The Canadian team is said to have played a key role in the negotiations that led to the adoption of the rulebook that will govern how the Paris Accord will cut emissions and curb global warming. “Our team worked hard throughout the negotiations to find common ground between developed and developing countries,” said Catherine McKenna (Minister of the Environment and Climate Change)…..
……Canada’s behaviour at COP conferences is not the problem. We behave as a good climate leader should. We play that role quite well.
The Canadian government has just announced a new handout of $1.6 billion to the Alberta oilsands despite already purchasing the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion earlier in 2018.
In November, Canada posted the G20’s highest per capita GHG emissions
In Ottawa the Doug Ford government dismantled the province’s successful carbon cap-and-trade program, cancelled 758 renewable energy contracts, and stopped construction of the White Pines wind farm as it neared completion.
But the harshest attacks were reserved for campaigners on the front lines of the Trans Mountain fight.
Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge casually and chillingly suggested that “people will die” on the protest lines at Burnaby Mountain, asserting that killing off a few “extremists” might be the price Canada would have to pay to get the Trans Mountain expansion built.
*sigh* turned on the radio and remembered that RNZ like to use January to save money by pretending that nothing is happening and we all love hearing their back catalogue of shit music from anodyne presenters.
Ouch. The RNZ director of music is a personal friend. Is there something in particular you’d like me to pass on? What in particular do you feel is “shit” about the music presented?
I am a big fan of music 101.
Although I realise it is a team that puts the show together, Alex Behan was an ideal presenter for the format. Inclusive, humble, amiable.
I will miss his vibe.
As for matinee idol, as others have said more eloquently down thread, great for a while, but can become too much of a good thing.
The one thing wrong about Matinee Idle is Simon Morris. Not only is everything that comes out of his mouth complete and utter drivel, his voice is one that should never be allowed on radio. The show was great when it began a number of years ago because Phil O’Brien did it on his own.
Agreed Ad, Matinee Idle is great fun and how radio should be used. Endless carping on about how unfair life is to some and regurgitated non-news may maintain the dreary angst of the Woe Is Us Tragics but January is time for some fun.
There are eleven other months for the The World Is Fucked depressives to get their fix.
agree +1000 Sanctuary…..why oh why should RNZ foist this rubbish on us…the BBC keeps broadcasting as usual and the news never stops..tsunamis….stock market plunges….Trump…always Trump
RNZ basically only operate for 47 weeks of the year.
Taking Xmas week plus a month off might be great for saving a few pingers and and as well I guess it suits the disconnected life style of the Wellington political/media elites. They live in a world where all the pollies and the journos bugger off to a flash bach for a month. Meanwhile, truck drivers, hair dressers, shop owners, retail workers and all the rest get the stats and the bit in between if they are lucky.
Public radio not serving the public for 5 weeks every year while the skeleton staff left to keep the place running indulge in the pernicious fantasy that Kiwis all live in an upper-middle class white collar utopia of a month of beach life at the bach simply makes me think they are disconnected from reality.
Sure, shut down for two weeks. But five? That’s taking the piss. By the time Morning Report starts up again 90% of the population has been back at work for at least two weeks.
I agree that RNZ was highjacked by the larte set for their interest not our and has become now a meaning less copy of BBC broadcasting.
We in Gisborne.HB have no real interested RNZ reporter anywhere here now to meet the public on climate change transport or environmental issues,
So RNZ needs to be scrapped; – and Government needs to produce a fresh “voice of the people” TV channel, as ‘channel 7’ was before ‘Johnny key’ closed it down.
“In 2008 the Government announced that the broadcaster was to become “more public-service” like. TVNZ responded by launching two commercial free channels; TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7. By 2011 Prime Minister John Key announced the closure of these channels.”
Well let’s hope (as I mentioned the other day on another thread that @VV thought was brutal), the board and CEO of RNZ’s new charge to be relevant and become good media citizen’s in the digital age, DON’T preoccupy themselves with demographics and The Market The Market share.
If they are to remain, or at least pretend interest as a Public Service broadcaster, it’ll be less about demographics and The Market The Market as it’s drivers, and more about Genre and Diversity.
Concentration on Demographics – especially when focused on age, assumes the yoof of today has no interest in classical music or jazz, and the geriatric has no interest in rap or whatever passes as rythm and blues these days.
They shouldn’t even be trying to compete with the commercial alternatives – they’re perfectly capable of self flagellation beating each other to death all on their own.
OwT
It seems to me that radionz are trying to compete with commercial radio’s listings, wanting to be in the top. That is not why we have public broadcasting. While it is important to stay in the public eye, PB doesn’t need to crawl to every new whim but just stay current, being aware of what interests people, and what is coming forward in the arts and literature and critique etc. And be thinking and choosing presentation of what a well and widely informed person would want, or need, to know and understand the wider issues.
Now we have video killing the radio star; pictures that don’t tell 1,000 words because the images are so easy to slant. I refer ito it still as Radionz because that honestly states its purpose and importance. Television, videos etc are adjuncts. Reading the article is the base from which viewing the images reinforces and illustrates the subject, points, line on which the news is written; it backgrounds and shows faces, detail.
Encouraging people listening to radio, to communicate and present a range of views and anecdotes relating to the item is good. Not good is to then choose some dinosaur example of negative or fairy godmotherish or religious fundamentalist comment to read out; which happens too often. This being aired on the wider broadcasting medium just reinforces those who are uninformed and living in their own bubble of certainties and limited learning.
The Standard is good because people can be informed of links giving a wider comparative news outlets. Regular commenters may be reliable for one particular view and be trusted to give reasoned comment from that bent and be interested in justifying it when questioned. I often put up Radionz links to matters that raise new points or examples and that could pass by unnoticed that day. Radionzthey are pretty good but have to watched for a tendency to gloss over the pressing problems to concentrate on the views and wants of the chattering classes.
Indeed @ grey….. there’s nothing in that comment I disagree with.
Don’t really have time to reply properly now, but I’m both worried and hopeful about the future of PSB in this country.
There are things RNZ management are doing that lead me to believe they’re a little too concerned with “the Market The Market’ and demographics on the one hand, while on the other Chris F-F-F-Faa-F-F-FFoi is genuinely considering various options (but bearing in mind he’s only ever experienced a life, and broadcasting experience in a neo-liberal environment). Plus of course he’s got all that fiscal responsibility shit going on around him.
And somewhere back in the never-never I made another comment on PSB – several actually. One on the fact that the Coalaition for Better Broadcasting, (or whatever they call themsleves these days) isn’t actually being ambitious enough (perhaps because the shit about we’re a nation of only 4.5 mill and can’t afford stuff, and more).
Another, on the fact that we effectively have a model that isn’t too unlike all that funder-provider shit that went with health care provision in the Ruthenasia era.
Another that we have a rather huge bureaucracy with some rather large salaries that sap a lot of that money the 4.5 million supposedly can’t afford, and its all glued together -primarily due to self interest and preservation
We have:
RNZ ………. CEO and Board
TVNZ ditto
NZoA dittto
Kordia ditto
TMP ditto
MTS ditto
…….oh, and then there’s that Freeview thing
Shit……….sorry, beginning to rave, but hopefully you might be getting to understand where I’m coming from – but basically
we CAN afford 2, and probably 3 radio networks, and at least 2 TV networks that include children (Oh!!! won’t you PLEASE PLEASE think of the children)
AND we have a shitload of sources where content can come.
OwT
I love your brimming-over interest in our PBS.
Keep at it won’t you.
And PLEASE think of the childrens’ tv. It’s awful watching the c r a p with coloured morals (the colours referring to purple and hot pink rather than various shades of gold or dark skin as opposed to deadfish white or spotty pink).
I think of children’s TV quite often. I think of its potential for education as well as its entertainment value.
I also think of things like public service broadcasting’s responsibilities towards the arts and sport, and the amount of corporate welfare that goes into propping up commercial operators that have competed themselves almost to death, and now expect (as of some sort of right) to more handouts.
I think of the way public assets have been used to give commercial interests preferential treatment over time (such as transmission facilities that were once an inherent part in providing all that Reithian educate, inform and entertain stuff).
I think of the supposed efficiencies promised by all the tinkering and interference that’s gone on over decades.
There’s a lot to it all, but what worries me most is that if we ever do get to a PSB Nirvana, it will need to be protected from further political interference and viewed in the same way we see the independence of the Judiciary as being important ( if we’re ever going to be a fully functioning democracy).
But right now, (to use the neo-lib’s own language), we have a pretty inefficient system of delivering PSB and it’s overburdened with quite a few ticket clippers
“… I mentioned the other day on another thread that @VV thought was brutal…”
I have my worried face on now, OWT, as I am having a ‘senior moment’ as I cannot recall this exchange. Grateful for some clues as to when (approx) this was, and any other (gentle) clues to help my memory. LOL
mmmm – maybe it was the greywarshark I had a response from.
But…..stuff is underway at RNZ (as you’ll no doubt be aware of) – and its not necessarily for the better, but more about shuffling a few chairs about.
From Guyon to Mora/Chapman to an Alex Behan being dumped.
Knew a person who worked at Chapman Tripp and was expected to work excessive hours well over the 40 hours a week of salary that they were paid for. The labour inspectorate should be investigating a lot more of this practise as this person actually worked over 100 hours in one week at one point and everyone was telling them, leave the firm!! They also got paid a salary lower than the person was worth, even without considering the extra hours! So no surprises that a firm like that with their own staff is keen to ‘help’ migrant labour.
Would be interesting to find out with the amount of qualifications the women had, what the salary was, $100k, $80k, surely not lower than that with masters in International Studies from IPU in Palmerston North?? and supermarket experience to boot!!! Lucky then, that Burger King can qualify and so can every other food business as importing in food is now being touted as international trade by lawyers!!!
Don’t forget many of these law firms are also sexually harassing their staff…
Bear in mind international fees are $19,000 per year, and around $15,000 per year for accomodation plus other fees so you are up for $35k+per year, not sure what their ‘international’ ranking is for a masters, but I’m not sure they are in the top 100 universities even Auckland university these days is struggling to stay on international rankings lists for education…. but here in NZ we just don’t worry about quality, as long as the fees are paid!
IPU doesn’t exactly have an international reputation like Harvard, but I guess you can then get a job in a food import business and residency on the basis of it so money well spent especially when NZ law firms are so supportive of the process!
Knew a person who worked at Chapman Tripp and was expected to work excessive hours well over the 40 hours a week of salary that they were paid for. The labour inspectorate should be investigating a lot more of this practise as this person actually worked over 100 hours in one week at one point and everyone was telling them, leave the firm!!
This is why we had penal rates and need to bring them back. If there’s enough work for two people then two people need to be employed. And 100 hour weeks is enough for three people to be employed.
Would be interesting to find out with the amount of qualifications the women had, what the salary was, $100k, $80k, surely not lower than that with masters in International Studies from IPU in Palmerston North?
I’m seeing a restaurant and bakery that serves NZ. Probably doesn’t need the degree at all.
So, the degree would be just another back door for immigrant labour. For her and her husband.
A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.
Reading between the lines, I doubt the world is ready for these particular selfies.
Concord Management, the Russian company charged by Mueller for funding internet trolling, is asking the judge to force prosecutors to let the company's employees see "sensitive" discovery, in a filing that's a little TMI pic.twitter.com/8e7n6ANsQM— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) December 20, 2018
Also, apparently, among the millions of pages of records Mueller's has collected on Russian election interference is a "nude selfie." pic.twitter.com/E8eh3i0jxV— Brad Heath (@bradheath) December 27, 2018
a previous Concord filing suggested that there were multiple "personal selfie naked photographs" https://t.co/jTZ7tKYiO8— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) December 27, 2018
Caught red handed in scamming the American people.
LinkedIn founder admits to funding a Democrat Cyber Security entity to the tune of $100,000. It created Russian Bots. IE it created fake Russian internet entities supporting Republican candidates with comments to make those Republican candidates look bad.
Trump did it. LOL.
Meanwhile the MSNBC ran of story of boarder guards destroying water stashes left by illegal immigration cartels, or good Samaritans? Then did there Hate Trump opinion panel fake news rubbish. The video is from 2011, slightly Obama era.
I looked up this Dunning-Kruger effect – it applies a lot on the blog. A certain number of people think ‘I can Write my Ideas, and being mine, I Consider Them Awfully Good’. (And that will always be true, as ‘awfully’ has a number of meanings, some of them contradictory!)
catalogofbias.org
In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is.
Dunning–Kruger effect – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
“The flyby technically began on Christmas. Unlike Pluto, whose orbit has been precisely charted for a long time, MU69 was only discovered 4 years ago and its trajectory is not perfectly known. Because of this, the team has to rely on direct observation of the body, which for now still appears as little more than a pixel in its telescope, to understand its location relative to New Horizons.
Until this weekend, the team is using the probe’s telescope to get a handle on the uncertainty of MU69’s location. Although it will be too late to tweak the spacecraft’s trajectory, the team will be able to rework the script of its high-resolution camera so that it can be certain of imaging MU69. This final update will then be relayed to New Horizons on 30 December.
I love it for what it is. Imo purity. A purity of vision and skill.
Also if we can do this we CAN make the changes as a species that we need to do
Funnily enough Imo space and everything external to earth actually helps us connect to earth, to nature. This is why we have fucked up imo – we have tried to forget that we are nature and nature is us as it is for all life – animate and inanimate.
Blessings of the festive season to you and your loved ones.
lso if we can do this we CAN make the changes as a species that we need to do
We can but there’s our ‘leaders’ preventing us.
This is why we have fucked up imo – we have tried to forget that we are nature and nature is us as it is for all life – animate and inanimate.
IMO, we’ve spent so much of our time fighting nature just to live that we’ve forgotten that we’re part of it. It’s in living memory that one in four children were dying before they were five.
We’re well beyond those times now but now we need to journey back to living with nature rather than fighting her.
Labour is sickeningly astonishingly very slow at giving us the “long promised “non commercial channel with more investigative journalism context” as ‘TVNZ 7 was when they began that one in 2008 and Johnny Key closed it down in 2011?
Quote from Wikipedia;
“In 2008 the Government announced that the broadcaster was to become “more public-service” like. TVNZ responded by launching two commercial free channels; TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7. By 2011 Prime Minister John Key announced the closure of these channels.”
Conducted by the National Māori Authority, a survey found the top three concerns for Māori included financial insecurity, homelessness and the state of New Zealand’s rivers and lakes.
Next on the list was the number of Māori children in state care, the number of Māori in prison and the rising suicide rates.
I am leaving the IEA as of 1 Jan 2019. I will miss it. But I won't miss the endless "who funds you?" tweets. They reveal a profound misunderstanding of the kind of people who work at think tanks and what motivates them. And always irrelevant to the issue at hand. So stupid.— Jamie Whyte (@_JamieWhyte) December 27, 2018
This is a very fine NZ cricket team. The Sri Lankan team by contrast is one of their weaker line ups – not surprising when they’ve lost so many fine players over the last few years.
I tau toko/ support these people words the fossil fuel industry pushed plastic and are still pushing it on us why did we switch from glass milk bottles to plastic because of money being used to influnce our reality making us believe that plastic was better than glass laws need to be passed to make manufactures make enviromently safe packging
Stemming plastic production should be focus, says researcher
Recycling will not be enough to dig the world out of the dangerous mountain of plastic it is drowning in, a leading plastic pollution researcher says.
Massey University’s Dr Trisia Farrelly is part of an expert group advising the United Nations.
Globally as little as 5 percent of plastic was ever recycled, meaning recycling would never address the problem, she said.
Instead an effort must be made to turn off the tap on the amount of plastic being produced.
“The plastics industry is driven by the fossil fuel industry and if they have their way, these figures are going to grow exponentially. In fact there is predicted to be a 33 percent increase in fossil fuel based plastic production in the next five years. So it’s not slowing down, it’s increasing.”
Dr Farrelly said a legally binding global treaty was needed to force producers to stop the supply of plastic. Ka kite ano links below.
I can not even leave my house for 5 minutes with out the sandflys breaking into my house to try and intimadate Eco Maori. The big picture is that the policeforce of all the countrys of Papatuanuku are corrupt if these muppets had anything except lies well they would have locked me up but know they have nothing .Some one makes a excuse that they cannot interfare when they know the state is breaking my human rights right under there noses
New GCSB bill allows spying on Kiwis
A new bill which gives New Zealand’s security and intelligence agencies more power to spy on Kiwis is likely to be introduced this week.
Prime Minister John Key said the expansion of powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was for good reason.
“If you wanted to allow GCSB to spy against a New Zealander, at the moment they can’t do that,” Key said on Breakfast link below ka kite ano . P.S thanks for the mana sandflys
We are the Guardian of all the creatures on Papatuanuku we need to use all the tools we have to protect the precious wildlife from extinction. This story about the northern white rhino is sad and a catastrophe on a world scale all the creatures going extint in 2018
‘We held a memorial service’: the keeper of the last male northern white rhino
The head keeper at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya remembers Sudan We really cried, all the keepers. We held a memorial service for him, which helped. He was a great ambassador for all rhinos, not just his own kind.
I’m still working hard to ensure the two remaining northern white rhinos are content and in good condition for the rest of their lives. They continue to help raise awareness of rhino conservation. If there was no poaching, there would still be good wild populations of northern white rhinos. We are trying to tell everyone that rhino horn does not possess any medicinal value.
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This may not be the end of Sudan’s story. Semen was collected from him, and from other captive males, before they died. Scientists now plan to harvest eggs from our two remaining females, create more than one embryo and implant them in surrogate female southern white rhinos. In Berlin, scientists have managed to create an embryo using northern white rhino semen and southern white rhino eggs. Using IVF to try to save rhinos has never been done before. I keep my fingers crossed. I still hope we can save these magnificent creatures. links below ka kite ano P.S I smell some thing its a puppet.
This is like a story from a film. A businessman masquerading as a farmer, called Randy Constant! has been selling ordinary grains as organic for a nice mark-up for all concerned. Anyone who bought from him didn’t have the necessary wry sense of humour one needs to survive along with a smart brain these days.l
Constant, of Chillicothe, Missouri, and three others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Constant, who owned an Iowa grain brokerage, acknowledged that he sold $142 million worth of corn, soybeans and wheat over a 7½-year period that wasn’t organic despite his representations.
So he grew stuff, bought off others to add to his, put it through his grain broker business, and the greedy shit clipped tickets all the way on this fraudulent scheme.l Bet they don’t have the guts to go through with it; the fairground hucksters who run things over in the good ole USA.
This sort of rip-off is what you get when you have an amoral and wilfully neglectful regulation scheme for quality in anything , which is what we have under the enforced neo-liberal free market scheme. Coupled with poor regulations and lax policing of them, is the belief in the ‘free fairy’ which is that in the free market things are so much better than if government is fully involved, and that you can trust business. People made gullible by anti-government propaganda.
Kia ora Te kaea tepuia marae is getting swomped with people in need of food and housing ka pai Dennis.
It must be hard living in Tamikimakau
That is a good deed Jacinda giving aid to Indonesia to help with there recovery from the tsunami .
That’s a good sign that our government is making the correct moves with spending on boxing day up more than 10% that shows me that some business leaders are putting a negative spin on Aotearoa economy
It’s cool Te tangata whenua are celebrating the spring equinox I was researching that yesterday.
I alcohol is a big for our younger maori tane they have to learn that drink driving is not cool.ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub One has to show respect for te awa and tangaroa and be careful it is to easy to drown .
Some people do dumb stuff blowing up a shop to get insurance in Britain.
That elephantseal in Whakatane is a awsome sight they are huge creatures and one has to be very carefull around them good to see the wild creatures around Aotearoa are doing ok but we must do more to protect them.
Its good to see the south island council looking after our guest freedoom campers with showers wifi and a loo dump.
Brixit has put a lot of unneeded presure on busness and people in Britain .
Thats sad that the Bushman center is closing.
That show how a big surge in elitricty can make a strange glow that was freaky.
Kate instant family is a cool movie its all about the family. I see Aquaman has broken movie release sales records in Aotearoa biggest sales Ka pai I seen Tofiga from Laughing Samoans interview Jason Momoa so funny .
Ka kite ano
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In short this morning in our political economy:The Nelson Hospital crisis revealed by 1News’Jessica Roden dominates the political agenda today. Yet again, population growth wasn’t planned for, or funded.Kāinga Ora is planning up to 900 house sales, including new ones, Jonathan Milne reports for Newsroom.One of New Zealand’s biggest ...
In short this morning in our political economy:The Nelson Hospital crisis revealed by 1News’Jessica Roden dominates the political agenda today. Yet again, population growth wasn’t planned for, or funded.Kāinga Ora is planning up to 900 house sales, including new ones, Jonathan Milne reports for Newsroom.One of New Zealand’s biggest ...
The war between Russia and Ukraine continues unabated. Neither side is in a position to achieve its stated objectives through military force. But now there is significant diplomatic activity as well. Ukraine has agreed to ...
One of the first aims of the United States’ new Department of Government Efficiency was shutting down USAID. By 6 February, the agency was functionally dissolved, its seal missing from its Washington headquarters. Amid the ...
If our strategic position was already challenging, it just got worse. Reliability of the US as an ally is in question, amid such actions by the Trump administration as calling for annexation of Canada, threating ...
Small businesses will be exempt from complying with some of the requirements of health and safety legislation under new reforms proposed by the Government. The living wage will be increased to $28.95 per hour from September, a $1.15 increase from the current $27.80. A poll has shown large opposition to ...
Summary A group of senior doctors in Nelson have spoken up, specifically stating that hospitals have never been as bad as in the last year.Patients are waiting up to 50 hours and 1 death is directly attributable to the situation: "I've never seen that number of patients waiting to be ...
Although semiconductor chips are ubiquitous nowadays, their production is concentrated in just a few countries, and this has left the US economy and military highly vulnerable at a time of rising geopolitical tensions. While the ...
Health and Safety changes driven by ACT party ideology, not evidence said NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi President Richard Wagstaff. Changes to health and safety legislation proposed by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden today comply with ACT party ideology, ignores the evidence, and will compound New ...
In short in our political economy this morning:Fletcher Building is closing its pre-fabricated house-building factory in Auckland due to a lack of demand, particularly from the Government.Health NZ is sending a crisis management team to Nelson Hospital after a 1News investigation exposed doctors’ fears that nearly 500 patients are overdue ...
Exactly 10 years ago, the then minister for defence, Kevin Andrews, released the First Principles Review: Creating One Defence (FPR). With increasing talk about the rising possibility of major power-conflict, calls for Defence funding to ...
In events eerily similar to what happened in the USA last week, Greater Auckland was recently accidentally added to a group chat between government ministers on the topic of transport.We have no idea how it happened, but luckily we managed to transcribe most of what transpired. We share it ...
Hi,When I look back at my history with Dylan Reeve, it’s pretty unusual. We first met in the pool at Kim Dotcom’s mansion, as helicopters buzzed overhead and secret service agents flung themselves off the side of his house, abseiling to the ground with guns drawn.Kim Dotcom was a German ...
Come around for teaDance me round and round the kitchenBy the light of my T.VOn the night of the electionAncient stars will fall into the seaAnd the ocean floor sings her sympathySongwriter: Bic Runga.The Prime Minister stared into the camera, hot and flustered despite the predawn chill. He looked sadly ...
Has Winston Peters got a ferries deal for you! (Buyer caution advised.) Unfortunately, the vision that Peters has been busily peddling for the past 24 hours – of several shipyards bidding down the price of us getting smaller, narrower, rail-enabled ferries – looks more like a science fiction fantasy. One ...
Completed reads for March: The Heart of the Antarctic [1907-1909], by Ernest Shackleton South [1914-1917], by Ernest Shackleton Aurora Australis (collection), edited by Ernest Shackleton The Book of Urizen (poem), by William Blake The Book of Ahania (poem), by William Blake The Book of Los (poem), by William Blake ...
First - A ReminderBenjamin Doyle Doesn’t Deserve ThisI’ve been following posts regarding Green MP Benjamin Doyle over the last few days, but didn’t want to amplify the abject nonsense.This morning, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister, answered the alt-right’s prayers - guaranteeing amplification of the topic, by going on ...
US President Donald Trump has shown a callous disregard for the checks and balances that have long protected American democracy. As the self-described ‘king’ makes a momentous power grab, much of the world watches anxiously, ...
They can be the very same words. And yet their meaning can vary very much.You can say I'll kill him about your colleague who accidentally deleted your presentation the day before a big meeting.You can say I'll kill him to — or, for that matter, about — Tony Soprano.They’re the ...
Back in 2020, the then-Labour government signed contracted for the construction and purchase of two new rail-enabled Cook Strait ferries, to be operational from 2026. But when National took power in 2023, they cancelled them in a desperate effort to make the books look good for a year. And now ...
The fragmentation of cyber regulation in the Indo-Pacific is not just inconvenient; it is a strategic vulnerability. In recent years, governments across the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, have moved to reform their regulatory frameworks for cyber ...
Welcome to the March 2025 Economic Bulletin. The feature article examines what public private partnerships (PPPs) are. PPPs have been a hot topic recently, with the coalition government signalling it wants to use them to deliver infrastructure. However, experience with PPPs, both here and overseas, indicates we should be wary. ...
Willis announces more plans of plans for supermarketsYesterday’s much touted supermarket competition announcement by Nicola Willis amounted to her telling us she was issuing a 6 week RFI1 that will solicit advice from supermarket players.In short, it was an announcement of a plan - but better than her Kiwirail Interislander ...
This was the post I was planning to write this morning to mark Orr’s final day. That said, if the underlying events – deliberate attempts to mislead Parliament – were Orr’s doing, the post is more about the apparent uselessness of Parliament (specifically the Finance and Expenditure Committee) in holding ...
Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC’s plan to build a plant in the United States looks like a move made at the behest of local officials to solidify US support for Taiwan. However, it may eventually lessen ...
This is a Guest Post by Transport Planner Bevan Woodward from the charitable trust Movement, which has lodged an application for a judicial review of the Governments Setting of Speed Limits Rule 2024 Auckland is at grave risk of having its safer speed limits on approx. 1,500 local streets ...
We're just talkin' 'bout the futureForget about the pastIt'll always be with usIt's never gonna die, never gonna dieSongwriters: Brian Johnson / Angus Young / Malcolm YoungMorena, all you lovely people, it’s good to be back, and I have news from the heartland. Now brace yourself for this: depending on ...
Today is the last day in office for the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr. Of course, he hasn’t been in the office since 5 March when, on the eve of his major international conference, his resignation was announced and he stormed off with no (effective) notice and no ...
Treasury and Cabinet have finally agreed to a Crown guarantee for a non-Government lending agency for Community Housing Providers (CHPs), which could unlock billions worth of loans and investments by pension funds and banks to build thousands of more affordable social homes. Photo: Lynn GrievesonMōrena. Long stories shortest:Chris Bishop ...
Australia has plenty of room to spend more on defence. History shows that 2.9 percent of GDP is no great burden in ordinary times, so pushing spending to 3.0 percent in dangerous times is very ...
In short this morning in our political economy:Winston Peters will announce later today whether two new ferries are rail ‘compatible’, requiring time-consuming container shuffling, or the more efficient and expensive rail ‘enabled,’ where wagons can roll straight on and off.Nicola Willisthreatened yesterday to break up the supermarket duopoly with ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 23, 2025 thru Sat, March 29, 2025. This week's roundup is again published by category and sorted by number of articles included in each. The formatting is a ...
For prospective writers out there, Inspired Quill, the publisher of my novel(s) is putting together a short story anthology (pieces up to 10,000 words). The open submission window is 29th March to 29th April. https://www.inspired-quill.com/anthology-submissions/ The theme?This anthology will bring together diverse voices exploring themes of hope, resistance, and human ...
Prime minister Kevin Rudd released the 2009 defence white paper in May of that year. It is today remembered mostly for what it said about the strategic implications of China’s rise; its plan to double ...
In short this morning in our political economy:Voters want the Government to retain the living wage for cleaners, a poll shows.The Government’s move to provide a Crown guarantee to banks and the private sector for social housing is described a watershed moment and welcomed by Community Housing Providers.Nicola Willis is ...
The recent attacks in the Congo by Rwandan backed militias has led to worldwide condemnation of the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame. Following up on the recent Fabian Zoom with Mikela Wrong and Maria Amoudian, Dr Rudaswinga will give a complete picture of Kagame’s regime and discuss the potential ...
New Zealand’s economic development has always been a partnership between the public and private sectors.Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) have become fashionable again, partly because of the government’s ambitions to accelerate infrastructural development. There is, of course, an ideological element too, while some of the opposition to them is also ideological.PPPs come in ...
How Australia funds development and defence was front of mind before Tuesday’s federal budget. US President Donald Trump’s demands for a dramatic lift in allied military spending and brutal cuts to US foreign assistance meant ...
Questions 1. Where and what is this protest?a. Hamilton, angry crowd yelling What kind of food do you call this Seymour?b.Dunedin, angry crowd yelling Still waiting, Simeon, still waitingc. Wellington, angry crowd yelling You’re trashing everything you idiotsd. Istanbul, angry crowd yelling Give us our democracy back, give it ...
Two blueprints that could redefine the Northern Territory’s economic future were launched last week. The first was a government-led economic strategy and the other an industry-driven economic roadmap. Both highlight that supporting the Northern Territory ...
Today, the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill has passed its third and final reading, but there is one more stage before it becomes law. The Governor-General must give their ‘Royal assent’ for any bill to become legally enforceable. This means that, even if a bill gets voted ...
Abortion care at Whakatāne Hospital has been quietly shelved, with patients told they will likely have to travel more than an hour to Tauranga to get the treatment they need. ...
Thousands of New Zealanders’ submissions are missing from the official parliamentary record because the National-dominated Justice Select Committee has rushed work on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...
Today’s announcement of 10 percent tariffs for New Zealand goods entering the United States is disappointing for exporters and consumers alike, with the long-lasting impact on prices and inflation still unknown. ...
The National Government’s choices have contributed to a slow-down in the building sector, as thousands of people have lost their jobs in construction. ...
Willie Apiata’s decision to hand over his Victoria Cross to the Minister for Veterans is a powerful and selfless act, made on behalf of all those who have served our country. ...
The Privileges Committee has denied fundamental rights to Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Rawiri Waititi and Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, breaching their own standing orders, breaching principles of natural justice, and highlighting systemic prejudice and discrimination within our parliamentary processes. The three MPs were summoned to the privileges committee following their performance of a haka ...
April 1 used to be a day when workers could count on a pay rise with stronger support for those doing it tough, but that’s not the case under this Government. ...
Winston Peters is shopping for smaller ferries after Nicola Willis torpedoed the original deal, which would have delivered new rail enabled ferries next year. ...
The Government should work with other countries to press the Myanmar military regime to stop its bombing campaign especially while the country recovers from the devastating earthquake. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to scrap proposed changes to Early Childhood Care, after attending a petition calling for the Government to ‘Put tamariki at the heart of decisions about ECE’. ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill today that will remove the power of MPs conscience votes and ensure mandatory national referendums are held before any conscience issues are passed into law. “We are giving democracy and power back to the people”, says New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters. ...
Welcome to members of the diplomatic corp, fellow members of parliament, the fourth estate, foreign affairs experts, trade tragics, ladies and gentlemen. ...
In recent weeks, disturbing instances of state-sanctioned violence against Māori have shed light on the systemic racism permeating our institutions. An 11-year-old autistic Māori child was forcibly medicated at the Henry Bennett Centre, a 15-year-old had his jaw broken by police in Napier, kaumātua Dean Wickliffe went on a hunger ...
Confidence in the job market has continued to drop to its lowest level in five years as more New Zealanders feel uncertain about finding work, keeping their jobs, and getting decent pay, according to the latest Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index. ...
The Greens are calling on the Government to follow through on their vague promises of environmental protection in their Resource Management Act (RMA) reform. ...
“Make New Zealand First Again” Ladies and gentlemen, First of all, thank you for being here today. We know your lives are busy and you are working harder and longer than you ever have, and there are many calls on your time, so thank you for the chance to speak ...
Hundreds more Palestinians have died in recent days as Israel’s assault on Gaza continues and humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, is blocked. ...
National is looking to cut hundreds of jobs at New Zealand’s Defence Force, while at the same time it talks up plans to increase focus and spending in Defence. ...
It’s been revealed that the Government is secretly trying to bring back a ‘one-size fits all’ standardised test – a decision that has shocked school principals. ...
The Green Party is calling for the compassionate release of Dean Wickliffe, a 77-year-old kaumātua on hunger strike at the Spring Hill Corrections Facility, after visiting him at the prison. ...
The Green Party is calling on Government MPs to support Chlöe Swarbrick’s Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence and illegal actions in Palestine, following another day of appalling violence against civilians in Gaza. ...
The Green Party stands in support of volunteer firefighters petitioning the Government to step up and change legislation to provide volunteers the same ACC coverage and benefits as their paid counterparts. ...
At 2.30am local time, Israel launched a treacherous attack on Gaza killing more than 300 defenceless civilians while they slept. Many of them were children. This followed a more than 2 week-long blockade by Israel on the entry of all goods and aid into Gaza. Israel deliberately targeted densely populated ...
Living Strong, Aging Well There is much discussion around the health of our older New Zealanders and how we can age well. In reality, the delivery of health services accounts for only a relatively small percentage of health outcomes as we age. Significantly, dry warm housing, nutrition, exercise, social connection, ...
Shane Jones’ display on Q&A showed how out of touch he and this Government are with our communities and how in sync they are with companies with little concern for people and planet. ...
The Government’s new planning legislation to replace the Resource Management Act will make it easier to get things done while protecting the environment, say Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop and Under-Secretary Simon Court. “The RMA is broken and everyone knows it. It makes it too hard to build ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay has today launched a public consultation on New Zealand and India’s negotiations of a formal comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. “Negotiations are getting underway, and the Public’s views will better inform us in the early parts of this important negotiation,” Mr McClay says. We are ...
More than 900 thousand superannuitants and almost five thousand veterans are among the New Zealanders set to receive a significant financial boost from next week, an uplift Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says will help support them through cost-of-living challenges. “I am pleased to confirm that from 1 ...
Progressing a holistic strategy to unlock the potential of New Zealand’s geothermal resources, possibly in applications beyond energy generation, is at the centre of discussions with mana whenua at a hui in Rotorua today, Resources and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is in the early stages ...
New annual data has exposed the staggering cost of delays previously hidden in the building consent system, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I directed Building Consent Authorities to begin providing quarterly data last year to improve transparency, following repeated complaints from tradespeople waiting far longer than the statutory ...
Increases in water charges for Auckland consumers this year will be halved under the Watercare Charter which has now been passed into law, Local Government Minister Simon Watts and Auckland Minister Simeon Brown say. The charter is part of the financial arrangement for Watercare developed last year by Auckland Council ...
There is wide public support for the Government’s work to strengthen New Zealand’s biosecurity protections, says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard. “The Ministry for Primary Industries recently completed public consultation on proposed amendments to the Biosecurity Act and the submissions show that people understand the importance of having a strong biosecurity ...
A new independent review function will enable individuals and organisations to seek an expert independent review of specified civil aviation regulatory decisions made by, or on behalf of, the Director of Civil Aviation, Acting Transport Minister James Meager has announced today. “Today we are making it easier and more affordable ...
The Government will invest in an enhanced overnight urgent care service for the Napier community as part of our focus on ensuring access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown has today confirmed. “I am delighted that a solution has been found to ensure Napier residents will continue to ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey attended a sod turning today to officially mark the start of construction on a new mental health facility at Hillmorton Campus. “This represents a significant step in modernising mental health services in Canterbury,” Mr Brown says. “Improving health infrastructure is ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has welcomed confirmation the economy has turned the corner. Stats NZ reported today that gross domestic product grew 0.7 per cent in the three months to December following falls in the June and September quarters. “We know many families and businesses are still suffering the after-effects ...
The sealing of a 12-kilometre stretch of State Highway 43 (SH43) through the Tangarakau Gorge – one of the last remaining sections of unsealed state highway in the country – has been completed this week as part of a wider programme of work aimed at improving the safety and resilience ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters says relations between New Zealand and the United States are on a strong footing, as he concludes a week-long visit to New York and Washington DC today. “We came to the United States to ask the new Administration what it wants from ...
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has welcomed changes to international anti-money laundering standards which closely align with the Government’s reforms. “The Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) last month adopted revised standards for tackling money laundering and the financing of terrorism to allow for simplified regulatory measures for businesses, organisations and sectors ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour says he welcomes Medsafe’s decision to approve an electronic controlled drug register for use in New Zealand pharmacies, allowing pharmacies to replace their physical paper-based register. “The register, developed by Kiwi brand Toniq Limited, is the first of its kind to be approved in New ...
The Coalition Government’s drive for regional economic growth through the $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund is on track with more than $550 million in funding so far committed to key infrastructure projects, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. “To date, the Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) has received more than 250 ...
[Comments following the bilateral meeting with United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio; United States State Department, Washington D.C.] * We’re very pleased with our meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this afternoon. * We came here to listen to the new Administration and to be clear about what ...
The intersection of State Highway 2 (SH2) and Wainui Road in the Eastern Bay of Plenty will be made safer and more efficient for vehicles and freight with the construction of a new and long-awaited roundabout, says Transport Minister Chris Bishop. “The current intersection of SH2 and Wainui Road is ...
The Ocean Race will return to the City of Sails in 2027 following the Government’s decision to invest up to $4 million from the Major Events Fund into the international event, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown says. “New Zealand is a proud sailing nation, and Auckland is well-known internationally as the ...
Improving access to mental health and addiction support took a significant step forward today with Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announcing that the University of Canterbury have been the first to be selected to develop the Government’s new associate psychologist training programme. “I am thrilled that the University of Canterbury ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened the new East Building expansion at Manukau Health Park. “This is a significant milestone and the first stage of the Grow Manukau programme, which will double the footprint of the Manukau Health Park to around 30,000m2 once complete,” Mr Brown says. “Home ...
The Government will boost anti-crime measures across central Auckland with $1.3 million of funding as a result of the Proceeds of Crime Fund, Auckland Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee say. “In recent years there has been increased antisocial and criminal behaviour in our CBD. The Government ...
The Government is moving to strengthen rules for feeding food waste to pigs to protect New Zealand from exotic animal diseases like foot and mouth disease (FMD), says Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard. ‘Feeding untreated meat waste, often known as "swill", to pigs could introduce serious animal diseases like FMD and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held productive talks in New Delhi today. Fresh off announcing that New Zealand and India would commence negotiations towards a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, the two Prime Ministers released a joint statement detailing plans for further cooperation between the two countries across ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the forestry sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
Agriculture and Trade Minister Todd McClay signed a new Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) today during the Prime Minister’s Indian Trade Mission, reinforcing New Zealand’s commitment to enhancing collaboration with India in the horticulture sector. “Our relationship with India is a key priority for New Zealand, and this agreement reflects our ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of two new Family Court Judges. The new Judges will take up their roles in April and May and fill Family Court vacancies at the Auckland and Manukau courts. Annette Gray Ms Gray completed her law degree at Victoria University before joining Phillips ...
Health Minister Simeon Brown has today officially opened Wellington Regional Hospital’s first High Dependency Unit (HDU). “This unit will boost critical care services in the lower North Island, providing extra capacity and relieving pressure on the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and emergency department. “Wellington Regional Hospital has previously relied ...
Namaskar, Sat Sri Akal, kia ora and good afternoon everyone. What an honour it is to stand on this stage - to inaugurate this august Dialogue - with none other than the Honourable Narendra Modi. My good friend, thank you for so generously welcoming me to India and for our ...
By Harlyne Joku and BenarNews staff Residents of an informal Port Moresby settlement that was razed following the gang rape and murder of a woman by 20 men say they are being unfairly punished by Papua New Guinea authorities over alleged links to the crime. Human rights advocates and the ...
Nearly 25 years after the "corngate" saga, the debate on genetic modification is back thanks to the Gene Technology Bill currently in select committee. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Brodie, Research Scientist in Marine Ecology, CSIRO jittawit21, Shutterstock Picture this: you’re lounging on a beautiful beach, soaking up the sun and listening to the soothing sound of the waves. You run your hands through the warm sand, only to ...
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Although New Zealand and Australia seem to have escaped the worst of Donald Trump’s latest tariffs, some Pacific Islands stand to be hit hard — including a few that aren’t even “countries”. The US will impose a base tariff of 10 percent on all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton both agree Australia should react to US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff regime by continuing to seek a special deal. They just disagree about which of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher, Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney University UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer met with Adolescence writer Jack Thorne to discuss adolescent safety at Downing Street on Monday. Jack Taylor/ GettyImages Netflix’s Adolescence has ignited global debate. ...
By Anneke Smith,RNZ News political reporter A stoush between the Chief Human Rights Commissioner and a Jewish community leader has flared up following a showdown at Parliament. Appearing before a parliamentary select committee today, Dr Stephen Rainbow was asked about his recent apology for incorrect comments he made about ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rakesh Gupta, Associate Professor of Accounting & Finance, Charles Darwin University US President Donald Trump’s new trade war will not only send shockwaves through the global economy – it also upsets efforts to tackle the urgent issue of climate change. Trump has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa Toohey, Professor of Law, UNSW Sydney It had the hallmarks of a reality TV cliffhanger. Until recently, many people had never even heard of tariffs. Now, there’s been rolling live international coverage of so-called “Liberation Day”, as US President Donald Trump ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Clinical Trials Director, Department of Endocrinology, RPA Hospital, University of Sydney mavo/Shutterstock In the ever-changing wellness industry, one diet obsession has captured and held TikTok’s attention: protein. Whether it’s sharing snaps of protein-packed meals or giving tutorials to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sebastian Maslow, Associate Professor, International Relations, University of Tokyo Two months into US President Donald Trump’s second term, the liberal international order is on life support. Alliances and multilateral institutions are now seen by the United States as burdens. Europe and ...
Starving public services of resources, gutting the workforce and then proposing private market solutions has been a key strategy of this government, says Vanessa Cole, spokesperson for Public Housing Futures. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hayley Geyle, Ecologist, Charles Darwin University Sarah Maclagan/Author provided The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is one of Australia’s most iconic yet at-risk animals — and the last surviving bilby species. Once found across 70% of Australia, its range has contracted by ...
The government’s own Regulatory Impact Statement acknowledges that organic producers will bear the financial burden of adapting to the risks posed by GMO expansion. ...
The committee has "rammed it through with outrageous haste", with a report now expected tomorrow, but excluding thousands of submissions, Duncan Webb says. ...
The US president’s sweeping programme of global tariffs will hit every country abroad, including New Zealand, and dramatically raise prices at home. This is an excerpt from The World Bulletin, our weekly global current affairs newsletter exclusively for Spinoff Members. Sign up here.In a dramatic, flag-draped address from the White ...
Alex Casey talks to Bariz Shah and Saba Afrasyabi, the couple who launched a project to change 51 lives in honour of those lost in the Christchurch mosque attacks. When Bariz Shah and Saba Afrasyabi walked into Naeem’s house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, they knew immediately that he needed their help. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Deane, Professor of Trade Law, Taxation and Climate Change, Queensland University of Technology US President Donald Trump has imposed a range of tariffs on all products entering the US market, with Australian exports set to face a 10% tariff, effective April ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hayley Geyle, Ecologist, Charles Darwin University Sarah Maclagan/Author provided The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is one of Australia’s most iconic yet at-risk animals — and the last surviving bilby species. Once found across 70% of Australia, its range has contracted by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Shutterstock Recent media coverage in the Nine newspapers highlights a surge in non-medical ultrasound providers offering “reassurance ultrasounds” to expectant parents. The service has resulted in serious harms, such as misdiagnosed ectopic pregnancies and ...
The three MPs whose rule-breaking haka caught the world’s attention didn’t attend their scheduled hearing yesterday. Constitutional law expert Andrew Geddis has the rundown of what happened, why, and what’s likely to come next. I see Te Pāti Māori and the privileges committee are in some sort of stand-off – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Turner, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates in Thingvellir National Park, Iceland.Nido Huebl/Shutterstock Earth is the only known planet which has plate tectonics today. The constant movement of these giant slabs of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra US President Donald Trump singled out Australia’s beef trade for special mention in his announcement that the United States would impose a 10% global tariff as well as “reciprocal tariffs” on many countries. In ...
Meta has stolen millions of books to train its AI, including books by kaituhi Māori. What does that mean for mātauranga and its status as taonga? New Zealand authors are among the millions whose books have been pirated and scraped by Meta to train its AI. The New Zealand Society of ...
Some hoped the open of the New Zealand markets would open with a bounce as certain tariffs fell short of the worst-case scenario, but investors were met with a deflated thud.The New Zealand market fell immediately as stock market darling Fisher & Paykel Healthcare’s shares were punished, with no update ...
Healthcare dominated the debate in an unusually sober and serious question time. “Hey David!” a group of high school students in the public gallery called out as Act leader David Seymour entered the debating chamber. Standing in the middle of the floor, before any other MPs had arrived, he happily ...
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Canada’s climate policy rotting corpse puts on a clean shirt and a nice tie to attend COP 24
The Canadian government has just announced a new handout of $1.6 billion to the Alberta oilsands despite already purchasing the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion earlier in 2018.
In November, Canada posted the G20’s highest per capita GHG emissions
In Ottawa the Doug Ford government dismantled the province’s successful carbon cap-and-trade program, cancelled 758 renewable energy contracts, and stopped construction of the White Pines wind farm as it neared completion.
But the harshest attacks were reserved for campaigners on the front lines of the Trans Mountain fight.
Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge casually and chillingly suggested that “people will die” on the protest lines at Burnaby Mountain, asserting that killing off a few “extremists” might be the price Canada would have to pay to get the Trans Mountain expansion built.
*sigh* turned on the radio and remembered that RNZ like to use January to save money by pretending that nothing is happening and we all love hearing their back catalogue of shit music from anodyne presenters.
Ouch. The RNZ director of music is a personal friend. Is there something in particular you’d like me to pass on? What in particular do you feel is “shit” about the music presented?
Print more t shirts you idiots
‘Scuse me for butting in here riffer.
I am a big fan of music 101.
Although I realise it is a team that puts the show together, Alex Behan was an ideal presenter for the format. Inclusive, humble, amiable.
I will miss his vibe.
As for matinee idol, as others have said more eloquently down thread, great for a while, but can become too much of a good thing.
The one thing wrong about Matinee Idle is Simon Morris. Not only is everything that comes out of his mouth complete and utter drivel, his voice is one that should never be allowed on radio. The show was great when it began a number of years ago because Phil O’Brien did it on his own.
I find it a relief, the presenters quirky, and the music both avoids pop hits and is stupid enough to laugh at.
We don’t need no education.
Agreed Ad, Matinee Idle is great fun and how radio should be used. Endless carping on about how unfair life is to some and regurgitated non-news may maintain the dreary angst of the Woe Is Us Tragics but January is time for some fun.
There are eleven other months for the The World Is Fucked depressives to get their fix.
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+1
It’s only occasionally. There is no intention of having it each week. A very well done thing – even the drivel is okay.
agree +1000 Sanctuary…..why oh why should RNZ foist this rubbish on us…the BBC keeps broadcasting as usual and the news never stops..tsunamis….stock market plunges….Trump…always Trump
RNZ basically only operate for 47 weeks of the year.
Taking Xmas week plus a month off might be great for saving a few pingers and and as well I guess it suits the disconnected life style of the Wellington political/media elites. They live in a world where all the pollies and the journos bugger off to a flash bach for a month. Meanwhile, truck drivers, hair dressers, shop owners, retail workers and all the rest get the stats and the bit in between if they are lucky.
Public radio not serving the public for 5 weeks every year while the skeleton staff left to keep the place running indulge in the pernicious fantasy that Kiwis all live in an upper-middle class white collar utopia of a month of beach life at the bach simply makes me think they are disconnected from reality.
Sure, shut down for two weeks. But five? That’s taking the piss. By the time Morning Report starts up again 90% of the population has been back at work for at least two weeks.
100% sancuary.
I agree that RNZ was highjacked by the larte set for their interest not our and has become now a meaning less copy of BBC broadcasting.
We in Gisborne.HB have no real interested RNZ reporter anywhere here now to meet the public on climate change transport or environmental issues,
So RNZ needs to be scrapped; – and Government needs to produce a fresh “voice of the people” TV channel, as ‘channel 7’ was before ‘Johnny key’ closed it down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVNZ
“In 2008 the Government announced that the broadcaster was to become “more public-service” like. TVNZ responded by launching two commercial free channels; TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7. By 2011 Prime Minister John Key announced the closure of these channels.”
Perhaps you’re not worth the bother.
/
Anusha Bradley
Senior journalist Hawke’s Bay / Gisborne Reporter – anusha.bradley@radionz.co.nz
Napier City, New Zealand
radionz.co.nz
Well let’s hope (as I mentioned the other day on another thread that @VV thought was brutal), the board and CEO of RNZ’s new charge to be relevant and become good media citizen’s in the digital age, DON’T preoccupy themselves with demographics and The Market The Market share.
If they are to remain, or at least pretend interest as a Public Service broadcaster, it’ll be less about demographics and The Market The Market as it’s drivers, and more about Genre and Diversity.
Concentration on Demographics – especially when focused on age, assumes the yoof of today has no interest in classical music or jazz, and the geriatric has no interest in rap or whatever passes as rythm and blues these days.
They shouldn’t even be trying to compete with the commercial alternatives – they’re perfectly capable of self flagellation beating each other to death all on their own.
OwT
It seems to me that radionz are trying to compete with commercial radio’s listings, wanting to be in the top. That is not why we have public broadcasting. While it is important to stay in the public eye, PB doesn’t need to crawl to every new whim but just stay current, being aware of what interests people, and what is coming forward in the arts and literature and critique etc. And be thinking and choosing presentation of what a well and widely informed person would want, or need, to know and understand the wider issues.
Now we have video killing the radio star; pictures that don’t tell 1,000 words because the images are so easy to slant. I refer ito it still as Radionz because that honestly states its purpose and importance. Television, videos etc are adjuncts. Reading the article is the base from which viewing the images reinforces and illustrates the subject, points, line on which the news is written; it backgrounds and shows faces, detail.
Encouraging people listening to radio, to communicate and present a range of views and anecdotes relating to the item is good. Not good is to then choose some dinosaur example of negative or fairy godmotherish or religious fundamentalist comment to read out; which happens too often. This being aired on the wider broadcasting medium just reinforces those who are uninformed and living in their own bubble of certainties and limited learning.
The Standard is good because people can be informed of links giving a wider comparative news outlets. Regular commenters may be reliable for one particular view and be trusted to give reasoned comment from that bent and be interested in justifying it when questioned. I often put up Radionz links to matters that raise new points or examples and that could pass by unnoticed that day. Radionzthey are pretty good but have to watched for a tendency to gloss over the pressing problems to concentrate on the views and wants of the chattering classes.
Indeed @ grey….. there’s nothing in that comment I disagree with.
Don’t really have time to reply properly now, but I’m both worried and hopeful about the future of PSB in this country.
There are things RNZ management are doing that lead me to believe they’re a little too concerned with “the Market The Market’ and demographics on the one hand, while on the other Chris F-F-F-Faa-F-F-FFoi is genuinely considering various options (but bearing in mind he’s only ever experienced a life, and broadcasting experience in a neo-liberal environment). Plus of course he’s got all that fiscal responsibility shit going on around him.
And somewhere back in the never-never I made another comment on PSB – several actually. One on the fact that the Coalaition for Better Broadcasting, (or whatever they call themsleves these days) isn’t actually being ambitious enough (perhaps because the shit about we’re a nation of only 4.5 mill and can’t afford stuff, and more).
Another, on the fact that we effectively have a model that isn’t too unlike all that funder-provider shit that went with health care provision in the Ruthenasia era.
Another that we have a rather huge bureaucracy with some rather large salaries that sap a lot of that money the 4.5 million supposedly can’t afford, and its all glued together -primarily due to self interest and preservation
We have:
RNZ ………. CEO and Board
TVNZ ditto
NZoA dittto
Kordia ditto
TMP ditto
MTS ditto
…….oh, and then there’s that Freeview thing
Shit……….sorry, beginning to rave, but hopefully you might be getting to understand where I’m coming from – but basically
we CAN afford 2, and probably 3 radio networks, and at least 2 TV networks that include children (Oh!!! won’t you PLEASE PLEASE think of the children)
AND we have a shitload of sources where content can come.
Anyway……duties call
OwT
I love your brimming-over interest in our PBS.
Keep at it won’t you.
And PLEASE think of the childrens’ tv. It’s awful watching the c r a p with coloured morals (the colours referring to purple and hot pink rather than various shades of gold or dark skin as opposed to deadfish white or spotty pink).
I think of children’s TV quite often. I think of its potential for education as well as its entertainment value.
I also think of things like public service broadcasting’s responsibilities towards the arts and sport, and the amount of corporate welfare that goes into propping up commercial operators that have competed themselves almost to death, and now expect (as of some sort of right) to more handouts.
I think of the way public assets have been used to give commercial interests preferential treatment over time (such as transmission facilities that were once an inherent part in providing all that Reithian educate, inform and entertain stuff).
I think of the supposed efficiencies promised by all the tinkering and interference that’s gone on over decades.
There’s a lot to it all, but what worries me most is that if we ever do get to a PSB Nirvana, it will need to be protected from further political interference and viewed in the same way we see the independence of the Judiciary as being important ( if we’re ever going to be a fully functioning democracy).
But right now, (to use the neo-lib’s own language), we have a pretty inefficient system of delivering PSB and it’s overburdened with quite a few ticket clippers
….a nation of 5 million now
actually
“… I mentioned the other day on another thread that @VV thought was brutal…”
I have my worried face on now, OWT, as I am having a ‘senior moment’ as I cannot recall this exchange. Grateful for some clues as to when (approx) this was, and any other (gentle) clues to help my memory. LOL
mmmm – maybe it was the greywarshark I had a response from.
But…..stuff is underway at RNZ (as you’ll no doubt be aware of) – and its not necessarily for the better, but more about shuffling a few chairs about.
From Guyon to Mora/Chapman to an Alex Behan being dumped.
Yep I was thinking of this and confused you with @ Greywarshark;
https://thestandard.org.nz/random-2019-predictions/#comment-1564666
Back l8r
Knew a person who worked at Chapman Tripp and was expected to work excessive hours well over the 40 hours a week of salary that they were paid for. The labour inspectorate should be investigating a lot more of this practise as this person actually worked over 100 hours in one week at one point and everyone was telling them, leave the firm!! They also got paid a salary lower than the person was worth, even without considering the extra hours! So no surprises that a firm like that with their own staff is keen to ‘help’ migrant labour.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379077/christmas-joy-for-woman-previously-denied-visa-to-stay-in-nz
Would be interesting to find out with the amount of qualifications the women had, what the salary was, $100k, $80k, surely not lower than that with masters in International Studies from IPU in Palmerston North?? and supermarket experience to boot!!! Lucky then, that Burger King can qualify and so can every other food business as importing in food is now being touted as international trade by lawyers!!!
Don’t forget many of these law firms are also sexually harassing their staff…
One in five NZ lawyers sexually harassed, Law Society survey finds
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12061142
About IPU
http://www.ipu.ac.nz
Bear in mind international fees are $19,000 per year, and around $15,000 per year for accomodation plus other fees so you are up for $35k+per year, not sure what their ‘international’ ranking is for a masters, but I’m not sure they are in the top 100 universities even Auckland university these days is struggling to stay on international rankings lists for education…. but here in NZ we just don’t worry about quality, as long as the fees are paid!
http://www.ipu.ac.nz/tuition-accommodation-fees.html
IPU doesn’t exactly have an international reputation like Harvard, but I guess you can then get a job in a food import business and residency on the basis of it so money well spent especially when NZ law firms are so supportive of the process!
Cheap for an entire family to get residency, super and healthcare, for the rest of their lives.
Which is why our education scam, works so well.
It is certainly not for the quality of education. Which has been dumbed down, so foreign students always pass.
Many of these courses are, frankly, crap. Relying in the carrot of residence to gain students.
/agreed
Need a serious review into this and to put a stop to an obviously corrupt practice.
I passed university history attending one lecture and then reading a book. Not proud but it was that easy. The science subjects required hard work.
This is why we had penal rates and need to bring them back. If there’s enough work for two people then two people need to be employed. And 100 hour weeks is enough for three people to be employed.
I’m seeing a restaurant and bakery that serves NZ. Probably doesn’t need the degree at all.
So, the degree would be just another back door for immigrant labour. For her and her husband.
A job where you end up working more hours than you are paid for?
Shocking stuff…..Quick some one call the human rights commission!
I think a royal commission of enquirey is required here HRC just won’t cut it
That’s called slavery Chris.
Glad to see you announce that you’re clearly in favour of it.
“There was no collusion…
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DatXfA3UMAAuYK2.jpg
A mobile phone traced to President Donald Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html
https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/watch/re-examining-the-dossier-after-a-year-of-indictments-guilty-pleas-1407774787776
Reading between the lines, I doubt the world is ready for these particular selfies.
Coming soon for the space tragics, New Horizons’Ultima Thule flyby at sparrow fart, January 2nd NZDT.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/
https://twitter.com/hashtag/UltimaThule
https://twitter.com/NewHorizons2015
Oh my, the poor Dems.
Caught red handed in scamming the American people.
LinkedIn founder admits to funding a Democrat Cyber Security entity to the tune of $100,000. It created Russian Bots. IE it created fake Russian internet entities supporting Republican candidates with comments to make those Republican candidates look bad.
Trump did it. LOL.
Meanwhile the MSNBC ran of story of boarder guards destroying water stashes left by illegal immigration cartels, or good Samaritans? Then did there Hate Trump opinion panel fake news rubbish. The video is from 2011, slightly Obama era.
Fake News, more soon.
You really are a walking example of Dunning-Krueger.
I looked up this Dunning-Kruger effect – it applies a lot on the blog. A certain number of people think ‘I can Write my Ideas, and being mine, I Consider Them Awfully Good’. (And that will always be true, as ‘awfully’ has a number of meanings, some of them contradictory!)
catalogofbias.org
In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is.
Dunning–Kruger effect – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect
I made a mistake. Was meant to be No 6. Was expecting a similar response.
I think everybody suffers from that disorder, Dunning-Krueger occasionally.
Thanks Joe90. I didn’t know about this flyby.
Great bonus for the mission.
Awesome
“The flyby technically began on Christmas. Unlike Pluto, whose orbit has been precisely charted for a long time, MU69 was only discovered 4 years ago and its trajectory is not perfectly known. Because of this, the team has to rely on direct observation of the body, which for now still appears as little more than a pixel in its telescope, to understand its location relative to New Horizons.
Until this weekend, the team is using the probe’s telescope to get a handle on the uncertainty of MU69’s location. Although it will be too late to tweak the spacecraft’s trajectory, the team will be able to rework the script of its high-resolution camera so that it can be certain of imaging MU69. This final update will then be relayed to New Horizons on 30 December.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/12/nasa-spacecraft-readies-new-years-rendezvous-primordial-object-far-beyond-pluto
I particularly like that we didn’t know it was there when the probe was launched.
Can’t help but think there’s a metaphor in there, somewhere.
Thanks to you – and marty mars – for the links. Really excited about this !!!!!
I love it for what it is. Imo purity. A purity of vision and skill.
Also if we can do this we CAN make the changes as a species that we need to do
Funnily enough Imo space and everything external to earth actually helps us connect to earth, to nature. This is why we have fucked up imo – we have tried to forget that we are nature and nature is us as it is for all life – animate and inanimate.
Blessings of the festive season to you and your loved ones.
We can but there’s our ‘leaders’ preventing us.
IMO, we’ve spent so much of our time fighting nature just to live that we’ve forgotten that we’re part of it. It’s in living memory that one in four children were dying before they were five.
We’re well beyond those times now but now we need to journey back to living with nature rather than fighting her.
yes all true this is.
Labour is sickeningly astonishingly very slow at giving us the “long promised “non commercial channel with more investigative journalism context” as ‘TVNZ 7 was when they began that one in 2008 and Johnny Key closed it down in 2011?
Quote from Wikipedia;
“In 2008 the Government announced that the broadcaster was to become “more public-service” like. TVNZ responded by launching two commercial free channels; TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7. By 2011 Prime Minister John Key announced the closure of these channels.”
Time to act Jacinda. “Lets do this” !!!!!
Broadcast TV is dead.
But streaming TV isn’t.
Yes I also have have these concerns.
https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/top-five-concerns-among-maori-2018
Jamie incest Whyte doesn’t do honesty.
https://twitter.com/_JamieWhyte/status/1078332999375163393
Just another empty vassal.
We know exactly the type of people who fund such ‘think’ tanks – people who desire power and control over others.
OMG the cricket.
Best we’ve been in decades.
The Hadlee-Crowe era wasn’t as good as this.
This is a very fine NZ cricket team. The Sri Lankan team by contrast is one of their weaker line ups – not surprising when they’ve lost so many fine players over the last few years.
I tau toko/ support these people words the fossil fuel industry pushed plastic and are still pushing it on us why did we switch from glass milk bottles to plastic because of money being used to influnce our reality making us believe that plastic was better than glass laws need to be passed to make manufactures make enviromently safe packging
Stemming plastic production should be focus, says researcher
Recycling will not be enough to dig the world out of the dangerous mountain of plastic it is drowning in, a leading plastic pollution researcher says.
Massey University’s Dr Trisia Farrelly is part of an expert group advising the United Nations.
Globally as little as 5 percent of plastic was ever recycled, meaning recycling would never address the problem, she said.
Instead an effort must be made to turn off the tap on the amount of plastic being produced.
“The plastics industry is driven by the fossil fuel industry and if they have their way, these figures are going to grow exponentially. In fact there is predicted to be a 33 percent increase in fossil fuel based plastic production in the next five years. So it’s not slowing down, it’s increasing.”
Dr Farrelly said a legally binding global treaty was needed to force producers to stop the supply of plastic. Ka kite ano links below.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/379167/stemming-plastic-production-should-be-focus-says-researcher
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
I can not even leave my house for 5 minutes with out the sandflys breaking into my house to try and intimadate Eco Maori. The big picture is that the policeforce of all the countrys of Papatuanuku are corrupt if these muppets had anything except lies well they would have locked me up but know they have nothing .Some one makes a excuse that they cannot interfare when they know the state is breaking my human rights right under there noses
New GCSB bill allows spying on Kiwis
A new bill which gives New Zealand’s security and intelligence agencies more power to spy on Kiwis is likely to be introduced this week.
Prime Minister John Key said the expansion of powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) was for good reason.
“If you wanted to allow GCSB to spy against a New Zealander, at the moment they can’t do that,” Key said on Breakfast link below ka kite ano . P.S thanks for the mana sandflys
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/83160725/new-gcsb-bill-allows-spying-on-kiwis
Hope you had a good Christmas eco Maori. We can only guess why the ‘sandflys’ are stressing you out. Thanks for the links.
We are the Guardian of all the creatures on Papatuanuku we need to use all the tools we have to protect the precious wildlife from extinction. This story about the northern white rhino is sad and a catastrophe on a world scale all the creatures going extint in 2018
‘We held a memorial service’: the keeper of the last male northern white rhino
The head keeper at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya remembers Sudan We really cried, all the keepers. We held a memorial service for him, which helped. He was a great ambassador for all rhinos, not just his own kind.
I’m still working hard to ensure the two remaining northern white rhinos are content and in good condition for the rest of their lives. They continue to help raise awareness of rhino conservation. If there was no poaching, there would still be good wild populations of northern white rhinos. We are trying to tell everyone that rhino horn does not possess any medicinal value.
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This may not be the end of Sudan’s story. Semen was collected from him, and from other captive males, before they died. Scientists now plan to harvest eggs from our two remaining females, create more than one embryo and implant them in surrogate female southern white rhinos. In Berlin, scientists have managed to create an embryo using northern white rhino semen and southern white rhino eggs. Using IVF to try to save rhinos has never been done before. I keep my fingers crossed. I still hope we can save these magnificent creatures. links below ka kite ano P.S I smell some thing its a puppet.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/24/people-of-2018-head-keeper-last-male-northern-white-rhino-dies
This is like a story from a film. A businessman masquerading as a farmer, called Randy Constant! has been selling ordinary grains as organic for a nice mark-up for all concerned. Anyone who bought from him didn’t have the necessary wry sense of humour one needs to survive along with a smart brain these days.l
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2018/12/26/organic-grain-fraud-scheme-u-s-says-thousands-were-victims/2418272002/
Constant, of Chillicothe, Missouri, and three others have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Constant, who owned an Iowa grain brokerage, acknowledged that he sold $142 million worth of corn, soybeans and wheat over a 7½-year period that wasn’t organic despite his representations.
So he grew stuff, bought off others to add to his, put it through his grain broker business, and the greedy shit clipped tickets all the way on this fraudulent scheme.l Bet they don’t have the guts to go through with it; the fairground hucksters who run things over in the good ole USA.
This sort of rip-off is what you get when you have an amoral and wilfully neglectful regulation scheme for quality in anything , which is what we have under the enforced neo-liberal free market scheme. Coupled with poor regulations and lax policing of them, is the belief in the ‘free fairy’ which is that in the free market things are so much better than if government is fully involved, and that you can trust business. People made gullible by anti-government propaganda.
Kia ora Te kaea tepuia marae is getting swomped with people in need of food and housing ka pai Dennis.
It must be hard living in Tamikimakau
That is a good deed Jacinda giving aid to Indonesia to help with there recovery from the tsunami .
That’s a good sign that our government is making the correct moves with spending on boxing day up more than 10% that shows me that some business leaders are putting a negative spin on Aotearoa economy
It’s cool Te tangata whenua are celebrating the spring equinox I was researching that yesterday.
I alcohol is a big for our younger maori tane they have to learn that drink driving is not cool.ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub One has to show respect for te awa and tangaroa and be careful it is to easy to drown .
Some people do dumb stuff blowing up a shop to get insurance in Britain.
That elephantseal in Whakatane is a awsome sight they are huge creatures and one has to be very carefull around them good to see the wild creatures around Aotearoa are doing ok but we must do more to protect them.
Its good to see the south island council looking after our guest freedoom campers with showers wifi and a loo dump.
Brixit has put a lot of unneeded presure on busness and people in Britain .
Thats sad that the Bushman center is closing.
That show how a big surge in elitricty can make a strange glow that was freaky.
Kate instant family is a cool movie its all about the family. I see Aquaman has broken movie release sales records in Aotearoa biggest sales Ka pai I seen Tofiga from Laughing Samoans interview Jason Momoa so funny .
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute