Stubbs says the Manapouri electricity will go to waste if Tiwai Point isn't using it. Wrong now, and even wronger when grid upgrades that are already underway get completed.
Stubbs buys into that low-carbon high-purity sales spin. Wrong. That Tiwai Point is sucking so much electricity from NZ electricity supply is keeping the coal going into Huntly. Close Tiwai Point, and the coal boilers at Huntly will very likely close very soon after. So in fairness, we should be attributing Huntly's coal-derived emissions to Tiwai Point.
The smelting process also releases CO2 (and other nasties) as a result of the carbon anodes that are consumed in the smelting process. As I understand it, Tiwai Point's performance in this part of the process is middling. Rio Tinto are underway with commercialising an alternative process that doesn't have these carbon emissions, but using that process will require retrofitting the whole smelter. Which will reduce any residual value existing carbon-emitting "assets" may still have.
The "dollar" price Stubbs tosses around would presumably have hidden in it the hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities associated with environmental problems at the Tiwai Point site.
'Sam Stubbs makes a good case for nz buying tiwai smelter, '
The debate has moved on from this and the facts show that it is not an idea to fly. Forget this one, and think of what else could use the workforce of seasoned practical men, accompanied by abundant electricity.
Interesting article. The China production is huge- are they aiming for a monopoly hold on the market with all the strategic and destructive potential that implies? Rio may not want to shoot itself in the foot but by default will it be shooting a lot of other industries and national interests. Warplanes?
I am really getting sick of these opinion pieces on what is supposed to be a news website. But Stubbs is wrong about Tiwai on so many fronts its really a joke. Tiwai produces "high quality aluminium" because the smelting process is old and really inefficient. The world production of aluminium in 2018 was 60,000,000 metric tons. China has huge numbers of smelters and produces 33,000,000 metric tons while NZ's sole smelter produces 337,000 metric tons. ie NZ produces 0.5% of the world's production. NZ isn't even a pimple on the backside of this elephant. As well as that China has all of the manufacturing infrastructure underneath that to use the aluminium. The NZ smelter has been under threat for years and years for very basic reasons – it isn't making money and its output is minscule. The best thing NZ can do with the power from Manapouri is to eventually connect it to the Transpower grid but that is going to take a few years.
It's already connected to the grid. It's just that the part of the grid between Invercargill and the Waitaki area wasn't really grunty enough to take the 600ishMW that will be freed up next year. But an upgrade was already underway before the closure announcement, and is no doubt being accelerated.
Now the thing to notice is that the reporter fails to inform the public what actually happened to cause the injury – or injuries. Even worse, the reporter is evidently too stupid to consider how other parents who leave their kids at that daycare centre are going to feel about the cover-up.
At the very least the reporter and Stuff's editor ought to be considering the public interest in the situation. Is privacy law being used to perform the cover-up? Then say so! What part of morality do you dorks not get??
Gems Educational Daycare general manager Gemma Smith said the centre was “deeply saddened” over the incident. “Our focus right now is supporting the child and their family, as well as our centre community.” Smith would not give details about the victim’s age or gender.
Yes, yes, the ritualised issuance of politically-correct banalities has been rigorously adhered to, we get that.
WorkSafe said it was investigating. Do you know more? Email newstips@stuff.co.nz
Who do they believe are going to inform them, if not those who were there, on the spot, supervising the kids? Pathetic. Disgusting.
Smith said the centre would cooperate with WorkSafe and Ministry of Education investigations. “We do everything possible to provide a safe environment for the children we care for. If accidents occur, we have systems in place to offer immediate assistance,” Smith said.
You can imagine how thrilled the other parents will be to see this. If I was one of them I would yank my kids out of there pronto. I wonder how those parents will react to being frozen out by the manager/owner and media.
The Worksafe shadow over all – is it more talked about than evidenced? Are they actually operating under their own aegis – making sure that any work they do results in safe outcomes – that match their contracts in a satisfactory and positive manner. Minister Andrew Little this morning sounded like a kindly uncle as I listened while I worked.
The thing I am hearing regularly from agencies supposed to be arms of the government is that they decide what they will investigate on the test of – 'Can it be tested and won in Court' and so, be a plus mark in their activity success tickbox. If not, 'There is not enough evidence to pursue this matter'. They all need to be pursued by eager citizens, noses to the ground and teeth at the ready to nip them on their fat butts. (Or very thin ones because their personal drives go into the new middle-class memes of personal fitness and setting goals of running marathons, bicycle riding in lycra etc).
Worksafe has been defunded under National as well as reorganized so the enforcement side hasn't got the funds to investigate or prosecute let alone prevention.Pike River.
Half of Queenstown will know by now what happened. Certainly the parents with kids in that daycare will. There's no public interest here that requires immediate media coverage of the details, and it works against the public interest to publish too quickly and then find out the details were wrong because the people the journo was talking to were still in shock and/or dealing with the event and didn't have their facts straight. We see this with rapid emergencies fairly often now, where MSM rush to publish before they've confirmed what happened. It takes time to get a reliable and truthful narrative.
The incident happened Monday morning, the report was published late Monday afternoon. I'd expect more information in the next few days once the police, WorkSafe, and the Ministry have started on their processes.
Yet over 60 per cent of respondents want the economy rejigged towards something better. “Let's use this time to reform the economic system” is what the question reads. A large majority said yes.
Yet the question is a crucial one, because it really does go to the heart of each major party’s pitch for the election.
Yet you can bet both major parties will duck the issue! Labour because it can now coast to victory on its poll ratings. National because it is the party of business as usual.
And if you consider the trajectory of the tourist industry, the change to zero international tourists becomes clear. Visitor arrivals in New Zealand have roughly doubled every 10 or so years since the advent of the jet in the 1950s, and were 3.9 million in 2019. That has now stopped in its tracks.
National will now start whining like the drug addict who needs their regular hit. How feeble their calls for re-opening the borders are will be amusing to see.
Labour, for the first time since the fourth Labour Government of David Lange and Roger Douglas, could have the parliamentary numbers to ram through serious changes to the fabric of New Zealand’s economy.
The prospect of Labour ramming anything anywhere is zilch. Think limp dishrag.
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has consistently said Labour, should it be re-elected to the Treasury benches, would look to make the economy better than it was before. Quite what that will mean in practical terms will have to wait until after the election.
Got that right! Don't spook the horses, Grant! He's done well, to my surprise, presenting centrism as a benign economic model to the electorate, and it complements the PM's mastermind managerial style nicely. Expect them to rise above bland though, spicing it up with a few futuristic signals in the next few weeks – carefully designed not to provoke expectation of drastic change.
Unsurprising to see a libertarian journo like Malpass struggle to articulate any other approach to changing an economy than cutting taxes and protections. No imagination.
An unfortunate name for that journo surely. I'm rereading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – it would be a name that might occur there. Fact stranger than fiction.
Today, will we see National’s internal polling leaked to the media and endorsed by its Leader? If so, who will be the recipient of the info? What will the National tacticians decide? Will it be a shot across the bow or one in the foot? I’ve ordered extra popcorn.
Listening to recent interviews with Musk's mate Thiel, is mindbending . It is hard to grasp what he believes in as he makes ambiguous, confusing responses. The world consists of only three doors to choose from ?
The power of money to have those in power then court you, yet the Mont Pelerin Society describe Thiel as a philanthropist. https://youtu.be/IXG2F0a6I28
Under Evo's term of indigenous socialism has been "the majority population has, for the first time in their lives, lived above poverty.
The achievements were more than economic. Bolivia made a great leap forward in indigenous rights."
Evo’s crime.
“My sin was being indigenous, leftist, and anti-imperialist,” Evo said after being coerced into resigning this week.
His replacement, Jeanine Añez Chávez, agreed. “I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites,” the opposition senator tweeted in 2013, “the city is not for the Indians who should stay in the highlands or the Chaco!!!” After Evo’s departure, Chavez declared herself interim president while holding up a large bible, though she failed to get the required quorum in the senate to do so.
Maybe Collins sees herself as a Chavez when she vowed to "crush the other lot", meaning just about all! Would she also burn the indigenous flag that was hung upside down behind Mueller while ripping the UN Agenda 30 to shreds. Could Collins stick to NZ alligning to the seventeen 2030 goals ? Can you hear her saying,
"We resolve to build a better future for all people, including the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives……We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty; just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet."
Musk is trolling clueless idiots with a predisposition to think 'Tesla batteries use lots of lithium -hmm, Bolivia has lots of lithium and just had a coup = Tesla bad' who have zero understanding of lithium supply chains and technical details of battery chemistry.
Are you aware on mobile version some of these articles are not readable. I cant read either this one or Mickeys about Labour being better economic managers without switching to desktop version.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Try it again now. Between us, weka and I have both played with the tweet.
My cell (Samsung S10 running Chrome on Android 10) requested that I whitelisted the page at the client side – probably because it was picking up the tweet. Try to reload the page and see what happens. Also tell me what kind of device you’re using.
Finally some true vision, reminiscent of old…world leading and full of common sense and undeterred by the fact it hasnt been done before…this is the type of thinking we need.
The thinking has always been there,for pumped storage between two natural reservoirs called Tekapo and Pukeko.
The fly in the ointment was the breaking up of generators,with little thought as to the future beyond shareholder entitlement.
Sustainable Energy forum’s hydro expert, Alastair Barnett, estimates that the Onslow scheme could provide 5000 gigawatt-hours storage. But a simpler pumped storage system between Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki could provide over half Onslow’s dry-year storage with minimal construction cost – the two lakes were originally designed to do exactly that.
That scheme was precluded by the separation of ownership within the Tekapo-Waitaki hydro scheme. Genesis owns and manages Tekapo, Meridian owns the power stations below Tekapo. Each gentailer manages their part of the resource to maximise profit and shareholder value, not to minimise financial or environmental cost.
Bill English so he could privatise them and grab a large dividend ( repalced by borrowing) for tax cuts for the high earning mates. The electricity industry in New Zealand could do with a ground zero reset and rstructure to eliminate all the market inefficencies of privatisation. 29 power company CEO's – really? We used to run the lot out of the 8 floors of Rutherford house in Wellington.
Pumped hydro not new or ground breaking but the vision of the scheme incorporating wetlands and the scale are….the impact on the workings of the electricity market in NZ is also a great opportunity to revisit the profit motive, particularly in light of the recent finding on 'spillage' and wholesale pricing.
There appears a difference of opinion between Barnett and Bardsley on the viability of Tekapo and Pukaki around suitable geology but I expect those differences can be evaluated.
The cost appears to me to be overemphasised considering construction time is estimated to be 6-8 years…thats an annual outlay of approx half a billion per annum….weve just spent 16 billion on wage subsidies in less than 5 months.
I heard Orams piece on RNZ where he questioned the ability of (any) gov to plan a multigenerational project however the decision and construction can occur inside a decade…potentially inside the term of one administration.
In any event, we have wasted numerous years the decisions on long term infrastructure and energy provision and cannot be delayed any longer….and that system must be as close to zero carbon as possible.
Covid will be omnipresent, the placement of polling booths will be sparse, in larger halls, but there'll be many more of them around the place to ensure, we're told, that you will be able to keep your social distance.
This at the same time that we're assured there is no community spread, to the extent it's now okay to join the thousands of spectators packed in at rugby matches for hours. But it seems that when it comes to the few minutes you will spend in the polling booth, you will be reminded to keep your distance.
That's what this is really all about, it's a reminder of who the Conqueror of Covid is and why we should all bear thanks and show our appreciation with a tick in the correct box.
To be clear, Barry is insinuating the Labour Party has influenced the spacing of polling booths in order to win the election.
Thank heavens incognito we've got you – you're onto it. Probably people will see some red arrows soon and it will show how pervasive the Labour propagamda is. It's all around you, like a red rag to a bull. Better put – /sarc.
He's been reporting on elections for decades, so I'm sure he knows who really makes these decisions.
But his readers/listeners might not. So he feeds them BS he knows is false. That fails the most basic test of ethics, and he should be facing disciplinary action from NZME. Lying about our democratic process is unacceptable.
The fool thinks that no covid now means no covid in 8 weeks. And yet if we had a new outbreak at election time and hadn't made these plans, Captain Hindsight will be cursing the government's foolishness. 🙄
Yep – that is clearly the thinking behind it. To allow for the possibility that there IS some community transmission in 8 weeks.
If Soper really wanted to make mischief (which he does), rather than sound like a daft conspiracy theorist, he would argue that this forward planning shows how little confidence the government has that they can keep Covid out and that it's all 'shambolic'etc. etc. Missed opportunity there Bazza – I wonder whether next week's cheque might be going to a more competent propagandist?
I don't normally watch vid of her, but that one is kind of intense. She's trying to make a joke, but her eyes are seriously dark when she speaks to Henry and then she puts a smile on it. But those eyes just before the smile. She's like that earlier in the piece with someone else too (Tova I think).
I think I tore an eyebrow muscle when watching that. Did she say Monthly Pie-a-ton? Getting hungry now and licking the salt from my empty popcorn bowl.
In fact, I think we need to note every time in future when her eyebrow rises while she is trying to speak seriously and convincingly. She does it all the time..
Has she got rogue eyebrows do you think? That if studied will give accurate indications of the truthfulness of her statements. Cripes, what a disadvantage for a politician. Some bird watchers in the UK who are more interested in showy stats than being informed experts are called 'twitchers'. I imagine Collins is more interested in numbers of voters rather than deep interest in us as people and citizens, so she is a sort of twitcher; which may explain her eyebrow movements. If it is a Pavlovian response (moving from birds to dogs) she may be unable to control it and so bird fanciers might have to keep their eyes on this twitcher, who could end up going to the dogs! Do hope you followed this. It's all a deep code you know.
Eyebrow up or not, Collins was clearly joking when she said that, but has made a rod for her own eyebrow. Everything she says from now on will be parsed in an 'Are you joking now?' context.
Under Collins’ ‘leadership‘, the National Party’s puddle of ‘truthfulness‘ has dried up – just can’t trust them. Mind you, ‘She’s a handsome Tory’
Judith statistics – 436000 and no eyebrows were raised ? Was that a plucked or tweeked guess?
Maybe she has leaked info because it does not seem to correlate with Treasury's weekly data indicators.
Prior, Treasury presented at the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) 2020. "We still expect to see a large contraction in growth in the June quarter, followed by a partial rebound in the September quarter, and a further economic recovery afterwards."
However there was upward activity for June. Treasury responded to the need for the more immediate need of pertinent, economy indicator reports, as complementary to the less frequent quarterly GDP ; hence using the NZAC index ( The GDP not due for this quarter until September 17, 2020).
"The NZAC does nonetheless point to some upside to those initial estimates. Our initial estimate for June quarter GDP was based on longer periods of time at higher alert levels. We’ve also made a quicker progression to Alert level 1 than what we assumed at BEFU, and therefore activity has been able to resume more quickly.
High-frequency activity indicators continued to hold steady in July along with other upward expansion indicated on Treasury's dashboard.
Current Stats NZ statistics suggests to Treasury that, " employment continued to hold up in June (Figure 2). For the week ended 21 June, the most accurate measure (which lags by 27 days) showed the total number of paid jobs up 4.5% on the same week in 2019. At the industry level, paid jobs in the primary industries were up 10.1% on last year, goods-producing jobs were up 2.5%, and services jobs were up 3.1% on 2019 after falling by around 80,000 between March and April 2020. "
My computer shows a completely blank screen in the middle of your comment. When you look at the screen is there a big white space or is it filled with graphs and content you've put up? Please advise. It would be a help for me to know.
To protect your security, treasury.govt.nz will not allow Firefox to display the page if another site has embedded it. To see this page, you need to open it in a new window.
Thanks solkta I have Firefox but didn't get that message.
Thanks incognito I tried that link and got some really interesting artwork snaking over various backgrounds.
I'm having trouble with pdfs – can't get many of them. I have to ask my associate what to do and write down in a book so I can transfer the instructions to the particular part of my brain which is dedicated to keeping up with this wonderful technology that is so helpful in showing us how far we have dipped or risen every day, and that is not just referring to Covid-19. Anyway if I don't do it today, it might have changed by tomorrow, and then I have had an hour or so for some other activity that might be more useful. However I will try, so don't give up on me please.
For that link to the quick summary dashboard, the Treasury site only gives the one format link. It also then required giving Chrome app storage permission to download.
However, other articles such as the weekly updates, were not embedded with Chrome and have a choice of formats.
I never went to the website. I simply took your link and turned it into a URL that TS readers can see/read and click on (or not). I was trying to help.
Agree Treetop. She was however in a similar position of trying to escape so needed to divert by flippancy.
Trapped, she could have said, “I shouldn’t be in this predicament ! Everyone agrees with me. Seperate but equal is great policy ( for my eyebrows )".
The reporters further questioned, “Everyone? You’re standing alone in here.” She gestures around, “Everyone, you know, the paintings on the corridor wall, tables and the clock all of them think I should be PM .”
I have heard The Telegraph soundly run down and yet have found much in it of value. Yet this latest on Harry and Meghan shows the vicious probing of a mosquito, and too many of such bites can maim its host.
This from Angela Levin: Just before Prince Harry got engaged to Meghan Markle, he invited me to Kensington Palace for a chat as I was writing his biography. One of the things he was keen to get across was the importance of teamwork.
If you want to be a success you have to be a team player,” he told me. “You get taught in the Army that you can’t get anywhere without the support of other people. I agree.”
It seems as if he is trying to establish a reasonable rapport with the media as his mother tried. But is the media reasonable; can it be reasoned with? Or is lurking behind it the malign drive of unalloyed pleasure in malicious gossip, desire for power through knowledge, and overall, lovely moolah – profit?
Harry and Meghan did not include a Covid-19 senario in their plans. The timing was bad for them to make a clean break, more so for Harry than Meghan.
Harry had issues with how the media treated his mother and a double up with negative media when Meghan became upset about media coverage about her which she did not like. Media coverage became personalised about Meghan and her father and this cannot be brushed off. The Royal family are reliant on the media for their charity work and on tourism to justify the expense of keeping them.
What is the Royal position on the media "don't explain, don't complain." This could have been modernised and a human element to it. I would have liked Harry and Meghan to have delayed leaving the firm for 3 years.
Look how the Queen's job has become redundant due to Covid-19. The Queen is 94 and I expect she is enjoying having a bit more rest.
I see we have caved in to our Yankee Masters in regard to extradition to Hong Kong, so much for being independent. Better if we dump the spy game and opt out of 'five eyes'
Say someone from here goes to Hong Kong and ends up murdering someone there, then rushes back to NZ , can't be extradited and we're stuck with a murderer?
Surely there should be case by case considerations?
Ok if China executes mainly for drug trafficking, and murder , we still end up potentially protecting rapists , fraudsters, criminals as well
Either way we could end up with undesirables evading justice
I did plenty of stupid things when I was 14, and 18 (or 28 or 38 or … OK, never mind).
I certainly won't condemn him for that. But he – and above all the National Party – need to accept that they made a silly decision to have a high school kid as a candidate, and they can't have it both ways: get a pass for being a teenager OR don't get a pass, because you're ready to be an MP. But pick one.
Maybe William Wood (opposition National Party candidate for the Palmerston North electorate) shouldn't be punished politically for a 'mistake' made four years ago, but…
Might the 'tactic' of fielding very young candidates in general elections be more widely adopted to minimise political risk from revelations of past 'misdemeanors'?
Its more about selecting a rude, green (as in naivety) inexperienced teenager whose brain is still not fully developed.
You can almost read their simplistic thought process:
he'll bring in the votes of the 18-20 year olds.
He'll do nothing of the sort. Half of them couldn't care less and won't vote. The other half will more than likely go with Labour because they are promising better training and employment opportunities for the young.
I just hope he has a good support system as he is on the young side. He has guts putting himself out there. A lot of seasoned MPs have been known to struggle. Politics can be dehumanising.
Under most laws, young people are recognized as adults at age 18. But emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don't reach full maturity until the age 25. Guest host Tony Cox discusses the research and its implications with Sandra Aamodt, neuroscientist and co-author of the book Welcome to Your Child's Brain.
Swarbrick's brain developed early, whereas Wood is a late ‘bloomer‘?
COX: Is there a difference between males and females with regard to their brain development, particularly in this age category?
AAMODT: Females' brains develop about on average two years earlier than male brains, so you're more likely to have a late developing male brain than female.
If you're choosing Swarbrick and Wood as examples, then it's only political parties in opposition that pick under-developed brains.
Swarbrick's brain may have been "under-developed" when she became an MP at age 23 – if so then what I'd give for that level of under-development! She is, however, the youngest person to be elected to NZ's parliament since the opposition National party selected Marylin Waring to stand for the Raglan electorate in 1975.
Of course it might just be pure coincidence that the two youngest MPs in the modern history of NZ's parliament are women. You have to go all the way back to 1906 to find anyone younger than Waring, and people didn't live as long in them thar days.
You're jumping to conclusions (a common characteristic of the under-developed) – I'll vote 'support' in the End of Life Choice referendum (promoted by ACT's David Seymour), but I’m (still) genuinely undecided on the Cannabis Legalisation and Control referendum (supported by the Green party's Chlöe Swarbrick). And yes, I will Party Vote Green.
I couldn't persuade Swarbrick to partake in an MRI brain scan, so had to resort to other objective measurements of achievement to inform my conclusions about her level of development.
I'm unlikely to vote for the Greens but that is no excuse IMO for this sort of mindset in someone so young – how usual is it for a then 17 to be that determined to push themselves into politics The choice of those politics leans to the right as does it appears the couple of incidents shows a determined certain mindset. Set beside the observation by Politik that certain National MPs in safe seats are reckless with their behaviours & lacking in personal responsibilities – the "twins" Barclay & Walker, Falloon, Muller's misplaced personal confidence. These people have had approval from the National Party none of it speaks of interest in serving wider NZ
The details are pretty important in order for the admin to fix it. This site isn't sponsored, it consists of very few very dedicated people.
It would be a great help if you didn’t trivialise and paid attention to your device, operating system, and browser so The Standard can make your experience better.
edit
Prince Andrew embroiled in allegations of relations with under-age girls. Woman accused of organising young girls for sex.
Jeffrey Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell charged in US Jul.3/20 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53268218
All very modern. Yet concerned women and men were fighting to stop exactly the same thing in the 1800s.
Part of an interview in 1885 between 'the campaigning editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead' and the head of London's Criminal Investigation Department, Howard Vincent.
"But", I said in amazement, "then do you mean to tell me that in very truth actual rapes, in the legal sense of the word, are constantly being perpetrated in London on unwilling virgins, purveyed and procured to rich men at so much a head by keepers of brothels?" "Certainly", said he, "there is not a doubt of it." "Why", I exclaimed, "the very thought is enough to raise hell." "It is true", he said; "and although it ought to raise hell, it does not even raise the neighbours."
Stead, to stir the public and prove that child slavery was being condoned, purchased a 13-year old girl from her mother for Five pounds, and took her out of Britain to France. For his effrontery in bringing this to public notice he was charged, taken before the Courts, and sentenced to three months imprisonment.
Josephine Butler aided by her husband had been devoted for years to the cause of helping young girls and women from being discriminated against by the justice system in the cruellest way. A Bill was passed in 1885 that set standards as to higher age, and other protections. Then the fervent campaigners went further and began to attempt purist conditions going to higher levels in controlling sexuality, a moral outrage movement.
The passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act led to the formation of purity societies, such as the White Cross Army, whose aims were to force the closure of brothels through prosecution. The societies widened their remit to suppress what they considered indecent literature—including information on birth control—and the entertainment provided by the music halls.
Butler warned against the purity societies because of their "fatuous belief that you can oblige human beings to be moral by force, and in so doing that you may in some way promote social purity".
I think this example makes a point about now and not being extreme in PC speech bans, with moral crusaders becoming over zealous about words and behaviour being over-censored. If we could strike the right balance we could live more harmoniously.
Aotearoa surpassed 100 days without a case of community transmission of Covid-19. Last night that virus-free streak ended and we’re moving back up the alert levels. For months now, we’ve been intercepting cases of Covid-19 at the border. But just as has happened in many other countries, somehow the sneaky ...
Today the National Party have annouced plans to get tough on gangs. Again. We at MyThinks thought it was important to identify a list of gangs the National Party were planning on getting tough on. National have said if they are elected their new “The Gang Unit” gang unit will ...
In the musical Wicked, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, the hit song Defying Gravity comes at the end of the first act and talks of how one woman (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) breaks from what’s expected to strike off on her own path. ...
Back in June, Newsroom published a well-investigated piece about how the Department of Conservation had waived rehabilitation requirements for a mining company. Now, one of the company's directors - specifically David Wong-Tung, who just happens to be Judith Collins' husband and the director of environmental pillagers Oravida - is threatening ...
This year’s election campaign in New Zealand has attracted a number of “fringe” parties, at least some of whose supporters seem to have a fairly tenuous hold on reality and a highly flexible approach to the truth. I mean, how else could one describe some of those affiliated with the ...
Accused - Jami-Lee RossNobody would think poorly of you if you wrote former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross off as just another crackpot! After all, now that he’s hitched his Advance NZ wagon to Billy Te Kahika’s crazy Public Party, there’s little chance of him ever redeeming himself or recovering ...
Students will be striking for the climate again on Friday, September 4: Students in Wellington are gearing up to strike from school this September 4th, to protest inaction on climate change. Their demands? That Government invests in a green COVID-19 response; that there is a just transition provided for ...
There’s no Covid on the Cook Islands. But isolation-free travel into New Zealand from the Cooks looks to be a long way off. The Prime Minister confirmed on Monday that Cabinet had considered draft text being worked on via officials which will become the basis of an agreement for quarantine-free travel ...
We should all know by now that Judith Collins, who has openly said she simply doesn’t care if wetlands are destroyed in the pursuit of swamp Kauri, isn’t exactly an environmentalist.In fact she has promised to roll back most of the small gains made by the Green Party in Government, ...
If you drive an electric car more than trivial distances between charges, you likely appreciate a state-of-charge meter (that is, what would be called a fuel-gauge in a petrol car) that is accurate. When it reports a range of 30 km, you do want to be sure it will actually ...
What to do to improve the public perception of the newly elected National party leader, when her performance so far has no doubt disappointed the expectations of her supporters? The answer is to get a National-supporting newspaper (the Herald) to organise a poll that could be guaranteed to provide an ...
Campaigns. Culture. Character. And perhaps most of all, Covid. Now the House has risen and politicians are hitting the road to pitch their woo to voters, those will be front of mind for the candidates.They were also where the new season of politics podcast Caucus began on Thursday. This year ...
There are only a few days left to make a submission on Statistics New Zealand's consultation on sex and gender identity statistical standards. This represents a really important step for recognising the very real diversity of gender, including people with no gender, and ensuring everyone has the option to see ...
Since finishing the Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book, I’ve frequently dipped into that 176-page clip-art library, reshaping the cartoons to fit the 1920 x 1080 pixel format for Powerpoint presentations. I’ve also adapted many of the cartoons for the Cranky Uncle video series. Over the last few weeks, a few people ...
NewsHub Nation has launched a new podcast, "Supplementary Question". Their inaugural episode is about the OIA, and asks "is our most important transparency law fit for purpose?" While they interviewed Justice Minister Andrew Little and Ombudsman Peter Boshier for this, there's not actually a lot of them in there, and ...
Remember the Ruataniwha dam? The Hawke's Bay Regional Council wasted $14 million trying to push this environmental disaster through before the Supreme Court ruled that the land swap it relied on with DoC was illegal. At the end of it, they wrote off the money and sold the existing consents ...
For years we've had a housing crisis in New Zealand, driven by immigration-driven population growth and the market refusing to build enough houses (and enough of the right sort of houses) to meet it. As a result, people can't get homes, while Boomer landlords leech away their income and parasitical ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Drawdown Review 2020: How To Address Global Warming In A Responsible Manner Source: Project Drawdown Project Drawdown is a non-profit organization that relies ...
Dr Tim Chambers, Prof Nick Wilson, Jayne Richards, A/Prof Simon Hales, Dr Mike Joy, Prof Michael Baker (author affiliations*)Increasing water-related health threats, notably the waterborne campylobacter outbreak in Havelock North, have highlighted failings in NZ’s regulatory system for drinking water. In this blog we consider how the new Water ...
Yes, an election is in the offing – and we all know that elections can be polarising, as parties of the left and right square off against each other. But we should not allow our party and political allegiances to obscure the fact that, in a properly functioning democracy like ...
Dr Sommer Kapitan, Auckland University of Technology, and Dr Patrick van Esch, Auckland University of TechnologyThe Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill will limit vape sales at dairies and service stations to only three flavours, and make vaping illegal in smokefree areas. Vaping laws will be more ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Aug 2, 2020 through Sat, Aug 8, 2020Editor's ChoiceFive Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis Sounds an Urgent AlarmThe encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ motivated many people ...
From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...
National Party leader - Judith CollinsElections often bring out the best and worst in politicians. Some rise to the occasion and provide us with a clear vision for the future. While others wallow in resentment and controversy, over-relying on attack politics to try to attain the interest of voters.That’s been ...
The attempts to sabotage Corbyn's leadership seems likely to do more damage than Corbyn supposedly ever could have done, even if all the stories about him were true:I was reluctant to say anything but this is too important, the full story needs to be told.Don’t let anyone ever tell ...
Good day to everyone. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come here and talk to you all about my concerns regarding the government response to Covid-19. We’ve been living through this pandemic for, what seems like, years. Years and years and years. Why else would the National Party have ...
‘Good Economics for Hard Times’ should be on your reading list. New Zealand does not have a Minister of Labour. It has Ministers of Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety but there is no minister with responsibility for the labour market. That responsibility was abolished in 2012 when ...
Back in the Kyoto era, the international climate change regime included a Clean Development Mechanism to fund emissions reduction projects in developing nations. Essentially someone would certify that a project - e.g. building a windfarm, or installing energy-efficient lightbulbs - would reduce emissions over and above "business-as-usual". The project would ...
Claire Breen, University of WaikatoWith COVID-19 vaccine developers reporting promising results, it is probable we will one day face a major public health question: can the government compel New Zealanders to be vaccinated? Just as inevitably, some people will refuse a vaccine. As we have seen overseas with debates ...
As the classic MMP cartoon goes, just look at who is against it. Yesterday, the Hamilton City Council voted to use STV for its next two local body elections. The move was initially opposed by deputy mayor Geoff Taylor. The reason? Because a voting system which provided accurate representation and ...
On Wednesday evening (which in Parliament’s weird world technically was still Tuesday because urgency had been taken and so time stood still), MPs united to remove a pretty terrible piece of law from our statute books. No real fanfare or fireworks accompanied this action. Indeed, I didn’t even know about it ...
By Geoffrey Miller Prominent refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens says he is disappointed by Judith Collins’ reaction to Immigration New Zealand’s decision to grant refugee status to Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani. Judith Collins told media last month that “there’s a lot of concern in New Zealand about what they see as ...
Hello all. Judith here to talk about how National are going to take the election in September. The National Party prides itself its unity and cohesion. We are working together to deliver for New Zealanders. First of all, ee are a strong team. We are a very strong team. Our ...
Parliament has just begun the adjournment debate, signalling the effective end of this Parliament. So it seems like an appropriate time to assess Labour's term in office. Unfortunately, its a pretty dismal assessment. Labour campaigned on one thing: change. Not just a change in who got the top jobs and ...
Our climate change policies are insufficient to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to independent assessor Climate Action Tracker: New Zealand won’t be carbon neutral by 2050 without much stronger policies, says an independent analysis by Climate Action Tracker. The non-profit highlighted a lack of active ...
That was clearly a huge explosion. Just after the explosion, we see a cloud of ‘fog’ moving outwards at high speed. This is a shockwave, rather similar to that which causes a sonic boom. The ‘fog’ is caused by water condensing from the atmosphere in areas of intense low pressure ...
Can we postpone this year’s election? Quite frankly, the political parties don’t seem ready for it, and aren’t about to offer voters the necessary policy choices for the unprecedented times we’re in. We’ve ended up with a campaign focused on scandal, personality and leadership, with a policy void that’s worse ...
It is the last sitting day of Parliament, and the last question time before the House is dissolved. So, are there any questions about the damning findings of the Hit and Run inquiry, and how the government plans to bring the military back under democratic control? Of course not. ...
Property speculator - John KeyThe National Party must be in dire straits to have to rely on John Key to campaign on their behalf. Not only has the former PM been in the news claiming the recently released unemployment figures aren’t accurate, the fool has also been promoting the opening ...
Nothing Too Drastic: Few would dispute that the Left, today, are few in number. Is their failure to make the public aware of and act upon the manifest failures of the present system attributable to their lack of active energy and intelligence? Or, is it simply because the Left’s ideas ...
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...
After I noticed that my name had been taken yet again in vain by my friendly antagonist Tom Hunter over at No Minister, I went over to see what the fuss was about. Nothing much, but then I discovered a post about the Operation Burnham Inquiry by Psycho Milt. I ...
The COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 was extended today, until December 1st or the tenth sitting day following the resumption of Parliament after the election. It seems like a necessary extension. While we currently have eradicated the virus in New Zealand, it is still banging at the door, and ...
One of the government's key policies - extracted by NZ First as part of its coalition agreement - is the "Provincial Growth Fund": $1 billion a year spent on creating jobs in rural New Zealand. Yesterday the Auditor-General issued a report on the fund, finding that it lacks transparency, and ...
The Warehouse, one of New Zealand's biggest retailers, has decided to stop selling coal. Good. Coal is a dirty, polluting fossil fuel, and the less of it we have out there, the better. Retailers choosing not to sell it sends a clear message that this is not a fuel we ...
The labour market statistics have been released, and they show that unemployment actually dropped last quarter. All told, there are 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when the government took office. But before anyone thinks that the pandemic hasn't put people out of work, remember that this is for ...
Judy KavanaghI’m OK with wearing a CovidCard. But are you? There’s no point me doing it alone.The author modelling a (fake) CovidCard. I didn’t know much about the CovidCard proposal until I read Dave’s latest blog post. You would wear the card visibly on your person. It ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy can’t I use the battery from my electric car ...
As many good things come in threes (as the saying goes), we are happy to announce a third partnership between Skeptical Science and other websites. Fakebook.eco in Brazil is joining Klimafakten.de in Germany and Nauka o Klimacie in Poland to leverage translated rebuttal material and to make the information readily available in other ...
This interview on RNZ with Ross Tucker, the scientist who headed a review of transgender athletes playing in women’s rugby, discusses the findings of the review and what it means for women in sports. The review that World Rugby undertook had a broad range of independent experts and included a ...
Siouxsie WilesThe restrictions in place for metropolitan Melbourne now are in some ways stricter than those that were in force during New Zealand’s COVID-19 lockdown. A curfew is in place and most people have to wear masks when they leave their home – neither of which happened in New ...
On Friday the Hit and Run inquiry delivered a devastating report which found that NZDF had systematically misled Ministers over civilian deaths. The report called into question civilian control of the military (and indeed, military control of the military), a fundamental principle of our democracy. So you'd expect our politicians ...
Let's Do This Again: What else can Jacinda do in a political environment so bereft of imagination and courage but seek a continuance? If she trades upon the extraordinary personal qualities that she has, miraculously, carried with her into the office of Prime Minister, then I, for one, will offer ...
How corrupt are the New Zealand Police? This corrupt: On 10 February 2019, Police attended a family harm incident. The suspect attempted to run the attending officers over in a driveway with his car, narrowly missing them, before fleeing the scene. A short pursuit followed, ending when the suspect stopped ...
Parliament's triennial Review of Standing Orders was released today, and it contains a number of welcome, if minor, improvements. The ones that caught my are: A move to encourage "pre-legislative engagement" - the government consulting widely on legislation before it is introduced - by promising easier passage (e.g. with ...
Lauren Vargo, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonGlaciers around the world are melting — and for the first time, we can now directly attribute annual ice loss to climate change. We analysed two years in which glaciers in New Zealand melted the most in at least four ...
Caroline Shaw, Anja MizdrakE-bikes are everywhere. Sales are booming and predicted to overtake sales of new cars in a few years. There were three times as many e-bikes and e-scooters imported into NZ in 2019 alone as there are e-cars in the entire country. You can’t go out in ...
New Zealand First is facing a difficult struggle to get re-elected, but Josh Van Veen, who was once a researcher for Winston Peters, argues that there is still a very significant section of cultural conservatives who oppose mass immigration and political correctness and might yet be won back over to ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk Many Americans these days seem unable to avoid controversy on practically any topic, so why not embrace the discord and wade into the especially volatile arena of nuclear energy? Advocates claim it’s the only way to meet global climate goals, ...
Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a 2010 SAS killing raid in Afghanistan. The most recent Colmar Brunton ...
In New Zealand, we've just had the report of the Hit and Run inquiry, which found that a New Zealand led raid had accidentally killed civilians, including a child. meanwhile, around the same time, the British SAS was conducting its own raids in Afghanistan, and theirs were a hell of ...
In addition to establishing a process for setting emissions reductions plans, the Zero Carbon Act established a process for managing the risks of climate change. The first part of this is the preparation of regular risk assessments, looking at the risks to our economy, society, environment, and ecology. The first ...
Over on The spinoff, Amnesty International's Meg de Ronde has a response to Friday's release of the Hit and Run report. And in response to Attorney-General David Parker's claim that the government was being "transparent" by releasing the report, its titled "we shouldn’t have to work this hard to get ...
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Rising Seas Could Menace Millions Beyond Shorelines, Study FindsAs climate change raises sea levels, storm surges and high tides will ...
There's an election next month, so you'd be expecting political parties to be telling us what they stand for and what they'd do if they'd win. But while the Greens have given us a detailed policy platform, and National has talked about roads and austerity, Labour, currently leading the polls ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
We've announced that we will expand the Flexi-wage programme to support up to 40,000 more people into work, or to help them start their own business. It's yet another way we're helping keep our economy moving by getting people into work and training. Read on to find out more ...
Business subsidy of on average $7500, and up to $22,000, to hire unemployed New ZealandersUp to 40,000 jobs to be supported by $311 million investment in keeping New Zealanders off the unemployment benefitRing-fenced fund to help unemployed start their own business ...
This week was the last of the 52nd Parliament: a major milestone for our Government and a great opportunity to look back at all the progress we've made for New Zealanders. This week, we increased support for businesses to take on apprentices, improved access to hospital care in Northland, and ...
Kia orana and kia ora koutou katoa. It is a privilege to be able to speak in this adjournment debate and to mark and acknowledge the fact that we are now two years and 10 months into the conclusion of a parliamentary term that has been extraordinary in so many ...
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory.Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste. ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
Law changes to end tenure review and provide for better management of Crown pastoral lands in the South Island high country were considered by Parliament today with the first reading of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill says Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage. ...
Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...
After 102 days we have our first cases of Covid-19 outside of a Managed Isolation or Quarantine facility in New Zealand. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out the details of the case. While we have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario, we have also planned ...
An iwi-Crown approach programme to restore the Raukūmara forest on the East Coast of the North Island and boost employment opportunities for whānau, particularly rangatahi/young people, will receive $34 million funding, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced. “Raukūmara Pae Maunga is a partnership with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, and ...
Government agencies and partners are working closer together to provide more Māori Housing through the Te MAIHI o te Whare Māori – the Māori and Iwi Housing Innovation Framework for Action (MAIHI). MAIHI is a kaupapa Māori approach that drives a system change to give effect and impact on Māori ...
Site work is soon to begin on Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway, the project to replace the former SH3 route through the Manawatū Gorge, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Phil Twyford was today in Woodville at the signing of a formal agreement by members of the Alliance ...
The Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) begins today and will focus on the major economic and social impacts of COVID-19 on the Pacific. FEMM is an important congregation of Economic Ministers and senior officials from around the region, and for the first time, the annual meeting will be ...
Cabinet has approved a formal apology and ex gratia payment to former soldier George Nepata, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. This payment is to recognise the New Zealand Defence Force’s failure to provide Mr Nepata with a safe system of work in April 1989 when, as a result of an ...
A report undertaken by Ministerial Services into Iain Lees-Galloway’s ministerial expenditure has found no evidence of any inappropriate transactions or spending. Ministerial Services undertook a line by line review of all his expenditure, including staff and spouse expenses for the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020. “I commissioned ...
Managed isolation charges for returnees will come into force from 12.01am Tuesday 11th August, after they passed their last cabinet milestone today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. “The new charging system balances the rights of New Zealanders to return home and helps reduce pressure on the managed isolation and quarantine ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Henry Puna have welcomed the completion of phase one in the establishment of a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Island. Negotiations on the text of an ‘Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel ...
The Government has launched a new online, phone and onsite service to help New Zealanders connect to a range of employment support and products for workers and businesses affected by COVID-19, announced Minister of Education Chris Hipkins and Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. Connected.govt.nz is a one-stop-shop for jobseekers, ...
Security guards contracted to the Ministry of Social Development will be paid at least the Living Wage from next month supporting the Government’s commitment towards fair pay and employment conditions, announced Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “MSD was among the first government agencies to pay its employees the living ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today launched Te Mana o te Taiao, the Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy - a way forward that envisions Aotearoa New Zealand as a place where ecosystems are healthy and resilient, and people embrace the natural world. “Many of New Zealand’s plants and wildlife species ...
“Pacific languages, cultures and identity are essential to the health, wellbeing and lifetime success of our Pacific peoples and their communities in Aotearoa. The strength and resilience of Pacific Aotearoa is not only vital to their own prosperity but integral to the prosperity of all New Zealanders, and is particularly ...
· $38 million to help schools cover unexpected costs related to COVID-19 · $69 million upgrade for online learning · $107 million contingency funding to support school construction suppliers facing additional costs due to the lockdown. The Government is releasing $214 million from the COVID-19 response and recovery fund to ...
Despite the Government installing safety upgrades around the country, people should still take care around rail crossings, said Transport Minister Phil Twyford launching Rail Safety Week. Phil Twyford said installing safety infrastructure is crucial, but we are encouraging people to be more careful around trains too. “We’re making good progress ...
The Government is providing a cash injection to help Palmerston North City Council complete a programme to provide 78 social housing units for vulnerable tenants. The $4.7 million to build 28 units in the Papaioea Place redevelopment comes from the $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the Government’s COVID-19 ...
A pest free Banks Peninsula/Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū is one step closer with a $5.11 million boost to accelerate this project and create jobs, announced Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage in Canterbury today. “This is a game changer for this ambitious project to restore the native wildlife and plants on Ōtautahi/Christchurch’s doorstep ...
A Government grant of $6.4 million will expand the Pettigrew Arena in Taradale with new indoor courts of national standard. “The project is likely to take 18 months with approximately 300 people employed through the process,” Grant Robertson said. “The expansion will increase the indoor court space up to 11 ...
The Far North tourist destination of Mangonui is to receive Government funding to improve waterfront infrastructure, open up access to the harbour and improve water quality, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. A total of $6.5 million from the $3 billion set aside in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
A new trades training centre to upskill the local workforce will be built in the South Waikato town of Tokoroa through funding from the Government’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Government will contribute $10.84 million from ...
The Government has agreed to repeal part of the Oranga Tamariki Act subsequent children provisions, Minister for Children Tracey Martin announced today. “There are times when children need to go into care for their safety – the safety and care of children must always be paramount,” Minister Martin said. “But ...
A $1.5 million boost to grow primary mental health and addiction services for Pacific peoples in Auckland, Hamilton and Canterbury will lead to better outcomes for Pacific communities, Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa says. Pasifika Futures has received funding to expand services through The Fono, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest by ...
Twenty-two projects to boost the sustainability and climate resilience of New Zealand’s food and fibres sector have been announced today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The $18m funding will deliver practical knowledge to help farmers and growers use their land more sustainably, meet environmental targets, remain prosperous, and better understand ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson welcomes an initiative that assists employers to get mature workers into New Zealand small businesses. The disadvantages that older people face in the workplace was highlighted in the whole of Government Employment Strategy. In order to address this, a Mature Workers Toolkit has been developed and ...
New Zealand and Australia reaffirmed today the need for the closest possible collaboration as they tackle a global environment shaped by COVID-19, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said. “In these challenging times, our close collaboration with Australia is more vital than ever,” said Mr Peters. Mr Peters and his Australian ...
The recovery and forensic examination of the loader driven by survivor Russell Smith means the underground team are now moving into an area of the Pike River Mine that has not been seen since the explosion, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little said. “The fifth and last robot ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is urging the Prime Minister to recommend that the Governor-General delay the dissolution of Parliament. Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Islay Aitchison says, "Given the considerable uncertainty regarding ...
The Māori Affairs Committee has completed its inquiry into health inequities for Māori and has presented its final report. You can read the committee’s report here . The inquiry was initiated in March 2019 and focused on cancer care. It explored ...
Back in March 17th 2020 - WHO (world health Organisation) warned the global community test, test, test, everyone suspected of COVID 19 virus infections, today our senior epidemiologist James Baker advised to test multiple times, as he states that some ...
Today at noon, Auckland moves into alert level three while the rest of New Zealand moves into alert level two. Here’s how it will affect businesses and what you can do to help.Three days at a higher alert level may not seem like much, but for many fragile businesses still ...
Greenpeace is welcoming the Government’s announcement today of a plan to phase out more single-use plastics, but is calling for the ban to cover a wider range of products, including plastic drink bottles. "The world is drowning in plastic ...
Takeaway Throwaways applauds this morning’s announcement by Associate Minister Eugenie Sage, proposing phase-outs of a wide range of single-use plastics. Items targeted include multiple serviceware products - from bowls, plates, straws, stirrers, ...
John Bolton’s book on his time as Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser – The Room Where it Happened – is worth reading. His forensic training means he sets out clearly his own actions and their motivations. His recording of the responses of others appears scrupulous, albeit disputed. Failings of omission or ...
Parliament is scheduled to be dissolved today for an election on September 19. University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis runs through how and under what circumstances the election will happen – or be delayed.No matter how, Covid-19 is now back in the community. How widespread, and with what consequences, ...
ACT Leader David Seymour wrote to the Speaker last night asking him to postpone the dissolution of Parliament. "Mr Speaker, Terrible news tonight. It occurs to me that Parliament does not need to dissolve before the election. I strongly urge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Weismueller, Doctoral Researcher, University of Western Australia In February, major social media platforms attended a meeting hosted by the World Health Organisation to address coronavirus misinformation. The aim was to catalyse the fight against what the United Nations has called an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Salisbury, Research Associate, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland Government responses to COVID-19 in Australia have received, by and large, bipartisan support. An exception, it seems, is the imposition of restrictions on interstate movement. State borders ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Hoffmann, Professor of Economics and Chair of Behavioural Business Lab, RMIT University Fingers have been pointing all over the place as the country searches for answers to the stubbornly high coronavirus cases and rising death rates in Victoria. While Victorian Premier ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Lakhani, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, La Trobe University Under the stage 4 restrictions enforced throughout metropolitan Melbourne, residents can exercise for one hour each day, within five kilometres of their home. While such restrictions are necessary to reduce the spread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Wilkins, Associate Professor of illegal drug research, Massey University The referendum on legalising recreational cannabis use is just over a month away. Campaigns for and against the change are well under way. We’ve had expert reports from the Helen Clark Foundation, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fernanda Alves, PhD student, Australian National University Saving endangered species from extinction is a challenging job. It requires creative, affordable and effective interventions. In a rare good news story for conservation, we came up with one such method. We want to save ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Krumdieck, Professor and Director, Advanced Energy and Material Systems Lab, University of Canterbury CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barry Oliver, Associate Professor, The University of Queensland Insider trading comes in two main forms: arguably legal and clearly illegal. But, as with drugs in sport, it’s hard to tell when arguably legal ends and clearly illegal begins. It is generally accepted ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frances Di Lauro, Senior Lecturer, Department of Writing Studies, University of Sydney In the year then of our Lord 1348, there happened at Florence, the finest city in all Italy, a most terrible plague… Giovanni Boccaccio introduces his acclaimed collection ...
"The Government must share open, transparent data," according to ACT Leader David Seymour "Prime Minister has stated she knew of a Family with COVID-19 at 4pm on Tuesday afternoon. A simple question is whether the four people were all ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Live Updates for August 12, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Get me on Stewart@thespinoff.co.nz7.00am: What you need to know Auckland has four new cases of Covid-19 – all in the community. There is no ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Resurgence plan triggered by Covid-19 community transmission, questions about what it will mean for the election, and Christchurch rest home lockdown appears to be unrelated.The first new cases of Covid-19 outside of managed isolation have been announced, triggering a resurgence ...
The only Kiwi woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming, Jean Hurring, has passed away in her 90th year. She was gentle and generous, teaching countless New Zealanders how to swim - but had a formidable, determined streak. Jean Hurring will be remembered as a kind, gentle and humble woman ...
Trade Me, New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds market, had already integrated its core software tools into the Slack collaboration platform before Covid-19 hit, and saw the true value of that when it shifted seamlessly to remote working under lockdown. Paolo Ragone, chief technology officer for Trade Me, told Newsroom the ...
The Ruddelle case judgment reflects judicial recognition of how women in abusive relationships are caught in social and systemic entrapment, writes Julia Tolmie Women who use lethal defensive force against their violent partners are a rarity. Most women in abusive relationships, if there is a homicide, will be the ones ...
Toi Iti responds to a beautiful book of photographs of sparsely populated King Country towns Step one, take land. Strip it, stack the wood, start a farm. Now build a town! Post Office, school, chapel. Milk flowing? Build a dairy factory. Need a bank? Got it. Shop? Yep. Build some ...
Despite warnings, many Kiwis would not have expected the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community. Now, the virus has put New Zealand on the back foot and added another election-year twist, Sam Sachdeva writes. It was an inevitability, New Zealand was told. Not if, “just a matter of when”. Director-General ...
With their party hovering on the 5 percent threshold in the polls, Greens co-leaders discussed their accomplishments in Government and the party's ambitious pitch to the electorate. ...
We think we've crushed Covid-19 - what other diseases are the country battling that could do with big injections of money and effort? New Zealand has more or less kicked Covid-19 to the kerb, but what about other diseases we're trying to eradicate? Today The Detail looks at where we’ve got ...
The return of Covid-19 to Auckland and the Level 3 lockdown are expected to hit hospitality and retail stocks, and play a part in the Reserve Bank's new Monetary Policy Statement ...
Beyond the direct and practical implications, more significant for the eventual outcome is the effect on the electorate’s psyche, writes Ben Thomas.It’s tempting to reach for easy metaphors with the re-emergence of Covid-19 just weeks before the election: a horror villain rising from the dead; a restless spirit summoned again, ...
Aotearoa surpassed 100 days without a case of community transmission of Covid-19. Last night that virus-free streak ended and we’re moving back up the alert levels. Siouxsie Wiles explains why that has to happen.For months now, we’ve been intercepting cases of Covid-19 at the border. But just as has happened ...
The confirmation of community transmission has prompted a swift move up the alert level ladder. Here are the critical questions about Auckland’s move to Covid-19 level three lockdown, answered.What are the new alert levels – and where do they apply?Auckland enters alert level three at midday today, Wednesday August 12. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Nationals are demanding major changes to the government’s controversial new higher education fee plan, declaring it would disadvantage regional communities and students as it stands. The Nationals party room on Monday discussed the JobReady ...
Auckland moves back into near-lockdown at Level 3 while the rest of the country shifts gears to Level 2. Here's a refresher course on what you'll have to do differently now. With Auckland moving to Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions, a range of public venues and workplaces will close in our largest ...
Analysis: Our testing regime for Covid-19 will often be several days or weeks behind, underscoring the need to act as if we're two weeks ahead of where we are, Marc Daalder reports On March 25, the day New Zealand moved into Level 4 lockdown, the official Covid-19 case tally was ...
The prime minister has announced Auckland will go into alert level three, and the rest of the country alert level two, after four cases of the coronavirus were detected in a family with no known link to overseas travel or existing cases. Via the Science Media Centre, the experts on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The federal government has clashed with the Royal Commission into Aged Care, strongly rejecting the claim by senior counsel assisting the inquiry Peter Rozen that it had no specific COVID-19 plan for the sector. Aged ...
Four positive cases of covid-19 outside of managed isolation or quarantine have been reported and New Zealand has activated a resurgence plan. After 102 days without community transmission they are the first cases acquired from an unknown source, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced tonight. Ardern said New Zealand must take ...
Auckland will enter Level 3 at noon on Wednesday while the rest of the country moves to Level 2. How will the Government manage the logistics of a regional lockdown? In response to the confirmation of four cases of Covid-19 in Auckland, of unknown origins and with no known connection to ...
After 102 days without community transmission, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed New Zealand has its first Covid-19 case acquired from an unknown source. ...
After 102 days without community transmission, Jacinda Ardern confirmed New Zealand has its first Covid-19 case acquired from an unknown source. Look back over our live updates. ...
New Zealand has been shocked back into a state of Covid-19 infection with community transmission detected in four confirmed cases from one family in South Auckland outside the isolation and quarantine system. Auckland will be put into Level 3 alert from noon on Wednesday, with all schools closed, people required to work from ...
Auckland to move to alert Level 3 'lockdown' from Noon on Wednesday - with the rest of NZ put into Level 2 - after a community outbreak in South Auckland New Zealand has been shocked back into a state of Covid-19 infection with community transmission detected in four confirmed cases from one ...
After 102 days without community transmission, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed New Zealand has its first Covid-19 case acquired from an unknown source. ...
After 101 days without any reported community transmission in New Zealand, cases without any link to overseas travel have been reported.There are four cases of community transmission in one family, Ashley Bloomfield has announced.A man in his 50s with no link to overseas travel or other known cases tested positive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government and the Australian Defence Force are bracing for reputational damage to the military from damning findings in an imminent report on Australian Special Forces’ behaviour in Afghanistan. The report, expected within a month, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government and the Australian Defence Force are bracing for reputational damage to the military from damning findings in an imminent report on Australian Special Forces’ behaviour in Afghanistan. The report, expected within a month, ...
The National Party board will meet "as soon as possible" to discuss allegations surrounding its member Roger Bridge and a late-night call on talkback radio. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zachariah Wylde, Postdoctoral Researcher in Evolutionary Biology, UNSW As time passes, our fertility declines and our bodies start to fail. These natural changes are what we call ageing. In recent decades, we’ve come leaps and bounds in treating and preventing some of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janneke Berecki-Gisolf, Associate Professor, Accident Research Centre, Monash University COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria have had a marked effect on how and where we spend our time. For many people, home has become the workplace, and for most school-aged children, home is also ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Wilson, Associate Professor in Education, University of Sydney To fix inequality in Australian education, governments should fully fund all non-government primary schools, according to former former NSW Education Minister and now head of the UNSW Gonski Institute, Adrian Piccoli. In an ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Monash University Over the weekend, Victorian Education Minister, James Merlino, announced the individual impact of COVID-19 will be taken into account for every Year 12 student in the state when calculating their VCE score and ATAR. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Clift, Teaching Fellow and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne The arrest this week of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong reveals the repressive reality of the city’s new made-in-China national security law. It also sends a sharp signal to ...
NZ’s domestic economy is tracking much better than many predicted, as it adjusts to something closer to normality after the Covid-19 lockdown. Just how well may emerge when the Reserve Bank delivers its verdict this week on whether there is any need for new monetary policy moves. Bank economists are ...
With Jacinda Ardern staying quiet on how she'll vote in this year's cannabis referendum, Judith Collins is putting on the pressure, saying all of the National caucus will vote against it. ...
An Auckland psychic healer yesterday announced she would be running for parliament. Less than 24 hours later, she wasn’t. So what happened? And why is she accusing Jacinda Ardern of treason? Stewart Sowman-Lund investigates. It’s been a big year for Jeanette Wilson. In June, as the Covid-19 crisis was continuing to spiral ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. “I think you have to recognise money comes from somewhere. It doesn’t just come from a big money tree.” Judith Collins 2020 “Someone has to pay the bill – there aren’t little pixies at the bottom of the garden printing cash.” John Key 2009Keith ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has reported one new case of covid-19 in managed isolation today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the new case was a man in his 20s who arrived from Melbourne on July 30. He was in isolation at ...
National's newly released policy also includes the creation of two new national parks, establishing the Kermadec marine sanctuary, and revising Tahr management. ...
Content warning: This pieces includes discussion of harassment, stalking and violence.‘I don’t sleep. I’m terrified.’ Sophia shares her story with Emily Writes.Sophia* was 19 and a talented swimmer. She was teaching swimming lessons at an Auckland public pool with a gym attached and one day, while she was using the ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk As Guam’s health statistics continue to mount, covid-19 has hit the first family, reports the Pacific Island Times. Following Governor Lou Leon Guerrero’s disclosure last night that she had tested positive for covid-19, her son Joaquin Cook, president of the Bank of Guam, revealed he has ...
Road safety charity Brake has launched a Virtual Fleet Exhibition for fleet operators and suppliers, celebrating fleet safety and sharing best practice. The exhibition is part of Brake’s Global Fleet Champions initiative and runs for the whole of ...
With more than 1,000 local businesses on its books, MyHR saw firsthand the pressure the Covid-19 fallout put on New Zealand’s SMEs, as well as having its own business model tested to the limit.New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown had a seismic effect on human resources departments. In order to stay afloat ...
In an interview on Monday, Ms Collins said: We will not let DHBs limit or allocate health treatment based on race, which is what we’ve seen Labour allow some DHBs to do. That is really important that we cannot have that. It has to be on need and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caroline Gargett, NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Head of Women’s Health Theme, The Ritchie Centre, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Hudson Institute Endometriosis is a debilitating, chronic condition that affects 1 in 10 women worldwide. It occurs when tissue which has similar properties ...
National leader Judith Collins says allegations surrounding the party's board member Roger Bridge is a matter for the party to deal with internally. ...
Open mike 28/07/2020 
Aotearoa surpassed 100 days without a case of community transmission of Covid-19. Last night that virus-free streak ended and we’re moving back up the alert levels. For months now, we’ve been intercepting cases of Covid-19 at the border. But just as has happened in many other countries, somehow the sneaky ...14 mins ago
Today’s content Community transmission Ben Thomas (Spinoff): What the Covid resurgence means for the election campaign Luke Malpass (Stuff): In this new lockdown, Labour competence will be key Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): NZ’s bubble bursts as Covid returns Jason Walls (Herald): ‘Extremely disappointed’: National Party leader Judith Collins blasts Govt; says it let Covid-19 back ...1 hour ago
Today the National Party have annouced plans to get tough on gangs. Again. We at MyThinks thought it was important to identify a list of gangs the National Party were planning on getting tough on. National have said if they are elected their new “The Gang Unit” gang unit will ...3 hours ago
In the musical Wicked, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, the hit song Defying Gravity comes at the end of the first act and talks of how one woman (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) breaks from what’s expected to strike off on her own path. ...15 hours ago
Back in June, Newsroom published a well-investigated piece about how the Department of Conservation had waived rehabilitation requirements for a mining company. Now, one of the company's directors - specifically David Wong-Tung, who just happens to be Judith Collins' husband and the director of environmental pillagers Oravida - is threatening ...18 hours ago
Accused - Jami-Lee RossNobody would think poorly of you if you wrote former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross off as just another crackpot! After all, now that he’s hitched his Advance NZ wagon to Billy Te Kahika’s crazy Public Party, there’s little chance of him ever redeeming himself or recovering ...19 hours ago
What to do to improve the public perception of the newly elected National party leader, when her performance so far has no doubt disappointed the expectations of her supporters? The answer is to get a National-supporting newspaper (the Herald) to organise a poll that could be guaranteed to provide an ...1 day ago
There are only a few days left to make a submission on Statistics New Zealand's consultation on sex and gender identity statistical standards. This represents a really important step for recognising the very real diversity of gender, including people with no gender, and ensuring everyone has the option to see ...2 days ago
Since finishing the Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book, I’ve frequently dipped into that 176-page clip-art library, reshaping the cartoons to fit the 1920 x 1080 pixel format for Powerpoint presentations. I’ve also adapted many of the cartoons for the Cranky Uncle video series. Over the last few weeks, a few people ...2 days ago
...4 days ago
...4 days ago
From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...4 days ago
The attempts to sabotage Corbyn's leadership seems likely to do more damage than Corbyn supposedly ever could have done, even if all the stories about him were true: I was reluctant to say anything but this is too important, the full story needs to be told.Don’t let anyone ever tell ...4 days ago
6 days ago
by Don Franks This talk was given to the Wellington Anti Capitalist Alliance, fifteen years ago. The ultimate weapons of mass destruction so far seen on this planet have been used just twice, 60 years ago this month. August 6 and August 9 1945 witnessed the US atomic bombing ...6 days ago
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...2 days ago
The Green Party has revealed its Homes for All Plan, which lays the foundation for an Aotearoa where everyone has a warm, dry and affordable home. ...3 days ago
Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...2 hours ago
The New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is urging the Prime Minister to recommend that the Governor-General delay the dissolution of Parliament. Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Islay Aitchison says, "Given the considerable uncertainty regarding ...22 mins ago
Today at noon, Auckland moves into alert level three while the rest of New Zealand moves into alert level two. Here’s how it will affect businesses and what you can do to help.Three days at a higher alert level may not seem like much, but for many fragile businesses still ...42 mins ago
John Bolton’s book on his time as Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser – The Room Where it Happened – is worth reading. His forensic training means he sets out clearly his own actions and their motivations. His recording of the responses of others appears scrupulous, albeit disputed. Failings of omission or ...2 hours ago
The Minister of Health says they are working with lawyers on making masks mandatory in Auckland as the city prepares for alert level 3. ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Weismueller, Doctoral Researcher, University of Western Australia In February, major social media platforms attended a meeting hosted by the World Health Organisation to address coronavirus misinformation. The aim was to catalyse the fight against what the United Nations has called an ...2 hours ago
The only Kiwi woman to win an Olympic medal in swimming, Jean Hurring, has passed away in her 90th year. She was gentle and generous, teaching countless New Zealanders how to swim - but had a formidable, determined streak. Jean Hurring will be remembered as a kind, gentle and humble woman ...5 hours ago
Trade Me, New Zealand's largest online auction and classifieds market, had already integrated its core software tools into the Slack collaboration platform before Covid-19 hit, and saw the true value of that when it shifted seamlessly to remote working under lockdown. Paolo Ragone, chief technology officer for Trade Me, told Newsroom the ...5 hours ago
The Ruddelle case judgment reflects judicial recognition of how women in abusive relationships are caught in social and systemic entrapment, writes Julia Tolmie Women who use lethal defensive force against their violent partners are a rarity. Most women in abusive relationships, if there is a homicide, will be the ones ...5 hours ago
Toi Iti responds to a beautiful book of photographs of sparsely populated King Country towns Step one, take land. Strip it, stack the wood, start a farm. Now build a town! Post Office, school, chapel. Milk flowing? Build a dairy factory. Need a bank? Got it. Shop? Yep. Build some ...5 hours ago
Despite warnings, many Kiwis would not have expected the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community. Now, the virus has put New Zealand on the back foot and added another election-year twist, Sam Sachdeva writes. It was an inevitability, New Zealand was told. Not if, “just a matter of when”. Director-General ...5 hours ago
With their party hovering on the 5 percent threshold in the polls, Greens co-leaders discussed their accomplishments in Government and the party's ambitious pitch to the electorate. ...5 hours ago
A report on NZTA has raised serious questions about major contracts a senior manager and his friend were involved in. ...5 hours ago
We think we've crushed Covid-19 - what other diseases are the country battling that could do with big injections of money and effort? New Zealand has more or less kicked Covid-19 to the kerb, but what about other diseases we're trying to eradicate? Today The Detail looks at where we’ve got ...5 hours ago
The return of Covid-19 to Auckland and the Level 3 lockdown are expected to hit hospitality and retail stocks, and play a part in the Reserve Bank's new Monetary Policy Statement ...5 hours ago
Auckland moves back into near-lockdown at Level 3 while the rest of the country shifts gears to Level 2. Here's a refresher course on what you'll have to do differently now. With Auckland moving to Level 3 Covid-19 restrictions, a range of public venues and workplaces will close in our largest ...10 hours ago
Analysis: Our testing regime for Covid-19 will often be several days or weeks behind, underscoring the need to act as if we're two weeks ahead of where we are, Marc Daalder reports On March 25, the day New Zealand moved into Level 4 lockdown, the official Covid-19 case tally was ...10 hours ago
Auckland will enter Level 3 at noon on Wednesday while the rest of the country moves to Level 2. How will the Government manage the logistics of a regional lockdown? In response to the confirmation of four cases of Covid-19 in Auckland, of unknown origins and with no known connection to ...11 hours ago
New Zealand has been shocked back into a state of Covid-19 infection with community transmission detected in four confirmed cases from one family in South Auckland outside the isolation and quarantine system. Auckland will be put into Level 3 alert from noon on Wednesday, with all schools closed, people required to work from ...13 hours ago
NZ’s domestic economy is tracking much better than many predicted, as it adjusts to something closer to normality after the Covid-19 lockdown. Just how well may emerge when the Reserve Bank delivers its verdict this week on whether there is any need for new monetary policy moves. Bank economists are ...16 hours ago
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300066798/heres-why-government-buying-tiwai-point-is-not-a-crazy-idea
Sam Stubbs makes a good case for nz buying tiwai smelter,
I'd add if they can pick it up for a dollar they could sell a share of it to kiwis.
Stubbs says the Manapouri electricity will go to waste if Tiwai Point isn't using it. Wrong now, and even wronger when grid upgrades that are already underway get completed.
Stubbs buys into that low-carbon high-purity sales spin. Wrong. That Tiwai Point is sucking so much electricity from NZ electricity supply is keeping the coal going into Huntly. Close Tiwai Point, and the coal boilers at Huntly will very likely close very soon after. So in fairness, we should be attributing Huntly's coal-derived emissions to Tiwai Point.
The smelting process also releases CO2 (and other nasties) as a result of the carbon anodes that are consumed in the smelting process. As I understand it, Tiwai Point's performance in this part of the process is middling. Rio Tinto are underway with commercialising an alternative process that doesn't have these carbon emissions, but using that process will require retrofitting the whole smelter. Which will reduce any residual value existing carbon-emitting "assets" may still have.
The "dollar" price Stubbs tosses around would presumably have hidden in it the hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities associated with environmental problems at the Tiwai Point site.
'Sam Stubbs makes a good case for nz buying tiwai smelter, '
The debate has moved on from this and the facts show that it is not an idea to fly. Forget this one, and think of what else could use the workforce of seasoned practical men, accompanied by abundant electricity.
Rod Oram sizes up the situation well – thoroughly and coolly. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/oram-how-the-global-aluminium-market-killed-tiwai-point
Interesting article. The China production is huge- are they aiming for a monopoly hold on the market with all the strategic and destructive potential that implies? Rio may not want to shoot itself in the foot but by default will it be shooting a lot of other industries and national interests. Warplanes?
I am really getting sick of these opinion pieces on what is supposed to be a news website. But Stubbs is wrong about Tiwai on so many fronts its really a joke. Tiwai produces "high quality aluminium" because the smelting process is old and really inefficient. The world production of aluminium in 2018 was 60,000,000 metric tons. China has huge numbers of smelters and produces 33,000,000 metric tons while NZ's sole smelter produces 337,000 metric tons. ie NZ produces 0.5% of the world's production. NZ isn't even a pimple on the backside of this elephant. As well as that China has all of the manufacturing infrastructure underneath that to use the aluminium. The NZ smelter has been under threat for years and years for very basic reasons – it isn't making money and its output is minscule. The best thing NZ can do with the power from Manapouri is to eventually connect it to the Transpower grid but that is going to take a few years.
It's already connected to the grid. It's just that the part of the grid between Invercargill and the Waitaki area wasn't really grunty enough to take the 600ishMW that will be freed up next year. But an upgrade was already underway before the closure announcement, and is no doubt being accelerated.
Where are you going to sell the Aluminium and buy the bauxite.
No economic viability even for the biggest mining company in the World .
This happened yesterday: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122262318/toddler-critically-injured-at-queenstown-daycare
Now the thing to notice is that the reporter fails to inform the public what actually happened to cause the injury – or injuries. Even worse, the reporter is evidently too stupid to consider how other parents who leave their kids at that daycare centre are going to feel about the cover-up.
At the very least the reporter and Stuff's editor ought to be considering the public interest in the situation. Is privacy law being used to perform the cover-up? Then say so! What part of morality do you dorks not get??
Yes, yes, the ritualised issuance of politically-correct banalities has been rigorously adhered to, we get that.
Who do they believe are going to inform them, if not those who were there, on the spot, supervising the kids? Pathetic. Disgusting.
You can imagine how thrilled the other parents will be to see this. If I was one of them I would yank my kids out of there pronto. I wonder how those parents will react to being frozen out by the manager/owner and media.
The Worksafe shadow over all – is it more talked about than evidenced? Are they actually operating under their own aegis – making sure that any work they do results in safe outcomes – that match their contracts in a satisfactory and positive manner. Minister Andrew Little this morning sounded like a kindly uncle as I listened while I worked.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018756842/andrew-little-on-worksafe
The thing I am hearing regularly from agencies supposed to be arms of the government is that they decide what they will investigate on the test of – 'Can it be tested and won in Court' and so, be a plus mark in their activity success tickbox. If not, 'There is not enough evidence to pursue this matter'. They all need to be pursued by eager citizens, noses to the ground and teeth at the ready to nip them on their fat butts. (Or very thin ones because their personal drives go into the new middle-class memes of personal fitness and setting goals of running marathons, bicycle riding in lycra etc).
Worksafe has been defunded under National as well as reorganized so the enforcement side hasn't got the funds to investigate or prosecute let alone prevention.Pike River.
If the matter has already been prosecuted by the police, what would worksafe be adding?
Half of Queenstown will know by now what happened. Certainly the parents with kids in that daycare will. There's no public interest here that requires immediate media coverage of the details, and it works against the public interest to publish too quickly and then find out the details were wrong because the people the journo was talking to were still in shock and/or dealing with the event and didn't have their facts straight. We see this with rapid emergencies fairly often now, where MSM rush to publish before they've confirmed what happened. It takes time to get a reliable and truthful narrative.
The incident happened Monday morning, the report was published late Monday afternoon. I'd expect more information in the next few days once the police, WorkSafe, and the Ministry have started on their processes.
The (r)evolution pending: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/122262881/why-do-kiwis-want-the-economic-system-reformed
Yet you can bet both major parties will duck the issue! Labour because it can now coast to victory on its poll ratings. National because it is the party of business as usual.
National will now start whining like the drug addict who needs their regular hit. How feeble their calls for re-opening the borders are will be amusing to see.
The prospect of Labour ramming anything anywhere is zilch. Think limp dishrag.
Got that right! Don't spook the horses, Grant! He's done well, to my surprise, presenting centrism as a benign economic model to the electorate, and it complements the PM's mastermind managerial style nicely. Expect them to rise above bland though, spicing it up with a few futuristic signals in the next few weeks – carefully designed not to provoke expectation of drastic change.
Unsurprising to see a libertarian journo like Malpass struggle to articulate any other approach to changing an economy than cutting taxes and protections. No imagination.
An unfortunate name for that journo surely. I'm rereading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – it would be a name that might occur there. Fact stranger than fiction.
Today, will we see National’s internal polling leaked to the media and endorsed by its Leader? If so, who will be the recipient of the info? What will the National tacticians decide? Will it be a shot across the bow or one in the foot? I’ve ordered extra popcorn.
Judith was planning to release them yesterday, but her sharpie ran out of ink
To be expected when you borrow Gerry's.
If the internal polls were good, they would have been released before now,.expect polling figures that did not come off a poll
Listening to recent interviews with Musk's mate Thiel, is mindbending . It is hard to grasp what he believes in as he makes ambiguous, confusing responses. The world consists of only three doors to choose from ?
The power of money to have those in power then court you, yet the Mont Pelerin Society describe Thiel as a philanthropist. https://youtu.be/IXG2F0a6I28
For Musk, the arrogant prat to make that tweet and pass it off as a joke reminds me of Collins and her similar attempt
Things haven't gone well for the indigenous people of Bolivia since the coup
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/14/what-the-coup-against-evo-morales-means-to-indigenous-people-like-me
Under Evo's term of indigenous socialism has been "the majority population has, for the first time in their lives, lived above poverty.
The achievements were more than economic. Bolivia made a great leap forward in indigenous rights."
Evo’s crime.
“My sin was being indigenous, leftist, and anti-imperialist,” Evo said after being coerced into resigning this week.
His replacement, Jeanine Añez Chávez, agreed. “I dream of a Bolivia free of satanic indigenous rites,” the opposition senator tweeted in 2013, “the city is not for the Indians who should stay in the highlands or the Chaco!!!” After Evo’s departure, Chavez declared herself interim president while holding up a large bible, though she failed to get the required quorum in the senate to do so.
Maybe Collins sees herself as a Chavez when she vowed to "crush the other lot", meaning just about all! Would she also burn the indigenous flag that was hung upside down behind Mueller while ripping the UN Agenda 30 to shreds. Could Collins stick to NZ alligning to the seventeen 2030 goals ? Can you hear her saying,
"We resolve to build a better future for all people, including the millions who have been denied the chance to lead decent, dignified and rewarding lives……We can be the first generation to succeed in ending poverty; just as we may be the last to have a chance of saving the planet."
well he has spoken the truth, nothing more nothing left.
but hey, green clean electric cars, no fossil fuel mining…..well, when one does not count lithium mining as 'fossil fuel'.
So he is not joking, he is literally just saying the truth. We can coup anyone.
Musk is trolling clueless idiots with a predisposition to think 'Tesla batteries use lots of lithium -hmm, Bolivia has lots of lithium and just had a coup = Tesla bad' who have zero understanding of lithium supply chains and technical details of battery chemistry.
https://cleantechnica.com/2020/07/26/tesla-battery-materials-production-lithium-nickel-sourcing/
https://theconversation.com/bolivian-lithium-why-you-should-not-expect-any-white-gold-rush-in-the-wake-of-morales-overthrow-127139
Are you aware on mobile version some of these articles are not readable. I cant read either this one or Mickeys about Labour being better economic managers without switching to desktop version.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
thanks. Have moved this to Open Mike so it's easier to keep track of. Lynn (sysop) is aware of the issue, I will let him know about today's one too.
I dunno if this makes any difference, but I've noticed it's mostly Mickeys pieces.
That’s a hilarious comment 😀
Probably more noticeable because micky is writing more posts than anyone else.
Try it again now. Between us, weka and I have both played with the tweet.
My cell (Samsung S10 running Chrome on Android 10) requested that I whitelisted the page at the client side – probably because it was picking up the tweet. Try to reload the page and see what happens. Also tell me what kind of device you’re using.
Works for me now, cheers. (Chrome, Samsung).
how do you white list on a phone?
Just checked, restriction on my phone are disabled, so that means there is no blacklisting happening?
Finally some true vision, reminiscent of old…world leading and full of common sense and undeterred by the fact it hasnt been done before…this is the type of thinking we need.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018756855/lake-onslow-hydro-project-pros-and-cons
The thinking has always been there,for pumped storage between two natural reservoirs called Tekapo and Pukeko.
The fly in the ointment was the breaking up of generators,with little thought as to the future beyond shareholder entitlement.
Sustainable Energy forum’s hydro expert, Alastair Barnett, estimates that the Onslow scheme could provide 5000 gigawatt-hours storage. But a simpler pumped storage system between Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki could provide over half Onslow’s dry-year storage with minimal construction cost – the two lakes were originally designed to do exactly that.
That scheme was precluded by the separation of ownership within the Tekapo-Waitaki hydro scheme. Genesis owns and manages Tekapo, Meridian owns the power stations below Tekapo. Each gentailer manages their part of the resource to maximise profit and shareholder value, not to minimise financial or environmental cost.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK2007/S00524/green-the-grid-no-use-mixed-energy-sources-to-reach-true-carbon-zero.htm
Who was the bright spark who split them up?
Bill English so he could privatise them and grab a large dividend ( repalced by borrowing) for tax cuts for the high earning mates. The electricity industry in New Zealand could do with a ground zero reset and rstructure to eliminate all the market inefficencies of privatisation. 29 power company CEO's – really? We used to run the lot out of the 8 floors of Rutherford house in Wellington.
Pumped hydro not new or ground breaking but the vision of the scheme incorporating wetlands and the scale are….the impact on the workings of the electricity market in NZ is also a great opportunity to revisit the profit motive, particularly in light of the recent finding on 'spillage' and wholesale pricing.
There appears a difference of opinion between Barnett and Bardsley on the viability of Tekapo and Pukaki around suitable geology but I expect those differences can be evaluated.
The cost appears to me to be overemphasised considering construction time is estimated to be 6-8 years…thats an annual outlay of approx half a billion per annum….weve just spent 16 billion on wage subsidies in less than 5 months.
I heard Orams piece on RNZ where he questioned the ability of (any) gov to plan a multigenerational project however the decision and construction can occur inside a decade…potentially inside the term of one administration.
In any event, we have wasted numerous years the decisions on long term infrastructure and energy provision and cannot be delayed any longer….and that system must be as close to zero carbon as possible.
Barry Soper going full conspiracy theory:
To be clear, Barry is insinuating the Labour Party has influenced the spacing of polling booths in order to win the election.
Lunatic.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12351444
As long as there’s no red tape to send subliminal messages.
Thank heavens incognito we've got you – you're onto it. Probably people will see some red arrows soon and it will show how pervasive the Labour propagamda is. It's all around you, like a red rag to a bull. Better put – /sarc.
Probably says alot more about the NZ Herald's quality of trite shite selected to pass off as news. The eyebrows!
He's been reporting on elections for decades, so I'm sure he knows who really makes these decisions.
But his readers/listeners might not. So he feeds them BS he knows is false. That fails the most basic test of ethics, and he should be facing disciplinary action from NZME. Lying about our democratic process is unacceptable.
Soapy Baz still struggling with the old this is inside, this is outside thing. Come to the door Soapy, we'll run through it again.
If Soper is insinuating the Labour Party has influenced the spacing of polling booths in order to win the election he is an idiot.
I've sent in a complaint. I hope others do as well.
One sentence (not too rude!) is enough. Soper's piece is not "bad opinion", it is simply false.
Maybe he was joking.
The fool thinks that no covid now means no covid in 8 weeks. And yet if we had a new outbreak at election time and hadn't made these plans, Captain Hindsight will be cursing the government's foolishness. 🙄
Yep – that is clearly the thinking behind it. To allow for the possibility that there IS some community transmission in 8 weeks.
If Soper really wanted to make mischief (which he does), rather than sound like a daft conspiracy theorist, he would argue that this forward planning shows how little confidence the government has that they can keep Covid out and that it's all 'shambolic'etc. etc. Missed opportunity there Bazza – I wonder whether next week's cheque might be going to a more competent propagandist?
"“When my eyebrow goes up, it’s a joke.”"
Comedy (and political) gold!
Every time those eyebrows rise, she's
telling porkiesjoking.https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300067642/election-2020-judith-collins-says-she-was-joking-when-falsely-saying-no-one-escaped-while-she-was-corrections-minister
Have you watched the video interview, weka? You must, and especially focus on the end where she addresses "Henry".
I don't normally watch vid of her, but that one is kind of intense. She's trying to make a joke, but her eyes are seriously dark when she speaks to Henry and then she puts a smile on it. But those eyes just before the smile. She's like that earlier in the piece with someone else too (Tova I think).
Is she always like that?
I think I tore an eyebrow muscle when watching that. Did she say Monthly Pie-a-ton? Getting hungry now and licking the salt from my empty popcorn bowl.
I noticed that early in the piece her eyebrows went right up as she was saying that she cared about the thousands of NZers about to lose their jobs…
In fact, I think we need to note every time in future when her eyebrow rises while she is trying to speak seriously and convincingly. She does it all the time..
Has she got rogue eyebrows do you think? That if studied will give accurate indications of the truthfulness of her statements. Cripes, what a disadvantage for a politician. Some bird watchers in the UK who are more interested in showy stats than being informed experts are called 'twitchers'. I imagine Collins is more interested in numbers of voters rather than deep interest in us as people and citizens, so she is a sort of twitcher; which may explain her eyebrow movements. If it is a Pavlovian response (moving from birds to dogs) she may be unable to control it and so bird fanciers might have to keep their eyes on this twitcher, who could end up going to the dogs! Do hope you followed this. It's all a deep code you know.
“When my eyebrow goes up, it’s a joke.”
Eyebrow up or not, Collins was clearly joking when she said that, but has made a rod for her own eyebrow. Everything she says from now on will be parsed in an 'Are you joking now?' context.
Under Collins’ ‘leadership‘, the National Party’s puddle of ‘truthfulness‘ has dried up – just can’t trust them. Mind you, ‘She’s a handsome Tory’
"I don't understand how that's funny, can you explain how it's funny?"
That was so funny i had to watch it twice. I wonder if someone should explain to Collins why this is funny? I guess she has staff for that.
I was terrified she was going to turn to camera and look at me.
The Medusa effect?
This was a sub headline in this story about 10 mins ago:
Unfortunately it's now been changed to this:
"Interestingly", when Collins made the claim to her National Party faithful audience, her eyebrows didn't "go up".
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/judith-collins-hits-out-at-shane-jones-avoids-talking-about-political-polls.html
I thought her eyebrows were always up?
Judith statistics – 436000 and no eyebrows were raised ? Was that a plucked or tweeked guess?
Maybe she has leaked info because it does not seem to correlate with Treasury's weekly data indicators.
Prior, Treasury presented at the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) 2020. "We still expect to see a large contraction in growth in the June quarter, followed by a partial rebound in the September quarter, and a further economic recovery afterwards."
However there was upward activity for June. Treasury responded to the need for the more immediate need of pertinent, economy indicator reports, as complementary to the less frequent quarterly GDP ; hence using the NZAC index ( The GDP not due for this quarter until September 17, 2020).
"The NZAC does nonetheless point to some upside to those initial estimates. Our initial estimate for June quarter GDP was based on longer periods of time at higher alert levels. We’ve also made a quicker progression to Alert level 1 than what we assumed at BEFU, and therefore activity has been able to resume more quickly.
https://treasury.govt.nz/publications/weu/weekly-economic-update-24-july-2020-html
High-frequency activity indicators continued to hold steady in July along with other upward expansion indicated on Treasury's dashboard.
Current Stats NZ statistics suggests to Treasury that, " employment continued to hold up in June (Figure 2). For the week ended 21 June, the most accurate measure (which lags by 27 days) showed the total number of paid jobs up 4.5% on the same week in 2019. At the industry level, paid jobs in the primary industries were up 10.1% on last year, goods-producing jobs were up 2.5%, and services jobs were up 3.1% on 2019 after falling by around 80,000 between March and April 2020. "
How did Judith calculate her prediction ?
Is it my computer or is that the opposite to a black hole?
Please explain your comment or are you trying to be pernicious because ……?
My computer shows a completely blank screen in the middle of your comment. When you look at the screen is there a big white space or is it filled with graphs and content you've put up? Please advise. It would be a help for me to know.
I think that is because it is a link to a PDF.
Try this instead: https://treasury.govt.nz/system/files/2020-07/covid-19-econ-dashboard-24jul2020.pdf
I get this message:
and then a box to click to go there.
Thanks solkta I have Firefox but didn't get that message.
Thanks incognito I tried that link and got some really interesting artwork snaking over various backgrounds.
I'm having trouble with pdfs – can't get many of them. I have to ask my associate what to do and write down in a book so I can transfer the instructions to the particular part of my brain which is dedicated to keeping up with this wonderful technology that is so helpful in showing us how far we have dipped or risen every day, and that is not just referring to Covid-19. Anyway if I don't do it today, it might have changed by tomorrow, and then I have had an hour or so for some other activity that might be more useful. However I will try, so don't give up on me please.
For that link to the quick summary dashboard, the Treasury site only gives the one format link. It also then required giving Chrome app storage permission to download.
However, other articles such as the weekly updates, were not embedded with Chrome and have a choice of formats.
I never went to the website. I simply took your link and turned it into a URL that TS readers can see/read and click on (or not). I was trying to help.
Her "It doesn't give my opponents much time to run up to an election, does it?" moment I reckon. She's not very good is she?
Muldoon was drunk when he uttered those words. Words of a desperate man who knew it was all over for him.
A leader should not joke about an escape from corrections.
Does she think it is a joke when someone leaves a psychiatric ward and harm occurs?
Agree Treetop. She was however in a similar position of trying to escape so needed to divert by flippancy.
Trapped, she could have said, “I shouldn’t be in this predicament ! Everyone agrees with me. Seperate but equal is great policy ( for my eyebrows )".
The reporters further questioned, “Everyone? You’re standing alone in here.” She gestures around, “Everyone, you know, the paintings on the corridor wall, tables and the clock all of them think I should be PM .”
I have heard The Telegraph soundly run down and yet have found much in it of value. Yet this latest on Harry and Meghan shows the vicious probing of a mosquito, and too many of such bites can maim its host.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/harry-meghan-seem-bring-worst/
This from Angela Levin: Just before Prince Harry got engaged to Meghan Markle, he invited me to Kensington Palace for a chat as I was writing his biography. One of the things he was keen to get across was the importance of teamwork.
If you want to be a success you have to be a team player,” he told me. “You get taught in the Army that you can’t get anywhere without the support of other people. I agree.”
It seems as if he is trying to establish a reasonable rapport with the media as his mother tried. But is the media reasonable; can it be reasoned with? Or is lurking behind it the malign drive of unalloyed pleasure in malicious gossip, desire for power through knowledge, and overall, lovely moolah – profit?
Harry and Meghan did not include a Covid-19 senario in their plans. The timing was bad for them to make a clean break, more so for Harry than Meghan.
Harry had issues with how the media treated his mother and a double up with negative media when Meghan became upset about media coverage about her which she did not like. Media coverage became personalised about Meghan and her father and this cannot be brushed off. The Royal family are reliant on the media for their charity work and on tourism to justify the expense of keeping them.
What is the Royal position on the media "don't explain, don't complain." This could have been modernised and a human element to it. I would have liked Harry and Meghan to have delayed leaving the firm for 3 years.
Look how the Queen's job has become redundant due to Covid-19. The Queen is 94 and I expect she is enjoying having a bit more rest.
Where can we view the interview with Henry and Tova please?
It’s in Robert Guyton's post @11:33am
Surprise surprise..
/
And Chump's brownshirts were nowhere to be seen?
I see we have caved in to our Yankee Masters in regard to extradition to Hong Kong, so much for being independent. Better if we dump the spy game and opt out of 'five eyes'
It might have been less confrontational just to be unable to extradite individual cases.
How does it work ?
Say someone from here goes to Hong Kong and ends up murdering someone there, then rushes back to NZ , can't be extradited and we're stuck with a murderer?
Surely there should be case by case considerations?
True, but would that be satisfactory to our Master, Uncle Sam.
If China executes murderers we wouldn't be extraditing anyway would we?
Ok if China executes mainly for drug trafficking, and murder , we still end up potentially protecting rapists , fraudsters, criminals as well
Either way we could end up with undesirables evading justice
Nats teen candidate apologises for Hitler impression…
asked why he did it by journalists Mr Wood replied “ve aks ze qvestions!…”
-sarc-
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/national-s-teen-candidate-william-wood-apologises-after-appearing-to-impersonate-hitler-in-resurfaced-image.html?fbclid=IwAR1GZYfFQRbnE6IX9PK7zFgks-ekGDMgKVtt2Y8r8sHoZfi8VjiWgc1TZlE
I did plenty of stupid things when I was 14, and 18 (or 28 or 38 or … OK, never mind).
I certainly won't condemn him for that. But he – and above all the National Party – need to accept that they made a silly decision to have a high school kid as a candidate, and they can't have it both ways: get a pass for being a teenager OR don't get a pass, because you're ready to be an MP. But pick one.
He was only 14. Mind you, now he's only 18.
Maybe William Wood (opposition National Party candidate for the Palmerston North electorate) shouldn't be punished politically for a 'mistake' made four years ago, but…
Oh come on! It was a joke; he raised an eyebrow.
Might the 'tactic' of fielding very young candidates in general elections be more widely adopted to minimise political risk from revelations of past 'misdemeanors'?
A freudian slip of the tongue caused him to froth at mouth.
Stiff upper lip
Its more about selecting a rude, green (as in naivety) inexperienced teenager whose brain is still not fully developed.
You can almost read their simplistic thought process:
he'll bring in the votes of the 18-20 year olds.
He'll do nothing of the sort. Half of them couldn't care less and won't vote. The other half will more than likely go with Labour because they are promising better training and employment opportunities for the young.
I just hope he has a good support system as he is on the young side. He has guts putting himself out there. A lot of seasoned MPs have been known to struggle. Politics can be dehumanising.
As a secondary school teacher, I have seen heaps of 16-yr-olds who possessed more understanding of experience and wisdom than many 30-yr-olds.
Unfortunately, the minute William Wood opened his mouth, I excluded him from that category.
It comes down to having good judgment.
The Labour person made them at 29.
The latest 'leader' of the opposition National party made them at 50+
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-07-2020/nicky-hager-five-reasons-why-judith-collins-wont-be-prime-minister/
DIRTY POLITICS – Chapter 4: The Crusher and the Attack Dog [link to PDF]
Perhaps you are hoping for another William Pitt the younger?
I'm not hoping for anything.
Have no idea who he is.
How old was Swarbrick when she ran for the mayoralty?
20ish?
22ish – it's a well known truism that females mature earlier than males.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141164708#:~:text=Brain%20Maturity%20Extends%20Well%20Beyond%20Teen%20Years%20Under%20most%20laws,maturity%20until%20the%20age%2025.
Swarbrick's brain developed early, whereas Wood is a late ‘bloomer‘?
So you have proof Swarbrick is below the average 26?
I’d guess no on the age restriction on her weed bill
Not following – can you show your working?
"Swarbrick's brain developed early, whereas Wood is a late ‘bloomer‘?"
What is the proof of this
You're quoting a question, not an assertion, and you brought up Swarbrick @15.1.3.2.1.
I'm not following your question @10:31 pm.
True
So going by the scientists link then both Swarbricks and the Nat idiots brains would not have been fully developed, when entering politics.
So hey. Both the govt and the opposition pick under developed brains
If you're choosing Swarbrick and Wood as examples, then it's only political parties in opposition that pick under-developed brains.
Swarbrick's brain may have been "under-developed" when she became an MP at age 23 – if so then what I'd give for that level of under-development! She is, however, the youngest person to be elected to NZ's parliament since the opposition National party selected Marylin Waring to stand for the Raglan electorate in 1975.
Of course it might just be pure coincidence that the two youngest MPs in the modern history of NZ's parliament are women. You have to go all the way back to 1906 to find anyone younger than Waring, and people didn't live as long in them thar days.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/mps-and-parliaments-1854-onwards/youngest-members-of-parliament/
That purely comes down to opinion of her ideas.
You obviously agree with them, so to you she wasn't under developed. Others don't.
“That purely comes down to opinion of her ideas.”
You're jumping to conclusions (a common characteristic of the under-developed) – I'll vote 'support' in the End of Life Choice referendum (promoted by ACT's David Seymour), but I’m (still) genuinely undecided on the Cannabis Legalisation and Control referendum (supported by the Green party's Chlöe Swarbrick). And yes, I will Party Vote Green.
I couldn't persuade Swarbrick to partake in an MRI brain scan, so had to resort to other objective measurements of achievement to inform my conclusions about her level of development.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chl%C3%B6e_Swarbrick
I am actually in the same scenario with the EoL and weed referendum
EoL yes, Weed still humming and harring over.
The difference is I doubt I would ever vote for the Greens
🙂
I've voted Green for a looong time, but it wasn't always the case, so never say ‘never‘. As long as you vote, it's all good.
I'm unlikely to vote for the Greens but that is no excuse IMO for this sort of mindset in someone so young – how usual is it for a then 17 to be that determined to push themselves into politics The choice of those politics leans to the right as does it appears the couple of incidents shows a determined certain mindset. Set beside the observation by Politik that certain National MPs in safe seats are reckless with their behaviours & lacking in personal responsibilities – the "twins" Barclay & Walker, Falloon, Muller's misplaced personal confidence. These people have had approval from the National Party none of it speaks of interest in serving wider NZ
Works now. Samsung Something
The details are pretty important in order for the admin to fix it. This site isn't sponsored, it consists of very few very dedicated people.
It would be a great help if you didn’t trivialise and paid attention to your device, operating system, and browser so The Standard can make your experience better.
Cheers.
I have just been able to reinstall click to edit. I lost it a few days ago.
People try to help me and it goes in one ear and out the other.
edit
Prince Andrew embroiled in allegations of relations with under-age girls. Woman accused of organising young girls for sex.
Jeffrey Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell charged in US Jul.3/20 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53268218
All very modern. Yet concerned women and men were fighting to stop exactly the same thing in the 1800s.
Part of an interview in 1885 between 'the campaigning editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead' and the head of London's Criminal Investigation Department, Howard Vincent.
"But", I said in amazement, "then do you mean to tell me that in very truth actual rapes, in the legal sense of the word, are constantly being perpetrated in London on unwilling virgins, purveyed and procured to rich men at so much a head by keepers of brothels?" "Certainly", said he, "there is not a doubt of it." "Why", I exclaimed, "the very thought is enough to raise hell." "It is true", he said; "and although it ought to raise hell, it does not even raise the neighbours."
Stead, to stir the public and prove that child slavery was being condoned, purchased a 13-year old girl from her mother for Five pounds, and took her out of Britain to France. For his effrontery in bringing this to public notice he was charged, taken before the Courts, and sentenced to three months imprisonment.
Josephine Butler aided by her husband had been devoted for years to the cause of helping young girls and women from being discriminated against by the justice system in the cruellest way. A Bill was passed in 1885 that set standards as to higher age, and other protections. Then the fervent campaigners went further and began to attempt purist conditions going to higher levels in controlling sexuality, a moral outrage movement.
The passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act led to the formation of purity societies, such as the White Cross Army, whose aims were to force the closure of brothels through prosecution. The societies widened their remit to suppress what they considered indecent literature—including information on birth control—and the entertainment provided by the music halls.
Butler warned against the purity societies because of their "fatuous belief that you can oblige human beings to be moral by force, and in so doing that you may in some way promote social purity".
Her warnings went unheeded by other suffragists, and some, such as Millicent Fawcett—who was later Butler's biographer—continued to combine their activities in the feminist movement with the work for the purity societies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Butler#Early_married_life;_1850%E2%80%931864
I think this example makes a point about now and not being extreme in PC speech bans, with moral crusaders becoming over zealous about words and behaviour being over-censored. If we could strike the right balance we could live more harmoniously.