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!!!
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
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Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
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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![devil devil](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
What matters most? According to scientific proof , climate change. Or 100 times 1939. Yet and yet. Disagree with me please.