With the new fresh water quality standards due out today, I have a very strong feeling that Minister Parker is going to walk it all backwards faster than a moonwalking Michael Jackson.
He will cite our dire economic conditions, and "listening", and "revised", and the need for "flexibility".
He will talk about trust, and progress, and metaphors about pathways.
There may even be extra powers to discipline regional governments for their regulatory failures.
But as Politik noted a few days ago, on behalf of our farmers New Zealand First played hardball, sidelined the Greens, and stared down Parker until he folded like origami.
Dairy NZ and HortNZ and Federated Farmers will moan like a stuck Spanish bull, but privately it will have almost fully neutralised the biggest-ever regulatory threat they've faced.
"Climate Change Minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the reforms were the strongest protections a government has ever put in place for waterways.
“We all rely on clean water as part of our way of life; whether for drinking, for gathering freshwater kai, or for swimming on a well-earned summer break. However, our precious waterways have been in crisis for decades.
“Not only has this meant that people cannot swim in a lot of our rivers without risking their health, but many of the species that depend on clean rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries are now threatened with extinction.
“Today that changes. With mātauranga Māori – or Māori principles – for water management as our guide, we have developed a clear, robust and enforceable set of policies so we can all enjoy and benefit from healthy rivers and clean, safe water for decades to come.”
If you go onto Scoop's Politics section it looks like the nature advocates are aghast at the lack of nitrogen rules, and the farmers and irrigators are just fine with the whole thing.
I'd be keen to see a forecast map of the likely effects of these rules such as they are.
“Run-down of urban infrastructure is a key reason for urban water quality problems and I don’t see that highlighted in there.”
Reducing the pollution at source rather than cleaning up later should be the focus, he [Dr Mike Joy] says. The new rules flag $700 million for riparian planting.
“If you spent that money on reducing the pollution then you would have a permanent win, this is mopping up at the bottom while you’re polluting.
“So you can just keep spending money forever [on] that kind of thing.”
Why? It captures the high drama unfolding in real-time as she follows her keen instincts to get responses to the emerging political nuances. I bet they use it as a classic case study in journo school for years to come. "Hayden Donnell has watched it several hundred times."
"Newshub’s camera operator captures the distant gaze on Muller’s face as the inquiry is made. The shot reveals a painful cross-stitch of emotions. Fear. Regret. Resignation."
"“She’ll be needed in caucus more than I will,” Bennett says with palpable delight as Collins heads to the mics to be interviewed first. In the space of seven chilling seconds, O’Brien then shows Collins witheringly replying “oh Paula”, before asking media, “is there something wrong with me being white?”"
"O’Brien’s report is one of several humiliations for Muller over the last three days. He’s struggled in interviews with Jack Tame on Q&A and John Campbell on TVNZ Breakfast, often flapping his hands in response to tough questions as if hoping to levitate out of the situation."
"National MP Paul Goldsmith might not be Māori, but his heritage shows he has a lot of whānau on the East Cape – his ancestor regarded as becoming the "father of more children than any other early trader. Goldsmith's great-great-grandfather, Charles George Goldsmith, arrived in the area from Liverpool in the 1840s, and had four wives – two Māori (Ngāti Porou), and two Pākehā – fathering 16 children." https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12335229
Goldsmith: "That is the sort of spirit that built this nation." "That broad connection, thanks to his ancestor, include many Ngāti Porou whanaunga, who range from economics Rhodes scholars, iwi and business leaders, and even a famous film director."
"According to the book Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z., by Joseph Mackay, Charles Goldsmith was born in Liverpool in 1822. He had served on a trading vessel on the east coast of South America before he appeared in the Waiapu district in the early 1840s. He was a whaler, and kept a store at Waipiro Bay, before moving to Tūranganui-a-Kiwa – then known as Poverty Bay, and opening another store at Kairoro."
"It was there that tragedy struck, when in 1868 while he was in Turanganui, two of his children, who were at the store, were slain as part of the Matawhero massacre on orders of Te Kooti, and his store burnt down."
"He was later in charge of Kaiti native school, and some years later, kept an hotel at Muriwai. He even became a licensed interpreter." "Victor Goldsmith said it was very common at the time for European settlers to take on Māori wives – and vice versa – a time of great inter-cultural mingling. "Most people on the East Coast don't have Māori names, it was just how people assimilated. It's what Tā Apirana Ngata described as 'hybrid vigour'.""
"Most people on the East Coast don't have Māori names, it was just how people assimilated. It's what Tā Apirana Ngata described as 'hybrid vigour'.""
Indeed, something I've never mentioned before here is that my grandfather (on my father’s side) was from an East Coast iwi and I have a bunch of very brown cousins. And we all share a very Anglo name.
This whole race/culture based identity thing is needlessly divisive when you consider just how very intermingled the two peoples really are.
You use 'race' and culture like they are similar things. Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori. You make this obvious with your stupid assertion.
Just as I don't claim to 'feel' and think as Maori do despite having a pakeha brother (since passed away a decade ago), educated at Te Aute, fluent in Te Reo, Christened in the Ratana Church and married to a Maori.
The best I can possibly claim is that its made me much more sympathetic (maybe empathetic) towards the way Maori continue to be treated
You use 'race' and culture like they are similar things.
Yes they are different, but they broadly overlap. They are not the same thing, but family heritage and culture are strongly correlated for most people.
Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori.
And indeed it would be a stupid assertion if that's what I had claimed. But then again it gives you absolutely no grounds to erase what my family means to me either.
But then again it gives you absolutely no grounds to erase what my family means to me either.
I have no idea how this relates to what i said. Again it just looks like one of your attempts at diversion.
You said that the Maori identity politics thing was "needlessly divisive" because many Pakeha are related to Maori. I would have thought the example of Paul Goldsmith would have shown how this point is irrelevant.
Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori. You make this obvious with your stupid assertion.
And I have no idea how that relates to what I said. It may be obvious inside your head, but it just looks like a bad faith argument to me.
You said that the Maori identity politics thing was "needlessly divisive" because many Pakeha are related to Maori.
Again bad faith misrepresentation, what I said is that the two groups are now very intermingled, after all most Maori are closely related to Pakeha as well. And culturally the two groups have influenced each other enormously over the past 200 odd years.
Your post used the word intermingled but the only context you gave was a bunch of very brown cousins and a shared very Anglo name.
The reason that the race/culture based identity thing is unavoidably divisive is because most Pakeha have very little understanding of Maori ways of thinking and experiencing, or even of the history of this country. Being distantly related to a Maori is not going to help that.
And here you have publicly attacked a wonderful Maori man who whakapapas back to Ngati Porou. One has to wonder who the real racist in this conversation has actually been…?
That's quite funny, but no there is no question I grew up on the Pakeha side of the family and I cannot in good faith present myself as Maori.
But equally just before I came to Australia I made an effort to track down and meet up with the cuzzies. Cool people, we were all really happy to make up for a long broken connection.
I am currently involved in fighting against plans to cause irreversable environmental damage to very special places in our city. The places include areas of land that is owned by Maori. There are Maori and non-Maori fighting against these destructive plans (of a council funded entity). I have taken the time to 'understand the Maori ways of thinking and experiencing' so that I can stand alongside my Maori peers and together we can understand each others connections to these special places. And I have been joined in that journey by a large number of non-Maori supporters of our cause.
So unless you have surveyed 'most pakeha', don't pretend to speak for us.
I don't pretend to speak for Pakeha, i'm just saying how it is. If you personally have learned something since we last discussed the tree thing then that is great. You were looking very ignorant then.
1. You were purporting to speak for most pakeha. That is both ignorant and arrogant.
2. What I have learned through the tree thing is that the (ratepayer funded) Maunga Authority are ideologically misguided and morally bankrupt.
3. What I have come to better understand is how Maori view the whenua. More and more they are challenging the Maunga Authority’s warped view of governance of these beautiful places, including Ngati Whatua, who have openly challenged the Maunga Authority’s governanance of Owairaka.
No, you were saying how you think it is. Claining "most Pakeha have very little understanding of Maori ways of thinking and experiencing, or even of the history of this country." when you can't possibly knpow that is simply ignorant.
It's a pity that some here concentrate too much on dissecting and criticising the comments from people who are trying to have a reasonable discussion. The blog becomes didactic and a narrow-minded dictatorship rather than working to show how a more informed and collaborative democracy would work.
The PM may be looking at the big covid-driven picture, but political management has to be done by someone. Who's gambling that using the coalition agreement like a gagging order is good politics? If you don't let people inform the media & public, then the rumour mill takes over & the wrong impressions may form in the public mind.
Thus John Minto: "Behind the scenes now Labour MPs will be whispering to key people: “We didn’t want to do it this way but New Zealand First wouldn’t agree”, repeating the messages from Labour MPs in 2005: “We wanted to do more for beneficiaries but Helen and Michael (Helen Clarke and Michael Cullen) wouldn’t let us”. Gutlessness personified." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/28/why-does-carmel-sepuloni-bother-to-get-out-of-bed-in-the-morning/
I see no strategic advantage in allowing the fudging of the issue to continue. It just looks like incompetence. Okay, the Nats are way ahead of the govt in demonstrating incompetence currently, true. Even so, not a good look.
Who is responsible for the two-tier meme achieving widespread circulation in the media? Answer: those who created the policy basis for that perception. Who did that? The coalition agreement is being used by the govt to prevent the Greens telling us. Blame Labour? I saw Willie Jackson telling a reporter he wasn't happy with it. He's running the Labour maori ship, right? If he's not on board, you'd reasonably suspect the other Labour maori feel likewise. Blame NZF? Not unless we get a good enough reason first.
Well cabbages are Green, right? But I note you didn't even attempt to address any of the substantive points. Tacit concession seems a tad wimpish. But I realise trying to defend the indefensible is too much of a challenge, so I sympathise.
generating the standard chatter of perpetual righteous losing
Yes, I've oft had to criticise that syndrome. But it is the inevitable consequence of trying to out-flank Labour on the left instead of representing the Green movement on an authentic basis. I originally expected them to learn from experience but no sign of that so far. Perhaps if the electorate flushes them out of parliament, the catharsis resulting may insert the learning through the concrete.
bash, bash, but still no explanation of how the Greens could get what they want, against both Lab and NZF, given they sit to the left of Labour and don't have the natural leverage that comes from being a centrist party like NZF.
At this point it's just boring. You know enough about how government works, but maybe you just prefer to put the boot in.
Until the Greens hold the balance of power they have no leverage. They might have after the September election, but someone has already ruled it out. The Greens have no leverage when National also rule it out.
The only leverage coalition partners have is to block something requiring legislation. There is no leverage to pressure coalition partners to go further than they are prepared to go.
I suspect their gamble is based on NZF not making the threshold. Unwise, that! However the electorate are giving the PM all the credit for pandemic management success. Winston will be peeved – but with Labour threatening to win on its own the Green caucus may believe Jacinda's goodwill extends to including them in her second term.
I'm actually ok at this point if the numbers mean the Greens are in opposition. Let them go hard against shitty Labour policy and see how Labour gets on with that.
A way better outcome for NZ would be L/G with lots more Green MPs. NZ will get the centre left government we deserve, it's really on centre lefties at this point.
don't hold your breath waiting for an explanation from people who want to blame the Greens for the positioning of Labour and NZF.
"There is no leverage to pressure coalition partners to go further than they are prepared to go."
If the voters give enough party votes to the Greens that Labour and the Greens could govern alone (assuming Lab would do that without NZF which is a big if, but it could happen if NZF drop below 5%), then the Greens will have much more negotiating power. How much will depend on how many MPs, I think there is a general consensus of fairness in relation to the vote (unless you are Peters, and you will expect more power than is your due).
This is a real potential this year, but it does depend on people who voted Labour last time voting Green, not just to keep them in parliament, but to give them some actual power. Labour supporters like Ad won't want that. They want the Greens in parliament and maybe even in govt, but they don't want them to have power, hence the bashing. Other Labour voters are saying they will vote Green this year, for a range of reasons, but we will have to wait and see how many.
Meanwhile the Greens do what they do, effect change rather than going for power for power's sake. And they don't buy into the macho politicking that Ad wants them to. There are good reasons for that, and NZ does seem to want such a party and expects the Greens to not play bullshit games.
I have been giving the Social Security Act some thought. There needs to be changes made to Commencement of Benefits and Ending of Benefits due to a pandemic.
Jacinda Ardern has already acknowledged there are anomalies showing up in the system, and that the Social Security Act needs an overhaul. She hasn't been more specific than that yet but at least we know the government is aware changes need to be made.
Once another 5% of "good old hard working kiwis " are on the dole the time will be right to fix the benefit system, go to early and the nats win in 2020.
Had Covid-19 not have occurred I feel that the last budget would have improved dental care even if the SNG rose to $500.
People tend to be able to scrape by using SNGs when the unexpected occurs. The SNG programme is where I would start first and if possible buy up some struggling motels to house the homeless.
So much needs to change with welfare that discussions need to occur between the government and benefit rights coordinators.
The country can only afford so much and unemployment has not yet peaked.
I saw that. He did indeed seem skewered. An adept would have finessed it by responding thus: "Whatever. The coalition represent the anti-business brigade. We have to balance that. Are you trying to suggest that business ought not to be represented in politics??"
Then Bomber gets to the guts of the primary issue: "It’s not that they selected a dozen white volk , it’s that they had no idea how that looked to everyone else." Elementary, my dear Watson! Was Hooton off sick?? If not, he has to own his share of that achilles heel.
Oh, just a pair of nuclear capable nations rattling sabres.
SRINAGAR, India — Indian and Chinese soldiers are in a bitter standoff in the remote and picturesque Ladakh region, with the two countries amassing soldiers and machinery near the tense frontier, Indian officials said.
The standoff began in early May when large contingents of Chinese soldiers entered deep inside Indian-controlled territory at three places in Ladakh, erecting tents and posts, the officials said this week.
Yes. Xi Xinping's CCP is doubling down on pissing off just about everyone at the moment. It's hard to see the purpose for it all beyond ramping up domestic ultra-nationalism.
Domestic stability would be the main priority, but it also doesn't hurt them to put a bit of stick about now dolt45 is trying to reassert (to deflect from his own domestic fuckups). e.g. the Taiwan thing was a slight backslide for CCP
Taiwan is a big concern; I'd rate the chances of a hard invasion this year at 50/50.
Just in case anyone wonders where I get my paranoid views of the CCP from, some years back I met a Chinese man (tramping of all things) here in NZ who was a retired very senior Taiwanese govt official. On our first trip together we had a close call with hypothermia and have remained good friends ever since.
One thing is absolutely clear, Taiwan has been a self-governing state since 1947 and the large majority of people do not want to be 'reunified' with the mainland regime. Especially under the CCP's 'President for Life' Xinping.
50/50 is a bit much – not sure what geopolitical conditions have changed to make it more likely.
And HK/uighurs could deteriorate further, so they'll need to hold reserves for that. As well as their other border disputes. So even assuming they can rule out direct US assistance, it might be an expensive move.
2. The withdrawal of the USA from global affairs is becoming increasingly obvious. US overseas troop deployments in total is now less than 100,000, lower than any time in the past century.
They're valid points, but most of them aren't particularly new. China's been progressively isolating Taiwan for 60 years, C19 is a blip in that. We could argue that foreign policy has become less planned as a result of Xi's concentration of personal power rather than the previous power of the state institution, but even so a transitory "loss of face" is a bit much to go to war over. They've been rattling the sabre for decades. Maybe we're just more aware of it, or maybe there's been a genuine culture change towards invasion. I don't know.
China's military tech advances are significant, but it's been another ongoing process. They still have notable deficiencies in jet engines, for example. Additionally, any invasion of Taiwan will require naval deployment (otherwise any airborne assault will wither on the vine), with generally known points of origin and Taiwan's long buildup of naval defenses of all types of bangbang. Sure, it might be like the Fall of Singapore, but somehow I doubt it. Getting your invasion force sunk in the Formosa Strait would be a massive loss of face.
The US retreat towards isolationism is a fair point, but it's one of those situations where the longer one waits, the rosier it gets. So maybe the invasion will be november/december if it happens, but I still think the odds are against it.
July 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the CCP. They want something to celebrate, perhaps a re-enactment of the cultural revolution and slaughter of 35 to 45 million.
“Keep in mind these guys [the CCP] regard New Zealand as part of their Third Island chain.” – RL
That's an interesting link, but note the Hawaii comes before Tonga and NZ in the 'Third Island Chain' (Amlia Island, Hawaii, Tonga, NZ). Also note that the Island Chain Concept was propounded by John Foster Dulles in 1951 for the strategic containment of the USSR and China. I'm not surprised that you would claim that the CCP regards "New Zealand as part of their Third Island chain", but perhaps you could provide some objective supporting evidence – oh wait, how foolish of me.
Tonga is a long way from China, NZ even further. Australia's foreign aid to Tonga was in decline, but dwarfed that of any other country in 2016 when Rear Admiral Dr. S. Kulshrestha's (Indian Navy, Retd.) opinion piece was written.
Which country gives the most aid to Pacific Island nations? The answer might surprise you
"Between 2011 to 2017, Australian governments poured at least $US6.5 billion ($8.76 billion) into aid projects across the region. The final figure will likely be even larger because Lowy is still gathering data for 2017.
That dwarfs the contributions of every other country."
"They have been doing it all day, ref". Its posturing and a mutual pissing off contest, that India’/China land border ( and it's the only common one they have ) is probably the hardest to cross with an invading army anywhere in the world.
It's a reminder from the CCP about the perils of cuddling up to the US.
For the first time since the Kargil intrusions of 1999, Indian territory is in the hands of foreign soldiers. Starting in the third week of April, more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh – four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake.
While patrol intrusions from both sides are routine in areas where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China – is disputed, the LAC in the Galwan Valley corresponds to China’s official claim line.
That means that, in sending thousands of PLA troops three-to-four kilometres into the Galwan Valley, China has violated its own claim line and occupied territory that Beijing itself has traditionally acknowledged to be Indian.
This is not shaping up like a routing patrol confrontation, or even a temporary occupation of disputed territory of the kind that took place in Depsang in 2013, or in Chumar in 2014. This time the PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers, moving in heavy vehicles and have reportedly even moved artillery guns to the rear (albeit in their own territory) to support the intruders, say the sources.
Keeping ourselves healthy may include lowering the toilet lid when you flush and then politely putting it up for the next person. And perhaps pulling a bit of toilet paper which is held over the door handle and the lock-knob before washing and drying hands.
Such improved practices may reduce much sickness particularly Covid-19.
An inkling of how economies will be transformed by covid-driven geopolitical realignment: "Washington is not alone in feeling that Chinese consolidation of supply chains for many essential goods was exposed by the coronavirus as an intolerable threat. In early April, Japan unveiled a $2.2 billion funding package to shift key supply chains away from China, and Germany has called for an EU-wide effort to bolster continental manufacturing of essential health care goods. Meanwhile, alternative low-cost manufacturing hubs are waiting with open arms. India, for example, is reportedly courting more than 1,000 U.S. firms in China and setting up special economic zones twice the size of Luxembourg to house them." https://geopoliticalfutures.com/china-is-still-the-next-china/
"White House-backed legislation that would give subsidies to U.S. manufacturers who leave China." Subsidies! By Trump! Roger Douglas will be spinning in his wheelchair.
So "the change from competition to confrontation between the U.S. and China has been a long time coming. The launch of the U.S.-China trade and tech wars in 2017 merely announced its arrival. COVID-19 kicked it into overdrive."
"The pandemic did this, in part, by exposing just how much China had become a single point of failure in supply chains of essential goods in critical sectors like pharma. For example, China produces around 80-90 percent of the global supply of active ingredients for antibiotics. Chinese export restrictions and bottlenecks led to shortages of personal protective equipment, test kits and vital medical equipment, including products made by U.S. firms in China. The pandemic also exposed chronic quality control problems in China, with several embattled countries having to discard much-needed shipments of faulty Chinese masks and test kits. (To be fair, the global rush to source pandemic supplies has created a profiteer’s paradise just about everywhere.)"
NZ companies have been regularily pulling out of manufacturing in China when they find quality and supply failures. An Oamaru ? sock manufacturer has bought production home and quality has gone up and costs have gone down. interestingly they are able to do it with new Italian machinery something the Italians are still world leaders at.
You could sit there and wait for a government tethered to hard right economics to make a change in your life – or you could organise. The choice is yours.
Agree. A General Strike would sit Trump on his arse.
Some direct action here is needed now in respect of getting the Labour Caucus attention on the matter of finally retiring Rogernomics and its neo liberal structural elements throughout the public sector. The Govt. has transferred $billions to the capitalist class and petit bourgeois of this country and little to the working-class in the C19 bailouts. The likes of Fletchers, AirNZ and CHH are going to sack 1000s regardless! One man band self employed have taken loans they will likely never repay from other taxpayers. It will be time for action soon enough as rents go unpaid and people unfed.
The class nature of NZ with hundreds of thousands of self employed and SMEs and provincials stuck in the 1950s, makes it difficult to organise–including a non fighting central labour organisation–NZCTU, a failure since its 1987 inception. But nonetheless a way can always be found.
Uniting all who can be united around some immediate goals should be priority of all leftists.
It is a beautiful plan! When Steven Joyce has fact-checked it for hidden holes, I will personally tweet it, at 3:00 AM, wearing my MAGA National Party hat and nothing else.
well wow 2 out of it to speak sensibly- such is my life -oddly i have faith in the country's direction – the national party seems to have borked itself so funny good fortune to all standanista's good fortune for the future
How can an organisation that made only a few months ago ONLY made $929m in 6 months ($155m/mth)!!! Now find this acceptable ??? Perhaps banks should as a solution NOT pay TAX times are tough for these banks 😢
The National Party have had weeks if not months to produce their plan. To be very critical of the Government actions they must prove competence with credible alternative plans.
Surely the GST "refund" could only be on recent purchases and not the GST collected on customer sales.
In any case would the taxpayers get upset that they would still pay 15% while business get a 15% discount?
When I protest about the price of milk, beef or lamb in NZ I am told I have to pay the price of the overseas market. When overseas farmers have a potato glut and we might get cheaper chips, NZ farmers ask us not to buy them! It sounds like, “farmers way always” and bugger the consumers. If I see cheap chips I will fill my boots. They want the right to pollute waterways and the right to rip us off too!!!
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Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
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A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
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With the new fresh water quality standards due out today, I have a very strong feeling that Minister Parker is going to walk it all backwards faster than a moonwalking Michael Jackson.
He will cite our dire economic conditions, and "listening", and "revised", and the need for "flexibility".
He will talk about trust, and progress, and metaphors about pathways.
There may even be extra powers to discipline regional governments for their regulatory failures.
But as Politik noted a few days ago, on behalf of our farmers New Zealand First played hardball, sidelined the Greens, and stared down Parker until he folded like origami.
Dairy NZ and HortNZ and Federated Farmers will moan like a stuck Spanish bull, but privately it will have almost fully neutralised the biggest-ever regulatory threat they've faced.
Goobye Galaxids.
From Stuff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121652598/government-pumps-700m-into-cleaning-up-waterways
"Climate Change Minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the reforms were the strongest protections a government has ever put in place for waterways.
“We all rely on clean water as part of our way of life; whether for drinking, for gathering freshwater kai, or for swimming on a well-earned summer break. However, our precious waterways have been in crisis for decades.
“Not only has this meant that people cannot swim in a lot of our rivers without risking their health, but many of the species that depend on clean rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries are now threatened with extinction.
“Today that changes. With mātauranga Māori – or Māori principles – for water management as our guide, we have developed a clear, robust and enforceable set of policies so we can all enjoy and benefit from healthy rivers and clean, safe water for decades to come.”
If you go onto Scoop's Politics section it looks like the nature advocates are aghast at the lack of nitrogen rules, and the farmers and irrigators are just fine with the whole thing.
I'd be keen to see a forecast map of the likely effects of these rules such as they are.
“Run-down of urban infrastructure is a key reason for urban water quality problems and I don’t see that highlighted in there.”
Reducing the pollution at source rather than cleaning up later should be the focus, he [Dr Mike Joy] says. The new rules flag $700 million for riparian planting.
“If you spent that money on reducing the pollution then you would have a permanent win, this is mopping up at the bottom while you’re polluting.
“So you can just keep spending money forever [on] that kind of thing.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018748371/ecologist-responds-to-new-water-rules
Please let us know what you don't and do like about the actual decision.
I didn't see it, but this Spinoff review of Tova's story makes a good case for it being front-runner for news story of the year: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-05-2020/a-frame-by-frame-analysis-of-tova-obriens-hall-of-fame-national-shambles-story/
Why? It captures the high drama unfolding in real-time as she follows her keen instincts to get responses to the emerging political nuances. I bet they use it as a classic case study in journo school for years to come. "Hayden Donnell has watched it several hundred times."
"Newshub’s camera operator captures the distant gaze on Muller’s face as the inquiry is made. The shot reveals a painful cross-stitch of emotions. Fear. Regret. Resignation."
"“She’ll be needed in caucus more than I will,” Bennett says with palpable delight as Collins heads to the mics to be interviewed first. In the space of seven chilling seconds, O’Brien then shows Collins witheringly replying “oh Paula”, before asking media, “is there something wrong with me being white?”"
"O’Brien’s report is one of several humiliations for Muller over the last three days. He’s struggled in interviews with Jack Tame on Q&A and John Campbell on TVNZ Breakfast, often flapping his hands in response to tough questions as if hoping to levitate out of the situation."
Collins' oleaginous "Oh, Paula!". A softer variation on venomous, I suppose.
"National MP Paul Goldsmith might not be Māori, but his heritage shows he has a lot of whānau on the East Cape – his ancestor regarded as becoming the "father of more children than any other early trader. Goldsmith's great-great-grandfather, Charles George Goldsmith, arrived in the area from Liverpool in the 1840s, and had four wives – two Māori (Ngāti Porou), and two Pākehā – fathering 16 children." https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=12335229
Goldsmith: "That is the sort of spirit that built this nation." "That broad connection, thanks to his ancestor, include many Ngāti Porou whanaunga, who range from economics Rhodes scholars, iwi and business leaders, and even a famous film director."
"According to the book Historic Poverty Bay and the East Coast, N.I., N.Z., by Joseph Mackay, Charles Goldsmith was born in Liverpool in 1822. He had served on a trading vessel on the east coast of South America before he appeared in the Waiapu district in the early 1840s. He was a whaler, and kept a store at Waipiro Bay, before moving to Tūranganui-a-Kiwa – then known as Poverty Bay, and opening another store at Kairoro."
"It was there that tragedy struck, when in 1868 while he was in Turanganui, two of his children, who were at the store, were slain as part of the Matawhero massacre on orders of Te Kooti, and his store burnt down."
"He was later in charge of Kaiti native school, and some years later, kept an hotel at Muriwai. He even became a licensed interpreter." "Victor Goldsmith said it was very common at the time for European settlers to take on Māori wives – and vice versa – a time of great inter-cultural mingling. "Most people on the East Coast don't have Māori names, it was just how people assimilated. It's what Tā Apirana Ngata described as 'hybrid vigour'.""
"Most people on the East Coast don't have Māori names, it was just how people assimilated. It's what Tā Apirana Ngata described as 'hybrid vigour'.""
Indeed, something I've never mentioned before here is that my grandfather (on my father’s side) was from an East Coast iwi and I have a bunch of very brown cousins. And we all share a very Anglo name.
This whole race/culture based identity thing is needlessly divisive when you consider just how very intermingled the two peoples really are.
You use 'race' and culture like they are similar things. Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori. You make this obvious with your stupid assertion.
/Agreed @Solkta
Just as I don't claim to 'feel' and think as Maori do despite having a pakeha brother (since passed away a decade ago), educated at Te Aute, fluent in Te Reo, Christened in the Ratana Church and married to a Maori.
The best I can possibly claim is that its made me much more sympathetic (maybe empathetic) towards the way Maori continue to be treated
You use 'race' and culture like they are similar things.
Yes they are different, but they broadly overlap. They are not the same thing, but family heritage and culture are strongly correlated for most people.
Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori.
And indeed it would be a stupid assertion if that's what I had claimed. But then again it gives you absolutely no grounds to erase what my family means to me either.
But then again it gives you absolutely no grounds to erase what my family means to me either.
I have no idea how this relates to what i said. Again it just looks like one of your attempts at diversion.
You said that the Maori identity politics thing was "needlessly divisive" because many Pakeha are related to Maori. I would have thought the example of Paul Goldsmith would have shown how this point is irrelevant.
Just having some distant relatives who are Maori doesn't give you any insight into the distinct ways of thinking and experiencing that are Maori. You make this obvious with your stupid assertion.
And I have no idea how that relates to what I said. It may be obvious inside your head, but it just looks like a bad faith argument to me.
You said that the Maori identity politics thing was "needlessly divisive" because many Pakeha are related to Maori.
Again bad faith misrepresentation, what I said is that the two groups are now very intermingled, after all most Maori are closely related to Pakeha as well. And culturally the two groups have influenced each other enormously over the past 200 odd years.
Your post used the word intermingled but the only context you gave was a bunch of very brown cousins and a shared very Anglo name.
The reason that the race/culture based identity thing is unavoidably divisive is because most Pakeha have very little understanding of Maori ways of thinking and experiencing, or even of the history of this country. Being distantly related to a Maori is not going to help that.
And here you have publicly attacked a wonderful Maori man who whakapapas back to Ngati Porou. One has to wonder who the real racist in this conversation has actually been…?
Sorry, who is this wonderful Maori from Ngati Porou? I don't think RL was claiming to be Maori.
That's quite funny, but no there is no question I grew up on the Pakeha side of the family and I cannot in good faith present myself as Maori.
But equally just before I came to Australia I made an effort to track down and meet up with the cuzzies. Cool people, we were all really happy to make up for a long broken connection.
I am currently involved in fighting against plans to cause irreversable environmental damage to very special places in our city. The places include areas of land that is owned by Maori. There are Maori and non-Maori fighting against these destructive plans (of a council funded entity). I have taken the time to 'understand the Maori ways of thinking and experiencing' so that I can stand alongside my Maori peers and together we can understand each others connections to these special places. And I have been joined in that journey by a large number of non-Maori supporters of our cause.
So unless you have surveyed 'most pakeha', don't pretend to speak for us.
I don't pretend to speak for Pakeha, i'm just saying how it is. If you personally have learned something since we last discussed the tree thing then that is great. You were looking very ignorant then.
1. You were purporting to speak for most pakeha. That is both ignorant and arrogant.
2. What I have learned through the tree thing is that the (ratepayer funded) Maunga Authority are ideologically misguided and morally bankrupt.
3. What I have come to better understand is how Maori view the whenua. More and more they are challenging the Maunga Authority’s warped view of governance of these beautiful places, including Ngati Whatua, who have openly challenged the Maunga Authority’s governanance of Owairaka.
1. You were purporting to speak for most pakeha.
No i was not. I was just saying how it is. That is not speaking for them but speaking about them.
"I was just saying how it is. "
No, you were saying how you think it is. Claining "most Pakeha have very little understanding of Maori ways of thinking and experiencing, or even of the history of this country." when you can't possibly knpow that is simply ignorant.
It's a pity that some here concentrate too much on dissecting and criticising the comments from people who are trying to have a reasonable discussion. The blog becomes didactic and a narrow-minded dictatorship rather than working to show how a more informed and collaborative democracy would work.
It sure as shit stops a clunky thinker like me from trying to put my 2 cents in on race relations in nz.
I know some of those East Coast Goldsmiths, they are a talented lot. Enjoyed Paul G's forthright responses and wry smiles
The PM may be looking at the big covid-driven picture, but political management has to be done by someone. Who's gambling that using the coalition agreement like a gagging order is good politics? If you don't let people inform the media & public, then the rumour mill takes over & the wrong impressions may form in the public mind.
Thus John Minto: "Behind the scenes now Labour MPs will be whispering to key people: “We didn’t want to do it this way but New Zealand First wouldn’t agree”, repeating the messages from Labour MPs in 2005: “We wanted to do more for beneficiaries but Helen and Michael (Helen Clarke and Michael Cullen) wouldn’t let us”. Gutlessness personified." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/28/why-does-carmel-sepuloni-bother-to-get-out-of-bed-in-the-morning/
I see no strategic advantage in allowing the fudging of the issue to continue. It just looks like incompetence. Okay, the Nats are way ahead of the govt in demonstrating incompetence currently, true. Even so, not a good look.
Who is responsible for the two-tier meme achieving widespread circulation in the media? Answer: those who created the policy basis for that perception. Who did that? The coalition agreement is being used by the govt to prevent the Greens telling us. Blame Labour? I saw Willie Jackson telling a reporter he wasn't happy with it. He's running the Labour maori ship, right? If he's not on board, you'd reasonably suspect the other Labour maori feel likewise. Blame NZF? Not unless we get a good enough reason first.
What crap you talk.
NZFirst break ranks whenever they want – and did so yesterday.
The fact is these Green MPs are just cabbages.
Well cabbages are Green, right? But I note you didn't even attempt to address any of the substantive points. Tacit concession seems a tad wimpish. But I realise trying to defend the indefensible is too much of a challenge, so I sympathise.
This is a Labour-led government doing precisely what it wants, with brio and popularity.
Minto proposing minor conspiracies is just so fanciful.
The Greens are nowhere. Their supporters are generating the standard chatter of perpetual righteous losing.
generating the standard chatter of perpetual righteous losing
Yes, I've oft had to criticise that syndrome. But it is the inevitable consequence of trying to out-flank Labour on the left instead of representing the Green movement on an authentic basis. I originally expected them to learn from experience but no sign of that so far. Perhaps if the electorate flushes them out of parliament, the catharsis resulting may insert the learning through the concrete.
Still being heard unlike the left in the Labour Party.
bash, bash, but still no explanation of how the Greens could get what they want, against both Lab and NZF, given they sit to the left of Labour and don't have the natural leverage that comes from being a centrist party like NZF.
At this point it's just boring. You know enough about how government works, but maybe you just prefer to put the boot in.
Red cabbages Winston has put the handbrake on the Greens because he can form a coalition with National the greens can't because of their stance.
It's going to keep happening until the Greens grow some balls.
Where's the CGT?
Exactly
Really?
Until the Greens hold the balance of power they have no leverage. They might have after the September election, but someone has already ruled it out. The Greens have no leverage when National also rule it out.
The only leverage coalition partners have is to block something requiring legislation. There is no leverage to pressure coalition partners to go further than they are prepared to go.
I suspect their gamble is based on NZF not making the threshold. Unwise, that! However the electorate are giving the PM all the credit for pandemic management success. Winston will be peeved – but with Labour threatening to win on its own the Green caucus may believe Jacinda's goodwill extends to including them in her second term.
I'm actually ok at this point if the numbers mean the Greens are in opposition. Let them go hard against shitty Labour policy and see how Labour gets on with that.
A way better outcome for NZ would be L/G with lots more Green MPs. NZ will get the centre left government we deserve, it's really on centre lefties at this point.
don't hold your breath waiting for an explanation from people who want to blame the Greens for the positioning of Labour and NZF.
"There is no leverage to pressure coalition partners to go further than they are prepared to go."
If the voters give enough party votes to the Greens that Labour and the Greens could govern alone (assuming Lab would do that without NZF which is a big if, but it could happen if NZF drop below 5%), then the Greens will have much more negotiating power. How much will depend on how many MPs, I think there is a general consensus of fairness in relation to the vote (unless you are Peters, and you will expect more power than is your due).
This is a real potential this year, but it does depend on people who voted Labour last time voting Green, not just to keep them in parliament, but to give them some actual power. Labour supporters like Ad won't want that. They want the Greens in parliament and maybe even in govt, but they don't want them to have power, hence the bashing. Other Labour voters are saying they will vote Green this year, for a range of reasons, but we will have to wait and see how many.
Meanwhile the Greens do what they do, effect change rather than going for power for power's sake. And they don't buy into the macho politicking that Ad wants them to. There are good reasons for that, and NZ does seem to want such a party and expects the Greens to not play bullshit games.
Under NZ First's heel.
Grow the votes is the way
I have been giving the Social Security Act some thought. There needs to be changes made to Commencement of Benefits and Ending of Benefits due to a pandemic.
Jacinda Ardern has already acknowledged there are anomalies showing up in the system, and that the Social Security Act needs an overhaul. She hasn't been more specific than that yet but at least we know the government is aware changes need to be made.
Once another 5% of "good old hard working kiwis " are on the dole the time will be right to fix the benefit system, go to early and the nats win in 2020.
Had Covid-19 not have occurred I feel that the last budget would have improved dental care even if the SNG rose to $500.
People tend to be able to scrape by using SNGs when the unexpected occurs. The SNG programme is where I would start first and if possible buy up some struggling motels to house the homeless.
So much needs to change with welfare that discussions need to occur between the government and benefit rights coordinators.
The country can only afford so much and unemployment has not yet peaked.
Sometimes a little bit can go a long way.
Australian states bought motels to house singles and couples years ago. They also provided fully planned communities, something we are just beginning.
I had to google SNG urk
There already have been changes made. E.g. the 13 week stand down is not applied at the moment
Bomber: "Bridges challenged Muller on his claim that National are the Party for small businesses by pointing out the startling fact that barely 20% of his Cabinet have any Business experience, watching Muller drown during that question is almost too much pain for even a masochist to endure." https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/05/28/how-has-national-become-a-white-supremacist-party-in-less-than-week/
I saw that. He did indeed seem skewered. An adept would have finessed it by responding thus: "Whatever. The coalition represent the anti-business brigade. We have to balance that. Are you trying to suggest that business ought not to be represented in politics??"
Then Bomber gets to the guts of the primary issue: "It’s not that they selected a dozen white volk , it’s that they had no idea how that looked to everyone else." Elementary, my dear Watson! Was Hooton off sick?? If not, he has to own his share of that achilles heel.
Thanks for the link, Bomber's polemics are epic when he gets a head of steam up
Oh, just a pair of nuclear capable nations rattling sabres.
SRINAGAR, India — Indian and Chinese soldiers are in a bitter standoff in the remote and picturesque Ladakh region, with the two countries amassing soldiers and machinery near the tense frontier, Indian officials said.
The standoff began in early May when large contingents of Chinese soldiers entered deep inside Indian-controlled territory at three places in Ladakh, erecting tents and posts, the officials said this week.
http://archive.li/AgulB
Yes. Xi Xinping's CCP is doubling down on pissing off just about everyone at the moment. It's hard to see the purpose for it all beyond ramping up domestic ultra-nationalism.
Keep in mind these guys regard New Zealand as part of their Third Island chain.
Domestic stability would be the main priority, but it also doesn't hurt them to put a bit of stick about now dolt45 is trying to reassert (to deflect from his own domestic fuckups). e.g. the Taiwan thing was a slight backslide for CCP
Taiwan is a big concern; I'd rate the chances of a hard invasion this year at 50/50.
Just in case anyone wonders where I get my paranoid views of the CCP from, some years back I met a Chinese man (tramping of all things) here in NZ who was a retired very senior Taiwanese govt official. On our first trip together we had a close call with hypothermia and have remained good friends ever since.
One thing is absolutely clear, Taiwan has been a self-governing state since 1947 and the large majority of people do not want to be 'reunified' with the mainland regime. Especially under the CCP's 'President for Life' Xinping.
50/50 is a bit much – not sure what geopolitical conditions have changed to make it more likely.
And HK/uighurs could deteriorate further, so they'll need to hold reserves for that. As well as their other border disputes. So even assuming they can rule out direct US assistance, it might be an expensive move.
What I think has changed are:
1. CV19 has done two things; one is that the exemplary Taiwanese response (they actually warned WHO of CV19 human to human transmission on Dec31) is a major loss of face for the CCP, and also obviously it has caused a major distraction in the USA.)
2. The withdrawal of the USA from global affairs is becoming increasingly obvious. US overseas troop deployments in total is now less than 100,000, lower than any time in the past century.
3. The Chinese military has dramatically expanded it's capacity in the past few years. In particular they may well believe their new hypersonic missile capacity gives them the ability to keep the US Navy aircraft carriers at a safe distance.
4. They keep on saying that they are preparing for war.
5. Their military are in the middle of major invasion landing exercises on Hainan Island. Also in their sights are an invasion of the Dongsha Island group .
No single factor is conclusive of course, but none of them point to a reduction in the odds.
They're valid points, but most of them aren't particularly new. China's been progressively isolating Taiwan for 60 years, C19 is a blip in that. We could argue that foreign policy has become less planned as a result of Xi's concentration of personal power rather than the previous power of the state institution, but even so a transitory "loss of face" is a bit much to go to war over. They've been rattling the sabre for decades. Maybe we're just more aware of it, or maybe there's been a genuine culture change towards invasion. I don't know.
China's military tech advances are significant, but it's been another ongoing process. They still have notable deficiencies in jet engines, for example. Additionally, any invasion of Taiwan will require naval deployment (otherwise any airborne assault will wither on the vine), with generally known points of origin and Taiwan's long buildup of naval defenses of all types of bangbang. Sure, it might be like the Fall of Singapore, but somehow I doubt it. Getting your invasion force sunk in the Formosa Strait would be a massive loss of face.
The US retreat towards isolationism is a fair point, but it's one of those situations where the longer one waits, the rosier it gets. So maybe the invasion will be november/december if it happens, but I still think the odds are against it.
can we get the TAB to offer odds? I'd be betting against fyi
July 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the CCP. They want something to celebrate, perhaps a re-enactment of the cultural revolution and slaughter of 35 to 45 million.
They can celebrate one year since Judith Collins released her book.
Gnats really have no principles do they? One hand funded by the CCP, other hand promoting alt right memes.
I had hoped the ascension of Toad Muddler meant a clean out, but it’s gone pear shaped pretty quick.
That's an interesting point about the anniversary.
That's an interesting link, but note the Hawaii comes before Tonga and NZ in the 'Third Island Chain' (Amlia Island, Hawaii, Tonga, NZ). Also note that the Island Chain Concept was propounded by John Foster Dulles in 1951 for the strategic containment of the USSR and China. I'm not surprised that you would claim that the CCP regards "New Zealand as part of their Third Island chain", but perhaps you could provide some objective supporting evidence – oh wait, how foolish of me.
Tonga is a long way from China, NZ even further. Australia's foreign aid to Tonga was in decline, but dwarfed that of any other country in 2016 when Rear Admiral Dr. S. Kulshrestha's (Indian Navy, Retd.) opinion piece was written.
"They have been doing it all day, ref". Its posturing and a mutual pissing off contest, that India’/China land border ( and it's the only common one they have ) is probably the hardest to cross with an invading army anywhere in the world.
It's a reminder from the CCP about the perils of cuddling up to the US.
For the first time since the Kargil intrusions of 1999, Indian territory is in the hands of foreign soldiers. Starting in the third week of April, more than 5,000 Chinese soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have intruded into five points in Ladakh – four along the Galwan River, and one near the Pangong Lake.
While patrol intrusions from both sides are routine in areas where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China – is disputed, the LAC in the Galwan Valley corresponds to China’s official claim line.
That means that, in sending thousands of PLA troops three-to-four kilometres into the Galwan Valley, China has violated its own claim line and occupied territory that Beijing itself has traditionally acknowledged to be Indian.
This is not shaping up like a routing patrol confrontation, or even a temporary occupation of disputed territory of the kind that took place in Depsang in 2013, or in Chumar in 2014. This time the PLA soldiers are digging defences, preparing bunkers, moving in heavy vehicles and have reportedly even moved artillery guns to the rear (albeit in their own territory) to support the intruders, say the sources.
http://ajaishukla.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-new-and-worrying-chapter-ladakh.html
"wave after wave of screaming Chinese" – about time they won a foreign war.
Global adulation of **OUR** Prime Minister continues. No you can’t have her!
https://twitter.com/umairh/status/1265774537523769344?s=20
https://twitter.com/meladoodle/status/1265075406790516737?s=20
She's good, but she'd better watch out. The National Party is full of brilliant candidates, led by the dynamic and charismatic Todd Muller.
https://sayingimages.com/wp-content/uploads/just-kidding-meme.jpg
Keeping ourselves healthy may include lowering the toilet lid when you flush and then politely putting it up for the next person. And perhaps pulling a bit of toilet paper which is held over the door handle and the lock-knob before washing and drying hands.
Such improved practices may reduce much sickness particularly Covid-19.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018747730/how-covid-19-could-change-public-toilets-forever
Nope, lift it yourself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume
An inkling of how economies will be transformed by covid-driven geopolitical realignment: "Washington is not alone in feeling that Chinese consolidation of supply chains for many essential goods was exposed by the coronavirus as an intolerable threat. In early April, Japan unveiled a $2.2 billion funding package to shift key supply chains away from China, and Germany has called for an EU-wide effort to bolster continental manufacturing of essential health care goods. Meanwhile, alternative low-cost manufacturing hubs are waiting with open arms. India, for example, is reportedly courting more than 1,000 U.S. firms in China and setting up special economic zones twice the size of Luxembourg to house them." https://geopoliticalfutures.com/china-is-still-the-next-china/
"White House-backed legislation that would give subsidies to U.S. manufacturers who leave China." Subsidies! By Trump! Roger Douglas will be spinning in his wheelchair.
So "the change from competition to confrontation between the U.S. and China has been a long time coming. The launch of the U.S.-China trade and tech wars in 2017 merely announced its arrival. COVID-19 kicked it into overdrive."
"The pandemic did this, in part, by exposing just how much China had become a single point of failure in supply chains of essential goods in critical sectors like pharma. For example, China produces around 80-90 percent of the global supply of active ingredients for antibiotics. Chinese export restrictions and bottlenecks led to shortages of personal protective equipment, test kits and vital medical equipment, including products made by U.S. firms in China. The pandemic also exposed chronic quality control problems in China, with several embattled countries having to discard much-needed shipments of faulty Chinese masks and test kits. (To be fair, the global rush to source pandemic supplies has created a profiteer’s paradise just about everywhere.)"
Perhaps a little shortsighted
The next pandemic could start in a Kansas hog farm, or a Vietnamese wet market or a Japanese or Indian factory farm .
http://www.alive-net.net/english/en-farm/factory.html
https://www.firstpost.com/india/inhumane-unregulated-animal-agriculture-practices-in-india-extract-a-heavy-toll-on-us-and-the-environment-6961421.html
NZ companies have been regularily pulling out of manufacturing in China when they find quality and supply failures. An Oamaru ? sock manufacturer has bought production home and quality has gone up and costs have gone down. interestingly they are able to do it with new Italian machinery something the Italians are still world leaders at.
Good to hear that! I'm old enough to have grown up when kiwi-made clothes were the usual. The market is the test, of course…
Horrible, horrible, horrible
Watch these "journalists" and autocue readers pushing Amazon's cynical propaganda….
Just in case your in denial about the real world – there are wild cat strikes and direct action all across the USA as their economy melts.
Because the left is waking up to the reality, that organising on class grounds is the only answer.
https://industrialworker.org/organize-the-class-not-just-the-workplace/
You could sit there and wait for a government tethered to hard right economics to make a change in your life – or you could organise. The choice is yours.
Agree. A General Strike would sit Trump on his arse.
Some direct action here is needed now in respect of getting the Labour Caucus attention on the matter of finally retiring Rogernomics and its neo liberal structural elements throughout the public sector. The Govt. has transferred $billions to the capitalist class and petit bourgeois of this country and little to the working-class in the C19 bailouts. The likes of Fletchers, AirNZ and CHH are going to sack 1000s regardless! One man band self employed have taken loans they will likely never repay from other taxpayers. It will be time for action soon enough as rents go unpaid and people unfed.
The class nature of NZ with hundreds of thousands of self employed and SMEs and provincials stuck in the 1950s, makes it difficult to organise–including a non fighting central labour organisation–NZCTU, a failure since its 1987 inception. But nonetheless a way can always be found.
Uniting all who can be united around some immediate goals should be priority of all leftists.
https://www.twitter.com/NatsLeader/status/1265801987683041280
And very "Bigly " hands- quote “Todd Conehead”
It is a beautiful plan! When Steven Joyce has fact-checked it for hidden holes, I will personally tweet it, at 3:00 AM, wearing my
MAGANational Party hat and nothing else.Todd Muller finally announces the Nats plan for economic recovery.
well wow 2 out of it to speak sensibly- such is my life -oddly i have faith in the country's direction – the national party seems to have borked itself so funny good fortune to all standanista's good fortune for the future
"Get real"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018748311/coronavirus-adrian-orr-confident-nz-financial-system-can-handle-virus-blow
RNZ going to have to up their game if they want to continue to interview Mr Orr.
How can an organisation that made only a few months ago ONLY made $929m in 6 months ($155m/mth)!!! Now find this acceptable ??? Perhaps banks should as a solution NOT pay TAX times are tough for these banks 😢
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12226800
New Zealand's largest bank, ANZ, has asked its contractors to take a pay cut of 20 per cent until the end of September.
“The economic environment has changed, and we are responding by making changes across the business,” she said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300022941/anz-asks-contractors-to-take-a-pay-cut
The National Party have had weeks if not months to produce their plan. To be very critical of the Government actions they must prove competence with credible alternative plans.
Surely the GST "refund" could only be on recent purchases and not the GST collected on customer sales.
In any case would the taxpayers get upset that they would still pay 15% while business get a 15% discount?
When I protest about the price of milk, beef or lamb in NZ I am told I have to pay the price of the overseas market. When overseas farmers have a potato glut and we might get cheaper chips, NZ farmers ask us not to buy them! It sounds like, “farmers way always” and bugger the consumers. If I see cheap chips I will fill my boots. They want the right to pollute waterways and the right to rip us off too!!!
Cringeworthy Muller moments.
https://www.twitter.com/D00m95/status/1265645303748628485
Brutal
What matters most? According to scientific proof , climate change. Or 100 times 1939. Yet and yet. Disagree with me please.