Open mike 28/11/2023
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8:59 am, November 28th, 2023 - 56 comments
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- Property Rights and the Treaty Principles Bill
Property rights – which enable decisions over tangible and intangible assets – are critical to an economy as Why Nations Fail pointed out. Not just private property rights for, as we shall see, they are more complicated than that. Neoliberals argue that private property rights lead to the maximum economic ...2 hours ago - The Hoon around the week to November 22
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with: on the US Presidential elections, Israel vs Gaza/Iran/Lebanon, Ukraine/Nato vs Russia/North Korea and whether NZ now joins AUKUS;Special guest Helen Clark on the issues above, ...3 hours ago - Justice in Brazil
Following the 2022 Brazilian general election, election loser Jair Bolsonaro tried to do a Trump, attempting a coup to overturn the election. It failed. But unlike his American friend, he hasn't been allowed to get away with it: The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and some of his closest ...3 hours ago - Treasury warns deeper recession worsening Budget deficit
The gift that keeps giving: David Seymour has now opened a split in the coalition over the future of National’s promise to build a new medical school. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / TheKakaKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and ...10 hours ago
- Weekly Roundup 22-November-2024
It’s another Friday and we’re inching closer to the end of the year. Here’s some of the stories that have caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and ...11 hours ago - Beyond Question?
Record Numbers: The Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, which began at the tip of the North, and the tail of the South, on 11 November, culminated outside Parliament on Tuesday, 19 November 2024, in one of the largest demonstrations in New Zealand’s political history.ACCORDING TO TE ARA, the Ministry of Culture ...11 hours ago - The Rush To Blame “The Activists”
Activists are such easy scapegoats. The right and center have been conditioned for decades to roll their eyes at all protests. The left are easily aggravated over students leading movements they see as belonging to grownups, who have more important concerns like the economy and whether the trains come on ...11 hours ago - Cutting Through An Inundation of Dipshit Racists
Hi,Watching New Zealand from afar offers a strange perspective. It can be a good thing — distance from Aotearoa helped keep me sane while I reported on abuse at New Zealand’s biggest megachurch over the course of a year. It helps fuel my silly podcast. But it can also be ...12 hours ago - This is bad news
The speech yesterday by Treasury’s Chief Economic Advisor warning that the books are in worse shape than forecasted looks like it’s part of a softening-up process for either more cuts or a longer wait to get back into surplus. The speech was a highly unusual public preview of Treasury’s Half-Yearly ...14 hours ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #47 2024
Open access notables Projected increase in the frequency of extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons, Lopez et al., Science Advances: Future changes to the year-to-year swings between active and inactive North Atlantic tropical cyclone (TC) seasons have received little attention, yet may have great societal implications in areas prone to hurricane ...22 hours ago - Chicken Kiev
Chatting in the supermarket this morning, I found I needed to lunge for the chicken drumsticks.Coping mechanisms: who hasn’t felt a greater need for them lately?When it all gets too much, I turn to demonstrating handy butchery hacks.It wasn’t that she’d said anything wrong, our friend, not at all. We ...1 day ago - The year is 2024 and it’s 1984
This is written in response to the highly significant open letter from a group of economists that was today addressed to Christopher Luxon. The year is 2024, and it’s 1984. The country is reeling from a record Olympic medal gold haul, while the globe grapples with the choice of the ...1 day ago - The IPCA has failed
Back in 2022, RNZ took an in-depth look at the "Independent" Police Conduct Authority and its handling of killings by police. These are the most serious test of oversight, and you would expect the police's use of lethal force to receive the most severe scrutiny. But despite the police regularly ...1 day ago
- Thursday 21 November 2024
The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti arrived at Parliament on Tuesday – the size is being debated but estimates range from 42,000 to 100,000. The Prime Minister is defending not attending due to some of the organisers being affiliated with Te Pāti Māori. The national gang patch ban came into force ...1 day ago - ‘These budget cuts are counter-productive and make no sense’
I spoke to former Productivity Chair Nana this morning about the letter he and a group of other economists sent to PM Christopher Luxon to urge the Government to urgently suspend cuts to spending and investment for the sake of the economy, struggling businesses and the wellbeing of vulnerable ...1 day ago
- ACT’s Astroturfing & A Co-ordinated Attack on Te Pati Māori
Unity on the Streets / Unity at the TableAfter the Hīkoi, all three right wing Coalition leaders came together to push the idea that the 42,000 - 50,000 + strong Hikoi was somehow less potent and brave, and more illegitimate than the energy and crowd displayed.Prime Minister Christopher Luxon 20-November: ...1 day ago - Durability of carbon dioxide removal is critical for stabilizing temperatures
This is a re-post from the Climate Brink The world is emitting over 40 gigatons of CO2 per year, contributing to an accelerating warming of the planet. The world needs to cut emissions rapidly to be remotely on track to meet our Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to well-below 2C, and we ...1 day ago
- I Love My Leather Jacket
I wear my leather jacket like a great big hugRadiating charm - a living cloak of luckIt's the only concrete link with an absent friendIt's a symbol I can wear 'till we meet againOr it's a weight around my neck while the owner's freeBoth protector and reminder of mortalityIt's a ...1 day ago - Throwback Thursday: Will “Auckland Transport” Survive?
With Auckland Transport’s future up in the air under Mayor Wayne Brown’s proposed CCO reform, we’ve dug way back into the archives, to unearth this post originally published in March 2010. As you’ll see, many of the debates that were being had when AT was first proposed continue to ...1 day ago
- Economists call on PM to suspend budget cuts for the sake of the economy
Nicola Willis’ budget cuts are under fire from economists for having no clear rationale and worsening the recession. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, November 21: The news at ...1 day ago
- The end of policing by consent
National has appointed a new police commissioner. And he explicitly rejects policing by consent: Asked if he subscribed to policing by consent, he said he did not. “I don’t talk about policing by consent. I talk about trust and confidence, and it is fundamentally important that the police have ...2 days ago
- The Treaty Principles Bill: A Who’s Who
David Horatio Waterbed SeymourFringe politician and dweeb transformed successfully by ThinkTank money into a well-oiled soundbite robot.Currently programmed to say: Equal rights for all New Zealanders Equal rights for all New Zealanders Equal rights for all New Zealanders Was previously programmed to say:I am a proud libertarian andI am a ...2 days ago - Kinleith mill closure shows need for industrial strategy
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff is calling on the Government to deliver an economic and industrial strategy for regional manufacturing, rather than just expressing sympathy for job losses, following the announced closure of Kinleith mill in Tokoroa. “The closure Kinleith mill in Tokoroa is not just devastating for ...2 days ago
- 27% of kids going hungry, up from 21% in a year
One in four Kiwi children live in households where food runs out often or sometimes. Photo: Getty ImagesKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, November 20: The lead: The official annual Health Survey found sharp ...2 days ago - Transport modelling is an illusion
This guest post by Tim Adriaansen, an advocate for accessibility and sustainable transport, originally published on LinkedIn and cross posted here with permission. People prefer cars, right? Probably not. Here’s why. Granted, most people in English-speaking countries use a car to get around. This simple reality underpins our transport ...2 days ago
- Young Maori take over
Neither Wellington nor Parliament has ever seen anything like it before. The Police said there were more than 40,000 but however many there were, yesterday’s Hikoi to Parliament was a monumental event. It was almost three times the Foreshore and Seabed martch of 2004 and many,many times bigger than ...3 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Aftermath
The euphoria from yesterday’s hikoi may be transitory, but is no less valuable for that. It is pretty rare for the left to feel itself to be in the overwhelming majority, and speaking as the voice of the people. Lest that momentum be lost, the organisers will no doubt be ...3 days ago - Sabin 33 #3 – Solar panels generate too much waste and will overwhelm landfills
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The Justice Committee has called for submissions on National's racist and constitutionally radical Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill. Submissions can be made at the link above or by post, and are due by Tuesday, 7 January 2025. But I'd get in quick, in case National grows a spine ...3 days ago
- We need to talk about Kevin
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family has a Drunk Uncle Kevin in there somewhere. If your Kevin is anything like the ones I know, he was getting along happily enough without having to think too much about the Treaty Principles Bill apart from bloody good job, onya guys ...3 days ago - The hikoi
Like everyone else (everyone who wasn't there, anyway), I've spent the morning watching the hikoi march on Parliament. The pictures are astounding: parliament grounds and the surrounding streets are full, and there are still people backed up along Lambton Quay. The police are estimating 35,000 people, and that's a floor ...3 days ago
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3 days ago - How should we talk about change?
A better world isn’t just possible, it’s desirable. And that’s how we should frame a lot of our conversations around making a greater Auckland. As an example take urban climate action. A climate friendly Auckland: Is free from congestion Enables people to travel how they choose Is filled with ...3 days ago
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3 days ago - Discount Code for Webworm Merch!
Hi,So there’s a bunch of new stuff on the Webworm store (www.webworm.store) — just in time for the Holidays. Read more ...3 days ago - Trying to defuse the tension
There were urgent moves yesterday at Parliament to try and defuse the tension building up over ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill. The Bill’s author, ACT leader David Seymour, told reporters that he understood the Justice Select Committee met yesterday to discuss how long it should take to consider submissions on the ...4 days ago
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4 days ago - Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Arrival, And Tyler Childers
Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, with the Treaty Principles Bill being the classic example. The Bill seeks to dilute the Crown’s responsibilities to Māori at the same time as it ...4 days ago
- Socially Backwards and Fiscally Forwards: the False Ideological Divide and the “Conservative” Li...
4 days ago - Kaamos: Accepted
I appreciate that A Phuulish Fellow has been fairly quiet recently. That’s a combination of two things – comparatively little in the way of relevant material to discuss (at least until The War of the Rohirrim comes out next month), and my general work on The Secret Non-Fiction Writing Project. ...4 days ago - Here’s how governments could fix their Paris climate commitment failures
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- Katherine Trebeck – An Alternative Economic Narrative
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The NZNO have announced a nationwide strike for December over its pay dispute with Health NZ, who have put a 1 per cent cap on pay rises. The Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti and Treaty Principles Bill remain front and centre in the media, with the impacts of the Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke-led ...4 days ago
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This post was originally published on Linked In by Nicolas Reid. It is republished here with permission. Auckland is now just a year or so away from having the keystone of its urban rail network complete. As I wrote about here, the City Rail Link will be a literal game changer for ...4 days ago
- National’s support base is wobbling
If ACT leader David Seymour intended the Treaty Principles Bill to drive a wedge into National’s support base, he may well already be succeeding. By midnight on Thursday after the Maori Party haka in Parliament, National MPs were being deluged with emails and messages from their members calling them out ...5 days ago
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- Grifter Eftpos Tamaki at it again
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.Self-appointed “Bishop” and proto-fascist, Brian Tamaki was at it again on 16 November, blocking Auckland’s southern motorway, SH1.This time, the target of his ire wasn’t the Civil Unions Act; covid lock-downs; mask mandates; or ...5 days ago - Rip up a bill, lead a haka are words to live by
I cannot stop grabbing people by the lapels, or shoulders, or similar, and raving at them about the tiny miracles in my ears.I can hear again! There could not be a more satisfied customer in all the world.In a noisy cafe I am even catching words that Karren cannot, she ...6 days ago - Unintended Consequences
Take the baitYou pay the priceIt's much too lateFor good adviceYou know and I know that our good things' throughBecause there's consequences for what we doConsequences for me and youWriters: Kevin Robert Hayes, David Nagier, Bonnie Adele Hayes.Fallout from the first readingOne News began last night by saying that tens ...6 days ago - Thank you, driver!
Today, Saturday 16th of November, is Auckland Transport’s Bus Driver Appreciation Day! Saturday 16 November marks the third annual Auckland Transport (AT) ‘Bus Driver Appreciation Day’, and this year we are encouraging all of New Zealand to thank their driver or let the bus go first if you are in ...6 days ago
- Totally Normal: Holiday Edition
Hi,If I was to accurately sum up my mental state over the week, I’d just say that I got a huge fright from my own shadow.I’d nipped out for an 11pm neighborhood stroll, just to calm down after a day of stress and screens. The Cure and Fazerdaze’s new record ...6 days ago - We Are Not Listening
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
1 week ago - More lawlessness from National
On Tuesday, sick of government stonewalling, the Waitangi Tribunal issued a rare court order, ordering the Minister of Health to release unredacted documents within 48 hours showing its reasoning for disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The government's response to the lawful order of a court? Yeah, ...1 week ago
- National’s tyrannical “foreign interference” law
Yesterday, under cover the the biggest political fight of the year, National quietly - covertly, even - introduced anti-foreign interference legislation. The bill is the product of a years-long work-program aimed at countering shit like this and this, and there's unquestionably a need to do something to counter foreign states' ...1 week ago
- The Haka Represents The Best Of Us
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- Adding up the climate cost
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- Auckland chafing at Bishop’s housing intensification orders
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The Treaty Principles Bill continues to dominate political news, with it passing its first reading in the House. Parliament was briefly suspended and Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke suspended for 24 hours after leading a haka that was joined by opposition MPs and the public in the gallery. Willie ...1 week ago
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And screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingAnd screamingAre we we are, are we we are the waitingForget me nots, second thoughts live in isolationHeads or tails and fairy tales in my mindAre we we are, are we we are the waiting unknownThe rage and love, the ...1 week ago - The Hoon around the week to November 15
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- First Tea and Toast, now Milo — why do NZ’s best beverages need so much defending?
Only two months ago, Nicola Willis had to step in to stop Health New Zealand cutting tea and toast for post-birth parents, and now Lester Levy is riding to the rescue with a welcome message for all: our health workers can once again drink Milo, and will no longer need ...1 week ago - Gordon Campbell on the folly of making apologies in a social vacuum.
Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of outrage were performed. David Seymour got to play the victim card. Willie Jackson got kicked out of class. A comically red-faced Mr Speaker bellowed “Order, ...1 week ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #46 2024
Open access notables Microbial solutions must be deployed against climate catastrophe, Peixoto et al., Nature Communications [comment]: The climate crisis is escalating. A multitude of microbe-based solutions have been proposed, and these technologies hold great promise and could be deployed along with other climate mitigation strategies. However, these solutions have ...1 week ago
- The PM gets some extremely valuable legal advice for free
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The government's Treaty Principles Bill is up for its first reading today - bought forward in a rush in a desperate effort to avoid the hikoi which is currently marching on Wellington. But the Prime Minister won’t be there for it – he’s literally running away to Peru! But he ...1 week ago
- 97% of submissions did not want no-cause evictions, Trump chooses a Russian spy for US Intelligence ...
Good morning, and I’m sorry I’ve been away for a couple of days.I’ve been focusing on the Hikoi, and also testing out sentiment on the Treaty Principles Bill. It’s complicated, and the Treaty Principles Bill will be debated in the House today. The Government’s own lawyers have told them the ...1 week ago - Government must vote down ACT Members Bill that would undermine workers’ rights
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- Seymour causes thousands of unjustified absences by forcing kids to fight for their rights instead o...
The State would like to remind you that they are in control. They manage your employment prospects, and can destroy the job market you and yours rely on by mass-cancelling construction projects, cutting funding, and firing a good chunk of our public servants. They wield the mechanisms that provide scrutiny ...1 week ago - The Weight of the World
As the weight of the world Hangs on your shoulders The weight of the world Starts to take over again And over again All that you once loved, now you hate So slowly relearn how to meditate To have and to hold And never let go Can you feel it ...1 week ago - Thursday 14 November 2024
The Treaty Principles Bill is set to have its First Reading in the House today, as the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti continues. More than 40 KCs have written to the Prime Minister and Attorney-General outlining their “grave concerns” about the substance of the Treaty Principles Bill, while an academic and ...1 week ago
- Release: Government should be transparent on live exports
Targeted consultation on reinstating live cattle exports by sea won’t allow the New Zealand public to have their say. ...10 hours ago - NZ’s global climate rankings plummet as Govt removes agriculture from ETS
The Government has passed legislation to remove agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) while Aotearoa’s reputation on climate action plummets. ...1 day ago - Failed boot camp experiment must end
As legislation to set up boot camps passed its first reading, the Green Party urged the Government to abandon this failed policy experiment for the good of our rangatahi. ...1 day ago
- Gender-affirming care must centre evidence and health needs, not political posturing
The Ministry of Health has today released an evidence brief regarding the use of puberty blockers in gender-affirming healthcare, amid moves by the government to limit access. ...1 day ago
- Release: National doesn’t care about manufacturing
The National Government is walking away from our manufacturing sector with constant reports of closures and job losses. ...1 day ago
- Release: David Parker speech – Piketty, Inequality and Climate Change
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- Release: Youth mental wellbeing no longer a priority for Child Poverty Minister
Louise Upston has revealed her diminished vision for vulnerable youth against a backdrop of snubbed advice, scrapped priorities, shifted goal posts and thousands more children projected to fall into poverty. ...1 day ago
- Release: National’s lack of climate action taking NZ backwards
National Government’s backward-looking climate policy has seen New Zealand fall seven places on the Climate Change Performance Index to 41 out of 63 countries measured. ...1 day ago
- Release: Simple reason for drop in emergency housing
When the Government says it has reduced the number of people in emergency housing, what it means is it is stopping people from accessing it in the first place. ...1 day ago
- Govt’s child wellbeing strategy ‘shallow and shameful’
The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...1 day ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...1 day ago
- Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”
The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...2 days ago
- Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading
Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...2 days ago
- Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills
The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...2 days ago
- Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...2 days ago
- Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch
National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...2 days ago
- Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...2 days ago
- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
- Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament
Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
- Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons
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- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
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The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...1 week ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...1 week ago
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- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...1 week ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...1 week ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...1 week ago
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Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...1 week ago
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The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
- Urgent wake-up call on climate
The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
- Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...2 weeks ago
- Child Protection Investigation Unit established
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Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Ka mihi ki te mana whenua ko Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. Kia ora and good morning everyone. Thank you Fran and Simon for inviting me here today, and importantly your leadership of this forum over several years now. I want to acknowledge David Gehrenbeck, Deputy ...5 hours ago
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- District Court Judge appointed
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- Foreign Minister to visit Europe
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- First arrests made under gang patch ban
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- MSA pilot participant update
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- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
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- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
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The Government has revealed that over the past three years, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has spent an eyewatering $786 million of taxpayers’ money on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“When I became Minister, I was surprised to learn that that NZTA did ...3 days ago
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Legislation that will double the financial jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to $60,000 has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. “We need to improve court timeliness and access to justice so that Kiwis and get on with their lives. Court delays affect everyone, the ...3 days ago
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- Final push needed to get to Smokefree 2025
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- Youth Parliament 2025 announced
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- Police stats show promising change
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- Better coordination of anti-scam efforts
With the launch of Fraud Awareness Week, the Government is committing to new coordination efforts across industry and government to combat online scams, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Online financial scams are a growing problem for New Zealand. New data released today shows that Kiwis lost nearly ...4 days ago
- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
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The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.
Hmmm, what are the chances?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/133356580/the-unexpected-climate-plans-of-the-new-government
Well if anything comes of that here I will be gobsmacked – it seems like magical thinking.
apparenlty some found.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/12/prospectors-hit-the-gas-in-the-hunt-for-white-hydrogen
I'm not great at science but I understood that the most common element in the earth's crust was oxygen. I thought hydrogen was extracted from air by a chemical process.
Oxygen is the most abundant element in the earth's crust. It doesn't exist as an isolated element, and thence as a gas, but in the form of oxides.
Hydrogen doesn't exist as an element in the atmosphere. Any hydrogen that was released in the atmosphere will be very quickly lost from the top of the atmosphere unless it gets tied up with other elements via a chemical reaction, to create water say.
The most common way of getting gaseous hydrogen is by steam reforming of natural gas. The predominant reaction is, at a high temperature, creating hydrogen and carbon monoxide from methane and water (steam) and then as a secondary reaction creating carbon dioxide from the carbon monoxide and more steam.
There are other ways of making the gas but that is the cheapest and therefore most common.
I'm surprised you would ever find a reservoir with relatively pure hydrogen, There must be some interesting reactions going on to create it.
Your scientific knowledge is appreciated.
Did you read this link Alwyn?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/12/prospectors-hit-the-gas-in-the-hunt-for-white-hydrogen
Yes I did. My feelings about it were pretty much summed up in the sentence in the article that says
"There remains uncertainty over the way hydrogen forms deep within the Earth, exactly how it migrates to the surface, and how best to extract it."
I was greatly surprised that such reservoirs exist.
Yes not sure But interesting,
"Thankfully, the new coalition arrived just in time to stop our woke youth from evading tobacco."
A quote from the first of many, hopefully, where the media are criticising the rank stupidity of the coalition of craziness.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/301015744/no-doubt-now-that-antimori-sentiment-powered-the-election-result?
Well Mac1. Even the Press today has front page story about the Smoke Free issue.
"Devastation and Celebration." (The celebration is the dairy owner who can now sell cigarettes beyond 2023.)
Didn’t National used to have two MOD in caucus? And now Bishop is highly ranked.
newsense, MOD? Merchants of Death? Men of Destiny?
Google doesn't tell me…..
Sorry Mac1- Merchants of Death…
Referencing this film:
Thank you for smoking
They lied.
National has made billions of dollars worth of changes to its spending plans as part of its coalition deals with Act and NZ First. The cost of those changes forced the party to u-turn on some of its election promises to pay for the concessions.
One particularly painful move will see some low-income families miss out on up to $37.90 a week that the party had promised under a policy designed to ease the “impact of the cost-of-living” which was “especially significant for families raising children”, according to a policy document.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/low-income-families-lose-up-to-38-a-week-as-nats-move-to-close-billion-dollar-budget-hole/BVF2W3D3OZEULISNCFV77GNFXY/
Our low-income families deserve better than this mistreatment. My heart goes out to them.
Fuck this coalition.
May we throw it onto the scrapheap of history where it deserves to be already.
I guess 'bottom feeders' was a clue….
/
@marcdaalder
·
3h
National's two changes to the tax cut side of the package mean: -Faster tax cuts for landlords -A family earning $200,000 a year will now benefit more than families on the lowest incomes
@marcdaalder
·
https://twitter.com/marcdaalder/status/1729253419406496132
The first is that the tax changes to benefit landlords have been sped up, increasing the cost of the package. Newsroom reported before the election that National used out-of-date figures to estimate the cost of restoring interest deductibility for rental properties, meaning its numbers were already out by $100 million a year. By speeding up the timeline for reintroducing interest deductibility, those costs will only rise.
https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/11/28/now-sworn-in-new-govt-turns-attention-to-tax-package/
Was there ever such a horrid crew?
It's up there with Richardson and company 1990 to 1993.
I seem to recall a Labour government some time back that did some things people weren't too keen on…Thatcherism, Reaganomics, Rogernomics…
Took the white ants a while though, to eat the heart out of that Government.
This horrid crew are hollow and empty right from the get-go
I'm betting that new Minister of Tertiary Education – fresh from being CE at Southern Polytech – will reverse the entire centralisation of polytechs that Hipkins had well underway for over 2 years.
Certainly feeling for those staff at TEC and MoE who pulled it together, and of course to the hundreds at the new centralised polytech who got their redundancy notices just weeks ago.
Penny for her thoughts.
Not worth that much!
You're a penny-pincher, Tony!
I believe that the Southern Polytech was the poorest performing unit under the leadership of Penny Symonds. In spite of the Fees Free.
So that's how little they regard us disabled people when they assigned Penny Simmonds the Disability Issues portfolio outside of Cabinet?
Run down Whaikaha, the new ministry of disability which was established in the last moments of the Labour government and then crow at us all in NZ how un-necessary our ministry is and let the government cut our ministry's funding then to close it down?
That same person?
I think it was another commenter here some time ago, or may have been on twitter, that summed up Simmonds like this:
She was the instigator of fee free SIT in Invercargill. Loathsome. The polytechnic was over rated. Course outdated, international students were promised much & delivered little. She’s got a personal stake & blames Hipkins for destroying her legacy when Te Pukenga was created.
Don't expect her to take rational actions in the best interest of the sector as a whole.
Thought I could manage to get used to the new government after a few days. No such luck. Peters is like an old snarling crocodile and carrying on like Trump. Not sure how he will cope with the pace. His eyes are very bloodshot. The dairy owners delight in being able to increase their cigarette sales to make more money, and a larger Cabinet – no downsizing for them. Luxon's triumphantly wanting people to be tossed out of their jobs asap. My mid twenties granddaughter just sent me a text "how depressing is this new government – shocking"
Chlöe Swarbrick on the Government's promises:
"A grab-bag of unhinged hot-takes".
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/11/28/chloe-swarbrick-blasts-grab-bag-of-random-policies-from-govt/
She is so good!
Articulate, principled, no weasel or wasted words
Swarbrick is a hugely talented politician. If Labour continues to flounder along selecting politically anondyne managerial no names as candidates there is every chance a Swarbrick led Green party could sweep past them as the main change agent party in NZ within a decade.
It would be just punishment for Labour constantly fobbing off the Greens, that's for sure.
I hope Labour rediscovers its soul, before it comes to that, though.
We need more left-wing voices, not less.
So yeah, c'mon, lift ya game, Labour.
And for gaddsakes – treat The Greens like an actual equal partner.
Chloe was so good. The ACT woman didn't come over well.
Defending the indefensible is so much harder to do.
More for the file of where are hypocrites of the ‘free speech absolutists’?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/301015475/art-gallery-told-to-remove-palestinian-art-expo-from-window
Sacked, silenced, shutdown, kicked out and shut up. But scarcely supported by those principled activists from the right.
If you are able to read Hayden Donnell’s piece on David Farrier’s webworm it collates these cases and makes this case.
And soon landlords can make no cause evictions, so poor NZ, none of the political stuff.
Suppression by text, on receiving one complaint:
Sian, no political stuff in the tenancy. Please urgently remove all window posters and any political items from the tenancy. Confirm back when this is going to be done. We are also looking at having the tenancy returned to vacant for viewing purposes,” the text read.
The landlord can in some instances expect the tenants to remove anything that is overly political, like election advertising.
I don’t think that we would be concerned if a tenant was asked to remove a “MAGA” display for instance.
I’ve been invited to a bar mitzvah (apologies if the spelling is wrong) this weekend. I feel uncomfortable to say to anyone at work that I’m going to it, as I have picked up some anti Jewish comments from one or two people in my workplace. And I just can’t be bothered with any comments coming my way about this whole Israeli/Jewish/Palestinian/Muslim situation.
You shouldn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable about going to a Bar Mitzvah or telling people that you are. I have never had any problem telling people I was visiting a mosque, synagogue, related community event, etc. If they're bigots, then sod 'em.
It has no bearing at all on your, my or anybody's ability to criticise the killing of innocent children in Gaza. There are plenty of Jews around the world and Israelis doing just that. Including in NZ.
They should come to Wellington and demonstrate. The Labour endorsed Councillor Teri O'Neill is sticking up posters of the PM and the ACT and NZF leaders as a "humorous" protest, Terribly funny of course. The Mayor, also of the Left is supporting her.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellington-city-councillor-teri-oneill-defends-decision-to-post-flyers-of-christopher-luxon-david-seymour-and-winston-peters-as-genitals/A2EOLZYVPNENFM7YEZO7B2MZ24/
I wonder if the people who complained that supposedly terrible things were said about Ms Ardern will object or will they think that Ms O'Neill is wonderfully funny. Somehow I think they will applaud.
Am I allowed to suggest that the Councillor ought to be ashamed of herself, and is just behaving as a total dick?
"supposedly terrible things were said about Ms Ardern"
Which of these are "supposedly", in Alwyn's "what about what about" moral code?
“He regularly referred to Ardern and the Government as criminals, slave traders and state-sanctioned terrorists, but it was two emails in particular that went a step too far, threatening violence …:
"If you continue to support state terrorism … and declare act of war on my life … I will personally wipe you off this f***ing planet" …
"I will blow your … head off if your gas lighting on my life continues"
(and so on, there are countless other examples, direct death threats to Ardern … you know this of course)
Still "supposedly"?"
Threats against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern triple, according to report – NZ Herald
Into theWilderness.
Labour lost their way,Lost contact with its base followers.Lost the hopes of their previously faithful supporters.Introduced stupidity into politics.People had had enough and wanted change,any change;something different. And,as a result, we have ended up with a strange combo but one which will bring some common sense and pragmatism back to decision making and revoke some of the crazy policies which have been dividing this country and holding us back. We will just have to wait and see how the majority react……they could be very pleased,or they could be very unhappy ! Too early to make a call just yet.
Cron job troll.
NZF chose Labour in 2017 (because it had gone too far in the same direction for too long). Then people chose stability/continuance 2020. Then they chose to react to stress (post pandemic syndrome, rising costs and fear of change) by removing incumbent government.
Only Labour will provide hope about the way forward in 2026. This is a one term government.
Well if the so called 'left' had not gone to war against science on behalf of woke bs, then maybe we wouldn't be facing what we are currently facing.
Here is a former Green/Labour voter who voted National this time round, almost purely on the disregard of Labour towards science. Oh, and I was sickened by Jacinda's public emoting – granted Hipkins was not so bad when it came to that.
If we don't put science on a pedestal, we won't have a first world country at all and issues of child poverty, cancer rates etc will be moot because we will be a third world backward shithole.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Don’t create diversions.
R&D portfolio has gone to Judith Collins so keep your expectations real low this term.
Maybe someone should give her shares in a green tech company on the quiet, I reckon that'd get the funding going,
Is grubbing out swamp kauri for the Chinese market "green tech"?
She's already got that sewn up.
The rightwing "Point of Order" is now a big cheerleader for the rightwing government. So why is The Standard still hosting their nasty rants? They are worse than ever.
(And to answer the predictable rejoinder, yes I love free speech, no I don’t want an echo chamber, but we can’t debate with a sidebar, can we?)
Hear hear
The re-demonising of beneficiaries.
According to Simon Wilson:
He goes on to say "Why pick on beneficiaries?"
As if we didn't know. They are the most vulnerable in society so they are the easiest to pick on and to blame for anything that goes wrong.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/simon-wilson-the-good-and-the-bad-in-the-national-act-nz-first-governments-war-on-woke/F63TOJT5DZBBFL4SOLK4AANT6Q/
Evil is as evil does!
Inflation, a real problem
"It is nearly 50 years since Muldoon’s bus flattened poor Bill Rowling, but, for those with long political memories, the parallels with the election of 2023 are striking. The greatest of these is the profound sense of shock and disorientation among the activist supporters of the Left. Their discomfort is born not only of the brute facts of the election results, but also by the growing realisation that the incoming coalition government is determined to roll back practically all of the Left’s policy advances of the past six years."
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/125395/chris-trotter-says-if-bill-rowling-was-run-over-bus-contemporary-labour-party
"The sum total of these messages, as aggregated in the polling booths, is a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by one bus, driven by Rob Muldoon. In 2023 Labour was run over by a million busses – driven by ourselves."
The 'messages' in many of the comments in the linked article support his thesis
Christmas is approaching….you have enough food and space for around a dozen people…maybe 15 at a pinch.
What do we think of the host/hostess that throws caution to the wind and invites 50 plus?
And what do we say about them when it all turns to custard and everyone is unhappy?
https://www.interest.co.nz/economy/125421/overseas-worker-arrivals-continue-strong-bounce-back-following-removal-pandemic
Why is the Beehive website "under maintenance"? The public cannot get to see official pronouncements on the new government's policies.