This law change – put up by tolley and supported by ardern.
“A new law outlined today will axe a longstanding provision that gives priority to placing abused children with foster parents from the same extended family or tribe.”
Currently, the Care and Protection Guidelines say:
“In all situations it is preferable for the placement of the child or young person to be with their family/whānau or extended family/whānau member. A placement outside the family/whānau will only occur when there are no suitable family/whānau, hapu or iwi placements available.”
This is saying that cultural connections are an important consideration not the be all and end all – and now… for the 60 percent of children in care who are Māori, we are heading towards placement wherever is easiest, and cheapest. And if you don’t think this is moving towards serco running foster homes and so on you are dreaming.
Just to set some things straight – Whānau get the same police checks and winz checks as any other placement. When placed with Whānau often that is it and those members receive less support and attention than foster parents.
This is another insidious tentacle of colonisation and will do nothing to protect the children that need protection.
Tariana Turia has said
“Across the world, social scientists, politicians and family advocates have lauded the 1989 Act as being ground-breaking in the importance it placed on placing faith in our families to care for their own. The problem is that the principles of the Act were never fully upheld by successive bureaucracies who under-delivered on the resourcing required to support parents in their most vital role.
“Why is it that Governments can invest so much in sustaining foster care organisations and yet fail to support parents and whanau as the first and fundamental carers?
“I am extremely disappointed at Minister Tolley’s warning shot that she will delete from law, section 5 (c) (ii) that consideration must be given to how a decision affects the “family, whanau, hapu, iwi and family group”. This is effectively saying that whānau, hapū and iwi are incidental, irrelevant, to decisions around the best placement for a child.
I suppose the racists will come out on this one and start reciting all of the abuse cases and deaths of children by the hands of their kin – I am not dismissing the abuse that occurs daily to children, I am not trying to pretend that those things don’t happen.
I utterly agree with you marty mars. The recent changes to CYFs, the naming of a new ministry the ministry for vulnerable children rather than just children, and the ruling out of whanau as the first port of call where there are problems , all point in a dangerous direction. So much easier to kick people out onto the street when photogenic kids are removed from the equation. So much easier to reach the bottom rung of the property ladder with a government-funded, Serco allocated foster kid or two. This policy direction has “stolen generation” written all over it.
You think that’s a bad thing?, a Maori child can only live with Maori people, what sort of fucked up racist thinking is that.
Shame on you Super Maori.
[Marty didn’t say that, neither did his original comment, and the law change isn’t about that. You know how to debate better than this BM. Pull your head in – weka]
If you re-read marty mars’ comment, you will see that the current ruling allows for putting a child elsewhere when no other option is available. The problem lies with the fact that when the extended family option is available, it will no longer have priority. Which means that those deciding where to place a child might well prioritise the child’s having its own bedroom among strangers over their sharing a bedroom with a known-and-loved cousin, for example.
Turia is spot on here. And it’s not just affecting Maori. It’s operational failure that’s driving Tolley towards ideological law change. The perennial complaint about CYFS is that it focuses on protection over care when the Act gives equal weight to both. So social workers are putting kids in foster care before looking at care issues which if resolved would avoid that and let kids stay with their own families, consistent with both the objectives of the Act and the UNCROC. Much wider issues at play here, but Tolley’s using a steam roller to flatten everything that on all levels point to government failure.
So that justifies getting rid of supporting families to care for their own children as a primary objective of the Act? Because it doesn’t matter where children live? Fuck, I didn’t realise how much of a moron you are.
I think there will be trouble with this because it goes against the evidence and smacks of colonizing patronizing non acceptance of the parnership inherent in the Treaty.
It looks to me like Ardern might have put the cart before the horse on this one, although “supported by” might be over-egging it a bit (it’s the support equivalent of the non-apology apology).
Putting her comment “There is not the same level of scrutiny around kin care, so there is not the same level of assessment of whether or not it’s the right or safest placement for the child.” […] “That unfortunately has undermined kin care and I can see why we have ended up in this place.” alongside your “Whānau get the same police checks and winz checks as any other placement. When placed with Whānau often that is it and those members receive less support and attention than foster parents.”, the obvious response is to make the ongoing support and attention given to all new immediate families for children conform to the same minimum level, rather than just dropping the kid off and hoping for the best.
I’ll be interested to see if she actualy commits to a course of action one way or the other.
Seymour tells the left not to do an Epsom in Mt Roskill… bahahahahahahaha pot calling the kettle black David.
They are not hoodwinking the public, they are being straight up with them, that MOU is gold. Watch out David your electorate could be next, are you freaking out a little bit?
+100
A special place in hell for him.
Seymour, who preaches that government and taxes are evil, but makes his living by being in government, riding the Ministerial limo, hoovering up all the taxpayer funded junkets he can find.
“riding the Ministerial limo”.
He doesn’t actually. He is not a minister, from his own volition, apparently.
Only Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament get supplied with the limos.
Winston is not pleased, I gather, that he is not allowed one.
He didn’t tell them “not to do an Epsom in Mt Roskill” as you claim.
He merely pointed out that the Labour candidate is a hypocrite for going along with something he complained about last election.
As he pointed out “Strategic voting is a reality of MMP, but hypocrisy is optional”.
“Strategic voting is a reality of MMP, but hypocrisy is optional”.
Seymour’s mixing how people vote with what parties say they’re doing. As Stephanie Rodgers referred to last week, in Epson the nats put up a candidate but told people to vote for Seymour. In Mt Roskill Labour and the Greens are being quite open about what they’re doing.
The real question is whether Labour’s going to be really dumb again in 2017 and deliberately set out to fuck over potential coalition partners.
Seymour knows all about hypocrisy, he is an expert at it. He likes people having options and that’s why he chooses hypocrisy.
He railed against it the Epsom arrangement being described as the only thing that saved Act but that is reality. A reality he doesn’t like and doesn’t want others to focus on.
Yet another example of the State underfunding a process then watching it fail and fobbing it off to private enterprise ,which will do a lesser job and make a profit to boot. Never mind the children , they are just “outcomes”.
edit…. in reply to Marty Mars.
Holland began screaming “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great” – as Heneti and Hay continued to yell at each other.
…. Swarbrick later told One News that Heneti “was pushing me aside quite a bit”, but with seven years of karate and two years of Muay Thai under her belt, she wasn’t afraid to intervene.
A mayoral candidate running for the Auckland mayoralty on the Auckland Legalise Cannabis ticket who yelled “Oooh, I can feel a brawl!” and “Allahu Akbar” during an Auckland mayoral debate has defended his outburst by saying he was “incredibly drunk”.
Swarbrick said it was the oddest debate she had taken part in during the campaign.
Earth may be close to the warmest it has been in the last million years, especially in the part of the Pacific Ocean where potentially violent El Nino weather patterns are born, climate scientists reported on Monday.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more frequent El Ninos–which can disrupt normal weather around the world–but it could well mean that these wild patterns will be stronger when they occur, said James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
NASA announced a couple of weeks ago that we have just had the warmest global August on record, and it surpassed the previous warmest…which was in 2014.
It was an increase of 0.16 deg C over the Aug 2014 temperature.
For the math inclined that’s a 0.1 deg C rise every 15 months. Does that sound like “abrupt climate change” to you? It does to me.
IMO we’re going to hit 2 deg C global average warming by 2030 on a pre-industrial basis, and probably we will do it with time to spare.
Oddly enough, I am looking at a graphic which claims that we still have 28 years worth of carbon burning budget left for a 50% chance to avoid 2 deg C warming.
That budget is how big? Does it involve burning carbon at present rates (as implied by your comment)? Does it include land emissions and energy emissions? What level of cuts in energy use would be needed to satisfy that budget? Does it assume negative emission technology?
You got a link?
Must say. Your comments on AGW are becoming a tad ridiculous CV. Seems all you want to do is wave your arms screaming bad, badder and baddest and are quite willing to submit misleading comments to crow on about how you ‘got down’ on some bedderest of all bads scenario.
” researchers say a global tracker monitoring energy use per person points to 2C warming by 2030″
University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers have developed a “global energy tracker” which predicts average world temperatures could climb 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2020.
That forecast, based on new modelling using long-term average projections on economic growth, population growth and energy use per person, points to a 2C rise by 2030.
No, that’s not a link containing any “graphic which claims that we still have 28 years worth of carbon burning budget left for a 50% chance to avoid 2 deg C warming.”
Hi marty mars, your following me around like this is endearing but seriously: there isn’t 5ppm of difference between Clinton and Trump on climate change.
Clinton knows how to say the right things though, I’ll give her that.
I’m pleased you are happy about it – and I just cannot help putting some facts in when you pontificate from on high with weepy eyes about all the things you say you care about but actually deliberately work against – like trump and his climate change denier status and this bullshit trumpism of yours of 5ppm.
Strictly speaking, these aren’t probabilities, but are the proportion of all the model simulations that keep warming below that temperature limit.
Okay. That’s the 5th para from your link. So it’s a graph relating to or tabulating the conclusions of various models – not the real world.
Additional small detail. All the major models that hold to 2 degrees employ either peak dates from “yesterday” or assume negative emission tech. Some use both sleights of hand.
That’s from Kevin Anderson who trawled through hundreds of ‘integrated assessment models’. Go to any of his more recent presentations and that information will be in there. Not one of his peers from the scientific community has challenged his findings on that front.
Dickey said the Court would hear from nearly a dozen former staffers from RDC and Auckland Transport who would show – sometimes reluctantly as they were themselves implicated – that corruption had spread and become deep-rooted.
“The extensive provision of benefits to staff at all levels of their teams resulted in a culture where corruption flourished and was normalised, with no questions asked,” he said.
The extensive provision of benefits to staff at all levels of their teams resulted in a culture where corruption flourished and was normalised, with no questions asked,” he said.
So very, very, true. And it has been going on for years. I know of someone who was regularly being treated to Box seats at Rugby Games at Eden Park years ago. I was astounded then, but he thought it was entirely ok! The fact that those offering the treats were businesses he had regular dealings with in his day to day work seemed to escape him.
Barrie George, Noone’s Deputy pleaded guilty on the eve of the trial to receiving $108,580 in bribes which he mostly used for twenty overseas holidays for himself and his family. He received 10 months Home Detention.
What a slap with a wet bus ticket that was – with all the hoo haa over the rugby player who knocked senseless and assaulted four people and was let off – its pretty obvious that there is one law for one section of society and one for the rest of us. I can see what an unfortunate person on a benefit would get if he chose to accept money under the counter while receiving his/her miserable amount they receive from the Government. It sure wouldn’t be 10 months home detention.
Good on you Penny for keeping up the good work, there are many who applaud your guts and determination. No bloody wonder our rates keep rising – just to keep people in holidays overseas – its disgusting.
Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey said part of the Crown’s case is that Borlase arranged matters so the Rodney District Council – and later Auckland Transport – effectively paid to have their own staff bribed.
Dickey outlined what he described as a pattern of transactions: Projenz laying on expensive hospitality for Noone’s staff; Noone invoicing Projenz for hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly sham “consultation” fees; and progressive larger contracts, first from Rodney District Council then Auckland Transport, being sent Projenz’s way.
If the council still did it’s own work and didn’t outsource to the private sector then none of this could actually happen.
The more privatisation that we have the more the corruption shows up.
Can someone please point me to the place where the mayoral candidates for Auckland talk about their promises on assets which they are the guardians of. Specifically – water, but also Port of Auckland and airport shares.
The commercial ecosystem of western propaganda surrounding Syria: tricking progressives
From the outstanding alternative news site Consortium News
The results of similar media manipulation can be seen in the widespread misunderstanding of the conflict in Syria, amid the demonization of the Syrian government and leadership and the skillful use of social media by anti-government activists. Influenced by both mainstream and this alternative media, most people in the West do not know that Bashar al-Assad remains popular with many Syrians. Nor do they realize that Assad won an election two years ago.
There were three contestants in the Syrian presidential election of June 2014. Turnout was 73 percent of the registered voters, with 88 percent voting for Assad. In Beirut, the streets were clogged with tens of thousands of Syrian refugees marching through the city to vote at the Syrian Embassy. Hundreds of Syrian citizens living in the U.S. and other Western countries flew to Syria to vote because Syrian Embassies in Washington and other Western capitals were shut down.
While Secretary of State John Kerry was condemning the Syrian election as a “farce” before it had even happened, a marketing company known as The Syria Campaign waged a campaign to block knowledge of the Syrian election. Along with demonizing President Assad, the company launched a campaign which led to Facebook censoring information about the Syrian election.
He must be very popular indeed, just like his father was before him, because he and his dad always won by a huge majority. I expect the fact that the electoral authorities don’t want to end up dangling by their heels with electrodes on their bollocks had a bit to do with those awesome results, but still, very well played.
The funny thing is, I bet these saps aren’t even getting paid for writing this stuff.
Who was the man to cut down the last tree on Easter Island?
A fairy tale to cover up the real culprits.
Their explanation stands in stark contrast to the traditional story, starting with the very timing of the original inhabitants’ arrival on the island. While Bahn and Dr. Flenley suggest that humans were living on the island before the first millennium of the common era was over, Dr. Lipo and Dr. Hunt say people didn’t arrive until around 1200 AD.
According to Lipo and Hunt, the Rapa Nui people went on to thrive, although not in as large numbers as the traditional story suggests. And their agricultural lifestyle wasn’t their ruin. Instead of committing ecocide, the Rapa Nui were still doing well when the Europeans arrived.
What ultimately did in the thriving civilization, they argue, was contact with Europeans. The explorers carried diseases, thinning the population, before ultimately enslaving and decimating many.
Classic – the euros killed them and then adjusted (lied and rewrote) the story to make the indigenous people the baddies and idiots for killing themselves off. This happens all over the place, it happens here.
Shit next thing they’ll bring out a skin suit of a Polynesian and claim they are being complimentary – oh yeah sorry DISNEY already did that!!!
Good old Maggie Barry-has funding for lawyers defending the indefensible, but not for huts, tracks and biodiversity.
“DOC today sought leave to appeal [[to the Supreme Court] the court’s direction that the Director-General reconsider his decision on a land exchange for the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
We are making this appeal because the effect of the decision on the management of public conservation land is a matter of public importance,” Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said.”
Is this Just “normal” crony capitalism, or enhancing business profitablity by design (ACT and the limited control of “Council Controlled entities,” or an isolated incident that shows that corruption does eventually get caught by Auckland City processes.
If this is happening in Auckland, is it also happening with roads of National/ACT significance?
It’s not just Auckland, theres the National government (so many issues to point out from Saudi Sheep to Scenic hotels) also I heard a rumour that Wellington council has just approved 8 million dollars to Singapore Airlines to fly to Wellington… Most people just want the libraries and their rubbish collected, not blowing money left right and centre.
Theres also advice given to Auckland council from their so called private advisers Simpson Grierson (legal) and Deloittes… (IT). Someone should work out if these advisers fees have ballooned over the years and whether the advice was of sufficient quality for the amount of fees…
Don’t forget the IT guy in Southland who stole millions from the health board with fake invoices…
So many staff with their noses in the troughs.. I suspect the current case is just the tip of the ice berg. What’s going on with the SOF isn’t that their remit to look into this stuff …
Not a rumour save nz, the Wellington City Council slush fund administered by the CEO, handed $8m to Singapore Airlines to have a service that hubs at Canberra rather than Sydney or Melbourne. Funny – no screams of disapproval from the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce that threatened to take the Council to Court for voting to pay a living wage!
Good old Maggie Barry-has funds for lawyers defending the indefensible but not for track, huts and biodiversity.
“DOC today sought leave to appeal [to the Supreme Court] the court’s direction that the Director-General reconsider his decision on a land exchange for the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
“We are making this appeal because the effect of the decision on the management of public conservation land is a matter of public importance,” Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said.”
Looks like we’ve got Muzza & the Pom’s have got a “poet” as a Foreign Minister called Boris who’s currently in Turkey collecting his prize for writing this poem for Erdogan;
Winner of the British magazine, the Spectator, offered a £1,000 ($1,440) prize for the most offensive poem against Erdoğan.
“There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific wankerer
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn’t even stop to thankera.”
Muzza,Boris & Trump would make an awesome team? What for, I don’t know yet?
Doesn’t look like she’s getting temporary additional support but that wouldn’t deal with a situation like this anywhere near as effectively as how the special benefit used to.
There’s a lot to be angry about in that article but my palpable rage comes from Stuff putting 11 helpline numbers under that article and not a single one of them is to a beneficiary advocacy group.
Reading the text of Trumps debate yesterday on a linguists site, it identifies what happens when Trump speaks. On paper it transcribes as a disjointed mess regarding “the terrible deal the US has made with Iran,” for example.
But live with gestures and tones he does get his message to those who want to hear.
Read Key’s transcribed of the off-the -cuff speeches and exactly the same happens. Disjointed and ambiguous but the believers get his message. And later he can use the ambiguity to justify his position.
So I think Key and Trump use the same speaking style and it works!
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Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
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This law change – put up by tolley and supported by ardern.
“A new law outlined today will axe a longstanding provision that gives priority to placing abused children with foster parents from the same extended family or tribe.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11714721
Currently, the Care and Protection Guidelines say:
“In all situations it is preferable for the placement of the child or young person to be with their family/whānau or extended family/whānau member. A placement outside the family/whānau will only occur when there are no suitable family/whānau, hapu or iwi placements available.”
This is saying that cultural connections are an important consideration not the be all and end all – and now… for the 60 percent of children in care who are Māori, we are heading towards placement wherever is easiest, and cheapest. And if you don’t think this is moving towards serco running foster homes and so on you are dreaming.
Just to set some things straight – Whānau get the same police checks and winz checks as any other placement. When placed with Whānau often that is it and those members receive less support and attention than foster parents.
This is another insidious tentacle of colonisation and will do nothing to protect the children that need protection.
Tariana Turia has said
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1609/S00336/anti-whanau-stance-inconsistent.htm
I suppose the racists will come out on this one and start reciting all of the abuse cases and deaths of children by the hands of their kin – I am not dismissing the abuse that occurs daily to children, I am not trying to pretend that those things don’t happen.
I utterly agree with you marty mars. The recent changes to CYFs, the naming of a new ministry the ministry for vulnerable children rather than just children, and the ruling out of whanau as the first port of call where there are problems , all point in a dangerous direction. So much easier to kick people out onto the street when photogenic kids are removed from the equation. So much easier to reach the bottom rung of the property ladder with a government-funded, Serco allocated foster kid or two. This policy direction has “stolen generation” written all over it.
QFT
National cares about two things:
1. Making rich people richer
2. Taking wealth and power away from everyone else and giving it to rich people
And in this case making problems worse so they’ve got something to pretend they’re fixing.
I don’t think it really matters where a Maori child is placed as long as it’s a safe and nurturing environment.
If that’s only available in a non- Maori environment so what, it’s the well being of the child that’s most important.
Thanks. Now we know what our resident rwnj thinks.
You think that’s a bad thing?, a Maori child can only live with Maori people, what sort of fucked up racist thinking is that.
Shame on you Super Maori.
[Marty didn’t say that, neither did his original comment, and the law change isn’t about that. You know how to debate better than this BM. Pull your head in – weka]
rwnj deliberately tries to create a different story than the one posted. He does this so debate can’t occur and because he is thick.
If you re-read marty mars’ comment, you will see that the current ruling allows for putting a child elsewhere when no other option is available. The problem lies with the fact that when the extended family option is available, it will no longer have priority. Which means that those deciding where to place a child might well prioritise the child’s having its own bedroom among strangers over their sharing a bedroom with a known-and-loved cousin, for example.
Turia is spot on here. And it’s not just affecting Maori. It’s operational failure that’s driving Tolley towards ideological law change. The perennial complaint about CYFS is that it focuses on protection over care when the Act gives equal weight to both. So social workers are putting kids in foster care before looking at care issues which if resolved would avoid that and let kids stay with their own families, consistent with both the objectives of the Act and the UNCROC. Much wider issues at play here, but Tolley’s using a steam roller to flatten everything that on all levels point to government failure.
So that justifies getting rid of supporting families to care for their own children as a primary objective of the Act? Because it doesn’t matter where children live? Fuck, I didn’t realise how much of a moron you are.
“Put up by tolley and supported by ardern”
Why is Labour supporting it?
And with Labour also supporting it, it will be hard to overturn.
I think there will be trouble with this because it goes against the evidence and smacks of colonizing patronizing non acceptance of the parnership inherent in the Treaty.
Where to from here, Marty?
Do you think National will withdraw under pressure?
This won’t go away – momentum to oppose this will grow, protests are coming. No option but withdrawal of this by the politicans.
Starting to build
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/iwi-leaders-express-concern-over-proposed-changes-placement-vulnerable-children
Labour seem so into wanting to support nasty nat law changes the next step surely must be a grand coalition.
It looks to me like Ardern might have put the cart before the horse on this one, although “supported by” might be over-egging it a bit (it’s the support equivalent of the non-apology apology).
Putting her comment “There is not the same level of scrutiny around kin care, so there is not the same level of assessment of whether or not it’s the right or safest placement for the child.” […] “That unfortunately has undermined kin care and I can see why we have ended up in this place.” alongside your “Whānau get the same police checks and winz checks as any other placement. When placed with Whānau often that is it and those members receive less support and attention than foster parents.”, the obvious response is to make the ongoing support and attention given to all new immediate families for children conform to the same minimum level, rather than just dropping the kid off and hoping for the best.
I’ll be interested to see if she actualy commits to a course of action one way or the other.
Seymour tells the left not to do an Epsom in Mt Roskill… bahahahahahahaha pot calling the kettle black David.
They are not hoodwinking the public, they are being straight up with them, that MOU is gold. Watch out David your electorate could be next, are you freaking out a little bit?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1609/S00480/mt-roskill-arrangement-shows-oppositions-hypocrisy.htm
+100
A special place in hell for him.
Seymour, who preaches that government and taxes are evil, but makes his living by being in government, riding the Ministerial limo, hoovering up all the taxpayer funded junkets he can find.
“riding the Ministerial limo”.
He doesn’t actually. He is not a minister, from his own volition, apparently.
Only Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition in the Parliament get supplied with the limos.
Winston is not pleased, I gather, that he is not allowed one.
He didn’t tell them “not to do an Epsom in Mt Roskill” as you claim.
He merely pointed out that the Labour candidate is a hypocrite for going along with something he complained about last election.
As he pointed out “Strategic voting is a reality of MMP, but hypocrisy is optional”.
“Strategic voting is a reality of MMP, but hypocrisy is optional”.
Seymour’s mixing how people vote with what parties say they’re doing. As Stephanie Rodgers referred to last week, in Epson the nats put up a candidate but told people to vote for Seymour. In Mt Roskill Labour and the Greens are being quite open about what they’re doing.
The real question is whether Labour’s going to be really dumb again in 2017 and deliberately set out to fuck over potential coalition partners.
Seymour knows all about hypocrisy, he is an expert at it. He likes people having options and that’s why he chooses hypocrisy.
He railed against it the Epsom arrangement being described as the only thing that saved Act but that is reality. A reality he doesn’t like and doesn’t want others to focus on.
Yet another example of the State underfunding a process then watching it fail and fobbing it off to private enterprise ,which will do a lesser job and make a profit to boot. Never mind the children , they are just “outcomes”.
edit…. in reply to Marty Mars.
Minto drops the ball
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/84708904/mintos-living-wage-pledge-still-uncosted
Listen to Minto speak here: http://mintoformayor.org.nz/
or read him here: http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/09/23/christchurch-press-mayoral-debate-20th-september-2016-cardboard-cathedral/
I like Minto. However, with voting already begun, it’s disappointing to hear that he’s yet to have a key policy costed. It’s amateurish.
Auckland mayoral debate turns into shoving match
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-body-elections/84728872/auckland-mayoral-debate-turns-into-shoving-match-between-screaming-candidates
Holland began screaming “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is great” – as Heneti and Hay continued to yell at each other.
….
Swarbrick later told One News that Heneti “was pushing me aside quite a bit”, but with seven years of karate and two years of Muay Thai under her belt, she wasn’t afraid to intervene.
A mayoral candidate running for the Auckland mayoralty on the Auckland Legalise Cannabis ticket who yelled “Oooh, I can feel a brawl!” and “Allahu Akbar” during an Auckland mayoral debate has defended his outburst by saying he was “incredibly drunk”.
Swarbrick said it was the oddest debate she had taken part in during the campaign.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/84733917/auckland-mayoral-brawl-candidate-defends-allahu-akbar-cry
No wonder local body voting is down with clowns like this, though by the sounds of it Chloe Swarbrick probably picked up a few votes so good on her
Earth may be close to the warmest it has been in a million years:
https://www.cnet.com/news/earth-may-be-at-warmest-point-in-million-years/
Earth may be close to the warmest it has been in the last million years, especially in the part of the Pacific Ocean where potentially violent El Nino weather patterns are born, climate scientists reported on Monday.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more frequent El Ninos–which can disrupt normal weather around the world–but it could well mean that these wild patterns will be stronger when they occur, said James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City.
NASA announced a couple of weeks ago that we have just had the warmest global August on record, and it surpassed the previous warmest…which was in 2014.
It was an increase of 0.16 deg C over the Aug 2014 temperature.
For the math inclined that’s a 0.1 deg C rise every 15 months. Does that sound like “abrupt climate change” to you? It does to me.
IMO we’re going to hit 2 deg C global average warming by 2030 on a pre-industrial basis, and probably we will do it with time to spare.
Oddly enough, I am looking at a graphic which claims that we still have 28 years worth of carbon burning budget left for a 50% chance to avoid 2 deg C warming.
But 2030 is only 14 years away.
That budget is how big? Does it involve burning carbon at present rates (as implied by your comment)? Does it include land emissions and energy emissions? What level of cuts in energy use would be needed to satisfy that budget? Does it assume negative emission technology?
You got a link?
Must say. Your comments on AGW are becoming a tad ridiculous CV. Seems all you want to do is wave your arms screaming bad, badder and baddest and are quite willing to submit misleading comments to crow on about how you ‘got down’ on some bedderest of all bads scenario.
Is this the link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/10/dangerous-global-warming-will-happen-sooner-than-thought-study
” researchers say a global tracker monitoring energy use per person points to 2C warming by 2030″
University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers have developed a “global energy tracker” which predicts average world temperatures could climb 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2020.
That forecast, based on new modelling using long-term average projections on economic growth, population growth and energy use per person, points to a 2C rise by 2030.
No, that’s not a link containing any “graphic which claims that we still have 28 years worth of carbon burning budget left for a 50% chance to avoid 2 deg C warming.”
Knock yourself out, tell me how you read this.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-only-five-years-left-before-one-point-five-c-budget-is-blown
Oh dear the denier denies
http://inhabitat.com/donald-trump-gaslights-the-world-by-denying-his-climate-change-is-a-chinese-hoax-tweet/
Hi marty mars, your following me around like this is endearing but seriously: there isn’t 5ppm of difference between Clinton and Trump on climate change.
Clinton knows how to say the right things though, I’ll give her that.
I’m pleased you are happy about it – and I just cannot help putting some facts in when you pontificate from on high with weepy eyes about all the things you say you care about but actually deliberately work against – like trump and his climate change denier status and this bullshit trumpism of yours of 5ppm.
Strictly speaking, these aren’t probabilities, but are the proportion of all the model simulations that keep warming below that temperature limit.
Okay. That’s the 5th para from your link. So it’s a graph relating to or tabulating the conclusions of various models – not the real world.
Additional small detail. All the major models that hold to 2 degrees employ either peak dates from “yesterday” or assume negative emission tech. Some use both sleights of hand.
That’s from Kevin Anderson who trawled through hundreds of ‘integrated assessment models’. Go to any of his more recent presentations and that information will be in there. Not one of his peers from the scientific community has challenged his findings on that front.
But thanks for providing the link.
NASA announced a couple of weeks ago that we have just had the warmest global August on record
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/gfx/spot/2016/201609_data_gistemp_736x480_x2.jpg
Neat trick with the spherical cow there,can you spot the problems?
Seems it might be time for all those who sneered at Penny Bright to eat some humble pie….
“Corruption at council widespread, says Crown”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11717850
Dickey said the Court would hear from nearly a dozen former staffers from RDC and Auckland Transport who would show – sometimes reluctantly as they were themselves implicated – that corruption had spread and become deep-rooted.
“The extensive provision of benefits to staff at all levels of their teams resulted in a culture where corruption flourished and was normalised, with no questions asked,” he said.
+1 Chairman – totally true. Sad, that only Penny, of the Mayoral candidates seem concerned about it.
There are serious issues with the relationships between council staff and private companies and where the rate payers dollars are going.
“There are serious issues with the relationships between council staff and private companies and where the rate payers dollars are going.”
With this sort of carry on, one can see why the council has failed to meet Penny’s demand for transparency.
So very, very, true. And it has been going on for years. I know of someone who was regularly being treated to Box seats at Rugby Games at Eden Park years ago. I was astounded then, but he thought it was entirely ok! The fact that those offering the treats were businesses he had regular dealings with in his day to day work seemed to escape him.
That does seem to be a problem in NZ – we simply don’t recognise the corruption that’s so much in our face.
The fact it is being described as “normalised” is concerning.
It will be hard to eradicate being this in set.
+1 DH
Barrie George, Noone’s Deputy pleaded guilty on the eve of the trial to receiving $108,580 in bribes which he mostly used for twenty overseas holidays for himself and his family. He received 10 months Home Detention.
What a slap with a wet bus ticket that was – with all the hoo haa over the rugby player who knocked senseless and assaulted four people and was let off – its pretty obvious that there is one law for one section of society and one for the rest of us. I can see what an unfortunate person on a benefit would get if he chose to accept money under the counter while receiving his/her miserable amount they receive from the Government. It sure wouldn’t be 10 months home detention.
Good on you Penny for keeping up the good work, there are many who applaud your guts and determination. No bloody wonder our rates keep rising – just to keep people in holidays overseas – its disgusting.
If the council still did it’s own work and didn’t outsource to the private sector then none of this could actually happen.
The more privatisation that we have the more the corruption shows up.
An underarm bowl
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201817659/mccains-flies-in-new-zealanders-to-break-australian-strike
Scabs.
Boycott these products.
http://mccain.com.au/products/
Can someone please point me to the place where the mayoral candidates for Auckland talk about their promises on assets which they are the guardians of. Specifically – water, but also Port of Auckland and airport shares.
Thank you very much in advance.
Have you looked here? https://thestandard.org.nz/even-more-local-body-elections-advice/
NASA is sinking into the ocean:
http://gizmodo.com/the-biggest-threat-to-nasas-future-is-the-ocean-1786443954
How ironic.
Sinking is not quite the right verb 😉
The commercial ecosystem of western propaganda surrounding Syria: tricking progressives
From the outstanding alternative news site Consortium News
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/09/23/how-us-propaganda-plays-in-syrian-war/
He must be very popular indeed, just like his father was before him, because he and his dad always won by a huge majority. I expect the fact that the electoral authorities don’t want to end up dangling by their heels with electrodes on their bollocks had a bit to do with those awesome results, but still, very well played.
The funny thing is, I bet these saps aren’t even getting paid for writing this stuff.
Keep your blinders on for as long as you like, PM.
Elon Musk announces that it will be cheaper to buy a house on Mars than Auckland:
(presentation starts about 20 minutes in)
What about the commute?
I can’t imagine that taking any longer.
Think how much revenue can be gathered if the commuters have to pay per km to get into work… win win. sarc.
Who was the man to cut down the last tree on Easter Island?
Hedges is magnificent as usual.
A fairy tale to cover up the real culprits.
Their explanation stands in stark contrast to the traditional story, starting with the very timing of the original inhabitants’ arrival on the island. While Bahn and Dr. Flenley suggest that humans were living on the island before the first millennium of the common era was over, Dr. Lipo and Dr. Hunt say people didn’t arrive until around 1200 AD.
According to Lipo and Hunt, the Rapa Nui people went on to thrive, although not in as large numbers as the traditional story suggests. And their agricultural lifestyle wasn’t their ruin. Instead of committing ecocide, the Rapa Nui were still doing well when the Europeans arrived.
What ultimately did in the thriving civilization, they argue, was contact with Europeans. The explorers carried diseases, thinning the population, before ultimately enslaving and decimating many.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0217/Mystery-of-Rapa-Nui-What-really-happened-at-Easter-Island
Classic – the euros killed them and then adjusted (lied and rewrote) the story to make the indigenous people the baddies and idiots for killing themselves off. This happens all over the place, it happens here.
Shit next thing they’ll bring out a skin suit of a Polynesian and claim they are being complimentary – oh yeah sorry DISNEY already did that!!!
http://mashable.com/2016/09/21/disney-pulls-maui-costume/#MY9zitEleiqx
Two research positions with the evidence not really supporting one or the other.
Good old Maggie Barry-has funding for lawyers defending the indefensible, but not for huts, tracks and biodiversity.
“DOC today sought leave to appeal [[to the Supreme Court] the court’s direction that the Director-General reconsider his decision on a land exchange for the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
We are making this appeal because the effect of the decision on the management of public conservation land is a matter of public importance,” Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11718531
Widespread corruption
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11717850
Is this Just “normal” crony capitalism, or enhancing business profitablity by design (ACT and the limited control of “Council Controlled entities,” or an isolated incident that shows that corruption does eventually get caught by Auckland City processes.
If this is happening in Auckland, is it also happening with roads of National/ACT significance?
It’s not just Auckland, theres the National government (so many issues to point out from Saudi Sheep to Scenic hotels) also I heard a rumour that Wellington council has just approved 8 million dollars to Singapore Airlines to fly to Wellington… Most people just want the libraries and their rubbish collected, not blowing money left right and centre.
Theres also advice given to Auckland council from their so called private advisers Simpson Grierson (legal) and Deloittes… (IT). Someone should work out if these advisers fees have ballooned over the years and whether the advice was of sufficient quality for the amount of fees…
Don’t forget the IT guy in Southland who stole millions from the health board with fake invoices…
So many staff with their noses in the troughs.. I suspect the current case is just the tip of the ice berg. What’s going on with the SOF isn’t that their remit to look into this stuff …
A famous Dunedin story and rumours of where he stashed that wealth abound
… and also Dunedin, the council fleet manager who offloaded council vehicles to local dealers at low prices and pocketed the cash.
Not a rumour save nz, the Wellington City Council slush fund administered by the CEO, handed $8m to Singapore Airlines to have a service that hubs at Canberra rather than Sydney or Melbourne. Funny – no screams of disapproval from the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce that threatened to take the Council to Court for voting to pay a living wage!
Good old Maggie Barry-has funds for lawyers defending the indefensible but not for track, huts and biodiversity.
“DOC today sought leave to appeal [to the Supreme Court] the court’s direction that the Director-General reconsider his decision on a land exchange for the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
“We are making this appeal because the effect of the decision on the management of public conservation land is a matter of public importance,” Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11718531
Don’t buy from Australian companies? If you really want to hurt them boycott all sport with Australia. That’s what’ll do it.
https://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/dont-buy-australian.html
Looks like we’ve got Muzza & the Pom’s have got a “poet” as a Foreign Minister called Boris who’s currently in Turkey collecting his prize for writing this poem for Erdogan;
Winner of the British magazine, the Spectator, offered a £1,000 ($1,440) prize for the most offensive poem against Erdoğan.
“There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific wankerer
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn’t even stop to thankera.”
Muzza,Boris & Trump would make an awesome team? What for, I don’t know yet?
http://qz.com/688126/would-you-like-to-read-boris-johnsons-dirty-goat-sex-limerick-about-the-turkish-president/
Here’s a classic example of what happens to people since Labour got rid of the special benefit in 2004:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/84670949/a-womans-struggle-after-daughters-death
Doesn’t look like she’s getting temporary additional support but that wouldn’t deal with a situation like this anywhere near as effectively as how the special benefit used to.
There’s a lot to be angry about in that article but my palpable rage comes from Stuff putting 11 helpline numbers under that article and not a single one of them is to a beneficiary advocacy group.
Reading the text of Trumps debate yesterday on a linguists site, it identifies what happens when Trump speaks. On paper it transcribes as a disjointed mess regarding “the terrible deal the US has made with Iran,” for example.
But live with gestures and tones he does get his message to those who want to hear.
Read Key’s transcribed of the off-the -cuff speeches and exactly the same happens. Disjointed and ambiguous but the believers get his message. And later he can use the ambiguity to justify his position.
So I think Key and Trump use the same speaking style and it works!
we-ell it works for Key, anyway. Bit early to see for the winningest winner from winnerland.