I always think the embedded journalist model promoted there by Tracey Watkins is by definition, corrupt. To get what she calls the insight into the inner workings of the Party requires a mutually beneficial relationship. In order to gain trust it will be expected the embedded journalist report kindly about their host party and critically about their opposition.
This was born out in all Watkins pieces and was even more pronounced in her apprentice, Stacy Kirk, who flounced in a huff after her idol, John Key, quit with his tail between his legs.
Journalists should not be part of a political party’s PR machine in the way Watkins celebrates.
I don't agree with the all-government decision to give $11.7m to a private school as announced by James Shaw yesterday.
But the reaction to this has been hysterical. The media has collectively attacked the Greens on this as part of its effort to get the Greens below 5%. Sue Bradford has attacked the Greens on this, but she has had a chip on her shoulder ever since she left the Greens because they don't sufficiently focus on social policies as she sees it. However, the Greens remain the most socially aware party in parliament-look at their Wealth Tax proposal, also announced by James Shaw, that is specifically designed for poverty alleviation to the tune of $7.9 billion a year. $11.7 million is a drop in the bucket compared with this.
The people on the Standard saying they will not vote Green because of the school grant need to stop and think. As Stuff says today Shaw backed the grant alongside a suite of other Green projects.“I did support quite a long list of projects: the Hiringa energy hydrogen refuelling project, a lot of cycleways, bus lanes, a whole batch of waste management projects…”
The Greens are by far the strongest advocates for Climate Change initiatives-Jacinda talks a lot about this but the real policy comes from the Greens. One small stuff-up is irrelevant in this context.
I haven't got anyone in my circles that finds overt socialism appealing. They all prefer the idea of mixed economies, generally with a bit stronger state sector than we now have.
But they all share a strong distaste for crony capitalism. Which is what this school thing looks like.
But they all share a strong distaste for crony capitalism. Which is what this school thing looks like.
Which is what a lot of the private 'shovel ready' funding is going to look like to those that miss out. Same applies to the Tourism Recovery funding, hence the outcry when AJ Hackett got a bailout.
There's a lot more coming up in the 'shovel ready' program and the petty jealousies will be out in force. Government has to stimulate the economy right now and a lot of it isn't going to be perfect, and might go to people we don't get on with, but it's getting people employed and building confidence in the economy to try and keep us housed and fed.
Agreed Graeme….if the media is looking for a disgusting waste of public money and a terrible decision they should be focusing on Hackett….but of course that does not help in getting the Greens below 5% which is the objective.
….help in getting the Greens below 5% which is the objective.
This will not be too hard to achieve if Green Party leaders continue to fail to "think twice" before justifying supporting a massive chunk of dosh for a program that directly contravenes a Party flagship policy.
I just wish that the government would stop stimulating the economy and start actually developing it. Its the development that we need, not some stimulation of the corpse of a failed system.
At least by keeping it alive through this we have a chance of controlling the outcome. Allowing the economy to die / crash risks uncontrollable outcomes which could be the very opposite of what we want. Like more low value commodities and offshore control.
I'm seeing two approaches in the Governments work, protecting what we have (AJ Hackett, what if that went into offshore control?) and developing for the future (The Taranaki school as an example)
I'm involved with a company that has put in for quite a bit of 'shovel ready' work. Developing the economy in an added value and lower carbon way is a big part of those projects and what the Government seems to be wanting in the programme. If they get approved there will be huge howls from competitors, 1, because they missed out, and 2, because we got ahead of them. Well maybe they should have some good ideas too.
Maui…but my point is the Green's are the closest thing to socialists that we have, and they are the greenest too. Look at the overall context not one stuff-up.
Tell me who are you going to vote for to get a socialist government out of Labour National NZF ACT?
The wealth tax is 658 times this amount every year and will be used to alleviate policy. I don't agree with the school grant but (see my original post above) this needs to be put in context.
"Tax dollars to fund exclusive, elitist private school for the kids of the wealthy… or letting Labour and NZF give the money to another climate pushing project, yay!!!"
the issue has been live enough for everyone to understand now that the Greens didn't develop the shovel fund and that if they had it would have looked very very different.
The left needs to wake the fuck up and take a long hard look at what it actually wants.
Go hard at the Greens for how they handled this, but please stop blaming them for things they have little or no control over.
the projects developed by the group that controlled the funding. Because it's Taranaki (oil and gas economy), Shaw wanted funding to go to green projects not climate polluting ones. Are you seriously suggesting that Labour or NZF would have turned down projects on the basis of climate change?
I'm going to try and put a post over the weekend, but you could probably read some of what Shaw has said in the past two days and watch Swarbrick's video on FB from yesterday, pretty sure she explained it.
I have a better understanding now. Shaw made a mistake, in considering the list of projects as infrastructure and didn't think about the GP education policy. It was part of the covid response budget and came under the purview of the Ministers not the GP.
The projects that were approved came from a very large pool of applications for the funding. As I understand it, the GP was instrumental in making the shortlist more climate friendly.
Turei admitting to (minor, historical) benefit fraud, or Shaw supporting (pandemic-related) funding for a private school. Who's the worst offender, and how will history 'judge' them. From my PoV, the judgemental pile-on from most quarters against Turei was disappointing and more than a little disturbing; the reaction to Shaw's 'Green offending' is in the same boat.
Fwiw, the Greens seem to be held to a higher standard. Their political brand may be slightly tarnished, but it is salvageable IMHO, whereas National's brand has long since corroded beyond repair. Given the relative level of support for each party, one might fairly ask 'Is NZ society corroded beyond repair?' Time will tell – in a democracy we get the government we deserve.
Rosemary, Yes we are in a bad position!! We are fighting a pandemic, trying to keep systems afloat and plan for work for people made unemployed by covid fallout. We are being asked to think as a team of 5 million + and tolerate situations very different from normal. A few dead rats may appear. Mostly the types of ready for work places are suitable and fit the desired brief. But let us get precious, even if it cuts our nose off to spite our face!! Let's drop James Shaw, and see how we go then eh!!
Fairly certain that Catholic Schools still charge families. Not nearly as eye-watering high as the State Schools in the grammar zone in Auckland though.
Education in state integrated schools is also funded by the government, but they usually charge compulsory fees — also known as ‘attendance dues’ — to help maintain their facilities. The amount is typically around NZ$1,500 a year.
Your use of the word "excuse" seems irrational. There is nothing, in the sentence quoted, to imply that the party is using climate change as an "excuse". The implication in the quotation is that the Green Party's support for such a school is to be expected given their preoccupation with climate change.
Poor old Gosman is feeling more dyspeptic than usual, due to his sense of impending disaster. Impending disaster for him and his fellow National Party diehards, that is.
For the rest of us, it's three—probably nine—more years of the best government we've had for many decades.
Small stuff up? how many teacher aides for low decile high needs children would $11.7 million provide?
How many children in low decile schools would receive free lunches to maximise their learning potential for $11.7 million ? 10,500 using the governments own budget estimates
"The Government, in its 2020 Budget announced on Thursday, promised to spend $220 million on the free school lunch programme, feeding an additional 200,000 children and creating an estimated 2000 jobs. The school lunch programme, launched in 2019, currently feeds 8000 children."
You have conveniently overlooked the fact this funding is going to a school that charges 20k Per Annum at a minimum to attend. Why on earth would they need 11.7 million when the parents of the school could afford to fund that themselves as a grass roots crowd funding initiative without too much effort. I mean it's only a shade under $100k per currently attending child.
Denying 10,500 children a free lunch each school day because this particular school aligns politically with the Greens?
So it was always earmarked for spending on private schools for the 1%? completely against all government policies on funding private schools?
you can not like teacher aides, but it's pretty callous to say that money couldn't be spent on feeding hungry kids because the money wasn't allocated to that
It is a callous thing to say but roading money cannot be spent on feeding hungry kids either. What has the World come to when we cannot spend allocated money on our pet projects? We should be able to dip in our KiwiSaver funds when we want to start a business.
So this money was always earmarked to build safe, warm, dry buildings for the purposes of education to children who already live in safe, warm dry homes and whose parents support green policies. even though government policy is to limit funding of any kind to private schools beyond 30% of the curriculum contribution.
please explain to me how this inconsistency isn't an inconsistency, I'll be fascinated to hear more spin on the issue.
No, the shovel ready fund was earmarked *specifically for projects as part of the covid response, and those had to meet certain criteria. Some projects were also specifically ruled out. Maybe educate yourself on this before arguing completely inaccurate lines.
He is, Climaction, "one of the better politicians in Parliament", you have called that correctly and your view is mirrored by those who have worked with him, even and especially those from the Right, who know full-well that he's got the right stuff. James Shaw will not be buried by this, he will remain true to his raison d'être and emerge from the barrage of criticism, as a man of substance and valour
"the only thing shovel ready about this is James Shaw's political grave"
And with recent polls putting the Greens right on the knife-edge 5 per cent threshold to get back into Parliament, Shaw said he hoped voters would remember the party's record on climate change, inequality and conservation.
"I don't think one mistake is enough for people to switch."
I hope Shaw is correct, but given the reaction on this left-leaning site that seems unlikely. Shame really, the Greens are (soon to be were?) the most progressive party in parliament (e.g. compare their tax policy with Ardern ruling out a CGT while she is leader), but when you're dancing around the 5% threshold one mistake is all it takes. Even Shaw admitting it was a mistake apparently isn't good enough – it's not easy being Green.
Imagine the headline: ACT now third largest party in parliament
That possibility alone is enough for me to Party Vote Green.
Green School New Zealand will be supported with $11.7 million from the $3 billion set aside by the Government for infrastructure in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
I understand it. it's an economic issue called scarcity.
Group A is 10,500 children that have a scarcity of food and go to school hungry, decreasing their learning potential.
Group B is 120 children most likely don't go to school hungry, but need 130 new friends. their parents are also environmentally conscious enough to dig deep to the tune of $20k per annum per child, these parents climate views align with the governments
the government, with it's scarce resources, could choose to allocate the funding how it wished. It chose to allocate funds to Group B. Ahead of all the other Group A facsimile's that could used that money to help more children, with greater immediate benefit to society.
There are funds allocated for both ‘groups’ and these funds are applied according to different criteria and decisions are made by different people. I’m sure you have by now educated yourself on the CRRF criteria, yes?
Believe it or not, those who are not positively orgasmic with this get that this corporate welfare comes from a different pot of dosh than the comparative crumbs that will/might eventually float down to the Decile 1 school with the leaky roof.
We understand about silos, and Vote This and That, and Special Projects and the like…we do.
But later on, when things settle down and the Green School and their New Friends are enjoying their tax payer funder New Learning Spaces, what are we going to tell those 10500 poorly nourished kids who go from their cold, damp home to their sub standard school that they did not meet the criteria for such 'investment'?
It is troubling in the extreme that some here fail to see just why it is that the principal of Marfell School is so pissed off. Her project is more than shovel ready….young minds yearning to learn…but told to wait. Again.
'It is more important that we jump start the post Covid economy than meet our responsibility as Government to finally fund much needed state school infrastructure after decades of under funding and neglect.'
Beggars belief that this reaction from the state schools in the area was not anticipated. Shows a saddening lack of sensitivity.
Rosemary, I totally get why people are pissed off. I'm not convinced that most people do understand the different funding streams (going by the comments), but being angry about the covid response funding is part of the other angers about other parts of the covid response.
All I can say after that is if the GP had 30 MPs in govt we'd have had a completely different covid response. So I'm good with the criticism of the GP and holding them to account. I'm perplexed and troubled by people saying they don't want to vote GP over this, despite the GP policy and direction in Ed being the same as it was last week or six months ago.
I also think that the state of state schools hasn't changed in the past few months, so I assume that the anger is longer term, but again perplexed why people are so keen to blame the Greens for that.
Shaw fucked up, the GP didn't, on this one thing. They're not responsible for the shocking state of public school infrastructure which is in the same sorry state it was before.
I’d say that many people, including commenters here, don’t understand the different funding streams. The money for the Green School comes from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF), i.e. from Infrastructure, not from Education. As such, that Principal is barking up the wrong tree; she could have picked any odd non-Education project funded by Government to get upset about. Similarly, and strictly speaking, it is not against Green Party Education Policy either.
I’m disappointed that James Shaw is caving in under pressure and now framing it and owning it as a “mistake”. I thought he’d be of stauncher material than a National fly-by-night MP. If the project was evaluated against set criteria and worthy of funding then it was worthy of funding. End of.
It appears that the decision was a Government decision, as mentioned by Grant Robertson at the 1 PM Live Covid update, made by Labour (2) and NZF (1) Ministers responsible for the IRG (Infrastructure Industry Reference Group; https://www.crowninfrastructure.govt.nz/iirg/), the so-called ‘shovel ready’ Ministers, and James Shaw. According to Chlöe Swarbrick’s Facebook videos.
According to Chlöe, the Green School application was in the right region (Taranaki), supported by local community and government, and it was aligned with carbon incentives (i.e. no further intensification and emission).
A further $23m will be used for rightsizing Spotswood College in Taranaki, and replacing poor condition classrooms. Design work will start from the middle of 2021.
The Mayor of New Plymouth said that applications were going to be viewed through a commercial lens, i.e. job creation and stimulation of local economy, and the Green School application met the commercial imperatives.
The mistake is that he didn’t consider GP policy in his decision making as Associate Finance Minister. Had he done so, it’s unlikely the project would have been approved.
But lots of people are hurt and alarmed, and I think the apology is appropriate, because if he hadn’t made the mistake people wouldn’t be going through that at this time. The mess that National left is a big, raw wound, and while I disagree that the Greens should be blamed for that, I understand why some people do.
The GP zoom call tonight was a most excellent lesson in how government works, I wish there was a way for that to be conveyed to the public.
As I said, I’m disappointed but I can also understand why Shaw has apologised; it is a lesson in party politics. I have the luxury of not being a party co-leader of a party on the cusp of 5% and I therefore have the freedom to express my views and feelings about this. As I see it, it was mostly another screw-up in the PR & communication department. From what I have gathered, the Green School project is sound and should be funded. The Greens, their supporters, and others who are fighting for extra funding of public schools should think about whether this automatically means fighting against the CRRF funding for the Green School. I hope the Government is not withdrawing now.
its getting difficult to tell but I hope thats sarcasm again…..as evidenced by the public response so far it is apparent (and should have been obvious to the politicians, Shaw included who initially proudly supported it) that there is no distinction between silos when it comes to public funding….and voting is largely visceral.
So is the objection that Shaw supported it or that it is occurring at all? Or is it both?
The news reports make it pretty clear, that the funding is intended to result in a major expansion of the school roll (to 250) and that the facilities will be available for community use. Presumably hired out just like public school halls are from time to time.
From what I can understand of the Green Party philosophy is that the Greens like social initiatives that are not tied directly to the state, so this sort of thing will appeal to some Green supporters, including quite obviously Shaw.
On the other hand, most Green supporters are on the left edge of politics and like a big state, and virtual state monopolies in things such as education.
Obviously it is not easy to square these two conflicting objectives.
Essentially, Wayne, there is a plethora of objections, including the insincere, opportunist one from the leader of the National Party; a party that fought tooth and claw, for Charter Schools, but none are free of emotional interference or malign intent. As you know, James is a highly respected and able politician, looked upon admiringly by every sector of Parliament; his predicament is an uncomfortable one and will surely test his mettle. I expect him to rise, phoenix-like, from the fires of this issue. I only wish his "people" saw it as I do
Ah the forgetful one rises above the parapet….tell me Wayne would you have supported the funding of a private school to the tune of almost 12 million while state education is struggling with underfunding?
Thank you, Climaction. I am receiving your praise with open-hearted goodwill, and will consequently redouble my efforts to express my support for James Shaw and his abilities.
When we are continually told of the Green Party and their principles – Yet when they act in a fashion that is directly opposite We should not react ?? I am reminded that actions speak louder than words What other principles are also available to be sold out ?
When in trouble attack the messenger not the message. Sign of lost battle with that strategy. Not just Sue Bradford there are plenty of past Green MPs speaking against this have a look at Mojo Mathers, Catherine Delahunty or Denise Roche twitter /facebook.
Then we have "Ultimately that was something the Green Party advocated quite strongly for and so it was one of their wins out of the shovel-ready project area,” Hipkins said.
Morality and ideological purity always trump pragmatism. The chess player lost because his flag fell while he was still contemplating his best move. The goal of perfection leads to paralysis, mental degeneration, disorientation and disillusion, and involuntary knee jerks.
Agree, Bearded Git. And if the Left continues down this track then in 12 months time we'll all be ranting away on The Standard because of the policies of the new National Party Government.
Agree, big over reaction to the Green School. sometimes our elected representatives aren't going to make the best decisions or maybe they have more information than we do.
For a bit of context as to what $11 million buys in school works. Arrowtown School was rebuilt on a new site in 1997, nice new school with lots of capacity and good layout and location. But it leaked. So they had to tear most of it down and build it again. Cost $11 million.
The climate has been the saving grace of many a leaky building up here. Anywhere else and the things would have rotted away to mush 10 years ago. So much for a 50 year minimum design life, oh well,they got 20 years out of it…
And never compromising means other parties will stop working with the Greens in Parliament, and less of the manifesto will get done. In the grand scheme of things, if this is the dead rat that has to be swallowed to get other stuff done, it's pretty minor.
1. there is a pool of money for capital spending on projects that create jobs.
2. the Green Party advocated for some projects including one funding a private school's buildings.
For mine there is something wrong in principle – there should be no immediate private beneficiary to the capital spending. This should be something outside the rules of the fund.
That the Fund can be used for projects with a private beneficiary is disturbing and that the Greens should advocate for a project of this type of this type even should it be allowed is also. This is the environment where corruption can occur.
For mine James Shaw has to repent of the mistake and withdraw Green Party support for it and if at all possible stop the funding going ahead.
The Pompous Prince of the Provinces has never pretended to be anything other than a principle-free pork-barreling POS happy to try to buy votes however he can.
Most industry development funding goes to private businesses. The problem here is it is called a 'school'. Shaw and his staffers should have spotted that. However, politics is never about perfection.
When I made that comment I was unaware it was allocation from of a fund set up 1 April to fund economic/commercial projects impacted by the pandemic.
So my thinking was there are plenty of unfunded community projects that should have received the meony – let alone capital spending for public hsporitals and schools (limited on average to between $100,000-200,000 pa per school each year – $400M for 2500 schools).
For that fund it had to have conventional economic development benefits that would show up in a business case – some future potential beyond business as usual. Maintaining public schools is not that. Nor is just expanding private businesses that are not in strategic industries.
Shaw is used to exactly that sort of thinking from his previous career. Mistake not to take the politics of it into account in his current one.
Not just Sue Bradford hating it- also Mojo Mathers & Catherine Delahunty… they can't all have an axe to grind. Maybe it is actually the dumbest of all spending from dumb-Shane's slushfund.
Bored with the old left/right political paradigm? Just for fun let's consider what happens when we go to a triplet model. Keeping in mind no model is perfect:
Conservatives:
Risk averse and oriented towards social continuity. These are the people who operate existing systems reliably and predictably. We depend on them for our daily survival.
The moral values they put the most weight on are loyalty and purity. Conservatives value both individual and collective responsibility.
Their primary tools are tradition and religion.
When taken to an extreme conservatism becomes fascism and race supremacy.
Liberals:
Risk seeking and oriented toward individual achievement. These are the people who look to extend existing systems and generate new wealth. We depend on them for adapting, innovating and generating new systems.
The moral values they put the most weight on are reciprocity and liberty. Liberals value individual responsibility and accountability.
Their primary tools are rules based order and capitalism.
When taken to an extreme liberalism becomes libertarianism and extreme inequality.
Socialists:
Risk mitigating and oriented toward collective action. We depend on these people to ensure a sustainable distribution of wealth and to advocate for the weakest in society.
The moral values they put the most weight on are empathy and fairness. Socialists value collective responsibility and accountability.
Their primary tools are the state and class awareness.
When taken to an extreme socialism becomes marxism and tyranny.
…
Looked at from this perspective several ideas can be proposed; one is that a healthy society needs all three modes to communicate and negotiate successfully. The other is that when one mode dominates it tends toward it's extreme, and that in reaction to this we see a flip to another mode. Conservatism yields to liberalism, then to socialism and then repeating in a slow generational cycle.
A world is supported by four things…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these things are as nothing…without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition! ~ Frank Herbert
Oddly, treasury economists, foreign investors, property speculators, traffickers in cheap foreign labour, click-baiting media vermin, and looters of state assets are not mentioned. Perhaps it was an oversight.
I'm not certain all cancel culturers are behaving inappropriately – it's a matter of whether they are addressing real injustice against people privileged by power or only pretending to do so.
Gulag guards can be complicated territory also, I worked with a soviet captain from Nahodka back in the day who was a good communist. Had he lived in a capitalist society he would have been a good capitalist too. The responsibility for state crimes needs to fall most heavily on those who set the policy – Beria, not Vladimir the welder, or Roger Douglas, not Kevin from accounting.
But this merely circles around my point, that each of the legitimate political modes, conservative, liberal and socialist (are there any others?), has it's own cast of rogues. Normally these are held in check by the mores of the countervailing modes, who will resist and object to excesses of tyranny, corruption and banal mediocrity.
Identifying the excesses of the other side is easy, it's the one's your own team is prone to lapsing into that are much harder to deal with.
Still this diverts from my main thesis here, that these three political modes are a more nuanced and useful model than the tired old left/right binary.
Sure we need the Right – but a principled, policy-driven, smart Right – not a regressive, poorly educated, dirty-tricks and dishonesty riddled Right so out of touch with NZ interests they're taking money from the US arms lobby.
And, some attention must be paid to the fact that Douglas, without the ghost of a skerrick of a public mandate, moved NZ governance significantly to the Right, impoverishing a whole generation. The representative deficit in NZ is on the Left – supporting and representing the victims of his ill-conceived and inequality generating policies.
Had Douglas's arrant fantasies delivered on their promises, things like the currently contentious Green school would be welcomed with open arms. A generation ground into poverty by greedy non-performing veiled oligarchs however, is not likely to humour such follies while serious inequalities are still accelerating.
Sure we need the Right – but a principled, policy-driven, smart Right
Yes. Now how would you go about encouraging the good in someone?
Had Douglas's arrant fantasies delivered on their promises,
The excesses of neo-liberalism, both ill conceived and ill timed were especially damaging because at that particular moment in our history, both the conservative elements of the National Party and the socialist wings of the Labour Party had been temporarily snookered.
National was still some years away from recovering from Muldoon's disastrous exit, and Labour was reeling from the internal political betrayal. As a result neither were in a position to form the usual alliance that would have moderated both the scope and pace of Douglas's neo-liberal reforms, and we would have probably followed something closer to Australia's far more moderate path.
The fact that the trauma of that period in the 80's still so strongly echoes in NZ's political life, is indicative of what happens when one of the political modes tips over the boundaries into unconstrained excess.
Now how would you go about encouraging the good in someone?
We could possibly start by discouraging the bad and put in place the necessary laws and processes to catch it.
Greed is Good and its legal
is a really bad basis for a functional society and yet its what we've got especially after the Roger Douglas reforms and the right-wing have taken to it fully.
The fact that the trauma of that period in the 80’s still so strongly echoes in NZ’s political life, is indicative of what happens when one of the political modes tips over the boundaries into unconstrained excess.
The reason it still is a “trauma” is because it is a wound that does not heal and people continue to rip off the crusty scab. Nobody has figured out how to heal this and let scar tissue form properly to close the wound once and forever. In fact, new wounds are being inflicted on a daily basis.
how would you go about encouraging the good in someone?
The first thing in getting people to change is usually getting them to acknowledge the problem. Voters seems to be about to gift a few of them time to reflect on their shortcomings, but media ignoring their dishonesty issues doesn't encourage productive reflection. Nor do the old neolibs within Labour giving tacit support to some of their policy stances.
One of my observations from participation in the voluntary sector however, is that public service is mildly addictive. A regular public service day for MPs, putting them on the front line of social service delivery, would improve their feel for critical issues, and, if the opportunity were offered to the Right, some of the smarter ones would take it up if only for the promotional opportunity at first.
Let Judith Collins plant a bit of inanga habitat and we might hear a bit less about what would or wouldn't be gone by lunchtime.
The first thing in getting people to change is usually getting them to acknowledge the problem
Really? How does that usually work out? Most people are a mix of desirable and undesirable aspects. Getting them to do better is a case of putting boundaries on the undesirable behaviours, and then encouraging the desired ones.
This is why I explicitly put boundaries on the three political modes, fascism, libertarianism and marxism.
We don't want to fall into the trap of being required to provide more and more sophisticated boundaries for adults who ought to self-regulate.
What we need instead is to somehow spark a culture of self-improvement, where virtuous behaviour, rather than dishonesty, is a serious choice in parties' tactical arsenals.
National are slowly learning the lesson that they can't score much against Ardern because her positions are conspicuously, and no doubt deliberately, politically virtuous.
I should probably note that the role of the press in both the loss of moral character in parliament, and in any significant effort to reform it, is non-trivial.
Here is a story; at the moral peak of the Islamic empire say around AD 1200, it had established a number of large cities with paved and lighted streets, with Universities and civil life well in advance of the rest of Europe which at the time was still very medieval.
On the market streets it was normal for a business to indicate that it was closed for the day by putting a small rope across the door. Regardless of whether it was a seller of vegetables or jewellery. If you had asked the owner whether they were concerned about someone stealing their stock overnight, they would have looked at you incredulously. "But why would someone do something so shameful?" would be the likely answer.
While much of human history has indeed been a shameful catalog of horrors, there have always been pockets of the opposite as my small example above illustrates. Human nature is not so fixed as we're fond of thinking. In my view as individuals we are equally as capable of choosing good over suffering, but as you imply, the magic ingredients to produce a righteous society do not come together either all that often, nor entirely at random.
Or to put it more simply, nothing worthwhile achieving was ever easy. Yet refusing to make the effort is the only absolute failure.
Exactly. And while no single political mode has a monopoly on these virtues, it would the conservative voice, harking to hard won traditional knowledge who would be most likely to express their 'cardinal' importance.
…and the Corporation is parasitic on all these value structures; preaching liberty, stoicism, or social justice, while extracting maximum wealth from the host society
Yet the modern post 1800 era, dominated economically by both the corporation and the capitalist model, has seen an unprecedented explosion in new wealth everywhere.
In 2016 for the first time in all of human history, fully 50% of the human race achieved a modest middle class lifestyle by local standards. We doubled life expectancy, we've gone from just 1b humans to 7.5b. Famine and mass killing disease are mostly horrors from the past. Violence and crime are no longer daily realities for most people. Major power conflict and war, while still a dark threat, has nonetheless been contained at far lower levels than ever before. By every measure human life in 2020 is unimaginably better than it was in 1820.
Of course none of this has been achieved without exploitation, corruption and unintended consequences. The socialist left quite legitimately points to these failures and demands we do better, but does it's case no favours when it ignores how far we have already come.
Progress is due to capitalism and corporations?! Dude your mind has been colonised. It's due to democracy, advances in technology, and hard labour by the workers
All of the above. Capitalism in it's modern form was more or less invented by the Dutch in the 1600's along with the Scientific Revolution and general extension of political rights in the post Bubonic Plague medieval era. Many elements came together, along with the peculiar geopolitical features of Europe, that ignited what we now call the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's.
Many of these components had existed in other parts of the world at various times, but nowhere had the magic combination of science, commerce and the legal systems to support the rights of the individual all come together at once. Arguing that you can subtract out the legal system of private property and capitalism, and get the same result is a counterfactual history that would be rash to argue for.
Note carefully; I'm explicitly not arguing for unconstrained neo-liberal capitalism. We've done that failed experiment and there is no need to repeat it.
But that does not mean capitalism (and it's underlying foundations of individual agency and private property) should be discarded. We really just need to understand better their correct relationship to the political whole.
i think the problems arise when each of those groups tries to undertake one of the other group's roles. e.g. conservatives try something new (e.g. let's open the border with australia).
recognition by each of the others and their importance and place would be a good start.
If you meet a person who sees only the flaws in other people, who always seeks to blame others for anything wrong …. then immediately we know this person lacks social intelligence. Any success they achieve will not endure because they have no allies; their life will be unstable and often dysfunctional.
Now extend this idea to the three political modes. What if instead of forever looking to the inevitable flaws of the other mode, and gallery of rogues that infests each, we instead acknowledged their strengths and legitimate purpose first? And then took responsibility for our own failings before attending to others?
What's that you say? The Greens? Supporting a school? Preposterous!
What? It's a state-of-the-art Green school, operating to the very principles the green movement admires? Outrageous, what are The Greens thinking???
Eh? It's constructed using the latest and best green building and earth-friendly methods and materials? Ridiculous! Unforgivable!! That might serve as a model for other buildings around the country!! No, I say, no, no, no!
Again? The Greens support was specifically around the creation of jobs in a region that has lost it's oil and gas focus?? We can't have that sort of carry on from The Greens – they don't DO that sort of thing!!
Pardon?? The children who will be attending the school come from rich families??? This is beyond the pale! We don't condone working with the rich!!! We are green, we eat the rich!!!
It's time to stand up to this sort of betrayal and take the Green Party down!! The timing is perfect, with the election so near; rise up, disgruntled greenies, make as much noise as you can, don't wait for facts or any response from the leaders of the party, act now! Wail and weep, gnash your teeth and tear your hair and do it loud and in public; no point in sitting quietly, weighing-up the pros and cons and consequences, bring them down!!! All those years you supported The Greens were wasted, these guys have funded a school!!! Bring on a National Government! That'll teach the Imperfect Greens (that's what I call them!!!!).
The Green Party has refused to support the building of a school that reflects many aspects of its own kaupapa; environmentally-friendly building, energy-conservation, nature-inspired design, teaching methods and programmes that suit the eco-conscious learner and create aware leaders for the future who are grounded in Gaian thinking, teach earth-care and social responsibility, conserve resources, minimise waste and a raft of other green initiatives. Green leader James Shaw said, "We just don't have the confidence as a Party to back our own beliefs; the project is too big, too bold and on such a grand scale that we, a tiny and modest, Conservative party, don't think we can tie ourselves to such an expansive project. We feel that getting plastic bags out of supermarkets is quite enough for one election cycle; we don't want to appear too full of ourselves or confident in our world view as our supporters might rebel if they think this poppy is getting too tall. Consequently, we're not supporting this seemingly green idea. Sorry. Awful sorry. Everyone.
“It’s not perfect but if you’re trying to achieve a number of objectives it achieves a number of those: it creates a number of jobs in the region, it supports the green building industry, and it’s in Taranaki, the region we’re trying to move on from oil and gas,” Shaw said.
As a first priority, I would have gone for $12 million on the creation of a "Taranaki Forest Service" to remedy 50 years of fossil fuel production, with an emphasis on long term job creation.
The argument that "other things are more important than a school" will be presented over and over but doesn't change the situation and choices James Shaw was presented with. Sure, the money would be better spent on a, b, c or d, but those options weren't on the table. The education world is up in arms over their "loss" but this money was not from their fund, it was from another department.
It's not that its more important than a school its that state schools have concurrently been told that they will have to struggle on without the required property money. In some cases this means cold, damp, leaky classrooms, old toilet blocks and the like and no more for roll growth classrooms which sees kids piled into overcrowded spaces. That's the point – the private well to do being handed $11.7m whilst the common folk get nothing. Even worse is the advice that state schools will have to struggle on for at least five years before they are considered for funding.
I was of course being ironic. The demonstrated fact that so many Green Party activists cannot bring themselves to both walk and chew gum at the same time here is pretty sad.
This school looks like a seriously innovative green idea; and as with all pioneering efforts it's going to come with a substantial 'first mover' cost. This is the sort of thing government is really good at doing.
But no apparently the money has to be spent of teacher aides, and doing more of the same old thing. It's a very conservative instinct and I can respect it's motives. Yet as you say, the Greens also have a substantial liberal base that absolutely needs to see innovation like this.
It all points to a party that's awkwardly positioned between two conflicting moral drivers, and will always be prone to this kind of instability until it's resolved one way or another. At the moment it looks very much as if the socialist element of the Greens are dominating, leaving a real vacuum on the environmental front.
Maybe my old friends from TOP will be eyeing this fracas with amusement.
"This school looks like a seriously innovative green idea; and as with all pioneering efforts it's going to come with a substantial 'first mover' cost. This is the sort of thing government is really good at doing."
It all points to a party that's awkwardly positioned between two conflicting moral drivers, and will always be prone to this kind of instability until it's resolved one way or another.
Indeed. Given our adversarial and antagonistic style of politics, it will be ‘resolved’ when one beats the other into submission. So much for the holistic philosophy from the Green Party.
That won't change the result except possibly help National get another seat.
If you want the Greens to get enough votes then electorate vote Labour (it may actually help get a Labour candidate an electorate seat) and party vote Green which will help get them over the 5% threshold.
Wasn't your comment at 3 above an implicit condemnation of one-dimensional purism – i.e. we need all the strands in balance? Now you are suggesting the Greens need to split to achieve that sort of (bad) purism. Seems contradictory.
I am a simple soul and don't expect the Greens (or Labour) to be perfect political vehicles, or exact expressions of everything I think. Funding this school does seem on the surface like an odd contradiction – but I am happy enough with the general orientation of the party, just as I am with Labour. I tend to vote based on my perception of a political party's values and intent – because these are predictors of the likelihood of them getting things right in a horridly complex world. If the number of contradictions and discordant notes builds up too much however – then my perception of underlying values will follow in step.
yeah, nah, he fucked up. Greens have lots of well off voters, but the party is much more diverse and generating ire in your membership this close to the election is not a good move. They will sort it out, but the timing is not good.
More of a concern is the left's response generally and how much of the debate yesterday was based in an understandable emotional response but with scant regards for the facts. That's an issue beyond the Greens.
The people who vote Green are predominantly wealthy hyper-liberals. Check the electorates they get most of their vote from. It ain't the proles. So Shaw is just shoring up his base. Perfectly natural.
That was from the 2014 New Zealand Election Study.
The 2017 iteration suggests a similar profile for Green voters … predominantly young, urban and, yes, relatively well-educated … BUT … more likely to be lower than higher income. Disproportionately either no occupation or lower-paid non-manual public sector.
Impoverished (if culturally-"middle class") Radicals, if you like.
Well said, Robert! I think the over-emotional reaction has failed to reflect on the whys and wherefores of this decision, preferring to throw the Green Party to the wolves than do some research and quiet reflection. Shame
"research and quiet reflection" don't describe the zeitgeist at this point in history, JanM. This brouhaha is just one of a plethora of jangle-nerved states washing over us and it's getting more intense by the day. How long till polling day?
Problem is, whatever James' justification, this is simply very unpopular with many (most?) Green supporters. Pragmatism demands a rapid reversal to save the party vote. (FWIW my support continues).
Robert: if I accept your pleas for the existence of this school, I have opened the way for Charter schools of all sorts pleading the same innocence. As they have done in the past.
As regards sweeping reason out the door, what was the reason for the Greens' Education policy, a main tenet of which is (or was) the phasing out of state funding for private schools?
I have just seen an article in the Herald, where James Shaw has admitted that he would not repeat what he has done, and that he hopes supporters will not withdraw support for just one mistake like this.
I am glad he understands this, and share his hope.
No way Peter t should there he a reversal to save the party vote. The members just have to wake up out of their dreams of sleepy hammocks under sheltering green trees, a version of old hippy days and 'ohus'. This is real world politics and we want the Greens in there helping to support the country in all ways, not just in growing organics, planting trees and the myriad of other things of environmental importance. There are people being ground down by present economics which need change, and Greens are about bringing change in many ways.
So all you armchair politicians out there as conservative as any, who are trying to stonewall the Green Party so it limits itself to your inadequate dreams, just go for a walk in the forest till October 17 and let real people with mind and muscle get on with the job of nurturing both the country and the hapless citizens caught up in this mess.
Greywarshark, I want the Greens to hold the balance of power after the election – hence the need for pragmatism with a decision that alienates many potential supporters.
Accusatory diatribes are divisive and unhelpful. IMHO
edit
Yes Peter t you are right in a way when you want something removed that may stop them getting above the 5%. But my point is that they must be allowed to get on with the job of cobbling together a network of differing projects that they try to keep as close to green guidelines as possible. And the quibbling onlookers who say they support the superior Green ideas over other political parties and they must be pure and be approved before moving in anything are actually helping to kill off our chances to better this country and move to adopt measures and have infrastructure that will be necessary to survive climate change. We are just so compromised already that I doubt if NZs can ever let go of their negativity long enough and their bloody squabbling to learn new stuff about tactics and take what steps are needed.
…the over-emotional reaction has failed to reflect on the whys and wherefores of this decision
Perhaps you can elucidate on the "whys" and "wherefores" and then, perhaps, attempt to consider alternatives where $11.7 million could have been allocated in such a way that ALL Green Party principles could have been honoured.
Because directing those dollars to low decile state schools would have employed just as many, and could have incorporated just as innovative 'green' construction processes. The added benefit of going down that route(other than having avoided the justified backlash from Green party supporters) would have been those dollars having a positive and long term impact on more children. More bang for their buck.
At the end of the day, Election Day, those of us criticising this appalling decision by James Shaw will be blamed for any decline in support for the Party.
"Those dollars" weren't tagged to education.
Or rather, the consideration Shaw was giving was to projects presented for a specific fund. Building and maintenance of state schools wasn’t one of the projects received, so far as I understand. He couldn’t grant it because it wasn’t submitted.
Rosemary, mistakes are made, often with the best intentions. Navel gazing does not help as the Treasurer has said "No" to changing the funding arrangement, so James is between a rock and a hard place, He will read the small print next time.
I see some smartie pants giving you the 'Yes dear' Robert. Thanks for your fine analysis and shuttlecock playing – you are playing superbly. Your experience on various Councils with cloth ears shows in your adroit and always thoughtful replies. Thanks for keeping your mind and your communications open.
Hopefully the contretemps is just a passing shower and not likely to develop into a destructive Hurricane Laura now tearing into the USA.
Well, that's very kind of you, Greywarshark. I have to say though, it's usually me that gets labeled "smartypants"
The way I see it, in simple terms, James and the Labour members of the team chose, from a limited selection of "shovel-ready" projects, a construction project. He will have weighed up the application against the criteria for funding before giving his support to the decision of the others. The rest is churn.
Keep laying those paths surfaced with nuggets of rationality, practicality etc. RG and playing your pipe and we anxious citizens will follow and tread along them in good spirits and hopeful, towards the big community hoedown in October. I can hardly wait.
I'm left wondering if the USA ambassador dragged his unquarantined self onto a domestic flight to Wellington. If so what did the relevant airline say to the other passengers – if anything?
It's quite nice that we bend over backwards to support those like the ambassador from shithole 3rd world countries.
The guy will get the highest possible awards from his emperor boss when he gets home. The boss showed last week he knows that he has sent his man into territory that is in unimaginably dire.
Your diligence in adhering to the discredited Russiagate fantasy is perhaps only surpassed by Bill Maher’s. As we can see in this dire yet hilarious clip from two years ago, even Ben freaking Shapiro ends up looking smart compared to someone spouting crazy conspiracy theories.
The nutty Russian theorizing starts at the 8:24 mark…
BEN SHAPIRO: I have a question. Do you actually think that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin?
BILL MAHER:[fervently] Yes. YES. You DON'T? How can you NOT? How can you NOT?
(AUDIENCE: Wild applause.)
BEN SHAPIRO: I do not, because I watched that campaign. I don't think that Donald Trump could collude with his own left foot.
(AUDIENCE: Uneasy laughter, some derisory scoffing.)
MAHER: Well I don't think HE did it but, you know, his SON did it, his, the people who were, who Muller is INDICTING….
It's interesting how use of the term "Russiagate" has become a reliable identifier of a convergence moonbat whose wilful blindness to evidence and reason even manages to survive the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report.
The evidence is so clear and incontrovertible that even Repug senators that live so far up the Fanta Fascist's ass they can party with Hannity couldn't find a way to deny it.
While I don't agree with Kealy Warren's move to write to the Prime Minister and simultaneously release the letter to Nicola Willis – fine, she's angry but that is a mischievous act which doesn't afford the PM the right of reply – she makes some powerful points here:
Kealy Warren, acting principal of Marfell Community School – a low decile school in nearby New Plymouth, couldn't believe the news.
"I felt physically sick, I wanted to vomit. I could not believe we were being so disrespected in favour of an elitist private school.''
She says it sent a message of worthlessness to her students.
"I'm heartbroken for our beautiful children that have been told yet again you're the bottom of the heap stay there – what are you going to amount to?
"You're the bottom of the heap, just stay there, you're not going to add to the economy when you grow up so sit there in your leaky classroom,'' she says.
Kealy Warren can choose to pass on the feelings she refers to "You're the bottom of the heap, just stay there" or tell the children that she will help them to do their best, find the special gift they have and build on that. That is what a good teacher can do instead of feeling hopeless and reflecting that on to the children.
It is bad in NZ, and we have noticed for decades how bad it is. We have been unable to change things for the better, those of us who wanted to that is. So we have to try different approaches. I suggest connecting to people of good attitude, who do not have embedded in their soul a whole lot of bitterness and negative feelings. Start being positive, be pleased with what you have now, and build on that, take hold of opportunities, advocate for better. Enjoy the life you can and build a sense of self-worth from personal achievement of goals you have set for yourself, then give yourself a reward to mark it. The whole world is in a pickle, appreciate what you have, try to improve it, reach out to others.
And I think that we need to deliberately adopt Pollyanna ideas as written in the book by Eleanor Porter. It seems sugary and laughable. But the only way to keep yourself above the tide of bad news, mismanagement and stupidity that seems our daily lot, is to change the way we think about it before we sink. I suggest applying the Pollyanna principle, of looking for good amongst the bad, not sinking into depression. We could also follow the computer program system of breaking a problem into parts which get worked at separately and then connected and trialled.
This Atlantic article gives Pollyanna a severe look from all angles but ends up with this:
…Her "glad game" goes beyond simple positive thinking. Pollyanna isn't always cheerful; she cries over disappointments large and small, and initially refuses to play the game when she suffers a major tragedy. It's not that she's naturally the world's greatest optimist; rather, optimism is a tool she uses to make herself happy. Her gladness is Gladwellian: It's not a state of mind, but rather a skill that becomes stronger with practice. As the freckled little guru herself put it, "When you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." Welcome to the 21st century, Pollyanna. You'll fit right in.
Why did the government exclude money from the fund being used for capital spending in public health and education? Projects in the pipeline being brought forward when there was unemployment.
I think they are focussed on Covid right now. Particularly the Auckland outbreak. The pressure must be immense so I'm not surprised there are mistakes around longer term projects.
WHO recommends masks for schools – spread in one school and then into homes and parents workplaces. They either go back to lockdown fast or risk Auckland not being able to safely have an election in October.
Their current position – stay at home or wear a mask if out and about at the weekend, then send the children into school classrooms without masks is inconsistent, its damn poor pandemic managment practice and politically suicidal.
There is a lot of risk. The relaxation at L1 was a real mistake. Kiwis really need to change their behaviour but that is not easy in a Western society like ours.
Mask wearing needs to be normalised for instance. There needs to be permanent change around mass gatherings, particularly churches which seem to be a real vector for exponential spreading.
That is going to be difficult for Pacific peoples who often only have church as their community focus.
Love Bill Maher, even his appearance in one episode of Max Headroom back in the day, and an essential stream every saturday night for real time.
A great servant of the left in the usa, and while I don't agree with everything he says or does, I put his contribution and worth to the cause so much greater than any saddo critic sniping from behind in their safe as comfort zone.
Love Bill Maher, even his appearance in one episode of Max Headroom back in the day, and an essential stream every saturday night for real time.
Fair point. I often laugh at some of his routine, even now. He certainly knows how to deliver a joke. He's not all bad, he's just naive—he seems to actually take seriously such baloney as the "Steele dossier"—and intellectually lazy, as is clear from listening to him rant about the people of the Occupied Territories and the besieged enclave of Gaza.
A great servant of the left in the usa,
Repeating bizarre conspiracy theories concocted by the extreme right (Clintonista) faction of the Democratic Party serves no one except the Trump campaign.
and while I don't agree with everything he says or does,
That's encouraging. I think we're on the same page, assuming of course that you are not so foolish as to endorse those discredited Russiagate fantasies.
I put his contribution and worth to the cause so much greater than any saddo critic sniping from behind in their safe as comfort zone.
Interesting. Phone boxes are still a frame of reference on Planet Breen? Always nice to have the occasional tidbit of miscellania about that parallel dimension. Say "hi" to Aslan for me.
And if they are to succeed in stopping that crash then the Government (whomever it is) is going to have to provide well paid employment for a considerable period because without it the ability to service that debt even at near zero interest rates is about to disappear….the RBNZ can solve the banks funding dilemma but it cannot create the employment needed to support it.
Ironically the crisis has delivered the called for 'transparency'
You miss the point (quite possibly deliberately)….subsidising wages for six months does nothing to address the underlying drivers of the problem, it merely defers the impact…..there is nothing to address the rapidly approaching reckoning and no sign they have even a glimmering of how to address it (from ANY party)
They've got a bit to go in the tank, but yes it will run out.
And printing more money doesn't increase economic output – it only increases the amount of cash circulating in our own little economy.
I don't see anyone pretending about the NZ economy, least of all the government.
Our economic survival depends on a small group of trading partners recovering. This country has only been this vulnerable about three times in its history.
thank you for confirming that extend and pretend is the only strategy and that it cannot work…..it appears the Gov have the same (idea bereft) advisors as yourself
"And printing more money doesn't increase economic output"
Come on, you can be way more factual than that. New Zealand would have many, many more unemployed without the wage subsidy spending (and other on going spending by the government) and lower output, ergo the governments spending (which followed off the back of QE) has increased economic output.
In fact I am given to understand you work for the government fairly directly and your employers output is being increased by spending directly also (again off the back of a deficit financed by RBNZ QE).
Our large scale infrastructure projects are indeed public financed, but they get financed years previously.
Perfectly happy with Robertson's moves. But only time will tell if the Reserve Bank has done good by bringing inflation and investment returns down to stuff-all.
I was just highlighting that your statement "And printing more money doesn't increase economic output" is demonstrable false. Obviously a lot of government spending is on shorter life span goods rather than infrastructure projects as well. But government spending is quite directly adding to economic output.
If we were talking about the RBNZ bailing out South Canterbury Finance or something you may have a point here.
"But only time will tell if the Reserve Bank has done good by bringing inflation and investment returns down to stuff-all."
This seems a total indictment of Monetary Policy as the RBNZ has been telling us for about the last 10 years that QE and low interest rates actually raise inflation, and that they were busy diligently raising it towards the middle of their target inflation band. But you seem to imply they were so inept at this that they have actually been lowering inflation as well as investment returns.
New Zealand’s economic growth and prosperity is defined by FIRE, until CC, which is already here and happening.
Ironically, the pandemic crisis has conveniently taken the collective eye away. What other better dead cat strategy to ‘combat’ a global crisis than another global crisis?
The problem with the housing market crashing is that there won't be as much money created to spend in the economy and thus the economy will crash. This is why the governments have been supporting the unsustainable and poverty inducing runaway house pricing for the last 20 years.
The point is that we could deal with the crash from the lack of induced money from runaway house prices increases through the government simply putting in place a UBI that's paid for with created money. Then we'd have a facsimile of this:
Both. People are moving between jobs and they need support while doing so.
And, yes, they need a plan but governments gave up planning in the 1980s hoping that the free-market would provide which it has manifestly failed to do. Made a few people very rich though.
A very good article. This undermining of the government for purely political gain is deplorable:
Meanwhile, many New Zealanders have found the depth, extent, personal and aggressive nature of the criticism of the Government and its officials troubling and unfair. Full testing at the border, important though it is, has not exposed significant shortfalls in the protocols. At a time when social media and some politicians have been repeating ‘fake news’, allegations that go so far as accusing government officials of lying, run the risk of undermining trust, reducing compliance with the measures intended to eliminate the virus, thus damaging their effectiveness. There is emerging evidence of a corrosive effect on public attitudes and behaviour.
Sadistic Facebook shuts down Gaza health ministry page
by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 26 August 2020
When I heard the news on Monday that the first coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Gaza outside of quarantine centers, I headed immediately for the Facebook page of Gaza’s health ministry. It’s the place I go for information or livestreams of press conferences from health officials serving the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are children.
This was the moment everyone dreaded and had managed to stave off since the start of the pandemic: a potentially uncontained outbreak in a besieged enclave whose health and sanitation systems have been on their knees for years due to successive Israeli military attacks and 14 years of illegal blockade.
To my dismay, however, the Facebook page was gone. Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the health ministry’s spokesperson, confirmed to The Electronic Intifada that Facebook shut the page down about ten days ago. This is the third time Facebook has shut down the ministry’s page.
Al-Qedra said the pretext Facebook gave was that the ministry had used the words “martyr” or “resistance.” The word shahid in Arabic – often translated as “martyr” – is used almost universally by Palestinians to describe any person, whether a civilian or a combatant, killed in the context of the conflict with Israel.
I have written to Facebook’s media office twice this week asking for an explanation. I have yet to receive any reply.
Campaign of censorship
For years, Facebook has been waging a campaign in cahoots with Israeli occupation authorities to silence and censor Palestinian media. It has shut down the accounts and pages of dozens of Palestinian journalists and publications – on the Israeli-supplied pretext that criticism of Israel and its crimes against Palestinians constitute “incitement.” It has labeled Palestinian journalism as “hate speech.”
Facebook has even appointed an Israeli government censor to its “oversight board.” …
I'm waiting for the Government to fund a private school that I could support, ie, ' School of Marxist study and a world without money' make the playing field a little tiny bit more even.
We are all bloody lucky that the housing market is holding up. It's the last main source of wealth we have.
The government supported businesses directly rather than workers directly – and the net result is still an economy that would have been a whole bunch worse if those businesses had failed.
There are far better critique lines for this government.
The right just love to lambast Labour – their favourite sport. If Labour were more sure of being supported they would have been able to break through the mess that National left behind. But they are now being hammered for not doing enough to change things, which may lead to us being back with the people who have devastated the country – National Party. What!! Can the Left stop this eviscerating their own party and concentrate on getting it back into power and then we can address the problems that the neoliberal weakened have been unable to tackle using the systems that were supposed to be so efficient and effective.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the Party – Labour or Green. If you keep on criticising you are NOT a good man or woman, you are a disgrace to New Zealand. We have a clear task in this country and a long way to go till the bloody delayed election, and I don't feel confident that clear-minded lefties will be able to prevail against the shit that is being spread at present. It needs to stop, togetherness and determination to win the election need to prevail. Can we STFU with all this hassle and whingeing and stay with the task – an election win for Labour and the Greens. This is for all of us who have a good heart and want NZ to be better and able to cope with an uncertain and difficult future.
We are all bloody lucky that the housing market is holding up.
No we're not. The housing market is decades past the correction that it should have had which means that when that correction comes its going to be a hell of a lot worse.
It's the last main source of wealth we have.
A home is just a home. Unfortunately, the capitalists have turned homes into income for themselves from the work of others.
The government supported businesses directly rather than workers directly – and the net result is still an economy that would have been a whole bunch worse if those businesses had failed.
What a load of bollocks.
If those businesses had failed then we would be better off as they're obviously dead-end businesses.
While, if the government had directly supported the workers with a UBI @retirement level then the businesses that we need would have survived anyway and the flow of money into the economy would have remained to keep it going.
Then, as the economy continued on, new businesses suitable for the new paradigm would have emerged.
The housing market as the source of new money for the economy is a major problem as it inevitably leads to massive private debt that will crash the economy again – just as it did in 2008.
Even at the 'just a home' level, it's not ideal to have to continue to spend 10 years' income on a home when it's now only worth 5. However good the socioeconomic rationale is, the homeowner still feels shafted and will vote accordingly.
House prices should never have got that high. The ideal seems to be 4 times the average wage.
But, as I said, the governments have been supporting the massive house price increases because it means that a huge amount of money has entered the economy and made it look like we were doing really well.
There's only one real solution to the fact that home buyers are going to feel shafted when the house prices collapse but nobody likes it. That solution is the government printing enough money to buy up the houses at the hyper-inflated prices and then rent them back to the previous owners at 25% of income.
Do that and the economy keeps ticking over and people would be better off.
A government has no mandate to be left wing in its policies unless it obtains an electoral mandate, until then it is obliged to continue with existing policy settings.
Using cheap money to stimulate the economy – advantaging those with asset loans, and thus growing relative inequality in wealth to those without property assets
Banks allowing mortgage holidays is not a government policy, but part of the lender borrower relationship.
The landlord can pass this on to their tenant or not. A government can try to organise a concord but Winston Peters ruled that out here.
Income inequality rises when an economy is in decline – the pandemic is not government policy so it is not the cause.
The government gave much much more to workers through the wage subsidy than it gave to business (access to finance based on past tax paid, then to loans).
The government had already increased student allowances, brought in the power income supplement (then doubled it), increased the baseline rate benefit by $30 and provided for a 12 week period of unemployment income support at twice the normal rate and allowed this for partners as well.
There was also placing the homeless into accommodation.
Why didnt businesses use some of their years of exorbitant profits for the rainy day instead of getting the 'Nanny State' whom they berate to prop them up, the Government should have given the wage subsidy directly to the workers. Maybe though, when the handbrake is not attached, the next Labour Government may well find it's true Labour roots.
The DHBs all need more money to bring them up to 21 Century. I was in CHCH during those years of the Earthquakes. The National Government did not give the CDHB any extra money. I worked in the Operating room during those earthquakes. In actual fact ACC should have been giving them the funding for treating all of those casualties. But no one knows how they fund these situations except the DHBs are bulk funded for ACC cases. Even though they provide all Emergency and Intensive care For accident cases. In the Private hospitals, they are creaming off ACC for the surgery they do in Private. In Private they itemize everything they use. In Public they dont. The National Government tried to privatize ACC. People need to look at what the Labour Led Coalition have achieved so far. Instead of whining. They are still fixing the mess that National left behind.
Has a good overview of MMT from a principal developer of the ideas (with reference to the New Zealand economy and institutions).
About 40 minutes, accessible for a lay-person, self contained and doesn't use fancy terms which need to be looked up to understand what is being conveyed.
Good intro to MMT thankyou. I've got little argument about the historical context as set out.
But he puts a lot of stock on Japan. Little old New Zealand better resembles Peru under Garcia, or until the 1970s and early 1980s more like Chile under Allende.
I can still remember my very first investment in 1983, into a second mortgage at 28%; got in and got out. I also remember 3rd Form Social Studies giving lessons about out impending "leisure society". Yeah right.
Well it is certainly true enough that in economic scale Japan and New Zealand are somewhat different. But institutionally we are similar which is the point being expounded at this point.
The Cato piece I find to be very convincing due to,
1) MMT sees itself initially as purely descriptive. New Zealand has been implementing a monetarily sovereign currency since 1984 (when the exchange rate was floated) which MMT categorizes as a system with the most broad fiscal policy space. The Cato piece describes MMT as a regime of inflationary spending.
2) The RBNZ has implemented QE this year, the consequences of this are described by MMT. If we were to follow the Cato piece thinking on this point we should expect that the govt financing itself this way will result in crowding out and inflation. If on the other hand this doesn't happen then the Cato author is making a spurious (if typical for mainstream economics) claim. If we want our economics to be treated as a science then ideas which lead to incorrect conclusions must be rejected.
3) The Cato piece doesn't mention the economic sanctions applied to Chile and Venezuela (and in Peru the financial reform process working in a similar way of closing off external markets) but these kinds of international policies have a record of being correlated with significant foreign exchange rate falls and imported domestic inflation. So I think there are items with a track record of causing the ills the Cato authors describes in the mix.
4) As I said QE is already happening in New Zealand (among other economies) and if your following the actual details of what MMT has to say about Overt Monetary Financing, the kind of policy the Cato author is imputing MMT to be about, its described as similar to QE in that some how the government just ends up owning a lot of its own debt. So unless that regime behaves in an extremely hard to understand way (basically the MMT argument is that the accounts end up in a similar state with both QE and OMF), then New Zealand is already effectively practicing what the Cato author is describing, so the consequences should follow?
This all leads me to conclude that the Cato discussion is largely to discourage popular understanding of MMT, rather than a serious challenge to its validity as a theory of economics.
Shaw's position is untenable now, he will have to stand down the day after the election. I'm predicting Cunliffe or Jack MacDonald to be parachuted in.
reply to DV 21 above (my reply button not working).
Clearly you never been inside a High Security Prison. I have (not as an inmate I stress). A bucket belongs to the far far distant past. The high Security wings of today are true wonders of technology, and have a far higher staff to inmate ratio than other classification levels.
$5K a day may seem a lot but that is the price we pay for a supposedly civilised society. And a big chunk of that $5k is down to the strong union presence that protects a culture of waste and corruption.
The government is very wrong not to require masks at schools next week in Auckland.
The idea that people should stay at home, or if in public use mask at the weekend, and then send their children to spend the day inside in a classroom without a mask is inconsistent (they will require use of masks on public transport nationwide and there is no community spread outside Auckland).
Spread in school and then onto homes and then multiple workplaces would put at risk the return to Level 2 and the ability for the election to be held in Auckland on October 17.
World evidence that children do spread the virus has led WHO to recommend the use of masks in schools for children.
An evidence led government would require the use of masks in schools in Auckland next week (and also recommend temperature checks at workplaces there).
"Previously, besides zero tolerance long weekends, it was understood police could exercise discretion up to 10kmh over the speed limit.
That buffer does not exist any more."
So does that also mean that trucks and those light vehicles towing and are restrict to 90km will also be held to the same zero tolerance standards? These 2 groups never seem to appear in discussions- and how does a speed camera differentiate for on coming vehicles that are in these 2 categories.
Enforcement was already very weak on finding drivers that are hazards to others for reasons other than speeding. Now that's going to be even worse.
As far as speed cameras go, I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere the new digital camera ones already distinguish heavy vehicles. I'd imagine it could do it either by measuring the reflected signal strength (which directly relates to size) as well as how the signal is altered by speed, or just photograph every vehicle over the lower speed limit and have an image processing routine pick out the heavy vehicles and those towing a trailer.
There’s also a strong argument that having different speed limits for different vehicles is in itself an unnecessary hazard. Opportunities for accidents are minimised when all traffic is moving at the same speed.
Trade me is conducting a chance for a group of up to 5 to see our new baby rhino and anyone on here able to do a whole of company bid could raise the latest $5550 bid and really help the conservation.
Of course, some may disagree with having a zoo at all, even though conservation is very important at Auckland Zoo.
Whose posts on this platform often hit very hard and had more than a hint of realism attached to them.
Is it not time that New Zealanders who wish to remove themselves from the hyped up, showbiz style of many in national politics and in well rewarded politicking positions just started accepting that most of the flash Harry's and Hariette's of the NZ political set are just salaried "moth"pieces with fashion, fad and self absorbed positioning strategies at their core? Just annoying, well salaried fricken moths for the most part.
Of course they are more than willing to appease many of the fearful or those who ingratiate themselves to such idiocy so that they can conduct mouthpiece business as usual, and laugh themselves all the way to the bank, the real estate company or the confidential financial advisors who really are in the know.
"Equality, justice, transparency, accountability, national interest, sovereignty, economic strategy", and so on and so forth. For frig's sake, give us a break please, and just cut to the chase.
At street level, people are gas bagging about firearms and their being given in and given up and Covid-19 obviously. Sure, relevant. But please take a look at the bigger picture, New Zealand. Like, how will we address the hoards of economic and environmental refugees who will arrive on New Zealand shores by the time your infant reaches college age to begin with.
As general election candidates, what are they planning to DO in relation to your personal well-being in all areas that can be effectively managed to at least attempt to bring it about.
Please, with cherries on top, try to vote on proposed policies and management which you believe best serves yourselves generally, not that which many of these creeps advertise as "national interest"or "domestic well-being".
Many such phrases are as stale as a fart in a bed, and now quite mundane "narrative friendly" tosh.
Kealy Warren's move to write to the Prime Minister is somewhat mischievous because she plays around with figures confusing the MoE's infrastructure improvement budget for schools' buildings and combines it with the monies for the curriculum development and delivery of resources for learning outcomes in her invoice rationale to the Government.
The Green School is not a receiver of the MoE budget but is to receive funding from the Covid Recovery funds for further construction. Green school still has to fund ALL of its teaching salaries and learning resources and targetted specific needs privately as well as pay its taxes, rates and insurances etc. not provided for by state funds.
This afternoon's Stuff article reporting on Conductive Education Taranaki's needs also mixes the story. Their needs wishes outlined lie with the MoE not the Covid Response budget.
The number of pupils in a school formula used by Nealy does not necessitate that every school has current needs for more buildings with each school then needing $234,000 per head as Nealy claims.
That would give Epsom Girl's Grammer for example a total of $513 million for solely building developments.
All schools do have an existing funding allocation given each year in Operations funding and can apply for specific targetted MoE funding. Additional school building project money as each school develops its wishes, which may not be nation wide priorities, are also able to be applied for.
If Nealy's school needs more classrooms or has buildings needing repairs her application for these projects are still able to be funded through application for needs over and above her schools annual funding.
Since 2018 improvement programmes expenditure has $2.4 billion on the go in the pool of funds for all schools to apply for. These additional funds were Labour addressing the specific needs of rundown or insufficient infrastructure created by National's neglect. ( similat picture as health services infrastructure ).
On top of that $2.4 billion, Budget February 2020 saw the investment of a furthet NZ$813.6 million operating total and NZ$115.1 million in total capital in education. Note tagged for learning support and special needs funding in this round was nearly $ 80 million in this year's budget.
Outside of that total on education monies was an ethnic communities budget allocation in February also in which there are investments of $50 million for a Māori trades training fund and $200 million in Māori language programmes, teachers' salaries, and maintaining school facilities.
Further targetted funding is ongoing. In July 2020 the Government announced $75.8 million being invested to enable schools and whānau to better manage the many learner mental health and wellbeing issues that have arisen due to COVID-19. In addition was $50 million, in 2020/21, for an Urgent Response Fund. And $16 million for educator wellbeing, increasing access to support services for an additional 10,000 employees. And $25 million to support tertiary student wellbeing. And $32.8 million for 40 new Curriculum Leads to help schools, kura, early learning services and kōhanga reo deliver a high quality Health and Physical Education local curriculum.
We were all exhausted and stressed out. Yes, Operation Block Ivanka was petty. Melania was in on this mission. But in our minds, Ivanka shouldn’t have made herself the center of attention in her father’s inauguration.
$400 million in funding to every state school for property improvements.
And how much is that per school. 2500 primary and secondary (including those not state schools) Over $100,000 and under $200,000 per school.
Why did the government not allow HB's and schools to apply for the construction project money?
Health Boards would love money for works that did not have costs attached (a bit like giving a beneficiary a grant and paying the money back out of their limited benefit income) and schools could have projects done now rather than wait years for.
Shaws has done a Turei, a grandiose green school funding project as a win for the Greens via Ministerial office and Turei (Green vs Labour on getting it on welfare and her personal story highlighting this – Labour Party family association for good or bad measure) … and then Ardern try a little kindness takes over from Angry Andrew.
If they were indeed Labour parameters ,there was no need for Greens' Shaw to take the credit, then now have to walk it back. Only the Greens could make a crisis out of a massive regional positive.
The limitations on allocation were set by Robertson, Shaw took credit for his support for the Green School funding because he supported the case for it (Treasury did not by the way).
So it was wrong. James Shaw himself admits and the Green Party leadership has called a meeting over it.
how many commenters here were prepared to die in the ditch to defend the Green Party in its entirety rather than figure out this was wrong. Politicians wouldn’t make decisions as stupid as this if they knew all their supporters couldn’t be relied upon to support them no matter how stupid there decision.
Robert being Tier3 super gaia l33t so his sarcasm about any criticism of a Green Party decision can’t be wrong
There was a risk of Labour not needing the Greens, now the risk is that they will (due to the recent outbreak in Auckland not being contained) but a 2%+ pick up from Greens might still be enough to hold off the National ACT axis because NZF are also below 5%.
It won’t stop me voting for the Greens this time, nor did it in 2017, buit it was a blunder.
I mean, it would probably lift their vote share which would make it a good thing to do, but I'm curious about how you think it could actually be done. Y'know, given there are party rules and actual laws around these things.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Opinion: New Health NZ commissioner Lester Levy is authorised to assume operational leadership – chief executive Margie Apa is effectively relegated to his operational deputy The post All-powerful Levy is feudal baron of a $28b fiefdom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Good article in Stuff lamenting the loss of constructive media political opinion and the movement to sensatinalism and partisan commentary.
If I'm honest, the main reason I like it is the outing of Hoskings and Hawkesby as tory hacks.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/the-detail/122589765/the-detail-whats-the-point-of-political-commentary
I always think the embedded journalist model promoted there by Tracey Watkins is by definition, corrupt. To get what she calls the insight into the inner workings of the Party requires a mutually beneficial relationship. In order to gain trust it will be expected the embedded journalist report kindly about their host party and critically about their opposition.
This was born out in all Watkins pieces and was even more pronounced in her apprentice, Stacy Kirk, who flounced in a huff after her idol, John Key, quit with his tail between his legs.
Journalists should not be part of a political party’s PR machine in the way Watkins celebrates.
I don't agree with the all-government decision to give $11.7m to a private school as announced by James Shaw yesterday.
But the reaction to this has been hysterical. The media has collectively attacked the Greens on this as part of its effort to get the Greens below 5%. Sue Bradford has attacked the Greens on this, but she has had a chip on her shoulder ever since she left the Greens because they don't sufficiently focus on social policies as she sees it. However, the Greens remain the most socially aware party in parliament-look at their Wealth Tax proposal, also announced by James Shaw, that is specifically designed for poverty alleviation to the tune of $7.9 billion a year. $11.7 million is a drop in the bucket compared with this.
The people on the Standard saying they will not vote Green because of the school grant need to stop and think. As Stuff says today Shaw backed the grant alongside a suite of other Green projects.“I did support quite a long list of projects: the Hiringa energy hydrogen refuelling project, a lot of cycleways, bus lanes, a whole batch of waste management projects…”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300093441/james-shaw-calls-meeting-with-green-members-to-explain-private-school-funding-decision
The Greens are by far the strongest advocates for Climate Change initiatives-Jacinda talks a lot about this but the real policy comes from the Greens. One small stuff-up is irrelevant in this context.
Zakly.
They say politics is about optics… $12 million to a private school.. socialism?
I haven't got anyone in my circles that finds overt socialism appealing. They all prefer the idea of mixed economies, generally with a bit stronger state sector than we now have.
But they all share a strong distaste for crony capitalism. Which is what this school thing looks like.
Which is what a lot of the private 'shovel ready' funding is going to look like to those that miss out. Same applies to the Tourism Recovery funding, hence the outcry when AJ Hackett got a bailout.
There's a lot more coming up in the 'shovel ready' program and the petty jealousies will be out in force. Government has to stimulate the economy right now and a lot of it isn't going to be perfect, and might go to people we don't get on with, but it's getting people employed and building confidence in the economy to try and keep us housed and fed.
Agreed Graeme….if the media is looking for a disgusting waste of public money and a terrible decision they should be focusing on Hackett….but of course that does not help in getting the Greens below 5% which is the objective.
….help in getting the Greens below 5% which is the objective.
This will not be too hard to achieve if Green Party leaders continue to fail to "think twice" before justifying supporting a massive chunk of dosh for a program that directly contravenes a Party flagship policy.
They make it too easy…
I just wish that the government would stop stimulating the economy and start actually developing it. Its the development that we need, not some stimulation of the corpse of a failed system.
100%.
At least by keeping it alive through this we have a chance of controlling the outcome. Allowing the economy to die / crash risks uncontrollable outcomes which could be the very opposite of what we want. Like more low value commodities and offshore control.
I'm seeing two approaches in the Governments work, protecting what we have (AJ Hackett, what if that went into offshore control?) and developing for the future (The Taranaki school as an example)
I'm involved with a company that has put in for quite a bit of 'shovel ready' work. Developing the economy in an added value and lower carbon way is a big part of those projects and what the Government seems to be wanting in the programme. If they get approved there will be huge howls from competitors, 1, because they missed out, and 2, because we got ahead of them. Well maybe they should have some good ideas too.
Maui…but my point is the Green's are the closest thing to socialists that we have, and they are the greenest too. Look at the overall context not one stuff-up.
Tell me who are you going to vote for to get a socialist government out of Labour National NZF ACT?
…the Green's are the closest thing to socialists that we have
Fuck. We're in the deepest of shit then.
So you don't think a $7.9 billion annual Wealth Tax is just vaguely socialist Rosemary?
How about we ignore the dollar amount for a moment?
Wealth Tax…..yay!!!
Tax dollars to fund exclusive, elitist private school for the kids of the wealthy…yay!!!
I can only imagine the internal conflict this creates.
Rosemary-How about we don't?
The wealth tax is 658 times this amount every year and will be used to alleviate policy. I don't agree with the school grant but (see my original post above) this needs to be put in context.
"Tax dollars to fund exclusive, elitist private school for the kids of the wealthy… or letting Labour and NZF give the money to another climate pushing project, yay!!!"
fify.
the issue has been live enough for everyone to understand now that the Greens didn't develop the shovel fund and that if they had it would have looked very very different.
The left needs to wake the fuck up and take a long hard look at what it actually wants.
Go hard at the Greens for how they handled this, but please stop blaming them for things they have little or no control over.
What are these climate pushing projects of which you speak? And what evidence is there that Labour and NZF were going to give them the money?
the projects developed by the group that controlled the funding. Because it's Taranaki (oil and gas economy), Shaw wanted funding to go to green projects not climate polluting ones. Are you seriously suggesting that Labour or NZF would have turned down projects on the basis of climate change?
I'm going to try and put a post over the weekend, but you could probably read some of what Shaw has said in the past two days and watch Swarbrick's video on FB from yesterday, pretty sure she explained it.
I have a better understanding now. Shaw made a mistake, in considering the list of projects as infrastructure and didn't think about the GP education policy. It was part of the covid response budget and came under the purview of the Ministers not the GP.
The projects that were approved came from a very large pool of applications for the funding. As I understand it, the GP was instrumental in making the shortlist more climate friendly.
Turei admitting to (minor, historical) benefit fraud, or Shaw supporting (pandemic-related) funding for a private school. Who's the worst offender, and how will history 'judge' them. From my PoV, the judgemental pile-on from most quarters against Turei was disappointing and more than a little disturbing; the reaction to Shaw's 'Green offending' is in the same boat.
Fwiw, the Greens seem to be held to a higher standard. Their political brand may be slightly tarnished, but it is salvageable IMHO, whereas National's brand has long since corroded beyond repair. Given the relative level of support for each party, one might fairly ask 'Is NZ society corroded beyond repair?' Time will tell – in a democracy we get the government we deserve.
Rosemary, Yes we are in a bad position!! We are fighting a pandemic, trying to keep systems afloat and plan for work for people made unemployed by covid fallout. We are being asked to think as a team of 5 million + and tolerate situations very different from normal. A few dead rats may appear. Mostly the types of ready for work places are suitable and fit the desired brief. But let us get precious, even if it cuts our nose off to spite our face!! Let's drop James Shaw, and see how we go then eh!!
State support for private schools is nothing new – Roman Catholic schools have been supported, as far as I know, since Holyoake's day.
Yep, and they're now integrated which means, essentially, that they're state schools run by private administrators and don't get to charge fees.
This is what I'd like to see happen with this green school – but I won't hold my breath.
Another good reason to support it is to trial out the systems it uses and see if they work and if they can then be rolled out across the state system.
Fairly certain that Catholic Schools still charge families. Not nearly as eye-watering high as the State Schools in the grammar zone in Auckland though.
https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz/education/school-system
LOL!
"Please excuse The Greens massive hypocrisy over this issue because Climate change"
I think Green party supporters should use that excuse more often.
"Please excuse me from running over your dog because Climate change"
If you still have time you should probably delete that if you want to keep commenting here. It's not constructive in any way and could attract a ban.
What's funny about Gosman's trolling there is that he has a whole rule in the Policy named after his hypocrisy, The Gosman (hypocrisy) ruling 😆
fame !
Your use of the word "excuse" seems irrational. There is nothing, in the sentence quoted, to imply that the party is using climate change as an "excuse". The implication in the quotation is that the Green Party's support for such a school is to be expected given their preoccupation with climate change.
I hope your dog makes a speedy recovery.
Poor old Gosman is feeling more dyspeptic than usual, due to his sense of impending disaster. Impending disaster for him and his fellow National Party diehards, that is.
For the rest of us, it's three—probably nine—more years of the best government we've had for many decades.
Small stuff up? how many teacher aides for low decile high needs children would $11.7 million provide?
How many children in low decile schools would receive free lunches to maximise their learning potential for $11.7 million ? 10,500 using the governments own budget estimates
"The Government, in its 2020 Budget announced on Thursday, promised to spend $220 million on the free school lunch programme, feeding an additional 200,000 children and creating an estimated 2000 jobs. The school lunch programme, launched in 2019, currently feeds 8000 children."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/121506513/budget-2020-free-school-lunches-to-feed-200000-kids-as-part-of-1b-government-support-package
You have conveniently overlooked the fact this funding is going to a school that charges 20k Per Annum at a minimum to attend. Why on earth would they need 11.7 million when the parents of the school could afford to fund that themselves as a grass roots crowd funding initiative without too much effort. I mean it's only a shade under $100k per currently attending child.
Denying 10,500 children a free lunch each school day because this particular school aligns politically with the Greens?
how many teacher aides for low decile high needs children would $11.7 million provide?
Answer: None.
The funding you are so upset about was never going to be spent on teacher aides.
So it was always earmarked for spending on private schools for the 1%? completely against all government policies on funding private schools?
you can not like teacher aides, but it's pretty callous to say that money couldn't be spent on feeding hungry kids because the money wasn't allocated to that
It is a callous thing to say but roading money cannot be spent on feeding hungry kids either. What has the World come to when we cannot spend allocated money on our pet projects? We should be able to dip in our KiwiSaver funds when we want to start a business.
So this money was always earmarked to build safe, warm, dry buildings for the purposes of education to children who already live in safe, warm dry homes and whose parents support green policies. even though government policy is to limit funding of any kind to private schools beyond 30% of the curriculum contribution.
please explain to me how this inconsistency isn't an inconsistency, I'll be fascinated to hear more spin on the issue.
No, the shovel ready fund was earmarked *specifically for projects as part of the covid response, and those had to meet certain criteria. Some projects were also specifically ruled out. Maybe educate yourself on this before arguing completely inaccurate lines.
the only thing shovel ready about this is James Shaw's political grave.
Which is a shame, as i thought he was one of the better politicians in parliament
He is, Climaction, "one of the better politicians in Parliament", you have called that correctly and your view is mirrored by those who have worked with him, even and especially those from the Right, who know full-well that he's got the right stuff. James Shaw will not be buried by this, he will remain true to his raison d'être and emerge from the barrage of criticism, as a man of substance and valour![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
"the only thing shovel ready about this is James Shaw's political grave"
I hope Shaw is correct, but given the reaction on this left-leaning site that seems unlikely. Shame really, the Greens are (soon to be were?) the most progressive party in parliament (e.g. compare their tax policy with Ardern ruling out a CGT while she is leader), but when you're dancing around the 5% threshold one mistake is all it takes. Even Shaw admitting it was a mistake apparently isn't good enough – it's not easy being Green.
Imagine the headline: ACT now third largest party in parliament
That possibility alone is enough for me to Party Vote Green.
haha, I should totally do a post on that last bit.
"That possibility alone is enough for me to Party Vote Green."
You wernt going to anyway?
Pat, I was always going to Party Vote Green – just saying that the aforementioned possibility alone is enough for me to do so.
Are we OK?
lol…fair enough…it was only a little dig
What don’t you understand about funds allocation?
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/taranaki-school-construction-project-create-jobs
Feel free to Google the details of the CRRF but I have to warn you that they may not confirm your bias.
I understand it. it's an economic issue called scarcity.
Group A is 10,500 children that have a scarcity of food and go to school hungry, decreasing their learning potential.
Group B is 120 children most likely don't go to school hungry, but need 130 new friends. their parents are also environmentally conscious enough to dig deep to the tune of $20k per annum per child, these parents climate views align with the governments
the government, with it's scarce resources, could choose to allocate the funding how it wished. It chose to allocate funds to Group B. Ahead of all the other Group A facsimile's that could used that money to help more children, with greater immediate benefit to society.
There are funds allocated for both ‘groups’ and these funds are applied according to different criteria and decisions are made by different people. I’m sure you have by now educated yourself on the CRRF criteria, yes?
Believe it or not, those who are not positively orgasmic with this get that this corporate welfare comes from a different pot of dosh than the comparative crumbs that will/might eventually float down to the Decile 1 school with the leaky roof.
We understand about silos, and Vote This and That, and Special Projects and the like…we do.
But later on, when things settle down and the Green School and their New Friends are enjoying their tax payer funder New Learning Spaces, what are we going to tell those 10500 poorly nourished kids who go from their cold, damp home to their sub standard school that they did not meet the criteria for such 'investment'?
It is troubling in the extreme that some here fail to see just why it is that the principal of Marfell School is so pissed off. Her project is more than shovel ready….young minds yearning to learn…but told to wait. Again.
'It is more important that we jump start the post Covid economy than meet our responsibility as Government to finally fund much needed state school infrastructure after decades of under funding and neglect.'
Beggars belief that this reaction from the state schools in the area was not anticipated. Shows a saddening lack of sensitivity.
Rosemary, I totally get why people are pissed off. I'm not convinced that most people do understand the different funding streams (going by the comments), but being angry about the covid response funding is part of the other angers about other parts of the covid response.
All I can say after that is if the GP had 30 MPs in govt we'd have had a completely different covid response. So I'm good with the criticism of the GP and holding them to account. I'm perplexed and troubled by people saying they don't want to vote GP over this, despite the GP policy and direction in Ed being the same as it was last week or six months ago.
I also think that the state of state schools hasn't changed in the past few months, so I assume that the anger is longer term, but again perplexed why people are so keen to blame the Greens for that.
Shaw fucked up, the GP didn't, on this one thing. They're not responsible for the shocking state of public school infrastructure which is in the same sorry state it was before.
I’d say that many people, including commenters here, don’t understand the different funding streams. The money for the Green School comes from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF), i.e. from Infrastructure, not from Education. As such, that Principal is barking up the wrong tree; she could have picked any odd non-Education project funded by Government to get upset about. Similarly, and strictly speaking, it is not against Green Party Education Policy either.
I’m disappointed that James Shaw is caving in under pressure and now framing it and owning it as a “mistake”. I thought he’d be of stauncher material than a National fly-by-night MP. If the project was evaluated against set criteria and worthy of funding then it was worthy of funding. End of.
It appears that the decision was a Government decision, as mentioned by Grant Robertson at the 1 PM Live Covid update, made by Labour (2) and NZF (1) Ministers responsible for the IRG (Infrastructure Industry Reference Group; https://www.crowninfrastructure.govt.nz/iirg/), the so-called ‘shovel ready’ Ministers, and James Shaw. According to Chlöe Swarbrick’s Facebook videos.
https://www.crowninfrastructure.govt.nz/wp-content/uploads/1.-Shovel-Ready-Project-Information-Guidelines.pdf
According to Chlöe, the Green School application was in the right region (Taranaki), supported by local community and government, and it was aligned with carbon incentives (i.e. no further intensification and emission).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/122025481/government-allocates-126m-for-four-new-projects-in-national-school-rebuild-programme [HT to Chlöe]
The Mayor of New Plymouth said that applications were going to be viewed through a commercial lens, i.e. job creation and stimulation of local economy, and the Green School application met the commercial imperatives.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/opinion/300094305/new-plymouth-mayor-explains-why-he-supported-private-schools-117m-government-funding
Taken together, there were and still are many good reasons to fund this project IMO.
The mistake is that he didn’t consider GP policy in his decision making as Associate Finance Minister. Had he done so, it’s unlikely the project would have been approved.
But lots of people are hurt and alarmed, and I think the apology is appropriate, because if he hadn’t made the mistake people wouldn’t be going through that at this time. The mess that National left is a big, raw wound, and while I disagree that the Greens should be blamed for that, I understand why some people do.
The GP zoom call tonight was a most excellent lesson in how government works, I wish there was a way for that to be conveyed to the public.
As I said, I’m disappointed but I can also understand why Shaw has apologised; it is a lesson in party politics. I have the luxury of not being a party co-leader of a party on the cusp of 5% and I therefore have the freedom to express my views and feelings about this. As I see it, it was mostly another screw-up in the PR & communication department. From what I have gathered, the Green School project is sound and should be funded. The Greens, their supporters, and others who are fighting for extra funding of public schools should think about whether this automatically means fighting against the CRRF funding for the Green School. I hope the Government is not withdrawing now.
its getting difficult to tell but I hope thats sarcasm again…..as evidenced by the public response so far it is apparent (and should have been obvious to the politicians, Shaw included who initially proudly supported it) that there is no distinction between silos when it comes to public funding….and voting is largely visceral.
So is the objection that Shaw supported it or that it is occurring at all? Or is it both?
The news reports make it pretty clear, that the funding is intended to result in a major expansion of the school roll (to 250) and that the facilities will be available for community use. Presumably hired out just like public school halls are from time to time.
From what I can understand of the Green Party philosophy is that the Greens like social initiatives that are not tied directly to the state, so this sort of thing will appeal to some Green supporters, including quite obviously Shaw.
On the other hand, most Green supporters are on the left edge of politics and like a big state, and virtual state monopolies in things such as education.
Obviously it is not easy to square these two conflicting objectives.
Essentially, Wayne, there is a plethora of objections, including the insincere, opportunist one from the leader of the National Party; a party that fought tooth and claw, for Charter Schools, but none are free of emotional interference or malign intent. As you know, James is a highly respected and able politician, looked upon admiringly by every sector of Parliament; his predicament is an uncomfortable one and will surely test his mettle. I expect him to rise, phoenix-like, from the fires of this issue. I only wish his "people" saw it as I do![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
Ah the forgetful one rises above the parapet….tell me Wayne would you have supported the funding of a private school to the tune of almost 12 million while state education is struggling with underfunding?
I don't think his memory would retain something like that.
Your cleaving to reason will get you nowhere with Climaction, RedLogix. I admire it though.
Your passion for lost causes is admirable.
Thank you, Climaction. I am receiving your praise with open-hearted goodwill, and will consequently redouble my efforts to express my support for James Shaw and his abilities.
When we are continually told of the Green Party and their principles – Yet when they act in a fashion that is directly opposite We should not react ?? I am reminded that actions speak louder than words What other principles are also available to be sold out ?
When in trouble attack the messenger not the message. Sign of lost battle with that strategy. Not just Sue Bradford there are plenty of past Green MPs speaking against this have a look at Mojo Mathers, Catherine Delahunty or Denise Roche twitter /facebook.
Then we have "Ultimately that was something the Green Party advocated quite strongly for and so it was one of their wins out of the shovel-ready project area,” Hipkins said.
Totally agree BG @ 2
If the National Party had announced the proposal they would have come up with the excuse that it was:
“… a step in the right direction and that it would add to the growing clamour for more action against CC and therefore a positive move.”
Or some such thing.
Thanks Anne.
The Left is so good at tearing itself apart for no good reason.
And the Right are expert in facilitating the process.
Morality and ideological purity always trump pragmatism. The chess player lost because his flag fell while he was still contemplating his best move. The goal of perfection leads to paralysis, mental degeneration, disorientation and disillusion, and involuntary knee jerks.
Agree, Bearded Git. And if the Left continues down this track then in 12 months time we'll all be ranting away on The Standard because of the policies of the new National Party Government.
this is a really good summation BG. Would you be ok if I quoted some of it in a post on the weekend?
Weka-Certainly old bean
Agree, big over reaction to the Green School. sometimes our elected representatives aren't going to make the best decisions or maybe they have more information than we do.
For a bit of context as to what $11 million buys in school works. Arrowtown School was rebuilt on a new site in 1997, nice new school with lots of capacity and good layout and location. But it leaked. So they had to tear most of it down and build it again. Cost $11 million.
Hopefully the developers of this will do better.
It rains in Arrowtown? People pay good money for a crisp, dry climate – they'll be furious!
The climate has been the saving grace of many a leaky building up here. Anywhere else and the things would have rotted away to mush 10 years ago. So much for a 50 year minimum design life, oh well,they got 20 years out of it…
And never compromising means other parties will stop working with the Greens in Parliament, and less of the manifesto will get done. In the grand scheme of things, if this is the dead rat that has to be swallowed to get other stuff done, it's pretty minor.
The facts appear to be that
1. there is a pool of money for capital spending on projects that create jobs.
2. the Green Party advocated for some projects including one funding a private school's buildings.
For mine there is something wrong in principle – there should be no immediate private beneficiary to the capital spending. This should be something outside the rules of the fund.
That the Fund can be used for projects with a private beneficiary is disturbing and that the Greens should advocate for a project of this type of this type even should it be allowed is also. This is the environment where corruption can occur.
For mine James Shaw has to repent of the mistake and withdraw Green Party support for it and if at all possible stop the funding going ahead.
Is it massively different from the largesse ladled out by the Pompous Prince of the Provinces?
The Pompous Prince of the Provinces has never pretended to be anything other than a principle-free pork-barreling POS happy to try to buy votes however he can.
Most industry development funding goes to private businesses. The problem here is it is called a 'school'. Shaw and his staffers should have spotted that. However, politics is never about perfection.
When I made that comment I was unaware it was allocation from of a fund set up 1 April to fund economic/commercial projects impacted by the pandemic.
So my thinking was there are plenty of unfunded community projects that should have received the meony – let alone capital spending for public hsporitals and schools (limited on average to between $100,000-200,000 pa per school each year – $400M for 2500 schools).
For that fund it had to have conventional economic development benefits that would show up in a business case – some future potential beyond business as usual. Maintaining public schools is not that. Nor is just expanding private businesses that are not in strategic industries.
Shaw is used to exactly that sort of thinking from his previous career. Mistake not to take the politics of it into account in his current one.
Not just Sue Bradford hating it- also Mojo Mathers & Catherine Delahunty… they can't all have an axe to grind. Maybe it is actually the dumbest of all spending from dumb-Shane's slushfund.
Bored with the old left/right political paradigm? Just for fun let's consider what happens when we go to a triplet model. Keeping in mind no model is perfect:
Conservatives:
Risk averse and oriented towards social continuity. These are the people who operate existing systems reliably and predictably. We depend on them for our daily survival.
The moral values they put the most weight on are loyalty and purity. Conservatives value both individual and collective responsibility.
Their primary tools are tradition and religion.
When taken to an extreme conservatism becomes fascism and race supremacy.
Liberals:
Risk seeking and oriented toward individual achievement. These are the people who look to extend existing systems and generate new wealth. We depend on them for adapting, innovating and generating new systems.
The moral values they put the most weight on are reciprocity and liberty. Liberals value individual responsibility and accountability.
Their primary tools are rules based order and capitalism.
When taken to an extreme liberalism becomes libertarianism and extreme inequality.
Socialists:
Risk mitigating and oriented toward collective action. We depend on these people to ensure a sustainable distribution of wealth and to advocate for the weakest in society.
The moral values they put the most weight on are empathy and fairness. Socialists value collective responsibility and accountability.
Their primary tools are the state and class awareness.
When taken to an extreme socialism becomes marxism and tyranny.
…
Looked at from this perspective several ideas can be proposed; one is that a healthy society needs all three modes to communicate and negotiate successfully. The other is that when one mode dominates it tends toward it's extreme, and that in reaction to this we see a flip to another mode. Conservatism yields to liberalism, then to socialism and then repeating in a slow generational cycle.
A world is supported by four things…the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these things are as nothing…without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition! ~ Frank Herbert
Oddly, treasury economists, foreign investors, property speculators, traffickers in cheap foreign labour, click-baiting media vermin, and looters of state assets are not mentioned. Perhaps it was an oversight.
Herbert eloquently anticipated my next question; what is the ruling principle that binds the diverse elements of a society into a cohesive whole?
As for your list of rogues, can I add cultural revolutionaries and gulag guards?
I'm not certain all cancel culturers are behaving inappropriately – it's a matter of whether they are addressing real injustice against people privileged by power or only pretending to do so.
Gulag guards can be complicated territory also, I worked with a soviet captain from Nahodka back in the day who was a good communist. Had he lived in a capitalist society he would have been a good capitalist too. The responsibility for state crimes needs to fall most heavily on those who set the policy – Beria, not Vladimir the welder, or Roger Douglas, not Kevin from accounting.
But this merely circles around my point, that each of the legitimate political modes, conservative, liberal and socialist (are there any others?), has it's own cast of rogues. Normally these are held in check by the mores of the countervailing modes, who will resist and object to excesses of tyranny, corruption and banal mediocrity.
Identifying the excesses of the other side is easy, it's the one's your own team is prone to lapsing into that are much harder to deal with.
Still this diverts from my main thesis here, that these three political modes are a more nuanced and useful model than the tired old left/right binary.
Sure we need the Right – but a principled, policy-driven, smart Right – not a regressive, poorly educated, dirty-tricks and dishonesty riddled Right so out of touch with NZ interests they're taking money from the US arms lobby.
And, some attention must be paid to the fact that Douglas, without the ghost of a skerrick of a public mandate, moved NZ governance significantly to the Right, impoverishing a whole generation. The representative deficit in NZ is on the Left – supporting and representing the victims of his ill-conceived and inequality generating policies.
Had Douglas's arrant fantasies delivered on their promises, things like the currently contentious Green school would be welcomed with open arms. A generation ground into poverty by greedy non-performing veiled oligarchs however, is not likely to humour such follies while serious inequalities are still accelerating.
Sure we need the Right – but a principled, policy-driven, smart Right
Yes. Now how would you go about encouraging the good in someone?
Had Douglas's arrant fantasies delivered on their promises,
The excesses of neo-liberalism, both ill conceived and ill timed were especially damaging because at that particular moment in our history, both the conservative elements of the National Party and the socialist wings of the Labour Party had been temporarily snookered.
National was still some years away from recovering from Muldoon's disastrous exit, and Labour was reeling from the internal political betrayal. As a result neither were in a position to form the usual alliance that would have moderated both the scope and pace of Douglas's neo-liberal reforms, and we would have probably followed something closer to Australia's far more moderate path.
The fact that the trauma of that period in the 80's still so strongly echoes in NZ's political life, is indicative of what happens when one of the political modes tips over the boundaries into unconstrained excess.
We could possibly start by discouraging the bad and put in place the necessary laws and processes to catch it.
Greed is Good and its legal
is a really bad basis for a functional society and yet its what we've got especially after the Roger Douglas reforms and the right-wing have taken to it fully.
The reason it still is a “trauma” is because it is a wound that does not heal and people continue to rip off the crusty scab. Nobody has figured out how to heal this and let scar tissue form properly to close the wound once and forever. In fact, new wounds are being inflicted on a daily basis.
how would you go about encouraging the good in someone?
The first thing in getting people to change is usually getting them to acknowledge the problem. Voters seems to be about to gift a few of them time to reflect on their shortcomings, but media ignoring their dishonesty issues doesn't encourage productive reflection. Nor do the old neolibs within Labour giving tacit support to some of their policy stances.
One of my observations from participation in the voluntary sector however, is that public service is mildly addictive. A regular public service day for MPs, putting them on the front line of social service delivery, would improve their feel for critical issues, and, if the opportunity were offered to the Right, some of the smarter ones would take it up if only for the promotional opportunity at first.
Let Judith Collins plant a bit of inanga habitat and we might hear a bit less about what would or wouldn't be gone by lunchtime.
The first thing in getting people to change is usually getting them to acknowledge the problem
Really? How does that usually work out? Most people are a mix of desirable and undesirable aspects. Getting them to do better is a case of putting boundaries on the undesirable behaviours, and then encouraging the desired ones.
This is why I explicitly put boundaries on the three political modes, fascism, libertarianism and marxism.
We don't want to fall into the trap of being required to provide more and more sophisticated boundaries for adults who ought to self-regulate.
What we need instead is to somehow spark a culture of self-improvement, where virtuous behaviour, rather than dishonesty, is a serious choice in parties' tactical arsenals.
National are slowly learning the lesson that they can't score much against Ardern because her positions are conspicuously, and no doubt deliberately, politically virtuous.
Yup. That's more or less the direction I had in mind.
I should probably note that the role of the press in both the loss of moral character in parliament, and in any significant effort to reform it, is non-trivial.
Evans says it at length and probably much better than me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Times,Bad_Times(book)
Trump is ultimately an end product of Murdoch media – prior to Fox he would likely have been winnowed out.
Yes; it is non-trivial. But not non-achievable.
Here is a story; at the moral peak of the Islamic empire say around AD 1200, it had established a number of large cities with paved and lighted streets, with Universities and civil life well in advance of the rest of Europe which at the time was still very medieval.
On the market streets it was normal for a business to indicate that it was closed for the day by putting a small rope across the door. Regardless of whether it was a seller of vegetables or jewellery. If you had asked the owner whether they were concerned about someone stealing their stock overnight, they would have looked at you incredulously. "But why would someone do something so shameful?" would be the likely answer.
While much of human history has indeed been a shameful catalog of horrors, there have always been pockets of the opposite as my small example above illustrates. Human nature is not so fixed as we're fond of thinking. In my view as individuals we are equally as capable of choosing good over suffering, but as you imply, the magic ingredients to produce a righteous society do not come together either all that often, nor entirely at random.
Or to put it more simply, nothing worthwhile achieving was ever easy. Yet refusing to make the effort is the only absolute failure.
It would seem that a society needs to practise the "four cardinal virtues" – prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude.
Exactly. And while no single political mode has a monopoly on these virtues, it would the conservative voice, harking to hard won traditional knowledge who would be most likely to express their 'cardinal' importance.
…and the Corporation is parasitic on all these value structures; preaching liberty, stoicism, or social justice, while extracting maximum wealth from the host society
Yet the modern post 1800 era, dominated economically by both the corporation and the capitalist model, has seen an unprecedented explosion in new wealth everywhere.
In 2016 for the first time in all of human history, fully 50% of the human race achieved a modest middle class lifestyle by local standards. We doubled life expectancy, we've gone from just 1b humans to 7.5b. Famine and mass killing disease are mostly horrors from the past. Violence and crime are no longer daily realities for most people. Major power conflict and war, while still a dark threat, has nonetheless been contained at far lower levels than ever before. By every measure human life in 2020 is unimaginably better than it was in 1820.
Of course none of this has been achieved without exploitation, corruption and unintended consequences. The socialist left quite legitimately points to these failures and demands we do better, but does it's case no favours when it ignores how far we have already come.
Progress is due to capitalism and corporations?! Dude your mind has been colonised. It's due to democracy, advances in technology, and hard labour by the workers
Yep. For the last two hundred years the capitalists have been against the advances that Redlogix lists.
All of the above. Capitalism in it's modern form was more or less invented by the Dutch in the 1600's along with the Scientific Revolution and general extension of political rights in the post Bubonic Plague medieval era. Many elements came together, along with the peculiar geopolitical features of Europe, that ignited what we now call the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's.
Many of these components had existed in other parts of the world at various times, but nowhere had the magic combination of science, commerce and the legal systems to support the rights of the individual all come together at once. Arguing that you can subtract out the legal system of private property and capitalism, and get the same result is a counterfactual history that would be rash to argue for.
Note carefully; I'm explicitly not arguing for unconstrained neo-liberal capitalism. We've done that failed experiment and there is no need to repeat it.
But that does not mean capitalism (and it's underlying foundations of individual agency and private property) should be discarded. We really just need to understand better their correct relationship to the political whole.
While ignoring them as we've seen.
well put red.
i think the problems arise when each of those groups tries to undertake one of the other group's roles. e.g. conservatives try something new (e.g. let's open the border with australia).
recognition by each of the others and their importance and place would be a good start.
If you meet a person who sees only the flaws in other people, who always seeks to blame others for anything wrong …. then immediately we know this person lacks social intelligence. Any success they achieve will not endure because they have no allies; their life will be unstable and often dysfunctional.
Now extend this idea to the three political modes. What if instead of forever looking to the inevitable flaws of the other mode, and gallery of rogues that infests each, we instead acknowledged their strengths and legitimate purpose first? And then took responsibility for our own failings before attending to others?
That's very biblical, RedLogix.
Or Jungian.
Great RL. Almost as if it comes from General Sun Tzu about logics and maneouvres.
BornSun Wu 544 BC (traditional) Qi or Wu, Zhou Kingdom
Died496 BC (traditional; aged 47–48) Gusu, Wu, Zhou Kingdom
OccupationMilitary general, tactician, writer, philosopher
Marxism is the anti-thesis of tyranny. It is, after all, democracy that starts in the work place.
What's that you say? The Greens? Supporting a school? Preposterous!
What? It's a state-of-the-art Green school, operating to the very principles the green movement admires? Outrageous, what are The Greens thinking???
Eh? It's constructed using the latest and best green building and earth-friendly methods and materials? Ridiculous! Unforgivable!! That might serve as a model for other buildings around the country!! No, I say, no, no, no!
Again? The Greens support was specifically around the creation of jobs in a region that has lost it's oil and gas focus?? We can't have that sort of carry on from The Greens – they don't DO that sort of thing!!
Pardon?? The children who will be attending the school come from rich families??? This is beyond the pale! We don't condone working with the rich!!! We are green, we eat the rich!!!
It's time to stand up to this sort of betrayal and take the Green Party down!! The timing is perfect, with the election so near; rise up, disgruntled greenies, make as much noise as you can, don't wait for facts or any response from the leaders of the party, act now! Wail and weep, gnash your teeth and tear your hair and do it loud and in public; no point in sitting quietly, weighing-up the pros and cons and consequences, bring them down!!! All those years you supported The Greens were wasted, these guys have funded a school!!! Bring on a National Government! That'll teach the Imperfect Greens (that's what I call them!!!!).
Yes, dear.
The people who vote Green are predominantly wealthy hyper-liberals. Check the electorates they get most of their vote from. It ain't the proles.
So Shaw is just shoring up his base. Perfectly natural.
Shoring up part of the base. And alienating some supporters. If nothing else, it's a strongly divisive move.
In other news..
The Green Party has refused to support the building of a school that reflects many aspects of its own kaupapa; environmentally-friendly building, energy-conservation, nature-inspired design, teaching methods and programmes that suit the eco-conscious learner and create aware leaders for the future who are grounded in Gaian thinking, teach earth-care and social responsibility, conserve resources, minimise waste and a raft of other green initiatives. Green leader James Shaw said, "We just don't have the confidence as a Party to back our own beliefs; the project is too big, too bold and on such a grand scale that we, a tiny and modest, Conservative party, don't think we can tie ourselves to such an expansive project. We feel that getting plastic bags out of supermarkets is quite enough for one election cycle; we don't want to appear too full of ourselves or confident in our world view as our supporters might rebel if they think this poppy is getting too tall. Consequently, we're not supporting this seemingly green idea. Sorry. Awful sorry. Everyone.
Yep, keep uncritically chanting the party line over and over and over and over. Mindless repetition eventually works. Or not.
The party line?
What is that, Andre? I'm genuinely keen to learn what that is.
You've got just 7 weeks to find out.
When you've done that, come back and tell us what it is.
Andre knows what it is and will describe it for us soon, I trust.
Green Party members should be able to tell us the Green Party policies which are being supported through this investment.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300093441/james-shaw-calls-meeting-with-green-members-to-explain-private-school-funding-decision
As a first priority, I would have gone for $12 million on the creation of a "Taranaki Forest Service" to remedy 50 years of fossil fuel production, with an emphasis on long term job creation.
That's a good idea from the left, mauī![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
The argument that "other things are more important than a school" will be presented over and over but doesn't change the situation and choices James Shaw was presented with. Sure, the money would be better spent on a, b, c or d, but those options weren't on the table. The education world is up in arms over their "loss" but this money was not from their fund, it was from another department.
It's not that its more important than a school its that state schools have concurrently been told that they will have to struggle on without the required property money. In some cases this means cold, damp, leaky classrooms, old toilet blocks and the like and no more for roll growth classrooms which sees kids piled into overcrowded spaces. That's the point – the private well to do being handed $11.7m whilst the common folk get nothing. Even worse is the advice that state schools will have to struggle on for at least five years before they are considered for funding.
[Fixed typo in e-mail address]
Maybe the Greens should split into two politically pure parties?
I preferred the right splintering. They get purer, faster.
We'll just be relieved if the Greens make 5%.
I was of course being ironic. The demonstrated fact that so many Green Party activists cannot bring themselves to both walk and chew gum at the same time here is pretty sad.
This school looks like a seriously innovative green idea; and as with all pioneering efforts it's going to come with a substantial 'first mover' cost. This is the sort of thing government is really good at doing.
But no apparently the money has to be spent of teacher aides, and doing more of the same old thing. It's a very conservative instinct and I can respect it's motives. Yet as you say, the Greens also have a substantial liberal base that absolutely needs to see innovation like this.
It all points to a party that's awkwardly positioned between two conflicting moral drivers, and will always be prone to this kind of instability until it's resolved one way or another. At the moment it looks very much as if the socialist element of the Greens are dominating, leaving a real vacuum on the environmental front.
Maybe my old friends from TOP will be eyeing this fracas with amusement.![devil devil](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
"This school looks like a seriously innovative green idea; and as with all pioneering efforts it's going to come with a substantial 'first mover' cost. This is the sort of thing government is really good at doing."
Tear it down! Drown it at birth! Coz!
Indeed. Given our adversarial and antagonistic style of politics, it will be ‘resolved’ when one beats the other into submission. So much for the holistic philosophy from the Green Party.
That will depend on their supporters, some of who are going a bit feral at the moment.
In seats where Labour can't win we Labour people will vote Green.
That won't change the result except possibly help National get another seat.
If you want the Greens to get enough votes then electorate vote Labour (it may actually help get a Labour candidate an electorate seat) and party vote Green which will help get them over the 5% threshold.
Wasn't your comment at 3 above an implicit condemnation of one-dimensional purism – i.e. we need all the strands in balance? Now you are suggesting the Greens need to split to achieve that sort of (bad) purism. Seems contradictory.
I am a simple soul and don't expect the Greens (or Labour) to be perfect political vehicles, or exact expressions of everything I think. Funding this school does seem on the surface like an odd contradiction – but I am happy enough with the general orientation of the party, just as I am with Labour. I tend to vote based on my perception of a political party's values and intent – because these are predictors of the likelihood of them getting things right in a horridly complex world. If the number of contradictions and discordant notes builds up too much however – then my perception of underlying values will follow in step.
yeah, nah, he fucked up. Greens have lots of well off voters, but the party is much more diverse and generating ire in your membership this close to the election is not a good move. They will sort it out, but the timing is not good.
More of a concern is the left's response generally and how much of the debate yesterday was based in an understandable emotional response but with scant regards for the facts. That's an issue beyond the Greens.
Ad
We've been here before … and in better times https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25082017/#comment-1373304 :
That was from the 2014 New Zealand Election Study.
The 2017 iteration suggests a similar profile for Green voters … predominantly young, urban and, yes, relatively well-educated … BUT … more likely to be lower than higher income. Disproportionately either no occupation or lower-paid non-manual public sector.
Impoverished (if culturally-"middle class") Radicals, if you like.
That's the spirit.
Smells like Green Spirit.
Well said, Robert! I think the over-emotional reaction has failed to reflect on the whys and wherefores of this decision, preferring to throw the Green Party to the wolves than do some research and quiet reflection. Shame
"research and quiet reflection" don't describe the zeitgeist at this point in history, JanM. This brouhaha is just one of a plethora of jangle-nerved states washing over us and it's getting more intense by the day. How long till polling day?
Problem is, whatever James' justification, this is simply very unpopular with many (most?) Green supporters. Pragmatism demands a rapid reversal to save the party vote. (FWIW my support continues).
It's looking that way, Peter t. Ideologically-stoked passion and emotion are powerful forces that sweep reason out the door like so much dust.
Robert: if I accept your pleas for the existence of this school, I have opened the way for Charter schools of all sorts pleading the same innocence. As they have done in the past.
As regards sweeping reason out the door, what was the reason for the Greens' Education policy, a main tenet of which is (or was) the phasing out of state funding for private schools?
I have just seen an article in the Herald, where James Shaw has admitted that he would not repeat what he has done, and that he hopes supporters will not withdraw support for just one mistake like this.
I am glad he understands this, and share his hope.
No way Peter t should there he a reversal to save the party vote. The members just have to wake up out of their dreams of sleepy hammocks under sheltering green trees, a version of old hippy days and 'ohus'. This is real world politics and we want the Greens in there helping to support the country in all ways, not just in growing organics, planting trees and the myriad of other things of environmental importance. There are people being ground down by present economics which need change, and Greens are about bringing change in many ways.
So all you armchair politicians out there as conservative as any, who are trying to stonewall the Green Party so it limits itself to your inadequate dreams, just go for a walk in the forest till October 17 and let real people with mind and muscle get on with the job of nurturing both the country and the hapless citizens caught up in this mess.
Greywarshark, I want the Greens to hold the balance of power after the election – hence the need for pragmatism with a decision that alienates many potential supporters.
Accusatory diatribes are divisive and unhelpful. IMHO
edit
Yes Peter t you are right in a way when you want something removed that may stop them getting above the 5%. But my point is that they must be allowed to get on with the job of cobbling together a network of differing projects that they try to keep as close to green guidelines as possible. And the quibbling onlookers who say they support the superior Green ideas over other political parties and they must be pure and be approved before moving in anything are actually helping to kill off our chances to better this country and move to adopt measures and have infrastructure that will be necessary to survive climate change. We are just so compromised already that I doubt if NZs can ever let go of their negativity long enough and their bloody squabbling to learn new stuff about tactics and take what steps are needed.
…the over-emotional reaction has failed to reflect on the whys and wherefores of this decision
Perhaps you can elucidate on the "whys" and "wherefores" and then, perhaps, attempt to consider alternatives where $11.7 million could have been allocated in such a way that ALL Green Party principles could have been honoured.
Because directing those dollars to low decile state schools would have employed just as many, and could have incorporated just as innovative 'green' construction processes. The added benefit of going down that route(other than having avoided the justified backlash from Green party supporters) would have been those dollars having a positive and long term impact on more children. More bang for their buck.
At the end of the day, Election Day, those of us criticising this appalling decision by James Shaw will be blamed for any decline in support for the Party.
Weird that.
"Those dollars" weren't tagged to education.
Or rather, the consideration Shaw was giving was to projects presented for a specific fund. Building and maintenance of state schools wasn’t one of the projects received, so far as I understand. He couldn’t grant it because it wasn’t submitted.
Rosemary, mistakes are made, often with the best intentions. Navel gazing does not help as the Treasurer has said "No" to changing the funding arrangement, so James is between a rock and a hard place, He will read the small print next time.
I see some smartie pants giving you the 'Yes dear' Robert. Thanks for your fine analysis and shuttlecock playing – you are playing superbly. Your experience on various Councils with cloth ears shows in your adroit and always thoughtful replies. Thanks for keeping your mind and your communications open.
Hopefully the contretemps is just a passing shower and not likely to develop into a destructive Hurricane Laura now tearing into the USA.
Aug.27/20 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-the-2020-hurricane-season-could-end-up-rivaling-the-worst-on-record-11598544359
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/cyclones/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/300092581/hurricane-laura-makes-landfall-in-us-as-ferocious-category-4-storm-its-in-full-beast-mode
(And Forbes does the Pollyanna thing looking at what positives there are and the use of good preparation to mitigate):
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2020/08/27/why-deaths-from-hurricanes-and-other-natural-disasters-are-lower-than-ever/#7f1bb3aa1396
Well, that's very kind of you, Greywarshark. I have to say though, it's usually me that gets labeled "smartypants"![smiley smiley](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png)
The way I see it, in simple terms, James and the Labour members of the team chose, from a limited selection of "shovel-ready" projects, a construction project. He will have weighed up the application against the criteria for funding before giving his support to the decision of the others. The rest is churn.
Keep laying those paths surfaced with nuggets of rationality, practicality etc. RG and playing your pipe and we anxious citizens will follow and tread along them in good spirits and hopeful, towards the big community hoedown in October. I can hardly wait.
The Green Party supporting public funding for a private school because Green ….
is still the Green Party supporting public funding to a private school.
Is this OK, if and when it comes from a capital spending fund rather than the education budget?
For mine there is then the concern about whether money in the $3B fund should be spent on projects where there are private beneficiaries.
Is this OK because Green …
While school buildings can also be used by the community, its quite secondary to its main use.
There must be many community projects requiring capital spending that councils have in the pipeline in Taranaki that could have been funded.
Quite right too. It's about time someone thought of the plight of the children of the rich beyond your dreams of avarice.
I'm left wondering if the USA ambassador dragged his unquarantined self onto a domestic flight to Wellington. If so what did the relevant airline say to the other passengers – if anything?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122579708/us-ambassador-scott-brown-dodges-quarantine-in-new-zealand-after-us-trip
Diplops are meant to self isolate, so I'm sure that's what Snott Brown did.
It's quite nice that we bend over backwards to support those like the ambassador from shithole 3rd world countries.
The guy will get the highest possible awards from his emperor boss when he gets home. The boss showed last week he knows that he has sent his man into territory that is in unimaginably dire.
When you're deathly frightened of disappointing the master …
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-missing-putin-phone-call-public-freak-out_n_5f47e470c5b6cf66b2b4a9f9
Your diligence in adhering to the discredited Russiagate fantasy is perhaps only surpassed by Bill Maher’s. As we can see in this dire yet hilarious clip from two years ago, even Ben freaking Shapiro ends up looking smart compared to someone spouting crazy conspiracy theories.
The nutty Russian theorizing starts at the 8:24 mark…
BEN SHAPIRO: I have a question. Do you actually think that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin?
BILL MAHER: [fervently] Yes. YES. You DON'T? How can you NOT? How can you NOT?
(AUDIENCE: Wild applause.)
BEN SHAPIRO: I do not, because I watched that campaign. I don't think that Donald Trump could collude with his own left foot.
(AUDIENCE: Uneasy laughter, some derisory scoffing.)
MAHER: Well I don't think HE did it but, you know, his SON did it, his, the people who were, who Muller is INDICTING….
ad nauseam….
It's interesting how use of the term "Russiagate" has become a reliable identifier of a convergence moonbat whose wilful blindness to evidence and reason even manages to survive the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report.
The evidence is so clear and incontrovertible that even Repug senators that live so far up the Fanta Fascist's ass they can party with Hannity couldn't find a way to deny it.
"Fanta Fasc—" — oh, I see. Very, very funny. Sound analysis too, all that "convergence moonbat" stuff.
Have you considered applying for a job at NewstalkZB?
It would be truly mindboggling to think that you and Morrissey share a bubble.
It would indeed be mindboggling if they were as separated as that.
deja vu
While I don't agree with Kealy Warren's move to write to the Prime Minister and simultaneously release the letter to Nicola Willis – fine, she's angry but that is a mischievous act which doesn't afford the PM the right of reply – she makes some powerful points here:
Marama Davidson must find that hard to read.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/424646/pressure-on-green-co-leader-james-shaw-to-pull-support-for-taranaki-green-school
Kealy Warren can choose to pass on the feelings she refers to "You're the bottom of the heap, just stay there" or tell the children that she will help them to do their best, find the special gift they have and build on that. That is what a good teacher can do instead of feeling hopeless and reflecting that on to the children.
It is bad in NZ, and we have noticed for decades how bad it is. We have been unable to change things for the better, those of us who wanted to that is. So we have to try different approaches. I suggest connecting to people of good attitude, who do not have embedded in their soul a whole lot of bitterness and negative feelings. Start being positive, be pleased with what you have now, and build on that, take hold of opportunities, advocate for better. Enjoy the life you can and build a sense of self-worth from personal achievement of goals you have set for yourself, then give yourself a reward to mark it. The whole world is in a pickle, appreciate what you have, try to improve it, reach out to others.
And I think that we need to deliberately adopt Pollyanna ideas as written in the book by Eleanor Porter. It seems sugary and laughable. But the only way to keep yourself above the tide of bad news, mismanagement and stupidity that seems our daily lot, is to change the way we think about it before we sink. I suggest applying the Pollyanna principle, of looking for good amongst the bad, not sinking into depression. We could also follow the computer program system of breaking a problem into parts which get worked at separately and then connected and trialled.
This Atlantic article gives Pollyanna a severe look from all angles but ends up with this:
…Her "glad game" goes beyond simple positive thinking. Pollyanna isn't always cheerful; she cries over disappointments large and small, and initially refuses to play the game when she suffers a major tragedy. It's not that she's naturally the world's greatest optimist; rather, optimism is a tool she uses to make herself happy. Her gladness is Gladwellian: It's not a state of mind, but rather a skill that becomes stronger with practice. As the freckled little guru herself put it, "When you're hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind." Welcome to the 21st century, Pollyanna. You'll fit right in.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/02/how-we-all-became-pollyannas-and-why-we-should-be-glad-about-it/273323/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna
Why did the government exclude money from the fund being used for capital spending in public health and education? Projects in the pipeline being brought forward when there was unemployment.
I think they are focussed on Covid right now. Particularly the Auckland outbreak. The pressure must be immense so I'm not surprised there are mistakes around longer term projects.
And for mine they are at risk there.
WHO recommends masks for schools – spread in one school and then into homes and parents workplaces. They either go back to lockdown fast or risk Auckland not being able to safely have an election in October.
Their current position – stay at home or wear a mask if out and about at the weekend, then send the children into school classrooms without masks is inconsistent, its damn poor pandemic managment practice and politically suicidal.
There is a lot of risk. The relaxation at L1 was a real mistake. Kiwis really need to change their behaviour but that is not easy in a Western society like ours.
Mask wearing needs to be normalised for instance. There needs to be permanent change around mass gatherings, particularly churches which seem to be a real vector for exponential spreading.
That is going to be difficult for Pacific peoples who often only have church as their community focus.
Yes, they actually ran this as full-page ads in NYT, WaPo and LA Times.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-daily-show-trevor-noah-trump-fake-legal-ad-printed-newspapers_n_5f47bd98c5b64f17e139fb0f
Trevor Noah. Funny as, oh, Stephen Colbert.![sad sad](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/sad_smile.png)
And then there's the lamest of the lame, Bill Maher….
Love Bill Maher, even his appearance in one episode of Max Headroom back in the day, and an essential stream every saturday night for real time.
A great servant of the left in the usa, and while I don't agree with everything he says or does, I put his contribution and worth to the cause so much greater than any saddo critic sniping from behind in their safe as comfort zone.
Look, they are nothing on the comic genius Northcote has gifted us with.
Good on you, Sacha. Love you back.![broken heart broken heart](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/broken_heart.png)
Love Bill Maher, even his appearance in one episode of Max Headroom back in the day, and an essential stream every saturday night for real time.
Fair point. I often laugh at some of his routine, even now. He certainly knows how to deliver a joke. He's not all bad, he's just naive—he seems to actually take seriously such baloney as the "Steele dossier"—and intellectually lazy, as is clear from listening to him rant about the people of the Occupied Territories and the besieged enclave of Gaza.
A great servant of the left in the usa,
Repeating bizarre conspiracy theories concocted by the extreme right (Clintonista) faction of the Democratic Party serves no one except the Trump campaign.
and while I don't agree with everything he says or does,
That's encouraging. I think we're on the same page, assuming of course that you are not so foolish as to endorse those discredited Russiagate fantasies.
I put his contribution and worth to the cause so much greater than any saddo critic sniping from behind in their safe as comfort zone.
Oh, now THAT was hurtful. Ow, ow, ow.![surprise surprise](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/omg_smile.png)
Anyone hear anything?
One has to say that that was a good deal funnier than anything that fellow Noah has done.
One would have to say that only if one were a compulsive idiot.
You're a fan of Trevor Noah? How many fellow fans meet in that phone box?
Interesting. Phone boxes are still a frame of reference on Planet Breen? Always nice to have the occasional tidbit of miscellania about that parallel dimension. Say "hi" to Aslan for me.
A hit! A palpable hit, sir! You will henceforth find this writer, i.e. moi, a grave man.
nah, bollocks.
It's basic physics that a normal human being can't punch someone who lives in another dimension.
A male mosquito makes all the noise?
Just a mildly irritating mindless mozzie whine in the background.
I geddit! Well done, Andre.![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
"This market is too big to fail and the Government just demonstrated yet again that betting on the bailout pays off."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/our-housing-market-is-too-big-to-fail
And if they are to succeed in stopping that crash then the Government (whomever it is) is going to have to provide well paid employment for a considerable period because without it the ability to service that debt even at near zero interest rates is about to disappear….the RBNZ can solve the banks funding dilemma but it cannot create the employment needed to support it.
Ironically the crisis has delivered the called for 'transparency'
He's right.
New Zealand's declining middle class is defined by property ownership.
The 5 year Bright Line test is as close as we are ever going to get to regulating housing capital.
hes half right….for the reason explained above.
The government has been bailing out most of our jobs for most of the year.
No one in government is blind to the risks within the economy either now or through the next term.
They would indeed have to be blind not to see the risks….the question remains, what are they going to do about it?
The Government is rapidly coming to the end of ordinary measures it could take.
I can run through the list of the unheard-of-scale interventions they've already got going. Or pop over the Beehive site and you can see it all.
At no other time has a New Zealand government spent this amount of money in 6 months, on anything.
You miss the point (quite possibly deliberately)….subsidising wages for six months does nothing to address the underlying drivers of the problem, it merely defers the impact…..there is nothing to address the rapidly approaching reckoning and no sign they have even a glimmering of how to address it (from ANY party)
Extend and pretend has run out of road
They've got a bit to go in the tank, but yes it will run out.
And printing more money doesn't increase economic output – it only increases the amount of cash circulating in our own little economy.
I don't see anyone pretending about the NZ economy, least of all the government.
Our economic survival depends on a small group of trading partners recovering. This country has only been this vulnerable about three times in its history.
thank you for confirming that extend and pretend is the only strategy and that it cannot work…..it appears the Gov have the same (idea bereft) advisors as yourself
"And printing more money doesn't increase economic output"
Come on, you can be way more factual than that. New Zealand would have many, many more unemployed without the wage subsidy spending (and other on going spending by the government) and lower output, ergo the governments spending (which followed off the back of QE) has increased economic output.
In fact I am given to understand you work for the government fairly directly and your employers output is being increased by spending directly also (again off the back of a deficit financed by RBNZ QE).
Our large scale infrastructure projects are indeed public financed, but they get financed years previously.
Perfectly happy with Robertson's moves. But only time will tell if the Reserve Bank has done good by bringing inflation and investment returns down to stuff-all.
No it doesn't.
It depends on everyone realising that being dependent upon trade for survival is a really stupid idea.
Whatever you think of the idea of international trade, we remain completely reliant on it. Have done for 2 centuries now.
I was just highlighting that your statement "And printing more money doesn't increase economic output" is demonstrable false. Obviously a lot of government spending is on shorter life span goods rather than infrastructure projects as well. But government spending is quite directly adding to economic output.
If we were talking about the RBNZ bailing out South Canterbury Finance or something you may have a point here.
"But only time will tell if the Reserve Bank has done good by bringing inflation and investment returns down to stuff-all."
This seems a total indictment of Monetary Policy as the RBNZ has been telling us for about the last 10 years that QE and low interest rates actually raise inflation, and that they were busy diligently raising it towards the middle of their target inflation band. But you seem to imply they were so inept at this that they have actually been lowering inflation as well as investment returns.
New Zealand’s economic growth and prosperity is defined by FIRE, until CC, which is already here and happening.
Ironically, the pandemic crisis has conveniently taken the collective eye away. What other better dead cat strategy to ‘combat’ a global crisis than another global crisis?
Crisis? What Crisis?
"Ironically, the pandemic crisis has conveniently taken the collective eye away"
On the contrary….the crisis has exposed the lie of the jargon used for decades to maintain BAU
I'm not sure that falling to more realistic should be considered a "failure".
not necessarily…but how we get from where we are now to there could indeed be a failure….as is pretending we dont need to get there.
The problem with the housing market crashing is that there won't be as much money created to spend in the economy and thus the economy will crash. This is why the governments have been supporting the unsustainable and poverty inducing runaway house pricing for the last 20 years.
The point is that we could deal with the crash from the lack of induced money from runaway house prices increases through the government simply putting in place a UBI that's paid for with created money. Then we'd have a facsimile of this:
or better a guaranteed employment model….but whatever they do it needs a plan.
I dont see one, or even the sign of one….do you?
Both. People are moving between jobs and they need support while doing so.
And, yes, they need a plan but governments gave up planning in the 1980s hoping that the free-market would provide which it has manifestly failed to do. Made a few people very rich though.
Professor Jack Vowles defends Govt on latest outbreak:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/a-gap-between-criticism-and-reality
Fantastic read and one which mirrors my own thoughts here over the last two weeks. I should be a professor.
A very good article. This undermining of the government for purely political gain is deplorable:
A lonely voice in a dusty desert of discontents.
You’re wonderfully Alliterate.
But I see Jack more as a Prophet surrounded by squealing chameleons in a closed down Shoe Store.
Just as well that Jack’s job is in an Ivory Tower on a lean frequented by international visitors who love selfies in T-shirts made in China.
Thanks Swordfish. Professor Jack Vowels nailed it.
Sadistic Facebook shuts down Gaza health ministry page
by Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 26 August 2020
When I heard the news on Monday that the first coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Gaza outside of quarantine centers, I headed immediately for the Facebook page of Gaza’s health ministry. It’s the place I go for information or livestreams of press conferences from health officials serving the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are children.
This was the moment everyone dreaded and had managed to stave off since the start of the pandemic: a potentially uncontained outbreak in a besieged enclave whose health and sanitation systems have been on their knees for years due to successive Israeli military attacks and 14 years of illegal blockade.
To my dismay, however, the Facebook page was gone. Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, the health ministry’s spokesperson, confirmed to The Electronic Intifada that Facebook shut the page down about ten days ago. This is the third time Facebook has shut down the ministry’s page.
Al-Qedra said the pretext Facebook gave was that the ministry had used the words “martyr” or “resistance.” The word shahid in Arabic – often translated as “martyr” – is used almost universally by Palestinians to describe any person, whether a civilian or a combatant, killed in the context of the conflict with Israel.
I have written to Facebook’s media office twice this week asking for an explanation. I have yet to receive any reply.
Campaign of censorship
For years, Facebook has been waging a campaign in cahoots with Israeli occupation authorities to silence and censor Palestinian media. It has shut down the accounts and pages of dozens of Palestinian journalists and publications – on the Israeli-supplied pretext that criticism of Israel and its crimes against Palestinians constitute “incitement.” It has labeled Palestinian journalism as “hate speech.”
Facebook has even appointed an Israeli government censor to its “oversight board.” …
Read more….
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/sadistic-facebook-shuts-down-gaza-health-ministry-page
I'm waiting for the Government to fund a private school that I could support, ie, ' School of Marxist study and a world without money' make the playing field a little tiny bit more even.
Surprise, surprise….
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/27/white-supremacists-militias-infiltrate-us-police-report?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
When our supposedly "Left" government abandons its principles and predictably bails out the wealthy and powerful, and props up the housing bubble
https://twitter.com/bryce_edwards/status/1298916540331388929?s=20
https://twitter.com/kirsty_johnston/status/1299084398189404160?s=20
We are all bloody lucky that the housing market is holding up. It's the last main source of wealth we have.
The government supported businesses directly rather than workers directly – and the net result is still an economy that would have been a whole bunch worse if those businesses had failed.
There are far better critique lines for this government.
You mean, it's the main source of free money for the rich, and inequality and suffering for everyone else.
The right just love to lambast Labour – their favourite sport. If Labour were more sure of being supported they would have been able to break through the mess that National left behind. But they are now being hammered for not doing enough to change things, which may lead to us being back with the people who have devastated the country – National Party. What!! Can the Left stop this eviscerating their own party and concentrate on getting it back into power and then we can address the problems that the neoliberal weakened have been unable to tackle using the systems that were supposed to be so efficient and effective.
Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the Party – Labour or Green. If you keep on criticising you are NOT a good man or woman, you are a disgrace to New Zealand. We have a clear task in this country and a long way to go till the bloody delayed election, and I don't feel confident that clear-minded lefties will be able to prevail against the shit that is being spread at present. It needs to stop, togetherness and determination to win the election need to prevail. Can we STFU with all this hassle and whingeing and stay with the task – an election win for Labour and the Greens. This is for all of us who have a good heart and want NZ to be better and able to cope with an uncertain and difficult future.
Absolutely Greywarshark.
Shut up and vote, labour/Green. 2020
its a great slogan.
No we're not. The housing market is decades past the correction that it should have had which means that when that correction comes its going to be a hell of a lot worse.
A home is just a home. Unfortunately, the capitalists have turned homes into income for themselves from the work of others.
What a load of bollocks.
If those businesses had failed then we would be better off as they're obviously dead-end businesses.
While, if the government had directly supported the workers with a UBI @retirement level then the businesses that we need would have survived anyway and the flow of money into the economy would have remained to keep it going.
Then, as the economy continued on, new businesses suitable for the new paradigm would have emerged.
The housing market as the source of new money for the economy is a major problem as it inevitably leads to massive private debt that will crash the economy again – just as it did in 2008.
Even at the 'just a home' level, it's not ideal to have to continue to spend 10 years' income on a home when it's now only worth 5. However good the socioeconomic rationale is, the homeowner still feels shafted and will vote accordingly.
House prices should never have got that high. The ideal seems to be 4 times the average wage.
But, as I said, the governments have been supporting the massive house price increases because it means that a huge amount of money has entered the economy and made it look like we were doing really well.
There's only one real solution to the fact that home buyers are going to feel shafted when the house prices collapse but nobody likes it. That solution is the government printing enough money to buy up the houses at the hyper-inflated prices and then rent them back to the previous owners at 25% of income.
Do that and the economy keeps ticking over and people would be better off.
The government provided money for business to pass onto their workers – the wage subsidy.
The government allowed business to borrow money (lines of credit related to previous years tax paid) etc.
Is it?
A government has no mandate to be left wing in its policies unless it obtains an electoral mandate, until then it is obliged to continue with existing policy settings.
Using cheap money to stimulate the economy – advantaging those with asset loans, and thus growing relative inequality in wealth to those without property assets
Banks allowing mortgage holidays is not a government policy, but part of the lender borrower relationship.
The landlord can pass this on to their tenant or not. A government can try to organise a concord but Winston Peters ruled that out here.
Income inequality rises when an economy is in decline – the pandemic is not government policy so it is not the cause.
The government gave much much more to workers through the wage subsidy than it gave to business (access to finance based on past tax paid, then to loans).
The government had already increased student allowances, brought in the power income supplement (then doubled it), increased the baseline rate benefit by $30 and provided for a 12 week period of unemployment income support at twice the normal rate and allowed this for partners as well.
There was also placing the homeless into accommodation.
Be careful what you wish for and all that.
When's the next round of polling due?
Why didnt businesses use some of their years of exorbitant profits for the rainy day instead of getting the 'Nanny State' whom they berate to prop them up, the Government should have given the wage subsidy directly to the workers. Maybe though, when the handbrake is not attached, the next Labour Government may well find it's true Labour roots.
NZ is truly blesssed, though my cravings are for a good craft beer with friends.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12360263
[Fixed error in e-mail address]
Craft beers are a bit of an overpriced wank aren't they. It's beer.
A heartfelt comment from one who has worked at Canterbury DHB from The Daily Blog. From 'The Left's Dilemma':
Jerko August 27, 2020 at 5:09 pm
The DHBs all need more money to bring them up to 21 Century. I was in CHCH during those years of the Earthquakes. The National Government did not give the CDHB any extra money. I worked in the Operating room during those earthquakes. In actual fact ACC should have been giving them the funding for treating all of those casualties. But no one knows how they fund these situations except the DHBs are bulk funded for ACC cases. Even though they provide all Emergency and Intensive care For accident cases. In the Private hospitals, they are creaming off ACC for the surgery they do in Private. In Private they itemize everything they use. In Public they dont. The National Government tried to privatize ACC. People need to look at what the Labour Led Coalition have achieved so far. Instead of whining. They are still fixing the mess that National left behind.
Is Humble Les Levy part of the mess the gnatsys left behind?
Those wage subsidies have to be paid to employees or returned to the govt coffers.
August 16th Presentation by Bill Mitchell to the New Zealand Fabian Society,
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=45675
Has a good overview of MMT from a principal developer of the ideas (with reference to the New Zealand economy and institutions).
About 40 minutes, accessible for a lay-person, self contained and doesn't use fancy terms which need to be looked up to understand what is being conveyed.
Good intro to MMT thankyou. I've got little argument about the historical context as set out.
But he puts a lot of stock on Japan. Little old New Zealand better resembles Peru under Garcia, or until the 1970s and early 1980s more like Chile under Allende.
https://www.cato.org/publications/cato-journal/modern-monetary-theory-cautionary-tales-latin-america
I can still remember my very first investment in 1983, into a second mortgage at 28%; got in and got out. I also remember 3rd Form Social Studies giving lessons about out impending "leisure society". Yeah right.
Blame Alvin Toffler
Well it is certainly true enough that in economic scale Japan and New Zealand are somewhat different. But institutionally we are similar which is the point being expounded at this point.
The Cato piece I find to be very convincing due to,
1) MMT sees itself initially as purely descriptive. New Zealand has been implementing a monetarily sovereign currency since 1984 (when the exchange rate was floated) which MMT categorizes as a system with the most broad fiscal policy space. The Cato piece describes MMT as a regime of inflationary spending.
2) The RBNZ has implemented QE this year, the consequences of this are described by MMT. If we were to follow the Cato piece thinking on this point we should expect that the govt financing itself this way will result in crowding out and inflation. If on the other hand this doesn't happen then the Cato author is making a spurious (if typical for mainstream economics) claim. If we want our economics to be treated as a science then ideas which lead to incorrect conclusions must be rejected.
3) The Cato piece doesn't mention the economic sanctions applied to Chile and Venezuela (and in Peru the financial reform process working in a similar way of closing off external markets) but these kinds of international policies have a record of being correlated with significant foreign exchange rate falls and imported domestic inflation. So I think there are items with a track record of causing the ills the Cato authors describes in the mix.
4) As I said QE is already happening in New Zealand (among other economies) and if your following the actual details of what MMT has to say about Overt Monetary Financing, the kind of policy the Cato author is imputing MMT to be about, its described as similar to QE in that some how the government just ends up owning a lot of its own debt. So unless that regime behaves in an extremely hard to understand way (basically the MMT argument is that the accounts end up in a similar state with both QE and OMF), then New Zealand is already effectively practicing what the Cato author is describing, so the consequences should follow?
This all leads me to conclude that the Cato discussion is largely to discourage popular understanding of MMT, rather than a serious challenge to its validity as a theory of economics.
Yup, we live in a capitalist order society, just as the peasants lived in a fuedal order.
And it does not have to be this way.
It does remind me of a conversation in a first year economics class.
socialist youth – why is there no teaching of socialist economics until the third year?
professor – you have to learn market economics first
SPC – they want you to climb a ladder and then make the effort worthwhile by apologising for the market system like a trained parrot.
Apparently its OK to print money, provided its called a debt that has to be paid back.
I note that it will cost $5000 a day to imprison.
Thats a lot for a concrete box with a bucket a bunk bed and a couple of meals a day!!!
And put high voltage wire around the box for security.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/422749/cost-of-christchurch-mosque-gunman-s-incarceration-prompts-calls-to-send-him-to-australia
"The cost works out at roughly $5000 per day – compared to about $300 a day for a regular inmate.
Shaw's position is untenable now, he will have to stand down the day after the election. I'm predicting Cunliffe or Jack MacDonald to be parachuted in.
We don't know how lucky we are …
Wonderfully delicious satire! Loved it!
reply to DV 21 above (my reply button not working).
Clearly you never been inside a High Security Prison. I have (not as an inmate I stress). A bucket belongs to the far far distant past. The high Security wings of today are true wonders of technology, and have a far higher staff to inmate ratio than other classification levels.
$5K a day may seem a lot but that is the price we pay for a supposedly civilised society. And a big chunk of that $5k is down to the strong union presence that protects a culture of waste and corruption.
The government is very wrong not to require masks at schools next week in Auckland.
The idea that people should stay at home, or if in public use mask at the weekend, and then send their children to spend the day inside in a classroom without a mask is inconsistent (they will require use of masks on public transport nationwide and there is no community spread outside Auckland).
Spread in school and then onto homes and then multiple workplaces would put at risk the return to Level 2 and the ability for the election to be held in Auckland on October 17.
World evidence that children do spread the virus has led WHO to recommend the use of masks in schools for children.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12360273
An evidence led government would require the use of masks in schools in Auckland next week (and also recommend temperature checks at workplaces there).
So the taxpayer's union did a little informal polling on Twitter (direct link to thread), and got their arses handed to them on a plate.
The comments are pretty funny, too. E.specially as TU has received taxpayer funding in the frm of the covid employee fund.
well I fecked up that image sizing good and proper. My bad.
I think it makes the point even better – the votes for higher taxes were literally off the page.
reading that twitter feed made my day. heres hopeing that taxpayers onion runs true to form and gets this poll maximum publicity…yeah right!
Amusing. I added my vote..
"Previously, besides zero tolerance long weekends, it was understood police could exercise discretion up to 10kmh over the speed limit.
That buffer does not exist any more."
So does that also mean that trucks and those light vehicles towing and are restrict to 90km will also be held to the same zero tolerance standards? These 2 groups never seem to appear in discussions- and how does a speed camera differentiate for on coming vehicles that are in these 2 categories.
https://www.drivingtests.co.nz/resources/speed-limits-in-new-zealand/#:~:text=110km%2Fh%20speed%20limits,limits%20remain%20at%2090km%2Fh.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122592414/zero-tolerance-on-speeding-drivers-all-year-round-as-cops-get-tough-on-motorists
Enforcement was already very weak on finding drivers that are hazards to others for reasons other than speeding. Now that's going to be even worse.
As far as speed cameras go, I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere the new digital camera ones already distinguish heavy vehicles. I'd imagine it could do it either by measuring the reflected signal strength (which directly relates to size) as well as how the signal is altered by speed, or just photograph every vehicle over the lower speed limit and have an image processing routine pick out the heavy vehicles and those towing a trailer.
There’s also a strong argument that having different speed limits for different vehicles is in itself an unnecessary hazard. Opportunities for accidents are minimised when all traffic is moving at the same speed.
Thanks I wasn't aware that the speed cameras were able to differentiate. 🙂
https://www.aucklandzoo.co.nz/news/meet-auckland-zoos-baby-rhino-and-contribute-to-conservation
Trade me is conducting a chance for a group of up to 5 to see our new baby rhino and anyone on here able to do a whole of company bid could raise the latest $5550 bid and really help the conservation.
Of course, some may disagree with having a zoo at all, even though conservation is very important at Auckland Zoo.
Replying to SPC at 26.
As a current teacher, it will be almost impossible to enforce proper mask wearing, and utterly impossible to enforce social distancing.
11 and 12 year olds are a tactile, social lot. And that aspect of their school life is just as important as lessons in class.
It's being done overseas. And we would only need it for a few weeks to see off a cluster. For mine, a tragedy is looming.
Baby, baby. Where did Adele go?
Whose posts on this platform often hit very hard and had more than a hint of realism attached to them.
Is it not time that New Zealanders who wish to remove themselves from the hyped up, showbiz style of many in national politics and in well rewarded politicking positions just started accepting that most of the flash Harry's and Hariette's of the NZ political set are just salaried "moth"pieces with fashion, fad and self absorbed positioning strategies at their core? Just annoying, well salaried fricken moths for the most part.
Of course they are more than willing to appease many of the fearful or those who ingratiate themselves to such idiocy so that they can conduct mouthpiece business as usual, and laugh themselves all the way to the bank, the real estate company or the confidential financial advisors who really are in the know.
"Equality, justice, transparency, accountability, national interest, sovereignty, economic strategy", and so on and so forth. For frig's sake, give us a break please, and just cut to the chase.
At street level, people are gas bagging about firearms and their being given in and given up and Covid-19 obviously. Sure, relevant. But please take a look at the bigger picture, New Zealand. Like, how will we address the hoards of economic and environmental refugees who will arrive on New Zealand shores by the time your infant reaches college age to begin with.
As general election candidates, what are they planning to DO in relation to your personal well-being in all areas that can be effectively managed to at least attempt to bring it about.
Please, with cherries on top, try to vote on proposed policies and management which you believe best serves yourselves generally, not that which many of these creeps advertise as "national interest"or "domestic well-being".
Many such phrases are as stale as a fart in a bed, and now quite mundane "narrative friendly" tosh.
Please. Try, try, try to think for yourselves.
Reply button down.
Kealy Warren's move to write to the Prime Minister is somewhat mischievous because she plays around with figures confusing the MoE's infrastructure improvement budget for schools' buildings and combines it with the monies for the curriculum development and delivery of resources for learning outcomes in her invoice rationale to the Government.
The Green School is not a receiver of the MoE budget but is to receive funding from the Covid Recovery funds for further construction. Green school still has to fund ALL of its teaching salaries and learning resources and targetted specific needs privately as well as pay its taxes, rates and insurances etc. not provided for by state funds.
This afternoon's Stuff article reporting on Conductive Education Taranaki's needs also mixes the story. Their needs wishes outlined lie with the MoE not the Covid Response budget.
The number of pupils in a school formula used by Nealy does not necessitate that every school has current needs for more buildings with each school then needing $234,000 per head as Nealy claims.
That would give Epsom Girl's Grammer for example a total of $513 million for solely building developments.
All schools do have an existing funding allocation given each year in Operations funding and can apply for specific targetted MoE funding. Additional school building project money as each school develops its wishes, which may not be nation wide priorities, are also able to be applied for.
If Nealy's school needs more classrooms or has buildings needing repairs her application for these projects are still able to be funded through application for needs over and above her schools annual funding.
Since 2018 improvement programmes expenditure has $2.4 billion on the go in the pool of funds for all schools to apply for. These additional funds were Labour addressing the specific needs of rundown or insufficient infrastructure created by National's neglect. ( similat picture as health services infrastructure ).
On top of that $2.4 billion, Budget February 2020 saw the investment of a furthet NZ$813.6 million operating total and NZ$115.1 million in total capital in education. Note tagged for learning support and special needs funding in this round was nearly $ 80 million in this year's budget.
Outside of that total on education monies was an ethnic communities budget allocation in February also in which there are investments of $50 million for a Māori trades training fund and $200 million in Māori language programmes, teachers' salaries, and maintaining school facilities.
Further targetted funding is ongoing. In July 2020 the Government announced $75.8 million being invested to enable schools and whānau to better manage the many learner mental health and wellbeing issues that have arisen due to COVID-19. In addition was $50 million, in 2020/21, for an Urgent Response Fund. And $16 million for educator wellbeing, increasing access to support services for an additional 10,000 employees. And $25 million to support tertiary student wellbeing. And $32.8 million for 40 new Curriculum Leads to help schools, kura, early learning services and kōhanga reo deliver a high quality Health and Physical Education local curriculum.
They hate each other and they're trapped with each other.
https://twitter.com/DGComedy/status/1299171443905761280
We were all exhausted and stressed out. Yes, Operation Block Ivanka was petty. Melania was in on this mission. But in our minds, Ivanka shouldn’t have made herself the center of attention in her father’s inauguration.
https://archive.li/JbZe6 (nymag)
James Shaw walking it all back over the Taranaki school, begging forgiveness over "one mistake":
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12360346
And how much is that per school. 2500 primary and secondary (including those not state schools) Over $100,000 and under $200,000 per school.
Why did the government not allow HB's and schools to apply for the construction project money?
Health Boards would love money for works that did not have costs attached (a bit like giving a beneficiary a grant and paying the money back out of their limited benefit income) and schools could have projects done now rather than wait years for.
What a great question for James Shaw. His funding, his political problem.
The Fund parameters were Labour's doing.
Shaws has done a Turei, a grandiose green school funding project as a win for the Greens via Ministerial office and Turei (Green vs Labour on getting it on welfare and her personal story highlighting this – Labour Party family association for good or bad measure) … and then Ardern try a little kindness takes over from Angry Andrew.
If they were indeed Labour parameters ,there was no need for Greens' Shaw to take the credit, then now have to walk it back. Only the Greens could make a crisis out of a massive regional positive.
The limitations on allocation were set by Robertson, Shaw took credit for his support for the Green School funding because he supported the case for it (Treasury did not by the way).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12360346
So it was wrong. James Shaw himself admits and the Green Party leadership has called a meeting over it.
how many commenters here were prepared to die in the ditch to defend the Green Party in its entirety rather than figure out this was wrong. Politicians wouldn’t make decisions as stupid as this if they knew all their supporters couldn’t be relied upon to support them no matter how stupid there decision.
Robert being Tier3 super gaia l33t so his sarcasm about any criticism of a Green Party decision can’t be wrong
Shaves them back to near 5%
There was a risk of Labour not needing the Greens, now the risk is that they will (due to the recent outbreak in Auckland not being contained) but a 2%+ pick up from Greens might still be enough to hold off the National ACT axis because NZF are also below 5%.
It won’t stop me voting for the Greens this time, nor did it in 2017, buit it was a blunder.
It's good for Labour's ego and for our democracy to rely on some partner.
Hang in there, they're going to need you reluctant loyalists.
now that partner will most likely be Marama and Chloe. which may be the blessing the left need
no it won't.
Indeed.. I wouldn't be surprised if the odious Kennedy Graham is bought back into "lead" as well.
How could they actually do that?
I mean, it would probably lift their vote share which would make it a good thing to do, but I'm curious about how you think it could actually be done. Y'know, given there are party rules and actual laws around these things.
The millionaire owners could give James and themselves a break by undertaking to pay back the funding. They could raffle off some jewelry.
Robertson and Hipkins not doing Shaw any favors that' s for sure.