trawl through the Standard archives to see so many people on the left supporting that Labour position back then, simply because Labour proposed it and Key opposed it.
Then the parties flipped. National in opposition wanted to increase the age, and Labour under Jacinda opposed the increase. And guess what, all the respective supporters flipped their views too for no reason other than what their team was saying. Tribal politics at its worse.
So even though I disagree with the Taxpayers Union, it is refreshing seeing a group being consistent in their views. They stick to their vision and will tell their government that they oppose something.
We work to expose excessive and wasteful government spending. We want more transparency and accountability in how taxpayers’ money is spent and our politicians spending money as if they’d worked as hard as the taxpayers who earned it. We believe that new taxes should only be introduced when there are equal decreases in other taxes
I've always opposed the age increasing and would put it back to 60. All increasing the age did was make people who were unwell from 60 to 65 have to live off $140-00 a week less and use up their savings and get called bludgers.
Just tax more highly those who can still work and wish to do so. Give people choices. Isn't 40 years servitude to capitalism enough.
Retire, volunteer in the community or work as much as you like.
Because Maori women and men have significantly decreased life expencies compared with the majority of NZers, it is also racist.
"Life expectancy at birth was 73.4 years for Māori males in 2017–2019 (up 3.1 years from 2005–2007), and 77.1 years for Māori females (up 2.0 years from 2005–2007). In comparison, non-Māori males are expected to live to 80.9 years, while non-Māori females are expected to live to 84.4 years."
6-7 fewer years of drawing Super. Money saver for the govt.
A Guardian article last year on the UK increase in age limit for the pension (legislated 20 years ago and stepping up now), is also classist, as those with lower incomes over their lifetime and who have done physical labour also have decreased lifespans, compared with well-nourished middle classes. The actual lifespan stats for working class UK citizens was a bit horrifying, actually, from what I remembered.
I think of the NZ Taxpayer Union as being New Zealand's currently most successful Political Action Group. They have raised significant money and used that well to "foment mischief" for the parties of the left through media campaigns attributed to a variety of names, but economic policy has always been clear – they will push National and NZ First to accept their well thought through policies to move as much taxation to "user pays" as possible (including to local rates), to reduce services from government, and turn as many as possible service providers into "for profit" entities. The campaign against App fees was initially directed towards international organisations such as Facebook and Twitter, and there were links to charging them for use of New Zealand press material. This campaign highlights Air BnB, Book – a – Batch, Uber, Ola and Delivereasy – it is not clear to me whether these are international companies or local companies (possibly owned by an international company). Essentially ACT don't care about NZ Media – they want a compliant population delivering to their wealthy donors. Seymour has therefore tended to be more effective than Luxon or Peters – he has a narrower focus and just doesn't care about some issues. They are exploiting the loophole that money to them will not need to be declared – and they visibly support both National and ACT through paying for Curia Polling, and creating a series of other organisations to front campaigns. As far as taxes are concerned, if these companies are making sure they incur no profits in NZ, do we care of they pay some taxes that stay here and make it harder to compete with New Zealand companies in the areas of holiday homes and takeaway deliveries and taxis?
Nothing but shows they are full of shit, they were straight in for a taxpayer hand out when I can't see how covid affects them and even if it did affect them they should have sucked ot up.
Absolutely, they feel they've been green lighted by government ministers to put their assorted resentments into actions. Some dude wearing a baseball cap and a mask and driving a big SUV apparently smashed up a whole lot of electric charging points in Drury yesterday, these dumb fucks feel untouchable right now thanks to Seymour and Peters and our utterly useless PM.
I think Sanctuary may've been referring to Destiny's charitable status as a 'church', rather than any threat of physical violence. Certainly how I took it.
Destiny want to behave like gangsters, let them live by the consequences of that choice.
Theres also an absolutly massive new church almost complete in Wiri which is unconnected to Destiny although also evangelist and funded from the US. Biggesr church im NZ I reckon and prob the tallest steeple when finished.
During the sixties the old man built several houses at Temple View for church members. Unusual houses for the times, large, with particular requirements for symmetry, well insulated, with huge cellars and diesel-fired central heating. Working on Saturday mornings with the old man the home owners would turn up with glorious smoko spreads and, it seemed fucking weird to me at the time, two pots of tea. One was for their milo, of course.
No I was referring to the common and humorous meme of mafia gangsters.
Weka made the heroic leap to retaliatory arson against her favourite pastor all by herself.
The point is the old Bish and his flock are playing a dangerous game, it isn't like gay activists can't use Google maps and after all that re-decorating of their tasteful Ponsonby villas they are bound to have pails of Dulux ivory cream (semi-gloss of course) left over under the house. God's house in Wiri is a boring grey anyway. A literal splash of colour and some obscene epithets as to the sexual proclivities of Brian's flock would be a definite improvement IMHO.
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked.
All the wins the right had during the last Labour government was when they militantly organised and gave it right into people's faces. Tractor drives, massive billionaire fundraising and mass advertising, rebellion from industry no matter what inducement, huge coordinated media attacks to kill off major infrastructure, steamrolling urgency of legislation with unprecedented power.
If you are still into the politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history.
I'm saying that if the response to Tamaki from the left is only to point a finger and say bigot, instead of pointing the finger and saying bigot and fighting hard and understanding what the fucking culture war actually is, then we will lose.
We are losing.
Atm the liberal left still seems to believe that we can force people to be progressive, despite being outnumbered. It's not about being nice to Tamaki, go hard against what they are doing. It's that if you want to retaliate in kind, you need to have a much better strategy than the left have. Putting our backs into fighting the current government as well as doing whatever identity politics is needed would be a start. Remember the 90s? We were on the streets en masse by this point in National's first term. So sure, fuck the politics of "politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history" but also fuck the politics of social media outrage.
It's not that rainbow activism is wrong. All power to the councils for acting quickly and repainting, that was awesome to see. It's the dearth of similar kind of energy and passion for climate/ecology and NACTF ripping the country's infrastructure apart. I know people are angry about those things, and there is plenty of commentary, but it's got little follow through.
It still fucks me off no end that it was the trucker/freedom crowd that occupied parliament grounds for three weeks. While the liberal left started talking about restricting right to protest. It should have been us, then on climate, now on austerity. In front of parliament and making a big fucking noise and really holding the government to account.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Wow, so close to home, but never was a truer word said.
Imho the response to covid in particular the reaction to people who refused vaccination or broke the 'rules' or turned up to protest really showed how many lefties here including rhose in parliment sit on the authortarian side of of the spectrum and tbh its a big reason that i'm not going to be voting anything other than a protest vote for a very long time.
Some might say i'm cutting off my nose to spite my face but if anything the whole shit show proved that you are bettee to find like minded people build a community and look after yourselves / each other.
National level politics are just fakes for the wealthy and power hungry.
Partly a case of how you do it, the restore rail people on wellington were effective at disruption but at the same time they hurt a bunch of people who were in precarious positions trying to get to work. If anything it alienates the very people you are trying to help.
If you were to look at Destiny they spend 15min defacing a crossing which achives more in turns of media coverage and it doesnt piss this the people in the meet grinder living day by day off so mouch.
There is plenty of pushback against Tamaki's behaviour, here and in the wider community that does not sink to their level. We do have that ability and we don't sink.
Why do you claim that there isn't and that we do? Because of one (possible) example here?
I guess that's the problem with one liners, the potential to not be understood
☺️😛
But fair call on asking for an explanation.
What I am pointing to here is the problem with the approach of the left to our current situation. Doesn't mean we aren't doing good things, as you point out there is rightly and actively push back against Destiny Church.
The inability I see is to grasping with what the culture war is and how to respond effectively. Tamaki knows what is, so does Peters and Seymour. They are all using the culture war to further their own ends. Both their political agenda, but also just as importantly, garnering and consolidating power.
The liberal left is struggling to know what to do, because imo it is often failing to grasp what is going on. Pushing back against the destruction of the rainbow crossing is necessary, it's not sufficient.
I think that DC have overplayed their hand here, but their interest isn't in winning the swing voters, so it's probably less of a mistake for them. The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values.
That's why I reacted to Sanctuary's comment. I get that it was an offhand whatever on a small piece of SM. But it's useful to point out why it's a fail. Encouraging gay people to throw rainbow paint and obscenities over the church building in retaliation might make some lefties feel good, but what does it achieve?
We lack cohesive strategy imo (not that I think Sanctuary is responsible for that or the solution, it was just the thing in the moment).
We will never have a cohesive strategy, but in lieu of that, we need agile guides who can nudge the discussion in the progressive direction, without knee-capping the contributors to the discussion.
A Tamaki church, dripping with red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet…
The reaction was to repaint the rainbows; Tamaki will use that somehow???
Yes, indeed. I've heard from multiple people the comment, along the lines of: Council can't repair potholes or deal with gang graffiti [substitute the grievance de jour for the individual concerned] – but they can repaint vandalized gay rainbows the next day.
If you don't think that this has cut through with the potential support base for the Destiny Church – you're living in a much-insulated world.
Destiny Church's "potential support base"; those who would support Tamaki's madness, are of little consequence to anyone. The rapid repainting reveals real passion in the community: priceless! Tamaki's efforts to"white-out" a vibrant community have resulted in a colourful response; joyous, vibrant and cheeky! Every warm-hearted person feels that joy 🙂
I'm watching the number of people who are ok with the action because they see GI as having gone to far, they will will ignore that it was DC. The GC people I see siding with LGB rights are much smaller in number.
Robert can write off the people who are concerned, but they're the ones that voted in a right wing government. The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
Regular Standardistas would have to be blind not to see that some view gender ideology/theory as a massive (global) problem – TS has done a service to Kiwis by providing a forum for debating GI matters.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
Yes, it's natural for people to be stressed by the state of civilisation, and spaceship Earth. We are in sustained overshoot – c'est la vie.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ's election result (0.34% of the party vote), I'm pretty relaxed about Destiny Church's influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn't be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian's regressive views – could they?
The legal freedoms of minorities have progressed considerably since Muldoon and Moyle – not far enough for some, too far for 'others'.
NZ…A Gay Haven for a Trans-Takeover [1 Oct 2023]
However, don’t get it twisted. I love all people, including those who have chosen to be LGBTQIA+.
But I fervently oppose the Rainbow community pushing their beliefs and ways onto the rest of society…
"Pushing their beliefs" Don't stress Brian – try taking a walk in Palmy. No rainbow crossings here, as far as I know – happy Easter.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ’s election result (0.34% of the party vote), I’m pretty relaxed about Destiny Church’s influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn’t be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian’s regressive views – could they?
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism. It’s not as Robert argues against that all these people are going to become part of the DC congregation. It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
There have been whole wars fought over this on twitter, major schisms within the GC movements on working with the right.There are many people who are infact ok with working with conservatives, including former left wing people. We’ve seen this on TS, so I’m not sure why it’s not obvious.
And the centrists and apolitical ones are winning apart from in the UK, where it’s hard to know which will it will eventually fall.
In NZ the left and centre left GC feminists and other women are outnumbered by the reactionaries and the right. And those people are quite ok with throwing gay people under the bus because they perceive the rainbow flag as a symbol of oppression of women and children.
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
It appears to me that some on the left (cf Robert's comments on this issue) appear to have a blind spot when it come to conservative (with a small c) voters.
Often these people don't have particularly Conservative (with a capital c) voting alignment (e.g. they don't particularly support a right wing economic policy, or sell-offs of public assets or downsizing of social support (although they may want more targeting of support to those in need, and a social contract with those receiving support – the KO refusal to evict went down like a lead balloon).
However, when the left are hard-aligned with fairly extreme socially liberal policies – it leaves this group with no voting home. 'Christian' parties have failed (both through the leadership, and in getting across the bar into government) – leaving only the centre right (and whatever you call Winston) as the only parties they can support.
This group were significant in electing this current coalition.
If the left want to see the current government voted out at the next election, then they need to consider how to soften their policy stance, to accommodate a broader 'church'.
Or, resign themselves to another 2 terms in opposition – until the usual 'Buggins turn' mentality of the electorate – allows them another period in power.
I absolutely agree with you about the danger of policy drift. If people see DC as the 'only' place with agrees with them about X issue, it becomes easier for them to gradually adopt other DC philosophy over time.
this is pretty much how I see it. There are a whole lot of NZ that don’t fit neatly into the left/right analysis, and there is a difference between the small c and the big one.
It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
"People that don't care", or don't even know. I disagree with what little I know of the gospel according to Eftpostle Brian, but he's not raising my stress levels at present. Am I disappointed about some of the choices Destiny Church members have made? Of course – but then I'm disappointed about so many choices made every day.
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism.
…
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
If "what is coming" is a drift towards fascism, abetted by The Bish, then no doubt that will be a topic for discussion here, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, we can each champion progressive ideas/values/principles/concepts/ideologies, as we see them and in our own ways. Breaking bread with conservative MPs doesn’t appeal to me, but there are MPs I admire who have done just that in pursuit of lasting progress, and there must still be some decent NActNZF pollies.
I find this action to the crossing to be quite despicable.
But I think we are seeing the slippery slope in action. If it is OK to protest by defacing a display in our national museum to make a point, then we shouldn't be surprised when groups we don't like take similar action.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. So, I think we either have to accept this sort of behaviour as legitimate protest even if we don't agree with it, or condemn it whenever it occurs whether we agree with the sentiment or not.
Turei and Shaw did that in 2016. It was a brilliant move, and Labour rose to the occasion thanks to Little. That was 8 years ago. We're a different country and the Greens have moved on to a new strategy. They will still work with Labour, but Labour's refusal to step far enough left means the Turei/Shaw deal was always going to be a time limited thing. I have a lot of respect for Ardern, but she also wasted this massive opportunity.
So yeah, Swarbrick and Davidson and Hipkins should talk and then act together. But will they? We can't afford to wait.
Chloe is confident that the Green Party can be the major party on the left. Without saying it, she is coming for Labour and their traditional supporters.
I don't expect there to be much co-ordination between the parties in the next 18 months. Labour has a wounded leader that is currently contradicting himself in his major speeches. He is there for the taking and Chloe sees that. She wants his support base.
They don't even need to campaign together with a common message in 2026. NZ First has found themselves at the cabinet table following 2 of the past 3 elections, without supporting the major party they went into coalition with.
That's my reading of the GP intention. I think that could change with a change of Labour leader and an overt support for wealth tax. But failing that, what would be the point?
Broadly agree with that. With a couple of cautions.
First, that if you have no principles, you can never be a hypocrite, but if you profess to have principles, you'll be called a hypocrite all the time.
Second, this aggression should stop short of endorsing violence. I don't think Sanctuary was doing that given what their history of commenting shows, but the bare words on the page could be interpreted that way.
Also (given the report on the dysfunction in civil defense during Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay) does anyone really think NZ's authorities would react with the spped and cool efficiency of the Baltimore Port Authority and police in the bridge strike there? It took FOUR MINUTES from the mayday to the port authority reacting immediately to the police closing the bridge.
At 1.30am in the morning, from port workers probably without an degree monitoring radios and screens, to police dispatchers to action. Incredible. The port maritime control responded immediately to the mayday, contacted police dispatch, who closed the bridge in four freaking minutes. That doesn't happen by accident. The training and trust chain was amazing. No "Are you sure? What do you mean?" they all acted immediately. Well done them, average Joes who earnt every dollar for the rest of their careers.
Unfortunately – this promptness did not extend to getting the road workers off the bridge in time. 6 of them are "missing" with at least 1 body found. It also looks like the vehicles that were identified by sonar belonged to the road workers.
Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers, all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and presumed dead.
NIWA's response in 2009 was typical of the arrogance amongst some Public Service leaders. The Met Service was no better back in the day. Whether it was confined to scientific agencies I don't know, but imo it was pretty much a case of professional jealousy. Management didn't like their 'underlings' taking the limelight away from them.
Good to hear. I knew Jim way back in the 70's/80's when we both lived in Silverstream and travelled on the train together to and from Wellington – GHG and AGW were frequent topics.
Our children were in the same class. His son was Joseph to my daughter's Mary in the school nativity play. 🙂 A nice bloke and a great travelling companion. He, of course, had his own meteorological observatory in his back garden and wrote a regular column for the gardening section of the local paper – the UH Leader. Excellent advice on when to plant.
Tuesday there were four “does the minister/PM stand by all their statement and actions” type questions from the opposition at question time. Yesterday five. Today another four.
These are such a free hit for the government to take the conversation where ever they want and lazy by the opposition. I can see why the leader of the opposition might want to do it, but seriously in almost every portfolio! The opposition is coming across as incredibly weak in question time.
it would depend on the questions. Because you haven't shared what the questions were about it's hard to know if you have a good point or are trolling again.
Let me guess, you were captain of the debating team at high school?
You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?) then when they were provided you you had a flounce because it didn't come with a silver spoon for you to feed you with?
"You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?)"
No – these are always 'set-up' questions. Get the "Yes" from the Minister to the broad question and follow with a supplementary question on a specific matter where the "Yes" is difficult to justify.
Of course the Minister almost always knows what topic the supplementary will target and already has bullshit talking points rehearsed in advance. So most of the time it's all a bit like formal jousting where no-one gets injured and the public is no wiser afterwards. To draw conclusions from this empty ritual that the opposition looks "weak" is just your wishful thinking.
On the contrary, it allows the minister to talk about whatever they want. It also does not serve the public well where question time seeks to hold the government to account by asking probing questions about government policy. It looks like a feeble fishing expedition using old socks as bait by an opposition spokesperson not on top of their portfolio. I’m sure the government will be more than happy with this line of questioning to continue.
Like her or not, Erica Stanford was particularly good at asking specific and probing question when opposition education spokesperson
I believe that subsequent questions ( supplementaries) must be related to the topic of the original question. If the original question topic is wide enough (i.e. all statements and actions) then supplementaries can be asked about anything. It all seems a bit silly to me.
Its only an advantage if you have a speaker that runs a level playing field… theyre like hens teeth Lockwood Smith was prob the closest to neutral in recent times.
Minister Jones' official killing of the Kermadec Sanctuary proposal signals that this is a government far, far more retrograde than anything PM John Key proposed. Key actually launched this proposal live and direct to the United Nations.
Iwi commercial fishing interests have killed this off from the moment it was announced, despite all sorts of inducements from the previous Labour government.
Jones, Brown and Bishop are setting a development benchmark for which you would have to go back to the days of Semple or Syd Holland.
To see how anti-nature they have become, an important Cabinet Minister under Syd Holland was Ernest Corbett, who was a lifelong member of Forest and Bird and added several major national parks to our state to the tune of 1.2 million acres square.
That pretty much benchmarks how deep a reversal this move by Jones is.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
“The effect of the sticker is two-fold. In one respect (and the most important), it conceals the racist remarks so that others will not see it. And in another, it shames the person that was bold enough to post it while demonstrating that other people won’t tolerate their poor behavior. This particular instance came to light after the popular Twitter account Lorenzo The Cat first posted a picture of the placement. Throughout the tweet’s many replies, the overwhelming message was users applauding the use of the sticker.
You can get your own cat cover-up label from the online shop called Cracks Appearing Distro. The stickers are sold in singles as well as packs of 10 or 30. Printed on a white gloss paper, they should brave the elements and last outdoors for six months”
"Israel has chucked its toys and has withdrawn from peace talks with Hamas and cancelled meetings at the Whitehouse because the UN has finally called for a cease-fire."
Pat and Aaron Hawkins discuss the news clips around Israel"s response to the UN resolution.
Don't stress, but the climate crisis is affecting our brains – still, itsa not so bad.
‘Everybody has a breaking point’: how the climate crisis affects our brains
[27 March 2024]
More than a decade later, she [cognitive neuroscientist Nomura] has her answer. The conclusions reveal a startling disparity: children who were in utero during [2012 hurricane] Sandy bear an inordinately high risk of psychiatric conditions today. For example, girls who were exposed to Sandy prenatally experienced a 20-fold increase in anxiety and a 30-fold increase in depression later in life compared with girls who were not exposed. Boys had 60-fold and 20-fold increased risks of ADHD and conduct disorder, respectively. Children expressed symptoms of the conditions as early as preschool.
…
Yet Nomura and her colleagues’ research also offers a representative page in a new story of the climate crisis: a story that says a changing climate doesn’t just shape the environment in which we live. Rather, the climate crisis spurs visceral and tangible transformations in our very brains. As the world undergoes dramatic environmental shifts, so too does our neurological landscape. Fossil-fuel-induced changes – from rising temperatures to extreme weather to heightened levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide – are altering our brain health, influencing everything from memory and executive function to language, the formation of identity, and even the structure of the brain. The weight of nature is heavy, and it presses inward.
…
“That scares me,” she [Ikiz] says. “Because in 2050, we’ll be like: ‘Ah, this is awful. Let’s try to do something.’ But it will be too late for a lot of people.
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Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
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https://www.apptax.nz/
Taxpayers union, running an attack on national 🤣
Why is this funny? They are doing what their remit is. They are attacking areas of government taxation they think are harmful.
It's funny because they are eating their own.
I don't like the taxpayers union and sit at the other end of the political spectrum from them. But what I find refreshing is a lobby group calling the government to account, despite it being a government that they voted for.
It annoys me when people support or oppose simply based on what party has proposed it.
A perfect example is increasing the age of Super. Labour proposed increasing the age the last time it was in opposition, and Key opposed the age increasing. You just have to trawl through the Standard archives to see so many people on the left supporting that Labour position back then, simply because Labour proposed it and Key opposed it.
Then the parties flipped. National in opposition wanted to increase the age, and Labour under Jacinda opposed the increase. And guess what, all the respective supporters flipped their views too for no reason other than what their team was saying. Tribal politics at its worse.
So even though I disagree with the Taxpayers Union, it is refreshing seeing a group being consistent in their views. They stick to their vision and will tell their government that they oppose something.
I too detest this mindless tribalism. No one person or party has a monopoly on good ideas (or bad ones).
I've always opposed the age increasing and would put it back to 60. All increasing the age did was make people who were unwell from 60 to 65 have to live off $140-00 a week less and use up their savings and get called bludgers.
Just tax more highly those who can still work and wish to do so. Give people choices. Isn't 40 years servitude to capitalism enough.
Retire, volunteer in the community or work as much as you like.
I would pay super rate benefits to those unable to work 60 to 65.
I would also pay those with disability the super rate.
I would afford it by ending super for those over 65, with a mortgage free home and $100,000 + in work income. – circa $1B pa.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350177826/50000-people-earn-over-100k-get-pension-commission
Because Maori women and men have significantly decreased life expencies compared with the majority of NZers, it is also racist.
"Life expectancy at birth was 73.4 years for Māori males in 2017–2019 (up 3.1 years from 2005–2007), and 77.1 years for Māori females (up 2.0 years from 2005–2007). In comparison, non-Māori males are expected to live to 80.9 years, while non-Māori females are expected to live to 84.4 years."
Stats NZ
6-7 fewer years of drawing Super. Money saver for the govt.
A Guardian article last year on the UK increase in age limit for the pension (legislated 20 years ago and stepping up now), is also classist, as those with lower incomes over their lifetime and who have done physical labour also have decreased lifespans, compared with well-nourished middle classes. The actual lifespan stats for working class UK citizens was a bit horrifying, actually, from what I remembered.
Most of the men in my family have not reached not reach NZS age. Even the fit ones. Dad got a couple of years.
I think of the NZ Taxpayer Union as being New Zealand's currently most successful Political Action Group. They have raised significant money and used that well to "foment mischief" for the parties of the left through media campaigns attributed to a variety of names, but economic policy has always been clear – they will push National and NZ First to accept their well thought through policies to move as much taxation to "user pays" as possible (including to local rates), to reduce services from government, and turn as many as possible service providers into "for profit" entities. The campaign against App fees was initially directed towards international organisations such as Facebook and Twitter, and there were links to charging them for use of New Zealand press material. This campaign highlights Air BnB, Book – a – Batch, Uber, Ola and Delivereasy – it is not clear to me whether these are international companies or local companies (possibly owned by an international company). Essentially ACT don't care about NZ Media – they want a compliant population delivering to their wealthy donors. Seymour has therefore tended to be more effective than Luxon or Peters – he has a narrower focus and just doesn't care about some issues. They are exploiting the loophole that money to them will not need to be declared – and they visibly support both National and ACT through paying for Curia Polling, and creating a series of other organisations to front campaigns. As far as taxes are concerned, if these companies are making sure they incur no profits in NZ, do we care of they pay some taxes that stay here and make it harder to compete with New Zealand companies in the areas of holiday homes and takeaway deliveries and taxis?
Just amuses me ,didn't they take covid rescue money ?
What does that have to do with attacking National?
Nothing but shows they are full of shit, they were straight in for a taxpayer hand out when I can't see how covid affects them and even if it did affect them they should have sucked ot up.
That's a lovely church you've got out there in Wiri Brian, it would be a pity if something bad happened to it.
IMO we are seeing what happens when bullying anti social behavior goes unchecked and gets oxygen from the MSM.
Absolutely, they feel they've been green lighted by government ministers to put their assorted resentments into actions. Some dude wearing a baseball cap and a mask and driving a big SUV apparently smashed up a whole lot of electric charging points in Drury yesterday, these dumb fucks feel untouchable right now thanks to Seymour and Peters and our utterly useless PM.
The big SUV would have a number plate, so the dude might find he's less untouchable than he thought.
Ah, but prove he was driving it at the time ….
I guess its more abrupt but no different to the council removing the chargers from the Museum caepark in the domain.
I agree. Like making a joke about burning down Destiny Church in retaliation.
What, no formal Mod Note for
Mr VercottiSanctuary's comment?Evidently not.
Nice one centurion, like it, like it. Oh and hail Caesar.
lol.
this is why the left is losing the culture war and doesn't understand why.
We should have the ability to push back against Tamaki's bullshit without sinking to their level. But for some reason we don't.
I think Sanctuary may've been referring to Destiny's charitable status as a 'church', rather than any threat of physical violence. Certainly how I took it.
Destiny want to behave like gangsters, let them live by the consequences of that choice.
Proceeds of Crime process anyone…
"in Wiri" suggests a physical location. But sure, he could have meant that and it would have been good if that's what he'd said explicitly.
Theres also an absolutly massive new church almost complete in Wiri which is unconnected to Destiny although also evangelist and funded from the US. Biggesr church im NZ I reckon and prob the tallest steeple when finished.
Tallest steeple wins!
All hail!!
The new Mormon temple?
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/auckland-new-zealand-temple/
Yep, its something to behold alright… some very interesring rules with the tender processes but they do pay the invoices on time every time.
Strange mob.
During the sixties the old man built several houses at Temple View for church members. Unusual houses for the times, large, with particular requirements for symmetry, well insulated, with huge cellars and diesel-fired central heating. Working on Saturday mornings with the old man the home owners would turn up with glorious smoko spreads and, it seemed fucking weird to me at the time, two pots of tea. One was for their milo, of course.
Lovely people, though.
Yeah, al I have regular dealings with Bretherens incl the exclusive side of things amd could say the same. But on balance the whole is um distastful…
According to Wikipedia, they lost their charitable status in 2022.
No I was referring to the common and humorous meme of mafia gangsters.
Weka made the heroic leap to retaliatory arson against her favourite pastor all by herself.
The point is the old Bish and his flock are playing a dangerous game, it isn't like gay activists can't use Google maps and after all that re-decorating of their tasteful Ponsonby villas they are bound to have pails of Dulux ivory cream (semi-gloss of course) left over under the house. God's house in Wiri is a boring grey anyway. A literal splash of colour and some obscene epithets as to the sexual proclivities of Brian's flock would be a definite improvement IMHO.
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked.
All the wins the right had during the last Labour government was when they militantly organised and gave it right into people's faces. Tractor drives, massive billionaire fundraising and mass advertising, rebellion from industry no matter what inducement, huge coordinated media attacks to kill off major infrastructure, steamrolling urgency of legislation with unprecedented power.
If you are still into the politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history.
that's not what I meant.
I'm saying that if the response to Tamaki from the left is only to point a finger and say bigot, instead of pointing the finger and saying bigot and fighting hard and understanding what the fucking culture war actually is, then we will lose.
We are losing.
Atm the liberal left still seems to believe that we can force people to be progressive, despite being outnumbered. It's not about being nice to Tamaki, go hard against what they are doing. It's that if you want to retaliate in kind, you need to have a much better strategy than the left have. Putting our backs into fighting the current government as well as doing whatever identity politics is needed would be a start. Remember the 90s? We were on the streets en masse by this point in National's first term. So sure, fuck the politics of "politesse of pamphlets, phone trees, little marches, and petitions, prepare to be consigned to political history" but also fuck the politics of social media outrage.
It's not that rainbow activism is wrong. All power to the councils for acting quickly and repainting, that was awesome to see. It's the dearth of similar kind of energy and passion for climate/ecology and NACTF ripping the country's infrastructure apart. I know people are angry about those things, and there is plenty of commentary, but it's got little follow through.
It still fucks me off no end that it was the trucker/freedom crowd that occupied parliament grounds for three weeks. While the liberal left started talking about restricting right to protest. It should have been us, then on climate, now on austerity. In front of parliament and making a big fucking noise and really holding the government to account.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Middle NZ/swing voters have a choice, and atm they're fucked off with the left in multiple ways and we still think the solution is to mock them and tell them they are wrong. That's why we are losing the culture war.
Wow, so close to home, but never was a truer word said.
TLDR.
Can you do all that as a tiktok?
I could but it would still go over your head apparently.
Imho the response to covid in particular the reaction to people who refused vaccination or broke the 'rules' or turned up to protest really showed how many lefties here including rhose in parliment sit on the authortarian side of of the spectrum and tbh its a big reason that i'm not going to be voting anything other than a protest vote for a very long time.
Some might say i'm cutting off my nose to spite my face but if anything the whole shit show proved that you are bettee to find like minded people build a community and look after yourselves / each other.
National level politics are just fakes for the wealthy and power hungry.
Partly a case of how you do it, the restore rail people on wellington were effective at disruption but at the same time they hurt a bunch of people who were in precarious positions trying to get to work. If anything it alienates the very people you are trying to help.
If you were to look at Destiny they spend 15min defacing a crossing which achives more in turns of media coverage and it doesnt piss this the people in the meet grinder living day by day off so mouch.
"
All that "when they go low we go high" stuff is so 2015.
It doesn't work. What remains of the left worldwide is getting its ass kicked."
Oh, yes!
There is plenty of pushback against Tamaki's behaviour, here and in the wider community that does not sink to their level. We do have that ability and we don't sink.
Why do you claim that there isn't and that we do? Because of one (possible) example here?
I guess that's the problem with one liners, the potential to not be understood
☺️😛
But fair call on asking for an explanation.
What I am pointing to here is the problem with the approach of the left to our current situation. Doesn't mean we aren't doing good things, as you point out there is rightly and actively push back against Destiny Church.
The inability I see is to grasping with what the culture war is and how to respond effectively. Tamaki knows what is, so does Peters and Seymour. They are all using the culture war to further their own ends. Both their political agenda, but also just as importantly, garnering and consolidating power.
The liberal left is struggling to know what to do, because imo it is often failing to grasp what is going on. Pushing back against the destruction of the rainbow crossing is necessary, it's not sufficient.
I think that DC have overplayed their hand here, but their interest isn't in winning the swing voters, so it's probably less of a mistake for them. The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values.
That's why I reacted to Sanctuary's comment. I get that it was an offhand whatever on a small piece of SM. But it's useful to point out why it's a fail. Encouraging gay people to throw rainbow paint and obscenities over the church building in retaliation might make some lefties feel good, but what does it achieve?
We lack cohesive strategy imo (not that I think Sanctuary is responsible for that or the solution, it was just the thing in the moment).
You're advising against one-liners?
🙂
We will never have a cohesive strategy, but in lieu of that, we need agile guides who can nudge the discussion in the progressive direction, without knee-capping the contributors to the discussion.
A Tamaki church, dripping with red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet…
The Lord be praised!!!!
I was connecting over one liners.
Thanks for ignoring my political analysis though.
You're welcome 🙂
"The reaction from the left is part of what he wants. He's basically trolling liberals to get a reaction that he can use against liberal values."
The reaction was to repaint the rainbows; Tamaki will use that somehow???
that wasn't the only reaction, and yes he will. But there's not much point in talking further if you value this side of the conversation so poorly.
Yes, indeed. I've heard from multiple people the comment, along the lines of: Council can't repair potholes or deal with gang graffiti [substitute the grievance de jour for the individual concerned] – but they can repaint vandalized gay rainbows the next day.
If you don't think that this has cut through with the potential support base for the Destiny Church – you're living in a much-insulated world.
Destiny Church's "potential support base"; those who would support Tamaki's madness, are of little consequence to anyone. The rapid repainting reveals real passion in the community: priceless! Tamaki's efforts to"white-out" a vibrant community have resulted in a colourful response; joyous, vibrant and cheeky! Every warm-hearted person feels that joy 🙂
Certainly of no consequence to me – praise the Lord, and feel the joy.
The Rev. Dollar never sleeps, but the Bish isn't getting any younger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Tamaki#Views_and_controversies
I'm watching the number of people who are ok with the action because they see GI as having gone to far, they will will ignore that it was DC. The GC people I see siding with LGB rights are much smaller in number.
Robert can write off the people who are concerned, but they're the ones that voted in a right wing government. The liberal left have some massive blind spots at times.
The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally. That's harder to turn back than a swing vote especially at this time with people being scared and stressed by the state of the world.
"The more serious risk here is that people choosing to side with DC on this end up being more conservative generally."
And will have to come to terms with the very real possibility that the Christchurch earthquakes were God's punishment of queers, yes?
Regular Standardistas would have to be blind not to see that some view gender ideology/theory as a massive (global) problem – TS has done a service to Kiwis by providing a forum for debating GI matters.
Yes, it's natural for people to be stressed by the state of civilisation, and spaceship Earth. We are in sustained overshoot – c'est la vie.
Otoh (or is it?), stress can be a killer. Given Freedoms NZ's election result (0.34% of the party vote), I'm pretty relaxed about Destiny Church's influence on NZ politics. Even if a few CoC MPs were closeted DC supporters, they couldn't be so stupid as to openly endorse Bishop Brian's regressive views – could they?
The legal freedoms of minorities have progressed considerably since Muldoon and Moyle – not far enough for some, too far for 'others'.
"Pushing their beliefs"
Don't stress Brian – try taking a walk in Palmy. No rainbow crossings here, as far as I know – happy Easter.
I would suggest doing some reading about the progression of societies towards fascism. It’s not as Robert argues against that all these people are going to become part of the DC congregation. It’s that there are large numbers of people that don’t care that Tamaki thinks gay people cause earthquakes.
There have been whole wars fought over this on twitter, major schisms within the GC movements on working with the right.There are many people who are infact ok with working with conservatives, including former left wing people. We’ve seen this on TS, so I’m not sure why it’s not obvious.
And the centrists and apolitical ones are winning apart from in the UK, where it’s hard to know which will it will eventually fall.
In NZ the left and centre left GC feminists and other women are outnumbered by the reactionaries and the right. And those people are quite ok with throwing gay people under the bus because they perceive the rainbow flag as a symbol of oppression of women and children.
It’s just another case of the left being wholly unprepared for what is coming.
It appears to me that some on the left (cf Robert's comments on this issue) appear to have a blind spot when it come to conservative (with a small c) voters.
Often these people don't have particularly Conservative (with a capital c) voting alignment (e.g. they don't particularly support a right wing economic policy, or sell-offs of public assets or downsizing of social support (although they may want more targeting of support to those in need, and a social contract with those receiving support – the KO refusal to evict went down like a lead balloon).
However, when the left are hard-aligned with fairly extreme socially liberal policies – it leaves this group with no voting home. 'Christian' parties have failed (both through the leadership, and in getting across the bar into government) – leaving only the centre right (and whatever you call Winston) as the only parties they can support.
This group were significant in electing this current coalition.
If the left want to see the current government voted out at the next election, then they need to consider how to soften their policy stance, to accommodate a broader 'church'.
Or, resign themselves to another 2 terms in opposition – until the usual 'Buggins turn' mentality of the electorate – allows them another period in power.
I absolutely agree with you about the danger of policy drift. If people see DC as the 'only' place with agrees with them about X issue, it becomes easier for them to gradually adopt other DC philosophy over time.
this is pretty much how I see it. There are a whole lot of NZ that don’t fit neatly into the left/right analysis, and there is a difference between the small c and the big one.
The right know who they are though.
"People that don't care", or don't even know. I disagree with what little I know of the gospel according to Eftpostle Brian, but he's not raising my stress levels at present. Am I disappointed about some of the choices Destiny Church members have made? Of course – but then I'm disappointed about so many choices made every day.
In 2022, Brian's efforts finally paid off![wink wink](https://thestandardnz.b-cdn.net/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
If "what is coming" is a drift towards fascism, abetted by The Bish, then no doubt that will be a topic for discussion here, and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, we can each champion progressive ideas/values/principles/concepts/ideologies, as we see them and in our own ways. Breaking bread with conservative MPs doesn’t appeal to me, but there are MPs I admire who have done just that in pursuit of lasting progress, and there must still be some decent NActNZF pollies.
I find this action to the crossing to be quite despicable.
But I think we are seeing the slippery slope in action. If it is OK to protest by defacing a display in our national museum to make a point, then we shouldn't be surprised when groups we don't like take similar action.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. So, I think we either have to accept this sort of behaviour as legitimate protest even if we don't agree with it, or condemn it whenever it occurs whether we agree with the sentiment or not.
No, we don't have to be principled at all.
The right aren't. The right are enjoying outrageous success.
This is no time to quibble about the equivalence of tactics.
This is the time for Chloe and Chris to call each other every Friday afternoon and coordinate attack lines.
Turei and Shaw did that in 2016. It was a brilliant move, and Labour rose to the occasion thanks to Little. That was 8 years ago. We're a different country and the Greens have moved on to a new strategy. They will still work with Labour, but Labour's refusal to step far enough left means the Turei/Shaw deal was always going to be a time limited thing. I have a lot of respect for Ardern, but she also wasted this massive opportunity.
So yeah, Swarbrick and Davidson and Hipkins should talk and then act together. But will they? We can't afford to wait.
Chloe is confident that the Green Party can be the major party on the left. Without saying it, she is coming for Labour and their traditional supporters.
I don't expect there to be much co-ordination between the parties in the next 18 months. Labour has a wounded leader that is currently contradicting himself in his major speeches. He is there for the taking and Chloe sees that. She wants his support base.
They don't even need to campaign together with a common message in 2026. NZ First has found themselves at the cabinet table following 2 of the past 3 elections, without supporting the major party they went into coalition with.
That's my reading of the GP intention. I think that could change with a change of Labour leader and an overt support for wealth tax. But failing that, what would be the point?
Broadly agree with that. With a couple of cautions.
First, that if you have no principles, you can never be a hypocrite, but if you profess to have principles, you'll be called a hypocrite all the time.
Second, this aggression should stop short of endorsing violence. I don't think Sanctuary was doing that given what their history of commenting shows, but the bare words on the page could be interpreted that way.
Sauce, tsmithfield, it's "sauce".
Those 2 actions are not equivalent, when you look at the intentions behind them and who is being targeted. Your claim is a nonsense, imo.
Also (given the report on the dysfunction in civil defense during Gabrielle in Hawkes Bay) does anyone really think NZ's authorities would react with the spped and cool efficiency of the Baltimore Port Authority and police in the bridge strike there? It took FOUR MINUTES from the mayday to the port authority reacting immediately to the police closing the bridge.
At 1.30am in the morning, from port workers probably without an degree monitoring radios and screens, to police dispatchers to action. Incredible. The port maritime control responded immediately to the mayday, contacted police dispatch, who closed the bridge in four freaking minutes. That doesn't happen by accident. The training and trust chain was amazing. No "Are you sure? What do you mean?" they all acted immediately. Well done them, average Joes who earnt every dollar for the rest of their careers.
Unfortunately – this promptness did not extend to getting the road workers off the bridge in time. 6 of them are "missing" with at least 1 body found. It also looks like the vehicles that were identified by sonar belonged to the road workers.
They don't count.
/
Last March, a speeding car plowed between highway barriers on the same Baltimore highway and killed six workers, including Villatoro’s husband and brother-in-law. That crash along Interstate 695 was about 20 miles from the bridge. Now, a massive ship stacked with containers had crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing its collapse. Six workers, all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and presumed dead.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/migrant-workers-baltimore-bridge-collapse/
Shoutout to Dr Jim Salinger for getting New Zealander of the Year.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/03/28/climate-scientist-jim-salinger-named-new-zealander-of-the-year/
In your eye NIWA for firing him in 2009 for bullshit reasons.
#payback#longgame
NIWA's response in 2009 was typical of the arrogance amongst some Public Service leaders. The Met Service was no better back in the day. Whether it was confined to scientific agencies I don't know, but imo it was pretty much a case of professional jealousy. Management didn't like their 'underlings' taking the limelight away from them.
Good to hear. I knew Jim way back in the 70's/80's when we both lived in Silverstream and travelled on the train together to and from Wellington – GHG and AGW were frequent topics.
Our children were in the same class. His son was Joseph to my daughter's Mary in the school nativity play. 🙂 A nice bloke and a great travelling companion. He, of course, had his own meteorological observatory in his back garden and wrote a regular column for the gardening section of the local paper – the UH Leader. Excellent advice on when to plant.
Tuesday there were four “does the minister/PM stand by all their statement and actions” type questions from the opposition at question time. Yesterday five. Today another four.
These are such a free hit for the government to take the conversation where ever they want and lazy by the opposition. I can see why the leader of the opposition might want to do it, but seriously in almost every portfolio! The opposition is coming across as incredibly weak in question time.
it would depend on the questions. Because you haven't shared what the questions were about it's hard to know if you have a good point or are trolling again.
Oral questions are easily found. Here are yesterdays. Note 3,4, 6,8 and 9.
https://bills.parliament.nz/v/11/aca78f3d-dca7-4996-3cd3-08dc4dd01dd1
I'm not doing your work for you, I’m pointing out the problem with your approach in a left wing space.
Let me guess, you were captain of the debating team at high school?
You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?) then when they were provided you you had a flounce because it didn't come with a silver spoon for you to feed you with?
"You asked for some arbitrary evidence (this is a blog site, not a depositions hearing since when does everything have to come with an army of footnotes?)"
QFT
Indeed. I’d understand if the reference was to something obscure. But FCOL oral questions with a specific date reference.
No – these are always 'set-up' questions. Get the "Yes" from the Minister to the broad question and follow with a supplementary question on a specific matter where the "Yes" is difficult to justify.
Of course the Minister almost always knows what topic the supplementary will target and already has bullshit talking points rehearsed in advance. So most of the time it's all a bit like formal jousting where no-one gets injured and the public is no wiser afterwards. To draw conclusions from this empty ritual that the opposition looks "weak" is just your wishful thinking.
The reason for the questions you complain about…is that they leave the gummint unable to know/be prepared for the follow up…
This is the advantage to the opposition..
On the contrary, it allows the minister to talk about whatever they want. It also does not serve the public well where question time seeks to hold the government to account by asking probing questions about government policy. It looks like a feeble fishing expedition using old socks as bait by an opposition spokesperson not on top of their portfolio. I’m sure the government will be more than happy with this line of questioning to continue.
Like her or not, Erica Stanford was particularly good at asking specific and probing question when opposition education spokesperson
I believe that subsequent questions ( supplementaries) must be related to the topic of the original question. If the original question topic is wide enough (i.e. all statements and actions) then supplementaries can be asked about anything. It all seems a bit silly to me.
Its only an advantage if you have a speaker that runs a level playing field… theyre like hens teeth Lockwood Smith was prob the closest to neutral in recent times.
Minister Jones' official killing of the Kermadec Sanctuary proposal signals that this is a government far, far more retrograde than anything PM John Key proposed. Key actually launched this proposal live and direct to the United Nations.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350223648/nz-politics-live-govt-axe-kermadec-ocean-sanctuary-plan
Iwi commercial fishing interests have killed this off from the moment it was announced, despite all sorts of inducements from the previous Labour government.
Jones, Brown and Bishop are setting a development benchmark for which you would have to go back to the days of Semple or Syd Holland.
To see how anti-nature they have become, an important Cabinet Minister under Syd Holland was Ernest Corbett, who was a lifelong member of Forest and Bird and added several major national parks to our state to the tune of 1.2 million acres square.
That pretty much benchmarks how deep a reversal this move by Jones is.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
It also benchmarks in case it wasn't obvious that Maori business are no friend of liberal causes Green, Labour or TMP.
Those people are businessmen first and foremost, whose Maoriness is largely incidental.
Fuck off with that naive racist bullshit.
Fraud is a victimless crime if your one of the entitled. Its American but I'd say the sentiment is the same here.
https://youtu.be/EDMinX6t1Zk?si=hcsiBrkn2ZH3bLoT
Hope this becomes a thing here 🙂
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJte9BKXEAAK6b_?format=jpg&name=small
“The effect of the sticker is two-fold. In one respect (and the most important), it conceals the racist remarks so that others will not see it. And in another, it shames the person that was bold enough to post it while demonstrating that other people won’t tolerate their poor behavior. This particular instance came to light after the popular Twitter account Lorenzo The Cat first posted a picture of the placement. Throughout the tweet’s many replies, the overwhelming message was users applauding the use of the sticker.
You can get your own cat cover-up label from the online shop called Cracks Appearing Distro. The stickers are sold in singles as well as packs of 10 or 30. Printed on a white gloss paper, they should brave the elements and last outdoors for six months”
https://mymodernmet.com/racist-rubbish-cat-sticker/
Hope what becomes a thing?
Reducing rascist graffiti by covering it with cute cat pictures.
(Or dolphins, thank you PB)
Yes, a supply of Hectors Dolphin pictures would work for NZ![devil devil](https://thestandardnz.b-cdn.net/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
"Israel has chucked its toys and has withdrawn from peace talks with Hamas and cancelled meetings at the Whitehouse because the UN has finally called for a cease-fire."
Pat and Aaron Hawkins discuss the news clips around Israel"s response to the UN resolution.
Big Hairy News (facebook post 28/03/24 15:42)
Big Hairy News chew over the govt tax cuts. Between 10 min and 20 min.
Big Hairy News Facebook 28 mar 6:42
Don't stress, but the climate crisis is affecting our brains – still, itsa not so bad.