So Europe+UK have energy bill spikes, long term drought and food production collapse, refugee floods, war, inflation, export decreases through power shortages, looming deep recession into the remainder of 2020s …
Umm. Wasn't this the industry that picked tetraethyl lead technology in petrol, leading to millions of premature deaths and human illness?
……putting lead, a deadly heavy-metal neurotoxin, into gasoline; releasing ozone-destroying Freon into the stratosphere; and unleashing the scourge of chlorofluorocarbons, implicated in aerosols and just about every piece of foamed plastic choking the world’s landfills and waterways. Once upon a time—with the aid of an aggressive and sustained public-relations program funded by a trio of mighty corporations…
Come to think of it Elected governments should be a toothless advisory bodies to leave business alone to run the country and decide the future, isn't this how all right thinking, right wing, vested interest groups think?
Oh No! governments spoil the party with regulations. How can this be? Governments shouldn't be choosing the technology. Why didn't they just give us targets?
Countries Ban Leaded Gasoline
In August 2021, Algeria was officially the last country to ban leaded gasoline. There has been a long-lasting humanitarian struggle to ban leaded gasoline throughout different countries. The first country to ban leaded gasoline was Japan in the 1980s. Then, other developed countries had followed, including Austria, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the United States. During the 2000s until the 2020s, 117 more countries, developed and developing, pushed to ban leaded gasoline.
Bribes, Finance and the Holdouts for Ban on Leaded Gasoline
Some countries, such as Indonesia, were guilty of receiving bribes from leaded gasoline oil industries. However, Indonesia finally banned leaded gasoline.
“By 2016 only Algeria, Yemen, and Iraq were holdouts," said National Geographic.
…..Leaded gasoline companies were reportedly sending bribes to countries to encourage them to continue using leaded gasoline. It is clear to see why some countries took much longer to ban leaded gasoline than other countries.
Ban of Leaded Gasoline Everywhere is a Huge Win
There are an estimated 1.2 million people who die from leaded gasoline each year. The hospital rates are even higher. Now that there is a ban on leaded fuel, “The fuel’s elimination will save $2.45 trillion a year, UNEP estimates, reflecting the economic side of lives and nature saved,” said Geneva Solutions Inger Andersen,
So says climate change minister James Shaw, telling Stuff he’d recommend the policy to new transport minister Michael Wood as an “anti-dumping measure” as well as for environmental reasons.
Shaw earlier outlined the Green Party’s proposed ban but has brought it forward for consideration with the UK aiming to ban all new ICE cars by 2030.
However, Shaw isn’t certain a ban on ICE imports will get Cabinet’s OK…..
Shaw isn’t certain a ban on ICE imports will get Cabinet’s OK.
Of course it won't.
Daring to suggest regulation of industry inside cabinet is blasphemy to neo-liberal economic theory. Climate change has no Minister in cabinet to keep out any blasphemous talk of regulating industry.
God forbid. Where would we be if government started interfering in business?
"Trevor Mallard is widely regarded as the worst Speaker of Parliament the country has ever had."
He goes on to show that he is one of those people who subscribe to what I believe is an erroneous view. I have watched a good deal of the Speaker's work in the House and found Trevor Mallard to be a very good Speaker, unafraid to do what he could to rein-in unimpressive behaviour by MPs during Question Time.
Apologies if this has already been covered here on TS.
David Carter – words fail me. I attended an event at which he spoke. I thought, "Is this a set-up? Should we applaud his clever performance? – Spoof, right??"
I had known that he had signalled his wish very early on that this term would be his last and then formalised his resignation, possibly when the Ireland posting came up.
The violent end to the protest was writ in stone much before the sprinklers etc. In my view from the moment the group refused to on and put up the tents. And who can forget the frightening snarling face of the protester Brett Power as he was led away. When you have groups espousing the overthrow of Parliament/lynching/killing of many public figures, a refusal to move on, it more or less called out for the Police response to move them on, just as the similar protest in Ottawa did.
Tolerance? In fact an attempt was made by elements of the protest to invade parliament on the 7th of February (day 2). That was the basis for the trespass notices, basically recognising that allowing the protest to camp out on the lawn made it very difficult for parliament to function. On the 10th Police already attempted to remove the encampment and arrested people who had been camped there illegally (since the 7th).
The sprinklers were left on on the 11th by which time the protest was clearly entrenched and had well prior made its first attempt at January 6th storming.
…..an attempt was made by elements of the protest to invade parliament on the 7th of February (day 2)….
Do you have a confirmation of that assertion Nic?
Unfortunately I have tried googling this, but couldn't find anything to back it up.
I have tried several versions of 'Anti mandate protesters attempt to invade 'parliament 7/02/2022' with and without quotations and could find nothing.
I have tried using the date as you have written it '7th of February' I have replaced anti-mandate with 'anti-vaxxer'.
Of course I also remember it being reported at the time as well.
Accuracy is important.
What you remember and what was reported are two different things.
Especially when emotions are running high.
I can understand your hatred. The antivaxxers views and behaviour are/were despicable, appalling. And though there was an attempt, "to push through a fence outside Parliament" There is no report of an actual attempt made to invade parliament, at least not in this wikipedia entry.
Nic, the wikipedia entry you supplied, confirmed my recollection of the events, which was that police forcibly attempted to remove the antivaxxer protesters from the grounds of parliament. (a public space).
On the order of Trevor Mallard.
I argued at time that this heavy handed approach was counter productive, and that this confrontation is just what the far right element among the protesters wanted.
Trevor Mallard is a hothead with a history of violent assault, inside the parliament building.
Bryce Edwards is a Left academic with a coherent Left world outlook.
Trevor Mallard, an alumnus of the Neo liberal Lange/Douglas administration, is an impulsive hothead and bully with no coherent recorded Left outlook.
I stand by my statement that Trevor Mallard was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Some could argue he always has been.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
……protesters attempted to push through a fence outside Parliament but were stopped by Police, who formed a ring around the entrance to the Parliament Buildings. Three men were arrested and issued with trespass notices. One of those arrested was the conspiracy theorist Brett Powers, who unsuccessfully attempted to arrest Minister of Health Andrew Little for alleged culpability in vaccine deaths.[68][69] Police also issued orders for protesters to remove their tents and marquees from Parliament grounds. The attempt to breach the police line outside Parliament may have sparked tensions between the original organisers (who advocated calm) and Counterspin (who pushed for the storming of Parliament).[68] [65]
Police attempted to forcibly remove the protesters from Parliament grounds on the 10th February…..
"What you remember and what was reported are two different things."
Actually they are not two different things, I wasn't there so all I am remembering is what was reported. All I'm saying here is that what is written in that wiki entry basically describes the same events which I also saw reported. It appears your building some sophistic argument based off your fallacy interpreting my comment. If that is to be your mode of discussion you can fuck right off! You also appear to agree that the description via wiki is basically a reasonable description of events.
"I can understand your hatred."
What hatred is that? All I've attempted to do is described what is known about what individuals involved did at the time. If there is any hatred which might need to be reviewed it appears to be emanating from your comments.
Now back to the point. You challenged the statement "an attempt was made by elements of the protest to invade parliament on the 7th of February (day 2)" and claimed that this didn't occur.
So far you have conceded that attempts were made to push through a barrier (which was in front of parliament) and 3 people were arrested (many more than 3 were participating in the push) and one of those arrested was Brett Powers who was attempting to 'arrest' Andrew Little in their attempt. Andrew Little was inside parliament.
Given the demands from the protest camp that politicians be arrested and tried (and the posts on social media describing kidnapping politicians, or other parliamentary staff) it seems entirely reasonable that after breaching the barriers these elements would further try to enter parliament.
So I submit this confirmation of just what I said in my statement.
As far as Trevor Mallards actions (on day 5) go this is clearly irrelevant. The protesters were clearly camped out from day 1 and the police were needed in numbers from day 2 already, trespass (on the grounds of the camping, which is against parliaments rules) was discussed from day 2 and any other speaker would have done the same in similar circumstances.
The anti-mandate protesters, (whether it is true or not), maintain that only a tiny minority were violent and Far Right extremists.
A bull in a china shop.
When we needed a deft hand, instead we had, an impulsive and intolerant authoritarian with a proven history of violence used to having his own way. Who instead of exercising restraint in a tense situation. From the very outset appeared intent on escalating and inflaming the situation.
In effect driving the moderate protesters into the arms of extremists.
Just what the extremists wanted.
This giant egotist has set a precedent for how protesters blockading polluters or union pickets against scabbing will be treated by the police force.
All I can say is thank goodness Trevor Mallard wasn't calling the shots at Rugby Park Hamilton in 1981.
Since those days and since the Urewera police raids, the police have taken a more softly softly approach to protesters.
This doesn't challenge what I said. I only claimed elements attempted to invade parliament. It was day-2 and this attempt caused a major split in approach between protest organisers.
But considering your knowledge that Brett Powers was tackled behind the barricades and your insight that he was not attempting to cross the line (and enter parliament). Have you considered replacing Ian Foster as ABs coach?
This giant egotist has set a precedent for how protesters blockading polluters or union pickets against scabbing will be treated by the police force.
That’s another long bow by you, but I dread the use of awful music and sprinklers instead of water cannons as future crowd dispersion tactics by NZ Police inspired by Mallard; it will be a new textbook entry.
All I can say is thank goodness Trevor Mallard wasn't calling the shots at Rugby Park Hamilton in 1981.
All I can say is, here’s a challenge for your cognitive ability to reconcile fact with your prejudice and confirmation bias:
The guinea-pigs put Mr Mallard, a protest veteran himself, in mind of his own days as an activist, which included being hauled out of the public galleries of Parliament during an anti-SIS bill demonstration and being arrested during the 1981 Springbok tour.
Bryce Edwards is a Left academic with a coherent Left world outlook.
He has consistently been a perfect adherent to one party, New Labour. It was dissolved 21 years ago.
The gum that his political viewpoint was created with has lodged with appears to have become yellow and quite stiffened with age. The only consistent message I have heard from him over the decades is that he doesn’t like the New Zealand Labour party. At various phrases he has been enthusiastic about other parties like Mana and other unsuccessful and usually now dissolved parties.
In my view the only thing that I am sure about with his coherence is that he is a consistent picker of parties, people, and policy that haven’t had any electoral support either here or worldwide. Consequently none of things that in his “coherent Left world outlook” have come to pass.
I tend to view him as a negative prophet. An incompetent critic who is happy to criticise but fails to actually suggest anything that is viable because his criticism lacks suggestions about alternatives. basically a Mrs Grundy too concerned about what the neighbours are being active about to ever do any work himself about how to change what he complains about.
If you want to see how useful criticism should be done, then read Gordon Campbell at Werewolf or No Right Turn. They not only point what they perceive to be to the problems with the NZLP, but also to specific solutions and policy changes some of which might actually work.
That is a grossly unfair claim from Edwards. As speaker, I thought he was surprisingly adept, and uncommonly balanced. The previous speaker, Carter, was pathetic in getting ministers to "address" questions.
OTOH, Trev as a guy is a complete boofhead, but that's by the by.
I watched so much of Speaker Carter and was appalled knowing that at the end of his stint, after his dismal performance he would be knighted.
Every time Mallard peed off the National and ACT supporters I relished the thought of him too being knighted and how that would rile them more.
It was especially funny seeing dumbo efforts from the likes of David Bennett and Paul Goldsmith who were too thick in basic comprehension to understand the rules, what they'd said and how to get back on track. Being brought into line by the rough and ready Mallard who grasped they didn't have a grasp was fun.
Edwards: "Trevor Mallard is widely regarded as the worst Speaker of Parliament the country has ever had."
Me: "Donald Trump is widely regarded as a brilliant man, the best person to be President of the United States and in fact the best President the country has ever had."
Well because the NZRFU are collectively insane we may well have Ian Foster as coach for the World Cup – for the sake of New Zealand, Labour must have the next election before the World Cup quarter finals as being bundled out early in a humiliating manner will result in countrywide need to punish someone and you don't want to be the incumbent in an election after that!
"Real change would mean decentralisation of decision-making, progressive taxation, wealth tax, significantly higher levels of investment in free access to education, health, social housing and other key public services, dealing with the impact of colonisation on Maori, working with other governments to regulate international flows of capital, power-sharing in business enterprises, building an economy that is international in outlook while producing more onshore and on and on"
Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick, who submitted the Alcohol Harm Minimisation member's bill, told Morning Report she was frustrated by the political inaction shown by the government.
"I am frustrated and I think that this is indicative of why the New Zealand public get frustrated at politics, we have health agencies, we have overwhelming evidence.
"We even have two reports that the government commissioned in the last term of Parliament which said get on with these recommendations from 2014 and from 2010 and 2011, which have subsequently been ignored by the bogey man of the alcohol industry."
The proposed bill had received the most widespread support out of any members bills ever that had yet to reach its first reading, she said.
South Auckland's top public health expert "crossed the line of political neutrality" by supporting a Green MP's alcohol harm reduction bill, Health Minister Andrew Little says.
…
Director of Population Health in Counties Manukau Dr Gary Jackson wrote to a number of MPs in July, using a Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand letterhead.
He expressed concern about children's exposure to alcohol advertising and urged MPs to support Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick's alcohol harm minimisation bill.
Dr Jackson has since retracted the letter but in it said the legislation would give communities the power to decide alcohol availability in their local areas and protect children who watch broadcast sport.
"Children in New Zealand see alcohol advertising everywhere, especially promoted by their sporting heroes. The Bill proposes to take action on alcohol harm by restricting alcohol sports sponsorship and advertising," the letter said.
"We have a vision of unborn peepi, tamariki and rangatahi growing up free from the harms of alcohol. People should be able to live, work, play and socialise in communities free from the harms of alcohol. With your help, we can make real progress towards achieving this vision."
Yep. The carnage and collateral damage this completely legal drug causes NZ…shocking. Of course the alcohol drug pushers/lobbyists….have great power.. and will fight hard to retain it.
About a third of the people seen by Dr Peter Jones at Auckland City Hospital are there because of alcohol.
The emergency medicine specialist says alcohol is largely ignored by medical staff as a reason people turn up at hospital because it is so common. The same attitude is seen in the media and the general public.
"Everyone is really hot on P, a year ago it was Fantasy. All of these drugs are minuscule in cost compared to alcohol," Dr Jones says.
Economist Brian Easton, in a report last year, estimated that $655 million was spent each year on public health as a result of alcohol misuse.
In its annual report for 2002, the Alcohol Advisory Council says the estimated cost of alcohol-related deaths is $5.5 billion a year, while alcohol-related injury and illness is estimated to cost $6.6 billion. Productivity losses, including absenteeism, is estimated at $1.8 billion a year.
One of the last acts of the Dirty Politics saga came to a dramatic end in court on Wednesday with lobbyist Carrick Graham apologising to three public health advocates for his actions in spreading defamatory statements about them.
That dr jones must be delusional, p has caused chaos in my family, and it's only got a grip on 3 of them , most of my mob drink regularly,and at times excessively. Yet still function .
A proposed member’s bill that addresses a power imbalance preventing communities taking steps to develop public health measures around alcohol use could potentially bypass the ballot process.
That would be if 61 non-executive members of parliament agreed to it, but going on past form – in which New Zealand MPs have been reluctant to legislate against the burgeoning promotion and provision of alcohol in his country – there’s no guarantee.
Our drinking landscape has changed considerably over the last 30 years. We have seen dramatic increases in the number of places selling alcohol, the affordability and types of alcoholic products available, and use of innovative marketing strategies to advertise them.
Today, there are over 11,000 places that sell alcohol:
Go on, actually watch all the valid points she makes to the Health Select Committee (theres a link within the article) speaking as a doctor of 34 years specializing in public health, rather than the snippets of propaganda you've got from stuff.
Haven’t looked at the details, but firstly youth crime is down, and surely there isn’t room in the National caucus for all those who can’t be reformed?
“Foreign Secretary Truss, for example, with her promise of a growth boom and tax cuts across the board, doesn’t seem to realize — or simply doesn’t care — that these policies will probably lead to a massive inflationary spiral over and above the double-digit price hikes the U.K. is already suffering from. Former Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson warned this could be the case earlier this month, stating that former Prime Minister Edward Heath’s similar policies in the 1970s crippled the British economy and put millions out of work. “
Liz Truss as PM looks like a disaster in the making. Apart from her problems with the cost of living issue, which may well make the poll tax riots look like a tea party, she is threatening to trigger article 16 of the Brexit agreement within days of becoming PM. The EU will them counter trigger article 16 and who knows where that will end.
A "hard" border between NI and Ireland? A return to the "Troubles"?
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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 ...
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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 ...
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So Europe+UK have energy bill spikes, long term drought and food production collapse, refugee floods, war, inflation, export decreases through power shortages, looming deep recession into the remainder of 2020s …
… but no current changes in policy direction.
That's going to take a lot of riot Police.
Something will really have to change.
Debacle after debacle. The Tories should be gone for a generation.
https://twitter.com/LBC/status/1563118241483931654
https://twitter.com/MartinSLewis/status/1563106544669315072
There is a very big message here for NZ.
Do not import the narrative from Europe,in how to manage change to systems and infrastructure,transport or the rewriting of the Thesaurus.
https://twitter.com/chigrl/status/1563624187037728770?cxt=HHwWhIC-6bz6jbMrAAAA
why do the English hate Labour so much though.
Murdoch+ press. Propaganda is effective. Easy to tap into the auld feelings of imperial superiority?
Generations of forelock tugging.
Why can’t we cut our greenhouse gas emissions?
“Governments should pick targets, not technologies.
In one sentence vested interest polluters define the farcical Zero Carbon by 2050 act, and why emissions keep going up.
Zero enforcement.
Just how the polluters like it
Party, party, party.
Umm. Wasn't this the industry that picked tetraethyl lead technology in petrol, leading to millions of premature deaths and human illness?
Come to think of it Elected governments should be a toothless advisory bodies to leave business alone to run the country and decide the future, isn't this how all right thinking, right wing, vested interest groups think?
Oh No! governments spoil the party with regulations. How can this be? Governments shouldn't be choosing the technology. Why didn't they just give us targets?
The Prime Minister has said that climate change is this generation's nuclear free moment.
Yeah right. Maybe David Lange instead of banning nuclear ship visits should just have set targets and politely informed the nuclear powers of them.
Shaw isn’t certain a ban on ICE imports will get Cabinet’s OK.
Of course it won't.
Daring to suggest regulation of industry inside cabinet is blasphemy to neo-liberal economic theory. Climate change has no Minister in cabinet to keep out any blasphemous talk of regulating industry.
God forbid. Where would we be if government started interfering in business?
Bryce Edwards writes:
"Trevor Mallard is widely regarded as the worst Speaker of Parliament the country has ever had."
He goes on to show that he is one of those people who subscribe to what I believe is an erroneous view. I have watched a good deal of the Speaker's work in the House and found Trevor Mallard to be a very good Speaker, unafraid to do what he could to rein-in unimpressive behaviour by MPs during Question Time.
Apologies if this has already been covered here on TS.
https://democracyproject.nz/2022/08/26/bryce-edwards-mallards-diplomatic-appointment-lacks-integrity/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bryce-edwards-mallards-diplomatic-appointment-lacks-integrity
For Bryce Edwards to be balanced in his writing he would to became blind in his one remaining eye.
Perhaps he is impartial – and just recently had a significant brain injury which has robbed him of all memory of David Carter.
David Carter – words fail me. I attended an event at which he spoke. I thought, "Is this a set-up? Should we applaud his clever performance? – Spoof, right??"
Nope. He was what he was.
Agreed Barfly on Edwards and Carter. Both atrocious.
Sir David Carter (!!) was the worst speaker I have seen in terms of bias.
Trevor Mallard has never been noted for his tolerance.
In my opinion the violent scenes at Parliament could possibly have been avoided, if Trevor Mallard had taken a less belligerent approach.
Mallard was the wrong man, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and lost his job, because of it.
Bad behaviour shouldn't be tolerated.
Trevor's not responsible for the violent scenes on Parliament's lawn.
I wasn't aware that he had lost his job?
I had known that he had signalled his wish very early on that this term would be his last and then formalised his resignation, possibly when the Ireland posting came up.
The violent end to the protest was writ in stone much before the sprinklers etc. In my view from the moment the group refused to on and put up the tents. And who can forget the frightening snarling face of the protester Brett Power as he was led away. When you have groups espousing the overthrow of Parliament/lynching/killing of many public figures, a refusal to move on, it more or less called out for the Police response to move them on, just as the similar protest in Ottawa did.
To lay this on one man is naive in my view.
Or biased …
He wasn't biffed out (subtle joke).
Many of us knew last Xmas that Trev was off to Dublin. Nothing at all to do with the February mob attack.
Tolerance? In fact an attempt was made by elements of the protest to invade parliament on the 7th of February (day 2). That was the basis for the trespass notices, basically recognising that allowing the protest to camp out on the lawn made it very difficult for parliament to function. On the 10th Police already attempted to remove the encampment and arrested people who had been camped there illegally (since the 7th).
The sprinklers were left on on the 11th by which time the protest was clearly entrenched and had well prior made its first attempt at January 6th storming.
Do you have a confirmation of that assertion Nic?
Unfortunately I have tried googling this, but couldn't find anything to back it up.
I have tried several versions of 'Anti mandate protesters attempt to invade 'parliament 7/02/2022' with and without quotations and could find nothing.
I have tried using the date as you have written it '7th of February' I have replaced anti-mandate with 'anti-vaxxer'.
A little help here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Wellington_protest#First_week
Of course I also remember it being reported at the time as well.
Accuracy is important.
What you remember and what was reported are two different things.
Especially when emotions are running high.
I can understand your hatred. The antivaxxers views and behaviour are/were despicable, appalling. And though there was an attempt, "to push through a fence outside Parliament" There is no report of an actual attempt made to invade parliament, at least not in this wikipedia entry.
Nic, the wikipedia entry you supplied, confirmed my recollection of the events, which was that police forcibly attempted to remove the antivaxxer protesters from the grounds of parliament. (a public space).
On the order of Trevor Mallard.
I argued at time that this heavy handed approach was counter productive, and that this confrontation is just what the far right element among the protesters wanted.
Trevor Mallard is a hothead with a history of violent assault, inside the parliament building.
Bryce Edwards is a Left academic with a coherent Left world outlook.
Trevor Mallard, an alumnus of the Neo liberal Lange/Douglas administration, is an impulsive hothead and bully with no coherent recorded Left outlook.
I stand by my statement that Trevor Mallard was the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Some could argue he always has been.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
"What you remember and what was reported are two different things."
Actually they are not two different things, I wasn't there so all I am remembering is what was reported. All I'm saying here is that what is written in that wiki entry basically describes the same events which I also saw reported. It appears your building some sophistic argument based off your fallacy interpreting my comment. If that is to be your mode of discussion you can fuck right off! You also appear to agree that the description via wiki is basically a reasonable description of events.
"I can understand your hatred."
What hatred is that? All I've attempted to do is described what is known about what individuals involved did at the time. If there is any hatred which might need to be reviewed it appears to be emanating from your comments.
Now back to the point. You challenged the statement "an attempt was made by elements of the protest to invade parliament on the 7th of February (day 2)" and claimed that this didn't occur.
So far you have conceded that attempts were made to push through a barrier (which was in front of parliament) and 3 people were arrested (many more than 3 were participating in the push) and one of those arrested was Brett Powers who was attempting to 'arrest' Andrew Little in their attempt. Andrew Little was inside parliament.
Given the demands from the protest camp that politicians be arrested and tried (and the posts on social media describing kidnapping politicians, or other parliamentary staff) it seems entirely reasonable that after breaching the barriers these elements would further try to enter parliament.
So I submit this confirmation of just what I said in my statement.
As far as Trevor Mallards actions (on day 5) go this is clearly irrelevant. The protesters were clearly camped out from day 1 and the police were needed in numbers from day 2 already, trespass (on the grounds of the camping, which is against parliaments rules) was discussed from day 2 and any other speaker would have done the same in similar circumstances.
Nic no matter how you twist things to fit your pro-authoritarian narrative.
That no attempt was made to invade parliament is a fact. Some barriers erected on parliament grounds were knocked down. So what?
It wasn't the first time.
This doesn't challenge what I said. I only claimed elements attempted to invade parliament. It was day-2 and this attempt caused a major split in approach between protest organisers.
But considering your knowledge that Brett Powers was tackled behind the barricades and your insight that he was not attempting to cross the line (and enter parliament). Have you considered replacing Ian Foster as ABs coach?
That’s another long bow by you, but I dread the use of awful music and sprinklers instead of water cannons as future crowd dispersion tactics by NZ Police inspired by Mallard; it will be a new textbook entry.
All I can say is, here’s a challenge for your cognitive ability to reconcile fact with your prejudice and confirmation bias:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fond-memories-of-a-trouble-maker/ITQDV6HPMKMCK4DXHNCXBU6A5E/
You mean sprinklers and ‘earworm’ music instead of water cannons and tear gas? You seem prone to exaggeration and hyperbole.
He has consistently been a perfect adherent to one party, New Labour. It was dissolved 21 years ago.
The gum that his political viewpoint was created with has lodged with appears to have become yellow and quite stiffened with age. The only consistent message I have heard from him over the decades is that he doesn’t like the New Zealand Labour party. At various phrases he has been enthusiastic about other parties like Mana and other unsuccessful and usually now dissolved parties.
In my view the only thing that I am sure about with his coherence is that he is a consistent picker of parties, people, and policy that haven’t had any electoral support either here or worldwide. Consequently none of things that in his “coherent Left world outlook” have come to pass.
I tend to view him as a negative prophet. An incompetent critic who is happy to criticise but fails to actually suggest anything that is viable because his criticism lacks suggestions about alternatives. basically a Mrs Grundy too concerned about what the neighbours are being active about to ever do any work himself about how to change what he complains about.
If you want to see how useful criticism should be done, then read Gordon Campbell at Werewolf or No Right Turn. They not only point what they perceive to be to the problems with the NZLP, but also to specific solutions and policy changes some of which might actually work.
That is a grossly unfair claim from Edwards. As speaker, I thought he was surprisingly adept, and uncommonly balanced. The previous speaker, Carter, was pathetic in getting ministers to "address" questions.
OTOH, Trev as a guy is a complete boofhead, but that's by the by.
I'm with you, Roy.
Mallard though, did destroy Whaleoil (on a bicycle).
That's epic/mythologic.
I watched so much of Speaker Carter and was appalled knowing that at the end of his stint, after his dismal performance he would be knighted.
Every time Mallard peed off the National and ACT supporters I relished the thought of him too being knighted and how that would rile them more.
It was especially funny seeing dumbo efforts from the likes of David Bennett and Paul Goldsmith who were too thick in basic comprehension to understand the rules, what they'd said and how to get back on track. Being brought into line by the rough and ready Mallard who grasped they didn't have a grasp was fun.
Bryce Edwards is the most impressively credentialed appeasement figure in NZ. Though that may be unkind to appeasement figures.
Contexts and truths:
Edwards: "Trevor Mallard is widely regarded as the worst Speaker of Parliament the country has ever had."
Me: "Donald Trump is widely regarded as a brilliant man, the best person to be President of the United States and in fact the best President the country has ever had."
Well because the NZRFU are collectively insane we may well have Ian Foster as coach for the World Cup – for the sake of New Zealand, Labour must have the next election before the World Cup quarter finals as being bundled out early in a humiliating manner will result in countrywide need to punish someone and you don't want to be the incumbent in an election after that!![crying crying](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/cry_smile.png?x42494)
"Real change would mean decentralisation of decision-making, progressive taxation, wealth tax, significantly higher levels of investment in free access to education, health, social housing and other key public services, dealing with the impact of colonisation on Maori, working with other governments to regulate international flows of capital, power-sharing in business enterprises, building an economy that is international in outlook while producing more onshore and on and on"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300670053/no-easy-fixes-in-inequality-debate
"This is a huge and radical agenda. But only policy on this scale will deal with what Piketty identifies as the core of the income inequality problem.
I cannot see this happening soon in any democratic nation."
Despite widespread support from councils and interest groups, Chlöe Swarbrick's Alcohol Harm Minimisation bill is encountering resistance as it works its way through parliament:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/472602/swarbrick-frustrated-by-deputy-pm-not-backing-alcohol-harm-minimisation-bill
Today the it's the turn of the Health Minister:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/473646/minister-rebukes-health-leader-over-alcohol-bill-support
Perhaps the 'learnings' from this could be that this is a popular and needed bill and the government should support its passing.
Yep. The carnage and collateral damage this completely legal drug causes NZ…shocking. Of course the alcohol drug pushers/lobbyists….have great power.. and will fight hard to retain it.
Chloe Swarbrick. Is so on to it. Cmon Labour….LEAD !
"Everyone is really hot on P, a year ago it was Fantasy. All of these drugs are minuscule in cost compared to alcohol," Dr Jones says."
Minuscule.
MINISCULE.
Worth emphasising 🙂
That dr jones must be delusional, p has caused chaos in my family, and it's only got a grip on 3 of them , most of my mob drink regularly,and at times excessively. Yet still function .
Hanging p dealers is not to extreme umho.
Hmmm…
When it's personal, we can lose perspective, for sure.
Your mob might not appear quite so functional from an outsider's perspective.
Oh ?
Chloe…keep the fight on with this. hard going…I KNOW. But Keep on.
Useful brief thread of tweets – click on the first to see the others:
https://twitter.com/ConanMcKegg/status/1563417337880948737
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/129677583/antimandate-doctor-running-for-wellington-city-council
Stuff needs to be applauded ,this is about the 4th article today ,shing a light on the dangerous and delusional infiltrating the halls of power.
She "loathes" stuff.
X
Agreed-well done Stuff.
Dr. Ate Moala should be struck off for spreading misleading health advice that could lead to many deaths.
Go on, actually watch all the valid points she makes to the Health Select Committee (theres a link within the article) speaking as a doctor of 34 years specializing in public health, rather than the snippets of propaganda you've got from stuff.
https://phys.org/news/2022-08-efficient-carbon-dioxide-reduction-visible.html
Mostly gidderish to my untrained brain but this is the stuff that will help save us,
Well, it gives … "scientists at Tokyo Tech hope in the fight against global warming.", so it must be good, right?
🙂
Availability is all that stops p topping the physical stats,, its addictive qualities out way alcohol by miles,
P destroys all basic decency makes good people dirt bags of the highest order.
Yes, it does.
Luxon announces crackdown on youff crime!
Haven’t looked at the details, but firstly youth crime is down, and surely there isn’t room in the National caucus for all those who can’t be reformed?
Luxon is aiming to be buzzword compliant – say 'crackdown' often enough and he reckons it will get votes /ugh![angry angry](https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/plugins/ark-wysiwyg-comment-editor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/angry_smile.png?x42494)
Luxon?
Crack-up!
Cracked record
change the leader! Surely a record number now?
This is the road that National could take us down if left unchecked.
https://www.politico.eu/article/britains-conservative-party-is-suffering-from-a-talent-vacuum/
“Foreign Secretary Truss, for example, with her promise of a growth boom and tax cuts across the board, doesn’t seem to realize — or simply doesn’t care — that these policies will probably lead to a massive inflationary spiral over and above the double-digit price hikes the U.K. is already suffering from. Former Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson warned this could be the case earlier this month, stating that former Prime Minister Edward Heath’s similar policies in the 1970s crippled the British economy and put millions out of work. “
Liz Truss as PM looks like a disaster in the making. Apart from her problems with the cost of living issue, which may well make the poll tax riots look like a tea party, she is threatening to trigger article 16 of the Brexit agreement within days of becoming PM. The EU will them counter trigger article 16 and who knows where that will end.
A "hard" border between NI and Ireland? A return to the "Troubles"?
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/aug/26/liz-truss-may-trigger-article-16-days-after-becoming-pm-amid-brexit-row