This is like the wolf asking sheep to come to him with complaints about the grass.
I don't believe Andrew King has a clue about what life is like on the ground for tenants in this sad, sad country.
If he thinks tenants are going to risk being kicked out in this environment for asking owners to comply with the law he is ignoring the truth. The truth is wrongful evictions are almost never prosecuted, and owners hide behind the obscurity of loose law which benefits them and which it is King's very purpose in life to protect.
And some have been left uninsulated at the request of the tenant, King says.
"We have heard of people, tenants who didn't want the property insulated because they didn't want the rent to go up, so they wanted it delayed as much as possible. And I think… some have left it a little bit too late.”
God this guy annoys me. This ^^ implies that investors breaking the law are just trying to please their tenants. Bring on the crash
subject: Why are we functionally extinct!? content: We're in exponential climate change right now. weather disruption events are worsening weekly. Earth is in a transition phase towards a new hotter thermal balance replacing our current biosphere
We are already functionally extinct, it just hasn't sunk in, yet! Our life support is dying right in front of our very eyes. All because we couldn't even conceive of living in balance and harmony with Gaia.
Exponential climate change plus the 6th mass extinction now in full swing = doom in my book!.I know we're supposed to be above all those natural processes but actually we depend 100% on the dying natural world.
MacPherson offers nothing but doom, gloom, anxiety and depression. He does nothing to improve the situation by offering pathways to improvement, he is actively a part of making things worse by spreading the implicit message that any effort to make things better is pointless.
We would all be better off if he just STFU and retreated to his little remote sanctuary. Failing that, others can refrain from spreading his harmful message.
When faced with serious and complex challenges such as climate change, we jump to “can’t be done” more readily than “let’s work through this problem and see the solutions”. While bleak, “nothing can be done” is a more rewarding conclusion because it’s quicker and easier to think.
Im not sure who it was but somebody said that 30 years of not scaring the horses obviously hasnt worked so maybe its time for some honesty….McPherson may overstate things and be fatalist but Im not convinced his predictions are any more innaccurate than say the IPCC with all their faults and vested interest influence…as I have noted elsewhere the curious thing is that McPhersons timeframe is becoming daily more mainstream
All McPherson is saying is that there's no point in doing anything so you might as well vote for right-wing parties and devote the years you have left to hedonism, or more to the point, nihilism. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
he says a little more than that however the question was is his analysis of the possible impact wrong….it wasnt how we should address the problem, that is a different question
Leaving aside for the moment the inadvisability of accepting declarations of impending doom from people unqualified to make such declarations, my concern is with the political implications.
Even if we assume that the doom-mongering is accurate, a fuckwit who persuades everyone that there's no point in doing anything about climate change, so they might as well embrace nihilism, would make the impending extinctions far more extensive than they otherwise would be. What the fuck is that for a personal ambition?
From the RationalWiki link, it appears getting doomer groupies to fuck him (and maybe even the horse he rode in on) may indeed be part of McPherson's motivation for being a cult leader.
I suspect hes a little more qualified than yourself and if hes a cultist hes not a nihilist, more a fatalist…however as stated his proscribed response is not the issue rather its his analysis of the impacts.
While he's still got nearly 7 and a half years to run on his Nov 2016 prediction of humans completely gone in 10 years, that's looking extremely implausible
Fair enough…not a good record but curiously the mainstream (climatologists) predictions are increasingly closing in on his timeframes….he may well be an alarmist who cherry picks his sources but it is looking increasingly that his stated timeframes are more accurate than those of the "official line " until very recently…McPherson hasnt changed but most others have
From your first link: " …Published by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne (an independent think tank focused on climate policy) and authored by a climate researcher and a former fossil fuel executive," – mainstream, huh? Or more doomers cherry-picking and distorting?
Your second link – millions of people becoming even further water-stressed in what was already an extremely water-stressed area with very high population growth is not an example of McPherson being more accurate than mainstream researchers. Nor is it the harbinger of a coming unforeseen apocalypse wiping out all of humanity. It's something that's been predicted for a long time by mainstream researchers. Hell, one of my first year geography assignments nearly 40 years was very nearly on this exact topic.
Your third link – accelerated collapse of part of the Antarctic ice sheet is an example of McPherson being more accurate than mainstream researchers? You think this is going to bring about McPherson's claims of all humanity getting wiped out within the next decade? Are you fucking serious?
every example is indicating acceleration of impact (ahead of prediction) and consequently reduced scope to adjust…..this is the regular theme from almost every study released in recent time….the models are increasingly lagging real time effects…you may choose to dismiss that data however those analysing it and writing the papers are moving closer to McPhersons position by the day
McPherson's position is total extinction of all humans within 10 years.
Nobody with any credibility whatsoever is moving to anything remotely near a position like that. Claiming they are moving towards McPherson's position is like me claiming my financial position is moving closer to Warren Buffet's financial position – it may be technically correct, but we’re so far apart it’s a ludicrously idiotic claim to make.
we have gone from nothing to worry about this side of 2100 to we're not confident that organised society will survive a generation….you must be making shitloads if your comparrison is in any way relevant
…and an aside , Indias population has doubled since your study
Doomer fantasists might not be confident about organised society surviving a generation. However, doomers have been around since forever, yet here we still are.
again. the point is you may dismiss McPherson as a doomer fantasist…my point is that increasingly more and more mainstream scientists are publicly (pertinent) echoing him…. at what point do you you consider those opinions something more than doomer fantasy?
Which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson? Which ones? Some things happening at the faster end of predicted ranges is not a case of mainstream scientists echoing McPherson, unless you're a doomer fantasist.
Again, McPherson's position is total extinction of all humans within 10 years. Which mainstream scientists are saying anything even vaguely resembling that?
Read the studies…the common theme is the modelled predictions are proving to be grossly conservative and impacts that were predicted to occur late century are occurring now or expected near term
Which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson by suggesting total extinction of all humans within 10 years? Which ones? Links, please.
The tropics becoming uninhabitable by humans is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans. Sea level rise of 50m from loss of all Greenland, Himalayan, and West Antarctic ice is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans. The massive societal disruptions caused by massive migration of billions of climate refugees is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans.
So, Pat, which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson in suggesting total extinction of all humans within 10 years. Or even a similar order of magnitude timescale? Names and links, please. Or are you just full of shit?
Matthew 13:57
And they took offence at Him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honour."
Hang in there, Johnm. On the balance of probability, Guy MacPherson is right – but too many people are afraid to admit it. Why try to fix the planet now if we can put it off until next Tuesday?
Guy Mcpherson's 5 minute representation to NYC committee on climate change:
(The ignored exist'l severe risk)
[Deleted long string of text. The complete comment is a copy & paste job. When you quote, please use quotation marks. Never quote the whole text, especially when it is long, but select the most telling part(s) to pique people’s interest. Use font style for emphasis if necessary. Always provide a link to the original source, e.g. http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/its-time-to-pursue-hospice-by-guy-mcpherson.html – Incognito]
News flash weather has been reported around the world today with startling results. Based on past results some weather is close to average, some well below average some well above average One person did note as weather probability is a continuous variable the possibility of average is zero Mean while in NZ a new band is being formed by Johnm Paul and Ed with Ringo expected to join soon, however there are strong rumours that John Paul Ed and soon to be Ringo may simply be one artist
I hope that you Auckland residents, currently being told about the wonderful advantages you get from trams and trains, will note this item on the RNZ news this morning.
Because of the dreadful weather we are having in Wellington today train services through the Hutt Valley to Wellington are being disrupted and delays are occurring. They aren't really major but people with early meetings aren't going to make their appointments.
Still, Ms Genter will tell us it is all for the best. Trains are much more reliable and faster than taking your car into the city. And it really isn't the fault of the train services when such a dreadful spell of weather disrupts the service is it?
Just don't expect your wonderful tram service, organised at such enormous expense by that great man Twyford, to get you to somewhere near the airport if you are planning to fly out of Auckland in 20 years time when it is completed.
Mind you, I’m not actually sure which is worse. Is it today’s hold up because of the cold or was it what happened earlier in the year because of the terrible heat wave?
Auckland residents know all too well their motorway system is regularly paralysed several times a month due to single incidents. Sometimes even a simple breakdown is enough delay many tens of thousands of vehicles for hours in the morning when people are trying to make 'meetings and appointments', or in the afternoons when people are trying to get home to their families.
This includes the South Western motorway which connects to Auckland International Airport. Many a flight has been missed because of short-sighted, road-centric thinking.
umm…………..Alywin, its a beautiful day in Wellington today?????
And its not as if people don't make early meetings in Wellington and Ak cause they are sitting in their cars, traffic building up because of a nasty accident…………
The notional road network in Alwn's head is perfect, like a market. It tends to equilibrium, one route involves too great a cost in time? Then demand drops and substitution with other routes occurs – as demand drops on the original route, the time cost diminishes and the whole things settles into balance with gorgeously happy motorists scurrying along to their incredibly fulfilling well-paid jobs where they "align the vision" and "drive efficiencies in best practice service delivery" while "collaborating with an intense win-win focus". It's all fabulous – why would you complain?
I used to read most of The Guardian (when it was left-wing) each morning when commuting by train in London and I remember reading several George Orwell novels when commuting by train in Sydney.
If you enjoy driving in rush-hour Alwyn; go for it. But decent public transport is the way to go. Nine years of Jacinda and James will make it happen.
I personally think that large vehicle public transport, such as trains, trams and buses will become a thing of the past within about 10 years.
Autonomous Electric Vehicles will be here and will take over the majority of travel in cities at least. Most people will not need to own a private car if they live in a city. It will be a bit slower in the rural areas but it will take over there not too much later. I am looking forward to it. I think it will occur at about the time they take my license away.
This will arrive at just about the time they finish the ridiculous tram system being planned for Auckland. It will open and close on roughly the same date and will join such things as Stonehenge as relics of a bygone age.
The vehicles will be built by a consortium of Google and the big car manufacturers I would think. And just think. You will be able to read your book while being carried from door to door in comfort.
All those private journeys at rush hour with a single person in each vehicle. Where will increased number of vehicles be stored during the day when they are not used?
Oh gotcha. I on the other hand think of it more as "public transport increasingly takes the form of driverless electric cars".
They way I think of that near future is: nobody owns or drives cars any more. Just not worth the hassle or risk or expense. Big Data Machine Learning Car Co learns what sort of transport I need and when I need it and makes sure that I have it. When I'm not in it, the car will go to where the Big Data Machine Learning Car Co algorithm says it will be used next.
That is exactly what I think. The AVs will be the public transport of the future.
I'm not "horrified" of public transport as Muttonbird seems to think. I just want to have a 21st century version rather than the 20th, and even 19th century versions that the current CoL seem to like.
I notice that our dear leaders don't use it themselves. Limo's all round for them.
Transporting 50 or 100 people along a set route will always be a cheaper fare than transporting 1 person slightly closer to their destination. Unless it's run in Dunedin.
How many people do you think there are on a bus in Wellington.
Would you think, counting all the bus trips and the entire length of the runs that they average as many as 5 people? There are not that many bus trips that actually are at peak times and have full loads.
The main cost of a taxi is paying the driver. AVs won't have that cost. In addition people won't need to drive to the bus or train route and then leave a car parked for the day. In Wellington there are an amazing number of cars that are driven down to the bus route and then left parked there while people take a bus to work for the day.
Driverless cars also eventually means driverless busses.
So the math simply comes down to whether your pessimistic assessment of passenger numbers on public transport is low enough for single-serve private fuckmobiles (they're totally going to get used for that) to be more competitive when they moonlight as a communter service.
"over-estimated the capability and timeline of AEV's taking over."
You may very well be right. I tend to follow Bill Gates' opinion on the matter though. He said –
"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."
The time sounds about right to me. Ford seems to be aiming for a 2021 commercial implementation. When the big Car companies get into it I would say the exercise has become much more than a pipe dream.
“I personally think that large vehicle public transport, such as trains, trams and buses will become a thing of the past within about 10 years.”
Interesting
Beijing underground system registered nearly 10 million commuters each Day last year. Then we have Tokyo New York and I cannot see the London Underground going within 10 years. especailly now they have nearly finished the new crossrail link
If they do go I hate to see the traffic chaos caused by this new technology.
I'll take your word for those numbers. I don't think you are really allowing for the speed with which technology can change though.
Consider mail. Did you know that the number of items delivered by NZ Post dropped from 835 million in FY 2012 to 454 million in FY 2018. The number roughly halved in those 6 years.
Or look at the use of cheques. We used 206 million in 2002. That dropped to 110 million in 2011 and was a mere 18 million last year.
Did you see that coming?
I think that 10 years is actually plenty of time for enormous changes.
I'm sure that places like Peking will keep their underground services busy. It will probably be the same way that we kept the railways going in the 1970s. Just ban any alternative. We didn't allow trucks to go more than about 50 km. China will quite likely ban AVs.
I really don't want us to spend $10 billion or so on a tram set and to then ban AVs because people would use them instead of a white elephant that we wasted so much money on.
Don't build the tram service now. Put the money into roads. In the short term they can be used by buses. In a decade, when the buses will be worn out anyway they will be there for the AVs.
You have driven off the lovely man Bleep from this site! Harrassing his every comment until he could comment no more… You are a disgrace! You should be sent IMO (to fight CC).
As it so happens, I delved into Bewildered’s history here and although it is more colourful than I expected, I don’t think James and Bewildered are one and the same commenter.
People need to learn not to take life or this site to seriously, just saying Maui and possible laugh at themselves every once and a while My digs at bleep where mild to what is accepted on this site, likewise in response to his digs at me that did not offend me in the slightest
He also did a quick run down on how our economy has become financialised, and our housing needs commodified.
One thing explored was the Preston effect, whereby a city in Lancashire pulled itself out of the ruins of neoliberal inspired poverty and began to thrive again …an ongoing project
The opposite of neoliberalism. No shareholders no paying money to say the privatised half of Genesis energy. Keep it all in your economy. But the city council no longer plays that game. Instead it has adopted a guerrilla localism. It keeps its money as close to home as possible so that, amid historically drastic cuts, the amount spent locally has gone up. Where other authorities privatise, Preston grows its own businesses. It even creates worker-owned co-operatives.
Credit Unions not loan sharks.
local government controlling the market not a dog wagged by its market tail.
The Tppa would stop all this replacing local sustainability with globalism. Don’t offshore your jobs for shareholder profit keep them local for wages and local taxes to improve community.
Consultancy fees get rid of them grow your own expertise. The goverment should be reading this article.
We should be raising a rabble to go and find our money. Look under fay, richwhite, gibb, chandler, hart etc’s beds for a start off. Our tax system gave them our money. Hart just bought a $51 million dollar flat in NYC. Fay is just a scant few million away from being a billionaire. Westpac bank just took $555 million dollars in profit from us over a six month period, no doubt aided and abetted by our tax system to do so.
If NZ is a Preston we've been committing financial and social suicide since 1984.
Something nice happening in the morning can put a smile on your face for the day.
I heard Judith Collins being all nice-nice about Phil Twyford. You know, stateswoman like, adult, conciliatory understanding, with the bigger picture in view of what's good for the country. You know trying to sound party leadership material and, well, Prime Ministerial.
Then we went into Clinton-Lewinsky mode. "I did not have dinner relations with that man." RNZ tapes, "I did have dinner relations with that woman."
Of course there's a battle to be fought and being fought and the skirmishes confuse some minds. With Judith it's a bit complicated because sometimes an incidental drop-in cup of tea while going past the door is actually a many months organised formal dinner in the completely opposite direction.
With Simon? Who knows with such confusion. But you have to laugh but in doing so not overlook the significance.
Yes Judith is reborning herself from that feisty aggressive take to prisoners but take the tyre burning cars sort of image, and is now copying Jacinda's conciliatory balanced friendly persona. And in doing so providing a great contrast to Simon's shouty hysterical blunderbuss approach.
Perhaps you could have given a bit more of that quote. Then it could have been applied to that great comic actor who plays the buffoon in each performance of Parliament.
"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,"
………..
"Last scene of all,
That ends his strange eventful history,
In second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
Twyford, with his activities, jumped immediately to the seventh stage. Why is he still there? Why has he not been shuffled off stage into obscurity?
The seventh stages is for me but far away for Phil. Thank you alwyn for the fuller quote but for whom should the various crowns fit? Where would Nick Smith fit?
I really think that Nick Smith, and Trevor Mallard should happily shuffle off into retirement together. They both fit the Cromwell judgement below, although I think they are both still into the sixth age of Shakespeare. Only just still there but they aren't into the final age yet.
“You have been sat to long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!.”
In Trevor's case of course there is another applicable comment from the Lord Protector.
I din't actually say, and nor do I think, that Cromwell was an admirable figure. It was just that the quotes seem to be so appropriate.
And if your figures are right I can certainly see why the hatred of him would remain. No doubt they would have been very happy when, 3 years after he died, his body was exhumed and, according to Wikipedia "His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, London and then thrown into a pit. His head was cut off and displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685"
There was a story about a UK Foreign Office meeting room where they negotiated with foreign diplomats under a huge painting of a battlefield (probably Waterloo). Deciding that this wasn't very diplomatic, they replaced it with a picture of Cromwell. An Irish delegation walked into the room, saw the picture, turned around and walked out again, expressing frank disapproval.
I wouldn't rush to assume that there is only one 'real' Judith. It may be falling into an essentialist trap. Probably there are multitudes of real Judiths, depending on what is required at the time.
Why Iran, China, Russia? The more powerful, the less accountable to the rule of law, the poorer trading partners. Whichever side of politics we are, it just doesn't make sense to expose our economies to nations who disregard the rule of law. Whether Iran, by religious edict, China by party corruption, or Russia with a breakdown in its money judiciary. Who cares how it effects Iranians, Chinese, Russians, it's just cheating, it means we compete with cheaters, those who get ahead by buying their way out of self harm. We just don't need their crap, Europe really needs to pull its head in and decide to raise tariffs. Now sure America is cursed by fiscal cheaters, but that's why Trumps president, exposing why stupid as commander in chief, or head of banks, are anti American. Not only to Americans but to the world.
Just commenting on another anomaly with the First Year fees free scheme.
As home educators we often use a combination of self-study and institutional study. Enrolled in a tertiary preparation study, which is online delivered and fairly static, we have found out – retrospectively – that this has utilised up 40 credits of any fees free tertiary study that may follow. Given that this is a tertiary preparation course – but grade Level 4 – which used to be free from some institutions – it was not stated through the enrolment process that this is utilising a third of any entitlement to fees free tertiary study. Depending on the follow up course, this loss of entitlement transfers to up to $1,000 – $2,000 in fees.
Something to keep in mind for others on alternate academic pathways, and perhaps something else for this coalition government to keep in mind when reviewing current implementation.
An interesting article from Stuff, about the inconsistencies of ANZ when dealing with staff “mistakes” from a former staff member.
However, only 2 comments allowed, before closing off comments completely. What is it with anything to do with John Key in media, that public opinion is cut short? Is he so "sacred" that he cannot be critiqued because he has become totally untouchable? I'd like to know what/who is supplying protection to him and why! Or should that be Him, as when addressing a holy deity?
I was chemically poisoned on my job while working in Canada and was treated for several years to be able to return to my home in NZ and 20yrs later at 75 yrs old as a baby boomer I face uncertainty as NZ does not treat anyone with the latent effects of chemical poisoning,
so now technically I could be ruled as "uncurable in NZ's inadequate medical system so I may fall through the cracks if this bill is passed to receive "assisted death as technically I cannot be treated to live any more.
The people who dreamed up this "assisted dying bill" are not thinking it through as I have had to do, because they have merely said the bill is suited for all but I would not be considered uncurable if I returned to Canada because they have clinics to treat patients that have been chemically poisoned and NZ does not.
So the 'assisted death bill' will give doctors the licence to kill because they have not been given neither the skills and regimen to save those of us that have been chemically poisoned.
Sad people that vote for this "End of life choice bill”.
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As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
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 ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
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This is like the wolf asking sheep to come to him with complaints about the grass.
I don't believe Andrew King has a clue about what life is like on the ground for tenants in this sad, sad country.
If he thinks tenants are going to risk being kicked out in this environment for asking owners to comply with the law he is ignoring the truth. The truth is wrongful evictions are almost never prosecuted, and owners hide behind the obscurity of loose law which benefits them and which it is King's very purpose in life to protect.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2019/06/tenants-shouldn-t-be-afraid-to-dob-in-uninsulated-homes-property-investors-federation.html
And some have been left uninsulated at the request of the tenant, King says.
"We have heard of people, tenants who didn't want the property insulated because they didn't want the rent to go up, so they wanted it delayed as much as possible. And I think… some have left it a little bit too late.”
God this guy annoys me. This ^^ implies that investors breaking the law are just trying to please their tenants. Bring on the crash
"We have heard of people, tenants who didn't want the property insulated because they didn't want the rent to go up"
Informed consumers making a rational decision to be cold and sick rather than homeless. Awesome – the market is working perfectly!
A + AB. That quote from King sounds exactly like something The Chairman would say and use to justify his fake concern for the poor.
subject: Why are we functionally extinct!? content: We're in exponential climate change right now. weather disruption events are worsening weekly. Earth is in a transition phase towards a new hotter thermal balance replacing our current biosphere
Sea Wanderer 1 month ago (edited)
We are already functionally extinct, it just hasn't sunk in, yet! Our life support is dying right in front of our very eyes. All because we couldn't even conceive of living in balance and harmony with Gaia.
Guy McPherson – Facing Functional Extinction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDG5rfFBKSQ&t=17s
We're dooooomed!!!
Exponential climate change plus the 6th mass extinction now in full swing = doom in my book!.I know we're supposed to be above all those natural processes but actually we depend 100% on the dying natural world.
MacPherson offers nothing but doom, gloom, anxiety and depression. He does nothing to improve the situation by offering pathways to improvement, he is actively a part of making things worse by spreading the implicit message that any effort to make things better is pointless.
We would all be better off if he just STFU and retreated to his little remote sanctuary. Failing that, others can refrain from spreading his harmful message.
but is he wrong?
It doesn't matter whether he's wrong, if you give a shit about humanity.
It’s time to change the climate disaster script. People need hope that things can change:
Im not sure who it was but somebody said that 30 years of not scaring the horses obviously hasnt worked so maybe its time for some honesty….McPherson may overstate things and be fatalist but Im not convinced his predictions are any more innaccurate than say the IPCC with all their faults and vested interest influence…as I have noted elsewhere the curious thing is that McPhersons timeframe is becoming daily more mainstream
All McPherson is saying is that there's no point in doing anything so you might as well vote for right-wing parties and devote the years you have left to hedonism, or more to the point, nihilism. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.
he says a little more than that however the question was is his analysis of the possible impact wrong….it wasnt how we should address the problem, that is a different question
Leaving aside for the moment the inadvisability of accepting declarations of impending doom from people unqualified to make such declarations, my concern is with the political implications.
Even if we assume that the doom-mongering is accurate, a fuckwit who persuades everyone that there's no point in doing anything about climate change, so they might as well embrace nihilism, would make the impending extinctions far more extensive than they otherwise would be. What the fuck is that for a personal ambition?
From the RationalWiki link, it appears getting doomer groupies to fuck him (and maybe even the horse he rode in on) may indeed be part of McPherson's motivation for being a cult leader.
Oh, right, business as usual in the cult industry. I guess it's obvious when you think about it.
I suspect hes a little more qualified than yourself and if hes a cultist hes not a nihilist, more a fatalist…however as stated his proscribed response is not the issue rather its his analysis of the impacts.
He has a long history of making predictions of doom and turning out wrong.
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Guy_McPherson#Predictions
While he's still got nearly 7 and a half years to run on his Nov 2016 prediction of humans completely gone in 10 years, that's looking extremely implausible
Fair enough…not a good record but curiously the mainstream (climatologists) predictions are increasingly closing in on his timeframes….he may well be an alarmist who cherry picks his sources but it is looking increasingly that his stated timeframes are more accurate than those of the "official line " until very recently…McPherson hasnt changed but most others have
" … not a good record … " is a remarkably charitable description of 100% failure.
" … curiously the mainstream (climatologists) predictions are increasingly closing in on his timeframes …"
You want to back that up? Coz from here it looks like a completely evidence free assertion at odds with the real situation.
https://www.livescience.com/65633-climate-change-dooms-humans-by-2050.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/27/india/india-water-crisis-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.livescience.com/65524-antarctica-ice-unstable.html
a brief selection….the potential triggers are multiple
From your first link: " …Published by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Melbourne (an independent think tank focused on climate policy) and authored by a climate researcher and a former fossil fuel executive," – mainstream, huh? Or more doomers cherry-picking and distorting?
Your second link – millions of people becoming even further water-stressed in what was already an extremely water-stressed area with very high population growth is not an example of McPherson being more accurate than mainstream researchers. Nor is it the harbinger of a coming unforeseen apocalypse wiping out all of humanity. It's something that's been predicted for a long time by mainstream researchers. Hell, one of my first year geography assignments nearly 40 years was very nearly on this exact topic.
Your third link – accelerated collapse of part of the Antarctic ice sheet is an example of McPherson being more accurate than mainstream researchers? You think this is going to bring about McPherson's claims of all humanity getting wiped out within the next decade? Are you fucking serious?
every example is indicating acceleration of impact (ahead of prediction) and consequently reduced scope to adjust…..this is the regular theme from almost every study released in recent time….the models are increasingly lagging real time effects…you may choose to dismiss that data however those analysing it and writing the papers are moving closer to McPhersons position by the day
McPherson's position is total extinction of all humans within 10 years.
Nobody with any credibility whatsoever is moving to anything remotely near a position like that. Claiming they are moving towards McPherson's position is like me claiming my financial position is moving closer to Warren Buffet's financial position – it may be technically correct, but we’re so far apart it’s a ludicrously idiotic claim to make.
we have gone from nothing to worry about this side of 2100 to we're not confident that organised society will survive a generation….you must be making shitloads if your comparrison is in any way relevant
…and an aside , Indias population has doubled since your study
Doomer fantasists might not be confident about organised society surviving a generation. However, doomers have been around since forever, yet here we still are.
again. the point is you may dismiss McPherson as a doomer fantasist…my point is that increasingly more and more mainstream scientists are publicly (pertinent) echoing him…. at what point do you you consider those opinions something more than doomer fantasy?
Which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson? Which ones? Some things happening at the faster end of predicted ranges is not a case of mainstream scientists echoing McPherson, unless you're a doomer fantasist.
Again, McPherson's position is total extinction of all humans within 10 years. Which mainstream scientists are saying anything even vaguely resembling that?
Read the studies…the common theme is the modelled predictions are proving to be grossly conservative and impacts that were predicted to occur late century are occurring now or expected near term
Which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson by suggesting total extinction of all humans within 10 years? Which ones? Links, please.
The tropics becoming uninhabitable by humans is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans. Sea level rise of 50m from loss of all Greenland, Himalayan, and West Antarctic ice is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans. The massive societal disruptions caused by massive migration of billions of climate refugees is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively anything like total extinction of all humans.
So, Pat, which mainstream scientists are echoing McPherson in suggesting total extinction of all humans within 10 years. Or even a similar order of magnitude timescale? Names and links, please. Or are you just full of shit?
Matthew 13:57
And they took offence at Him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honour."
Hang in there, Johnm. On the balance of probability, Guy MacPherson is right – but too many people are afraid to admit it. Why try to fix the planet now if we can put it off until next Tuesday?
Guy Mcpherson's 5 minute representation to NYC committee on climate change:
(The ignored exist'l severe risk)
[Deleted long string of text. The complete comment is a copy & paste job. When you quote, please use quotation marks. Never quote the whole text, especially when it is long, but select the most telling part(s) to pique people’s interest. Use font style for emphasis if necessary. Always provide a link to the original source, e.g. http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/06/its-time-to-pursue-hospice-by-guy-mcpherson.html – Incognito]
lol mac fearsum is flawesome – what a dude lol
Doomer cult hero says doom is coming – yawn.
Weather chaos and climate disaster round the globe – 26 June, 2019
yeah surprise surprise
News flash weather has been reported around the world today with startling results. Based on past results some weather is close to average, some well below average some well above average One person did note as weather probability is a continuous variable the possibility of average is zero Mean while in NZ a new band is being formed by Johnm Paul and Ed with Ringo expected to join soon, however there are strong rumours that John Paul Ed and soon to be Ringo may simply be one artist
Yawn, Stretch, lovely day in Auckland Ed/Paul
I hope that you Auckland residents, currently being told about the wonderful advantages you get from trams and trains, will note this item on the RNZ news this morning.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/393138/ice-causes-delays-on-hutt-valley-and-wairarapa-trains
Because of the dreadful weather we are having in Wellington today train services through the Hutt Valley to Wellington are being disrupted and delays are occurring. They aren't really major but people with early meetings aren't going to make their appointments.
Still, Ms Genter will tell us it is all for the best. Trains are much more reliable and faster than taking your car into the city. And it really isn't the fault of the train services when such a dreadful spell of weather disrupts the service is it?
Just don't expect your wonderful tram service, organised at such enormous expense by that great man Twyford, to get you to somewhere near the airport if you are planning to fly out of Auckland in 20 years time when it is completed.
Mind you, I’m not actually sure which is worse. Is it today’s hold up because of the cold or was it what happened earlier in the year because of the terrible heat wave?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018680306/wellington-trains-halted-in-heat-thousands-stranded
Auckland residents know all too well their motorway system is regularly paralysed several times a month due to single incidents. Sometimes even a simple breakdown is enough delay many tens of thousands of vehicles for hours in the morning when people are trying to make 'meetings and appointments', or in the afternoons when people are trying to get home to their families.
This includes the South Western motorway which connects to Auckland International Airport. Many a flight has been missed because of short-sighted, road-centric thinking.
umm…………..Alywin, its a beautiful day in Wellington today?????
And its not as if people don't make early meetings in Wellington and Ak cause they are sitting in their cars, traffic building up because of a nasty accident…………
umm…………..Ankerwank,I know.because I live here"
Isn't it amazing how easily disrupted train travel is though? At least on roads there is a possibility of taking another route.
This is wilful ignorance, but then that is your specialty. Other routes don't suddenly free up when there's a motorway incident.
The notional road network in Alwn's head is perfect, like a market. It tends to equilibrium, one route involves too great a cost in time? Then demand drops and substitution with other routes occurs – as demand drops on the original route, the time cost diminishes and the whole things settles into balance with gorgeously happy motorists scurrying along to their incredibly fulfilling well-paid jobs where they "align the vision" and "drive efficiencies in best practice service delivery" while "collaborating with an intense win-win focus". It's all fabulous – why would you complain?
I am tempted to reprise your own comment made at 8.53 am in the material about the Cabinet Reshuffle.
"I don't remember addressing you."
I am far to polite though so I will simply ignore your wilful ignorance.
Well, you missed the point again, but that is not unusual.
I used to read most of The Guardian (when it was left-wing) each morning when commuting by train in London and I remember reading several George Orwell novels when commuting by train in Sydney.
If you enjoy driving in rush-hour Alwyn; go for it. But decent public transport is the way to go. Nine years of Jacinda and James will make it happen.
I personally think that large vehicle public transport, such as trains, trams and buses will become a thing of the past within about 10 years.
Autonomous Electric Vehicles will be here and will take over the majority of travel in cities at least. Most people will not need to own a private car if they live in a city. It will be a bit slower in the rural areas but it will take over there not too much later. I am looking forward to it. I think it will occur at about the time they take my license away.
This will arrive at just about the time they finish the ridiculous tram system being planned for Auckland. It will open and close on roughly the same date and will join such things as Stonehenge as relics of a bygone age.
The vehicles will be built by a consortium of Google and the big car manufacturers I would think. And just think. You will be able to read your book while being carried from door to door in comfort.
All those private journeys at rush hour with a single person in each vehicle. Where will increased number of vehicles be stored during the day when they are not used?
a) why do you think there will be more of them,
b) why do you think there'll be one person in each of them,
c) why do you think they will not be used
a) under alwyn's model public transport ceases to exist,
b) more than one in a driverless EV mimics public transport, something which horrifies alwyn
c) once the workforce is at work there'll be a lot of cars unused.
Oh gotcha. I on the other hand think of it more as "public transport increasingly takes the form of driverless electric cars".
They way I think of that near future is: nobody owns or drives cars any more. Just not worth the hassle or risk or expense. Big Data Machine Learning Car Co learns what sort of transport I need and when I need it and makes sure that I have it. When I'm not in it, the car will go to where the Big Data Machine Learning Car Co algorithm says it will be used next.
@SHG at 1.13 pm
That is exactly what I think. The AVs will be the public transport of the future.
I'm not "horrified" of public transport as Muttonbird seems to think. I just want to have a 21st century version rather than the 20th, and even 19th century versions that the current CoL seem to like.
I notice that our dear leaders don't use it themselves. Limo's all round for them.
Transporting 50 or 100 people along a set route will always be a cheaper fare than transporting 1 person slightly closer to their destination. Unless it's run in Dunedin.
How many people do you think there are on a bus in Wellington.
Would you think, counting all the bus trips and the entire length of the runs that they average as many as 5 people? There are not that many bus trips that actually are at peak times and have full loads.
The main cost of a taxi is paying the driver. AVs won't have that cost. In addition people won't need to drive to the bus or train route and then leave a car parked for the day. In Wellington there are an amazing number of cars that are driven down to the bus route and then left parked there while people take a bus to work for the day.
Driverless cars also eventually means driverless busses.
So the math simply comes down to whether your pessimistic assessment of passenger numbers on public transport is low enough for single-serve private fuckmobiles (they're totally going to get used for that) to be more competitive when they moonlight as a communter service.
I'd say from your comment that you have over-estimated the capability and timeline of AEV's taking over.
Often happens when the technology and required underlying supportive structures and frameworks are not well understood.
You may just ‘lose your license’ and need to rely on the manual public transport as it is today…read your book on that.
Imagine that. You may not be alright after all, jack.
"over-estimated the capability and timeline of AEV's taking over."
You may very well be right. I tend to follow Bill Gates' opinion on the matter though. He said –
"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."
The time sounds about right to me. Ford seems to be aiming for a 2021 commercial implementation. When the big Car companies get into it I would say the exercise has become much more than a pipe dream.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/ford-is-expanding-its-self-driving-vehicle-program-to-austin/
That is a great deal better than the pessimism of a couple of years ago.
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2017/05/25/the-long-winding-road-for-driverless-cars
You can read this free if you register, (or of course have a subscription). I think the limit if you register is 5/month.
“I personally think that large vehicle public transport, such as trains, trams and buses will become a thing of the past within about 10 years.”
Interesting
Beijing underground system registered nearly 10 million commuters each Day last year. Then we have Tokyo New York and I cannot see the London Underground going within 10 years. especailly now they have nearly finished the new crossrail link
If they do go I hate to see the traffic chaos caused by this new technology.
I'll take your word for those numbers. I don't think you are really allowing for the speed with which technology can change though.
Consider mail. Did you know that the number of items delivered by NZ Post dropped from 835 million in FY 2012 to 454 million in FY 2018. The number roughly halved in those 6 years.
Or look at the use of cheques. We used 206 million in 2002. That dropped to 110 million in 2011 and was a mere 18 million last year.
Did you see that coming?
I think that 10 years is actually plenty of time for enormous changes.
I'm sure that places like Peking will keep their underground services busy. It will probably be the same way that we kept the railways going in the 1970s. Just ban any alternative. We didn't allow trucks to go more than about 50 km. China will quite likely ban AVs.
I really don't want us to spend $10 billion or so on a tram set and to then ban AVs because people would use them instead of a white elephant that we wasted so much money on.
Don't build the tram service now. Put the money into roads. In the short term they can be used by buses. In a decade, when the buses will be worn out anyway they will be there for the AVs.
Just don't let us become Luddites.
You have driven off the lovely man Bleep from this site! Harrassing his every comment until he could comment no more… You are a disgrace! You should be sent IMO (to fight CC).
Pretty sure bewildered is James using another handle.
Two handles are probably useful when barbecuing stuff?
It's the bewildered James show.
You spelt the last word incorrectly.
Surely you were meaning to say "It's the bewildered James Shaw"?
As it so happens, I delved into Bewildered’s history here and although it is more colourful than I expected, I don’t think James and Bewildered are one and the same commenter.
People need to learn not to take life or this site to seriously, just saying Maui and possible laugh at themselves every once and a while My digs at bleep where mild to what is accepted on this site, likewise in response to his digs at me that did not offend me in the slightest
I like collecting snippets of wisdom and quotes. This one is a favourite of mine
“ Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves.
As they shall always be amused…………………………………..Annom.”
See my Moderation note @ 8:01 AM.
Went to hear Thomas Nash speak yesterday, on social and co-housing possibilities in NZ
https://www.doubledenim.nz/fanny-pack/thomas-nash
He also did a quick run down on how our economy has become financialised, and our housing needs commodified.
One thing explored was the Preston effect, whereby a city in Lancashire pulled itself out of the ruins of neoliberal inspired poverty and began to thrive again …an ongoing project
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/preston-hit-rock-bottom-took-back-control#comment-111568613
What struck me was
Would we be able to take this route, given our signing up to the CTPPPA or whatever the hell its called now?
I think we can no longer favour local contractors in procurements?
And how thoroughly our publicly owned social infrastructure has been stripped in comparison to the UK
100% francesca 🙂
The opposite of neoliberalism. No shareholders no paying money to say the privatised half of Genesis energy. Keep it all in your economy. But the city council no longer plays that game. Instead it has adopted a guerrilla localism. It keeps its money as close to home as possible so that, amid historically drastic cuts, the amount spent locally has gone up. Where other authorities privatise, Preston grows its own businesses. It even creates worker-owned co-operatives.
Credit Unions not loan sharks.
local government controlling the market not a dog wagged by its market tail.
The Tppa would stop all this replacing local sustainability with globalism. Don’t offshore your jobs for shareholder profit keep them local for wages and local taxes to improve community.
Consultancy fees get rid of them grow your own expertise. The goverment should be reading this article.
We should be raising a rabble to go and find our money. Look under fay, richwhite, gibb, chandler, hart etc’s beds for a start off. Our tax system gave them our money. Hart just bought a $51 million dollar flat in NYC. Fay is just a scant few million away from being a billionaire. Westpac bank just took $555 million dollars in profit from us over a six month period, no doubt aided and abetted by our tax system to do so.
If NZ is a Preston we've been committing financial and social suicide since 1984.
Something nice happening in the morning can put a smile on your face for the day.
I heard Judith Collins being all nice-nice about Phil Twyford. You know, stateswoman like, adult, conciliatory understanding, with the bigger picture in view of what's good for the country. You know trying to sound party leadership material and, well, Prime Ministerial.
Then we went into Clinton-Lewinsky mode. "I did not have dinner relations with that man." RNZ tapes, "I did have dinner relations with that woman."
Of course there's a battle to be fought and being fought and the skirmishes confuse some minds. With Judith it's a bit complicated because sometimes an incidental drop-in cup of tea while going past the door is actually a many months organised formal dinner in the completely opposite direction.
With Simon? Who knows with such confusion. But you have to laugh but in doing so not overlook the significance.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018701723/collins-has-a-bit-of-sympathy-for-twyford-after-reshuffle
Yes Judith is reborning herself from that feisty aggressive take to prisoners but take the tyre burning cars sort of image, and is now copying Jacinda's conciliatory balanced friendly persona. And in doing so providing a great contrast to Simon's shouty hysterical blunderbuss approach.
All of Parliament is a stage folks.
Perhaps you could have given a bit more of that quote. Then it could have been applied to that great comic actor who plays the buffoon in each performance of Parliament.
"All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,"
………..
"Last scene of all,
That ends his strange eventful history,
In second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."
Twyford, with his activities, jumped immediately to the seventh stage. Why is he still there? Why has he not been shuffled off stage into obscurity?
So many questions, so few answers.
Why is Simon Bridges still the leader of the National Party when he is so unpopular, so incompetent and is under investigation by the SFO?
Why is he still there? Why has he not shuffled off stage into obscurity for the good of the National Party?
The seventh stages is for me but far away for Phil. Thank you alwyn for the fuller quote but for whom should the various crowns fit? Where would Nick Smith fit?
I really think that Nick Smith, and Trevor Mallard should happily shuffle off into retirement together. They both fit the Cromwell judgement below, although I think they are both still into the sixth age of Shakespeare. Only just still there but they aren't into the final age yet.
“You have been sat to long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!.”
In Trevor's case of course there is another applicable comment from the Lord Protector.
“Take away that fool’s bauble, the mace”
The Lord Protector is not known by that name in Ireland where the Cromwellian invasion saw 600,000 people die as a result- 40% of the population.
That kind of 'protection' had its modern equivalent in Hue in Vietnam that "had to be destroyed in order to save it."
I din't actually say, and nor do I think, that Cromwell was an admirable figure. It was just that the quotes seem to be so appropriate.
And if your figures are right I can certainly see why the hatred of him would remain. No doubt they would have been very happy when, 3 years after he died, his body was exhumed and, according to Wikipedia "His body was hanged in chains at Tyburn, London and then thrown into a pit. His head was cut off and displayed on a pole outside Westminster Hall until 1685"
There was a story about a UK Foreign Office meeting room where they negotiated with foreign diplomats under a huge painting of a battlefield (probably Waterloo). Deciding that this wasn't very diplomatic, they replaced it with a picture of Cromwell. An Irish delegation walked into the room, saw the picture, turned around and walked out again, expressing frank disapproval.
Just said this very thing about Judith to hubby this morning before reading your comment Peter.
Lets all do the Orivida chant to bring some reality about Ms Collins persona
The big question would be, "Would the real Judith Collins please stand up?"
I wouldn't rush to assume that there is only one 'real' Judith. It may be falling into an essentialist trap. Probably there are multitudes of real Judiths, depending on what is required at the time.
Yes, I think you could partly describe her as Slim Shady, very Eminem Esque.
With the issue Min Hopkins has with Principals I wonder what will be in the final report back to the minister ?
Perhaps we will also see an estimated financial cost to implement ?
https://conversation.education.govt.nz/conversations/tomorrows-schools-review/
Jong Kee has obviously decided he has enough distance from the Hisco fiasco to be able to beg the FMA to give him and his company the good once over.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2019/06/fma-to-investigate-suspicious-anz-house-sale-to-former-ceo-s-wife.html
How to deal with white nationalists and a bit of a history.
Why Iran, China, Russia? The more powerful, the less accountable to the rule of law, the poorer trading partners. Whichever side of politics we are, it just doesn't make sense to expose our economies to nations who disregard the rule of law. Whether Iran, by religious edict, China by party corruption, or Russia with a breakdown in its money judiciary. Who cares how it effects Iranians, Chinese, Russians, it's just cheating, it means we compete with cheaters, those who get ahead by buying their way out of self harm. We just don't need their crap, Europe really needs to pull its head in and decide to raise tariffs. Now sure America is cursed by fiscal cheaters, but that's why Trumps president, exposing why stupid as commander in chief, or head of banks, are anti American. Not only to Americans but to the world.
Just commenting on another anomaly with the First Year fees free scheme.
As home educators we often use a combination of self-study and institutional study. Enrolled in a tertiary preparation study, which is online delivered and fairly static, we have found out – retrospectively – that this has utilised up 40 credits of any fees free tertiary study that may follow. Given that this is a tertiary preparation course – but grade Level 4 – which used to be free from some institutions – it was not stated through the enrolment process that this is utilising a third of any entitlement to fees free tertiary study. Depending on the follow up course, this loss of entitlement transfers to up to $1,000 – $2,000 in fees.
Something to keep in mind for others on alternate academic pathways, and perhaps something else for this coalition government to keep in mind when reviewing current implementation.
An interesting article from Stuff, about the inconsistencies of ANZ when dealing with staff “mistakes” from a former staff member.
However, only 2 comments allowed, before closing off comments completely. What is it with anything to do with John Key in media, that public opinion is cut short? Is he so "sacred" that he cannot be critiqued because he has become totally untouchable? I'd like to know what/who is supplying protection to him and why! Or should that be Him, as when addressing a holy deity?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/113846220/anz-staffer-i-was-fired-for-making-money-appear#comments
"End of life choice bill"
I was chemically poisoned on my job while working in Canada and was treated for several years to be able to return to my home in NZ and 20yrs later at 75 yrs old as a baby boomer I face uncertainty as NZ does not treat anyone with the latent effects of chemical poisoning,
so now technically I could be ruled as "uncurable in NZ's inadequate medical system so I may fall through the cracks if this bill is passed to receive "assisted death as technically I cannot be treated to live any more.
The people who dreamed up this "assisted dying bill" are not thinking it through as I have had to do, because they have merely said the bill is suited for all but I would not be considered uncurable if I returned to Canada because they have clinics to treat patients that have been chemically poisoned and NZ does not.
So the 'assisted death bill' will give doctors the licence to kill because they have not been given neither the skills and regimen to save those of us that have been chemically poisoned.
Sad people that vote for this "End of life choice bill”.