Tampa Liberty School – a summer camp for kids aged 8-12 years old
The Tampa 912 Project is pleased to introduce the Tampa Liberty School. This part-time summer camp will meet from 9am to noon on July 11-15 at the Paideia School in Temple Terrace. Kids aged 8-12 years old will have fun while learning the principles of liberty, free markets, and limited government. They will also learn the values of personal responsibility, faith, courage, hard work, reverence and thrift.
Odd – I was referring to a comment in the Polls and Policies thread, and I was referencing the same Fairfax poll the topic was about. How is that off topic?
The post was about the direction that Labour was taking and that it was not connecting to the public as was shown in polls. That was a precept of the post.
You were discussing the detail of a particular poll which was not particularly relevant to what the post discussed.
Did you actually read the post? Or did you just read the title?
My comment showed more from the poll, which supported the premise that “the direction that Labour was taking and that it was not connecting to the public as was shown in polls”. In other words, my post was about exactly what you say the topic was about.
Labour are doing a great job at mapping a clear way forward for the economy.
Half of Labour supporters don’t think Labour are doing that. That’s not great.
Edit: I didn’t see your comment until after I posted this. This is directly relevant to the post and to comments on the post. The Labour strategy does not seem to be working.
[lprent: So? That the strategy is not connecting with voters was a precept for the post. I’m unsure why you think that restating the bleeding obvious is of any relevance to the post – it doesn’t discuss what is in the post. ]
Jesus H Christ Pete, why do you waste your time in this blog? Do you just like baiting people into arguments? I’m not one for banning people from posting but I’ve learned to ignore your posts because they’re typically drivel.
One political party described them as a “political stunt”. It was noteworthy that nothing but the status quo was proposed by that party and it must be seen as sad indictment that over such a high stakes issue as this our politicians cannot even for a moment engage with each other over what we might do by way of solutions. As always, the politics take over.
There will be those who say that all children must receive equal resources under such circumstances. That is nonsense.
Thomas Jefferson once said, “There is nothing more unequal then the equal treatment of unequal people”. In education and health we do not and should not treat all children the same. We treat them on the basis of need. The same applies here.
Those with the greatest need should receive the greatest resource for without that there is little hope that many will lead a near normal life. That resource should be clearly targeted and based on evidence that it has the impact for change that is required.
The Minister wants to make a difference. She wants to go where we have been afraid to go before. She may be right or she may not. I think she is right to be bold. Instead of decrying such initiatives as cheaply as political stunts let us at least see and judge by the results.
Our children deserve nothing less.
* Dr John Langley is a education and social policy adviser
Ah, John Langley of the private company Cognition (http://www.cognition.co.nz/) – a company that exports NZ teacher to the gulf and who are currently picking up all manner of MoE contracts, frequently making a mess of them. (at least they have removed all the pictures of little Arab boys from their website)
He would say that, he is a friend of the government!
As stated to you yesterday –the evidence exists on the root causes, the solutions are identified – the right don’t like them because it is against their belief systems.
I think the Green Paper recognises that, it suggests targetting the vulnerable rather than a blanket approach, that means more resources can go to where they will make the most difference.
What the process is doing is asking the wider community if they are prepared to have less spent on non-essential things so more funds are available for doing what matters the most.
More borrowed lines from the PR machine Pete. I hope that one day soon you learn how to think for yourself for it grows tiresome reading your regurgitated spiel.
It’s being done by a NAct government, ergo, it won’t as NActs sole purpose in life is to transfer taxpayer money over to themselves, their mates and have their mates then tell us that it’s all good.
So if I was to respond to this trolling I’d say something like Labours sole purpose is to take money off hard-working people (especially rich pricks) and give it to welfare bludgers and minority groups and then tell us its all good (because the UN says so)
However I’m not going to so instead I’ll say something like this is a new initiative that I hope will get the proper funding and support it needs to make a difference
“sole purpose is to take money off hard-working people (especially rich pricks) and give it to welfare bludgers and minority groups and then tell us its all good (because the UN says so)”
God forbid if the rich should be paying a few dollars extra in tax so that people have access to education, housing, health, etc.
That is the debate we should be having, whether the rich should cop a few more dollars in tax so everyone has access to the assistance they need.
National Standards, don’t work.
– do work, teachers don’t want to implement them
Boot Camps, don’t work.
-do work but National ran these very poorly
Tax cuts to stimulate the economy, don’t work.
-More taxes don’t stimulate the econmy either
RoNS, don’t work
-Sorry not up with this abbreviation so can’t comment on it
National Standards, don’t work.
– do work, teachers don’t want to implement them
Are you a teacher? Have you worked with the mess that is NS? Have you experienced the poor Professional Development that has the presenters only one step ahead of teachers with the knowledge and systems involved?
National Standards as a system does not work in achiving the aim of improving the learning of all children. Simply setting a standard and then assessing each child against does nothing for the learning of children. It might satisfy Tolley and her ministry with it’s statistics but will not improve children’s learning. Good teaching, adequate support, good systems and a shared sense of partnership from all involved in a child’s education will make a difference. No we don’t want them in their present untrialled state and I’m not sure all these mythical parents Tolley keeps telling us about are that over the moon about them either.
Well its one of the things Nationals going to bring in (one way or another) so if teachers and parents don’t want them they simply vote for someone else
The reason teachers and principles don’t want them is, heaven forbid, the lazy and useless teachers out there (not all teachers of course just some) will get found out
Hey who knows maybe the better teachers will get paid more
So it’s not about improving children’s learning then. Tolley should be honest about it then and say it’s a (unscientific) tool to assess teachers worth and subsequently and subtly bring in performance pay, although how you judge a teachers performance on just test results is beyond me.
National Standards are being brought in so as to grade teachers, not students. Then they will have a platform for performance-based pay and a way to break up the teachers union.
Chris 73WE have the best education system in the OECD Standards went up under labour down under National .When they were in opposition they complained that teachers had to much paper work and to big a bureaucracy. and they need more time in front of students . Well strike me down now their in charge the paper work has gone up exponentially and now teachers are spending less time teaching.typical
No, it’s more likely that the good teachers will just give up and go do something else. And it doesn’t do anything for our children as numerous studies overseas on similar programs show. The children are actually worse off under such a scheme.
Only if you haven’t thought carefully about the criteria by which ‘good’ and ‘bad’ teachers could be identified. The notion of ‘performance-based’ assumes you know what ‘performance’ you want and that there is a relatively straightforward means of establishing when it’s been met. What happens, in the real world, is that the focus goes off the performance that parents, pupils and communities might actually ‘want’ because that will always prove too difficult to measure/monitor in a simple manner.
It then defaults to what can be easily measured/monitored, very much like a drunk looking for car keys under the lampost despite having lost them 20 yards away – ‘because there’s light (i.e., easily recordable numbers) here’.
Performance based remuneration leads to strategic behaviours with all sorts of negative ‘unintended consequences’. You see, chris73, people are cunning – they can meet the criteria/standards (whatever they are) and actually be doing a bad job or not focusing on what is really wanted. Typically, performance based approaches overly reward the cunning and strategic rather than the ‘good’.
It’s one of the issues I have in general with the simplistic notion that a meritocracy is a possibility (each according to their merit). It completely ignores the difficulty of both knowing and measuring ‘merit’ and therefore simply becomes a two-faced arena for power games played out under the guise of ‘just rewards’ delivered by those (i.e., power) who ‘know’ what deserves ‘merit’.
Overall, a pipe dream for lazy thinkers and the foolish.
National Standards,
anything that restricts the school’s ability to implement the curriculum is a fail.
Boot Camps,
self explanatory fail. the resources could go into basic literacy and life skills without the addition of an exploitative and denigratory military authority
Tax Cuts,
let’s actually, just for kicks, just this once, adequately tax the corporate/finance world then see if it works or not. Individual income tax is set and no-one with two or more brain cells really thinks it needs adjustment. Most would agree that the Business world can should and must start paying their way.
Roads of National Significance
Look at the debacle and discrepancy of the War Memorial in Wellington, The Kapiti Highway, or any one of the other half dozen disasters being planned for an example where the Transit authority has no interest except traffic flows and the realities of communities and the Nation are irrelevant.
chris 73 how come we got 28% real sustained growth with the tax increases including those with the fiscal drag, from 2000till 2008 when there has been know sustained growth since the last time we shared the wealth around from 1935 to 1974
Quite frankly Peter Secret Squirrel George, this is simply using the moral panic about child abuse to justify the further erosion of and rationing of social services, such as health etc, and will long term, wreck the living standards of a lot of people.
Keep working for your multicult global plan. But this is our plan for YOU.
Here there are couple of recent comments I just read at The Occidental Observer:
Wattylesrevolt said…
One way to think about what has happened is this: the revolt against race-replacement has begun… earlier than we expected.
And I’ll tell you something. On the one hand, I don’t support the shooting. But I also know that a future generation of vicious race-replacement enthusiasts, many of them Paki youth, have been put out of commission.
Beowulf said…
Anders Behring Breivik might not be fully awakened—it’s a process for most of us—, but his instincts were dead on. He struck a carefully aimed blow at his enemy, which cannot be done through talking or intellectualizing.
This is primal.
His actions—not rational—were meant to redeem the bloody sacrifices of his people to the multiculturalists. He thought about the problem, felt the impulse to act, and attempted—imperfectly—to construct a rationale and calculate the consequences as best he could.
None of us know what those will be exactly. Such is the nature of action, particularly violent action. But make no mistake: this is a war. It has come because most of the damage has already been done—it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
I say…
Alas, unless Breivik is emulated by other Europeans, his actions will not have any effect on the West and their elites’ multicult plan. Such actions could even turn to be counterproductive… unless many of us start reading The Brigade.
And this wee gem from the same counter-jihad bloggers who portray themselves as friends of Jews and Israel. : Fuck the holocaust!
Um, mods, most of the above comment is either in moderation or has been swallowed by the machine…?.
Swallowed my attempt to add this comment as an edit too.
Dunno what’s happened there but from what I can see the entire page format is stuffed after comment 7.0. The right panel is at the bottom after the comments rather than at the top and on the right.
While you are waiting for an operator (“your call is very important to us” ) you can listen to some music …
WTF is it with large operations? One is usually calling them with a query (quite often a pressing operational matter if with a Power Co, Bank, ISP, or the IRD.) So more than likely you will have to sit in a queue and you get fed a pulse raising dreadful screeching or wailing singer. (What about giving us some guitar concerti or similar …?)
Who selects this music?
It’s bad enough wheeling your shopping trolley around “Push’nShove” stores and the crap music they play in between inane P/A announcements. Makes you want to get out of the place rather than browse the shelves and therefore likely to reduce impulse purchasing. However, with supermarkets you have a choice, but not when it comes to the phone – hang-up is not an option because you just rejoin the end of the queue.
Anyone prepared to propose it as a remit at their party local committee – all parties Left to Right. Perhaps Grey Power would be prepared to demand it from the PM at his next meeting with them… make their votes dependent on a law change!!!
Can we start a campaign somehow?
While you are waiting for an operator (“your call is very important to us” ) you can listen to some music …
WTF is it with large operations? One is usually calling them with a query (quite often a pressing operational matter if with a Power Co, Bank, ISP, or the IRD.) So more than likely you will have to sit in a queue and you get fed a pulse raising dreadful screeching or wailing singer. (What about giving us some guitar concerti or similar …?)
Who selects this music?
I truly wonder! The only decent hold music I have ever encountered was while waiting to talk to someone at Studylink, and they were very prompt! Housing NZ appropriately enough, plays only Tim Finn’s ‘Fraction too much Friction‘, on an endless loop, and WINZ plays only the most droning and dirge-like of all the potential songs by NZ artists that they could play.
Latest Roy Morgan is out. Labour has shed a couple of points and the nats have gained these.
What is really weird is that our confidence level is 127 whereas Aussie’s is 108. Why Kiwis should feel more confident about our economy than Aussie’s is way beyond me.
I think Micky it is because there is a strong campaign in Aussie claiming that a carbon tax will be disastorous for the economy that seems to have gained some traction.
That may be part of it. For some reason business confidence is always higher when the right are in power. It does not matter how bad objectively things are, the owners of capital just feel better. This then feeds through to reporting and general feelings.
The world according to Labour faithfuls is a different world to everyone else, including the voters/pollees. If someone with some clout in Labour doesn’t wake up soon the party is in danger if becoming another minor party.
The last time I checked having a grasp of reality was a prerequisite for expecting an expression of an opinion to be taken seriously.
Outside your bubble of blindness that statement would be viewed with mirth or sadness, considering where it’s coming from.
I’m not qualified at all to comment. Who is? Oh, Bryce probably is.
Labour and its cheerleaders are paying the electoral price for their assumptions that ‘we are right’ and that ‘voters must come around to seeing that we are right’. It reflects the arrogance that the public still perceives to embody a party that was thrown out of office three years ago and refuses to show any humbleness or signs of self-reflection. Labour partisans and hacks would do well to be reading all the newspaper editorials (without their rose-tinted glasses on) and face some reality.
In the last few weeks I have been travelling in Asia and Europe and in the course of that travel have met serious business leaders.
The thing that strikes me is how opimistic Asian business leaders are and how pessimistic European’s are. The europeans see the immenent collapse of the euro and world economies as a trainwreck slowly happenning and the Asians just keep optimistically going on.
Interestingly, spoke to a Thai whose company is perfecting by genetics fresian cows on farms in China that can thrive in Asian conditions. Eat the Fonterra.
A security auditor for our servers has demanded the following within two weeks:
A list of current usernames and plain-text passwords for all user accounts on all servers
A list of all password changes for the past six months, again in plain-text
A list of “every file added to the server from remote devices” in the past six months
The public and private keys of any SSH keys
An email sent to him every time a user changes their password, containing the plain text password
I’d tell him and the company that sent him to fuck off. There’s no way that you’d log half of that stuff, especially in plain text, never mind sending it in an email as doing so would be a security breach.
Tell him to piss off. If you do that, you have not only opened your servers up completely to the idiot, but you have probably opened up a whole pile of accounts accessible to people reusing the passwords. Not to mention that emails are effectively unprotected against any man in the middle attacks. Emails are routinely stored at both the senders systems and the receivers systems in plain text, spooled in the same way at ISP’s, and generally are the ultimate in systems that you do not send passwords through.
Dodgy as… Are they testing the stupidity of the client?
You’d think so but no, the auditor is just a moron. The company being audited has gone to a different vendor, and reported the “security” consultant to PCI
Ha all this reminds me of the HBGary/Anonymous saga
Lolz all round. But makes you think how much total bullshit incompetence is hanging out there. In the highly paid private sector of all places, who would’ve thought?
Amazing how an author and poet can put the earthquake recovery into a philisophical context, but journalists don’t seem to be able to do so. Good work.
What’s the peacetime disaster equivalent of “war profiteering”?
Not quite it. But I am sure you know what it is.
When a mafia wise guy comes by the store with his mates. And demands money from you for himself, and for his mates, to ensure that your valuable things around the place remain safe.
FUCK
This needs to go on nationwide TV and assholes named and civil action taken.
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Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
Perhaps this is more to Glenn Beck’s liking:
Problem is 2 out of 3 of Labour’s own supporters don’t believe in Phil, and less than half support its own economic plan.
That does not add up to the treasury benches irrespective of party polling.
[lprent: off topic – moved to open mike. Read the frigging post. ]
Labour is doing exactly what needs to be done to present a clear long term workable alternative
Except that it’s not working, so something they are doing (or something they are) is not what people want.
If half of core Labour supporters don’t think the party can deliver on the economy then some people here are fooling themselves.
[lprent: Off topic. If you want to discuss a specific poll then do it in OpenMike. ]
Odd – I was referring to a comment in the Polls and Policies thread, and I was referencing the same Fairfax poll the topic was about. How is that off topic?
The post was about the direction that Labour was taking and that it was not connecting to the public as was shown in polls. That was a precept of the post.
You were discussing the detail of a particular poll which was not particularly relevant to what the post discussed.
Did you actually read the post? Or did you just read the title?
My comment showed more from the poll, which supported the premise that “the direction that Labour was taking and that it was not connecting to the public as was shown in polls”. In other words, my post was about exactly what you say the topic was about.
ironic since the mess we are in is key and English created!
Labour are doing a great job at mapping a clear way forward for the economy.
Half of Labour supporters don’t think Labour are doing that. That’s not great.
Edit: I didn’t see your comment until after I posted this. This is directly relevant to the post and to comments on the post. The Labour strategy does not seem to be working.
[lprent: So? That the strategy is not connecting with voters was a precept for the post. I’m unsure why you think that restating the bleeding obvious is of any relevance to the post – it doesn’t discuss what is in the post. ]
Jesus H Christ Pete, why do you waste your time in this blog? Do you just like baiting people into arguments? I’m not one for banning people from posting but I’ve learned to ignore your posts because they’re typically drivel.
“I’m unsure why you think that restating the bleeding obvious is of any relevance to the post – it doesn’t discuss what is in the post”
Ha! You think Pete reads the posts, Lynn?
Silly goose.
I must say that ever since i stopped reading Peter Squirreltail’s comments i have noticed a severe drop off in the frequency of forehead meeting desk.
Anyone else find it interesting that the experience in Australia kind of disproves a theory for and one against a capital gains tax –
http://smh.domain.com.au/capitals-face-at-least-a-decade-of-unaffordable-houses-even-in-the-suburbs-20110727-1i0al.html
I.e. It doesn’t do anything to make house prices more affordable or seem to have any effect on investment growth
Excellent comment, this is the summary but the whole article is worth reading.
Yes, our children deserve nothing less.
Ah, John Langley of the private company Cognition (http://www.cognition.co.nz/) – a company that exports NZ teacher to the gulf and who are currently picking up all manner of MoE contracts, frequently making a mess of them. (at least they have removed all the pictures of little Arab boys from their website)
He would say that, he is a friend of the government!
As stated to you yesterday –the evidence exists on the root causes, the solutions are identified – the right don’t like them because it is against their belief systems.
See http://www.rwjf.org/vulnerablepopulations/ – it is all about the social determinants of health! See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Report
I think the Green Paper recognises that, it suggests targetting the vulnerable rather than a blanket approach, that means more resources can go to where they will make the most difference.
What the process is doing is asking the wider community if they are prepared to have less spent on non-essential things so more funds are available for doing what matters the most.
More borrowed lines from the PR machine Pete. I hope that one day soon you learn how to think for yourself for it grows tiresome reading your regurgitated spiel.
Whats been done in then past hasn’t worked, heres hoping this might
It’s being done by a NAct government, ergo, it won’t as NActs sole purpose in life is to transfer taxpayer money over to themselves, their mates and have their mates then tell us that it’s all good.
So if I was to respond to this trolling I’d say something like Labours sole purpose is to take money off hard-working people (especially rich pricks) and give it to welfare bludgers and minority groups and then tell us its all good (because the UN says so)
However I’m not going to so instead I’ll say something like this is a new initiative that I hope will get the proper funding and support it needs to make a difference
“sole purpose is to take money off hard-working people (especially rich pricks) and give it to welfare bludgers and minority groups and then tell us its all good (because the UN says so)”
God forbid if the rich should be paying a few dollars extra in tax so that people have access to education, housing, health, etc.
That is the debate we should be having, whether the rich should cop a few more dollars in tax so everyone has access to the assistance they need.
National Standards, don’t work.
Boot Camps, don’t work.
Tax cuts to stimulate the economy, don’t work.
RoNS, don’t work
Pretty much everything that this government has done doesn’t work but it almost always transfers taxpayer funds into private pockets.
National Standards, don’t work.
– do work, teachers don’t want to implement them
Boot Camps, don’t work.
-do work but National ran these very poorly
Tax cuts to stimulate the economy, don’t work.
-More taxes don’t stimulate the econmy either
RoNS, don’t work
-Sorry not up with this abbreviation so can’t comment on it
National Standards, don’t work.
– do work, teachers don’t want to implement them
Are you a teacher? Have you worked with the mess that is NS? Have you experienced the poor Professional Development that has the presenters only one step ahead of teachers with the knowledge and systems involved?
National Standards as a system does not work in achiving the aim of improving the learning of all children. Simply setting a standard and then assessing each child against does nothing for the learning of children. It might satisfy Tolley and her ministry with it’s statistics but will not improve children’s learning. Good teaching, adequate support, good systems and a shared sense of partnership from all involved in a child’s education will make a difference. No we don’t want them in their present untrialled state and I’m not sure all these mythical parents Tolley keeps telling us about are that over the moon about them either.
Well its one of the things Nationals going to bring in (one way or another) so if teachers and parents don’t want them they simply vote for someone else
The reason teachers and principles don’t want them is, heaven forbid, the lazy and useless teachers out there (not all teachers of course just some) will get found out
Hey who knows maybe the better teachers will get paid more
So it’s not about improving children’s learning then. Tolley should be honest about it then and say it’s a (unscientific) tool to assess teachers worth and subsequently and subtly bring in performance pay, although how you judge a teachers performance on just test results is beyond me.
National Standards are being brought in so as to grade teachers, not students. Then they will have a platform for performance-based pay and a way to break up the teachers union.
So if you’re a good teacher you’ll get paid more and if you’re a poor teacher you’ll have motivation to upskill to get paid more
Sounds good to me
Chris 73WE have the best education system in the OECD Standards went up under labour down under National .When they were in opposition they complained that teachers had to much paper work and to big a bureaucracy. and they need more time in front of students . Well strike me down now their in charge the paper work has gone up exponentially and now teachers are spending less time teaching.typical
No, it’s more likely that the good teachers will just give up and go do something else. And it doesn’t do anything for our children as numerous studies overseas on similar programs show. The children are actually worse off under such a scheme.
“Sounds good to me”
Only if you haven’t thought carefully about the criteria by which ‘good’ and ‘bad’ teachers could be identified. The notion of ‘performance-based’ assumes you know what ‘performance’ you want and that there is a relatively straightforward means of establishing when it’s been met. What happens, in the real world, is that the focus goes off the performance that parents, pupils and communities might actually ‘want’ because that will always prove too difficult to measure/monitor in a simple manner.
It then defaults to what can be easily measured/monitored, very much like a drunk looking for car keys under the lampost despite having lost them 20 yards away – ‘because there’s light (i.e., easily recordable numbers) here’.
Performance based remuneration leads to strategic behaviours with all sorts of negative ‘unintended consequences’. You see, chris73, people are cunning – they can meet the criteria/standards (whatever they are) and actually be doing a bad job or not focusing on what is really wanted. Typically, performance based approaches overly reward the cunning and strategic rather than the ‘good’.
It’s one of the issues I have in general with the simplistic notion that a meritocracy is a possibility (each according to their merit). It completely ignores the difficulty of both knowing and measuring ‘merit’ and therefore simply becomes a two-faced arena for power games played out under the guise of ‘just rewards’ delivered by those (i.e., power) who ‘know’ what deserves ‘merit’.
Overall, a pipe dream for lazy thinkers and the foolish.
National Standards,
anything that restricts the school’s ability to implement the curriculum is a fail.
Boot Camps,
self explanatory fail. the resources could go into basic literacy and life skills without the addition of an exploitative and denigratory military authority
Tax Cuts,
let’s actually, just for kicks, just this once, adequately tax the corporate/finance world then see if it works or not. Individual income tax is set and no-one with two or more brain cells really thinks it needs adjustment. Most would agree that the Business world can should and must start paying their way.
Roads of National Significance
Look at the debacle and discrepancy of the War Memorial in Wellington, The Kapiti Highway, or any one of the other half dozen disasters being planned for an example where the Transit authority has no interest except traffic flows and the realities of communities and the Nation are irrelevant.
So thats what the abbreviation means, thank you
Don,t froget the bail outs
chris 73 how come we got 28% real sustained growth with the tax increases including those with the fiscal drag, from 2000till 2008 when there has been know sustained growth since the last time we shared the wealth around from 1935 to 1974
chris73 forgets to mention that ‘things working’ in his books = things working for the top 5% of wealth holders and income earners.
E.g. “tax cuts do work to stimulate the economy” = tax cuts do work to stimulate the economy (for the top 5%).
It puts his comments into pespective.
5%? What a commie. nothing more than 1!
Quite frankly Peter Secret Squirrel George, this is simply using the moral panic about child abuse to justify the further erosion of and rationing of social services, such as health etc, and will long term, wreck the living standards of a lot of people.
This should be opposed all the way.
The influence on Breivik by bloggers who believe that Europe is drowning in Muslims is becoming apparent and the hate continues
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8LEtXx9fzAcJ:chechar.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/breivik%E2%80%99s-spectacular-message/+http://chechar.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/breivik%E2%80%99s-spectacular-message/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari&source=www.google.com
Dear lefties:
Keep working for your multicult global plan. But this is our plan for YOU.
Here there are couple of recent comments I just read at The Occidental Observer:
Wattylesrevolt said…
One way to think about what has happened is this: the revolt against race-replacement has begun… earlier than we expected.
And I’ll tell you something. On the one hand, I don’t support the shooting. But I also know that a future generation of vicious race-replacement enthusiasts, many of them Paki youth, have been put out of commission.
Beowulf said…
Anders Behring Breivik might not be fully awakened—it’s a process for most of us—, but his instincts were dead on. He struck a carefully aimed blow at his enemy, which cannot be done through talking or intellectualizing.
This is primal.
His actions—not rational—were meant to redeem the bloody sacrifices of his people to the multiculturalists. He thought about the problem, felt the impulse to act, and attempted—imperfectly—to construct a rationale and calculate the consequences as best he could.
None of us know what those will be exactly. Such is the nature of action, particularly violent action. But make no mistake: this is a war. It has come because most of the damage has already been done—it’s too late to put the genie back in the bottle.
The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.
I say…
Alas, unless Breivik is emulated by other Europeans, his actions will not have any effect on the West and their elites’ multicult plan. Such actions could even turn to be counterproductive… unless many of us start reading The Brigade.
And this wee gem from the same counter-jihad bloggers who portray themselves as friends of Jews and Israel. : Fuck the holocaust!
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CvuhinrmwFQJ:chechar.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/fuck-the-holocaust/+http://chechar.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/fuck-the-holocaust/&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com
Edit: um, mods, most of my comment is either in moderation or has been swallowed by the machine…….? I’ll re-word it if necessary .
[lprent: It didn’t like the links that I have now exposed – Don’t know why. But I suspect that it had a parsing problem whilst checking the links…]
Um, mods, most of the above comment is either in moderation or has been swallowed by the machine…?.
Swallowed my attempt to add this comment as an edit too.
I’ll re-word it if necessary,
Dunno what’s happened there but from what I can see the entire page format is stuffed after comment 7.0. The right panel is at the bottom after the comments rather than at the top and on the right.
On FF 5.0
Seems fine to me (chrome 12/linux). Someone else fixed it up?
Still broken, turned the reply button into my second link.
Now fixed…
Ta.
I think I may have broken the machine.
Using Chrome.
Can we start a campaign somehow?
While you are waiting for an operator (“your call is very important to us” ) you can listen to some music …
WTF is it with large operations? One is usually calling them with a query (quite often a pressing operational matter if with a Power Co, Bank, ISP, or the IRD.) So more than likely you will have to sit in a queue and you get fed a pulse raising dreadful screeching or wailing singer. (What about giving us some guitar concerti or similar …?)
Who selects this music?
It’s bad enough wheeling your shopping trolley around “Push’nShove” stores and the crap music they play in between inane P/A announcements. Makes you want to get out of the place rather than browse the shelves and therefore likely to reduce impulse purchasing. However, with supermarkets you have a choice, but not when it comes to the phone – hang-up is not an option because you just rejoin the end of the queue.
Anyone prepared to propose it as a remit at their party local committee – all parties Left to Right. Perhaps Grey Power would be prepared to demand it from the PM at his next meeting with them… make their votes dependent on a law change!!!
I truly wonder! The only decent hold music I have ever encountered was while waiting to talk to someone at Studylink, and they were very prompt! Housing NZ appropriately enough, plays only Tim Finn’s ‘Fraction too much Friction‘, on an endless loop, and WINZ plays only the most droning and dirge-like of all the potential songs by NZ artists that they could play.
Latest Roy Morgan Poll out today:
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/polls/2011/4690/
Labour continues downward trend that has come through in the 3 other polls released over last few weeks.
Latest Roy Morgan is out. Labour has shed a couple of points and the nats have gained these.
What is really weird is that our confidence level is 127 whereas Aussie’s is 108. Why Kiwis should feel more confident about our economy than Aussie’s is way beyond me.
This is all too weird.
EDIT: Interesting bet me to it.
I think Micky it is because there is a strong campaign in Aussie claiming that a carbon tax will be disastorous for the economy that seems to have gained some traction.
That may be part of it. For some reason business confidence is always higher when the right are in power. It does not matter how bad objectively things are, the owners of capital just feel better. This then feeds through to reporting and general feelings.
It is damned hard to counter.
Read Bryce Edward’s newsletter today.
The world according to Labour faithfuls is a different world to everyone else, including the voters/pollees. If someone with some clout in Labour doesn’t wake up soon the party is in danger if becoming another minor party.
Pete
How is your party polling?
What makes you think you are qualified to comment on the current status of the major parties?
The last time I checked having a grasp of reality was a prerequisite for expecting an expression of an opinion to be taken seriously.
The last time I checked having a grasp of reality was a prerequisite for expecting an expression of an opinion to be taken seriously.
Outside your bubble of blindness that statement would be viewed with mirth or sadness, considering where it’s coming from.
I’m not qualified at all to comment. Who is? Oh, Bryce probably is.
There is a growing reality out here.
Yes the growing reality is unemployment and under-employment, especially young people, and the gap with Australia increasing even further.
Resulting in 3000 NZ’ers a week leaving for there permanently, so the population of Kiwis in Australia is growing too.
So Pete how is your party polling?
In the last few weeks I have been travelling in Asia and Europe and in the course of that travel have met serious business leaders.
The thing that strikes me is how opimistic Asian business leaders are and how pessimistic European’s are. The europeans see the immenent collapse of the euro and world economies as a trainwreck slowly happenning and the Asians just keep optimistically going on.
Interestingly, spoke to a Thai whose company is perfecting by genetics fresian cows on farms in China that can thrive in Asian conditions. Eat the Fonterra.
For the tech geeks among us… unbelievable
http://serverfault.com/questions/293217/our-security-auditor-is-an-idiot-how-do-i-give-him-the-information-he-wants
I’d tell him and the company that sent him to fuck off. There’s no way that you’d log half of that stuff, especially in plain text, never mind sending it in an email as doing so would be a security breach.
Tell him to piss off. If you do that, you have not only opened your servers up completely to the idiot, but you have probably opened up a whole pile of accounts accessible to people reusing the passwords. Not to mention that emails are effectively unprotected against any man in the middle attacks. Emails are routinely stored at both the senders systems and the receivers systems in plain text, spooled in the same way at ISP’s, and generally are the ultimate in systems that you do not send passwords through.
Dodgy as… Are they testing the stupidity of the client?
You’d think so but no, the auditor is just a moron. The company being audited has gone to a different vendor, and reported the “security” consultant to PCI
Ha all this reminds me of the HBGary/Anonymous saga
Lolz all round. But makes you think how much total bullshit incompetence is hanging out there. In the highly paid private sector of all places, who would’ve thought?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/anonymous-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-hbgary-hack.ars
A good piece from Stuff today.. John KY holidaying at the Taj Mahal while babies in Canterbury are washed in rain barrels
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/perspective/5351237/Free-market-quake-turns-citizens-into-assets
Amazing how an author and poet can put the earthquake recovery into a philisophical context, but journalists don’t seem to be able to do so. Good work.
Not happy about this:
http://portobelloantiques.blogspot.com/2011/07/shop-is-gone-thanks.html
On that note, there are a couple of quotes from elsewhere that would at this point seem appropriate for Key:
“… the most important thing we do, is not doing”
“… the discretion of forbearance is the better part of responsive valour. This is such an occasion”
That’s authoritarianism for you – When life sucks, these people make it suck a whole lot more
What’s the peacetime disaster equivalent of “war profiteering”?
That’s what grinds my gears.
OMG…a bloody cowboy town with mafia profiteering.
Not quite it. But I am sure you know what it is.
When a mafia wise guy comes by the store with his mates. And demands money from you for himself, and for his mates, to ensure that your valuable things around the place remain safe.
FUCK
This needs to go on nationwide TV and assholes named and civil action taken.
Fuck. Some of those corrupt assholes need to be in jail
Greek corrupt leaders sold their entire country out for their own gain
An inside job. They put the entire of Greece up as collateral for additional bail out money.
And the bail out money doesn’t even go to the Greek people. It goes straight to the big banks, especially German and French banks.
Make sure you watch both parts.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MaxKeiserTV