Fixed. The identicon button was unchecked, though I don’t know why. As far as I know, the identicons don’t slow page loading or have any impact on the way pages look, so I guess it was entirely unintentional. Lprent will put me right in his usual style if I’ve got that wrong 😉
” New Zealand is on track. One child dies in NZ as a result of abuse every five weeks.
Three children are dead so far in New Zealand this year as a result of domestic violence and it is not even the end of March.
In many cases they get fleeting news coverage and we may not even learn their names.
Names matter. We refuse to speak the name of the mosque murderer in our search for non-violence. We won’t give him any air time – he was not us, says Prime Minister Jacinda Adern. He does not exist.
But he did. He really did! And so do the children that are dying in New Zealand as a result of domestic violence occurring right here. We need to speak their names. We need to be just as outraged by their deaths as we are by the mosque killings.
Yet we keep quiet about them because they are our national shame. We look the other way.
Currently there is an almost obscene celebration of ourselves as New Zealanders.
Adern has carefully crafted a response to a terrorist act in New Zealand so that tables have been completely turned and we have come up smelling of roses.
The message is: ‘This is not us – it is just one individual who lost the plot’.
Adern really is a good leader – she is doing well in protecting our national identity. National identities are important in a global economy.
I think it is wrong that the world’s tallest building (in Dubai) is lit up with an image of Jacinda Adern when our own dying children in New Zealand get limited media coverage.
Blurb on NZ standards from the government on-line:
(How many people are employed in PR and seriously compromising their own integrity by writing this shit with a sure hand?)
Family Life in New Zealand | New Zealand Now https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/why-choose-nz/family-friendly
Nov 12, 2018 – But rest assured, New Zealand is a great place to bring up children. It’s why so many Kiwis living abroad come back home when it’s time to start nesting. … There are wonderful opportunities for young people to grow up with easy … Families in New Zealand get great support from a range of public services.
Maori have numerous systems going and success. But society is up against television and its content that is probably more anti-social than positive, also drugs – alcohol, mj, other chemicals, lack of meaningful jobs with decent pay,
peer pressure and modelling; also a general lack of respect from ignorant, snooty pakeha and middle-class whites who patronise and judge, is an observation of mine.
There has been action also from the private sector generally, and not all just to get on the money bandwagon from government. Which is how some charter schools see things when bad, but not all charter schools are no good, government should ensure better standards, mentors and overview.
There is Thrive – which sounds good but with little information about the people running it, no names. Under Waves Trust, 7 Henderson Valley Road, Henderson. http://www.thrive.org.nz/contact/
Our Vision
Young parents and their children are able to reach their full potential by being connected and secure within their families and communities.
Our Mission
Thriving young people, parents and families.
Mahi tahi
We are a small team of social workers, support staff and volunteers who are committed to helping young teenage parents and their whānau flourish and thrive.
What we do
We offer a range of innovative one on one wrap around support along with various programmes that are tailored and targetted towards the needs, hopes and aspirations of teen parents.
Our first priority is the wellbeing of you and your unborn or new born baby, pepi. We work in partnership with teen parents to be or new teen parents, by ensuring that your voice is heard and that we speak with you and not for you.
The aim of all that we do is based on working to break through and address any and all of the pressing issues that a young parent, young couple face as they look to strengthen and uphold their new roles as parents to be or new parents.
Our highly skilled staff are there to guide, shape and assist every step of the way. We are have a strong reputation of building and maintaining a solid relationship with teen parents and their baby, pepi through an effective and continuous quality service provision.
WHY?
The team is focused on ensuring that you are given the necessary support, tools, and information that will improve the health and well-being of you and your child. Our commitment is based on teen parents reaching and fulfilling their potential and reaching their goals.
(This is the work and the attitude about the social need, that the government should be showing itself not through a second party.)
Then there is government’s Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children. I wonder how Maori feel they are getting on with their job? Can’t see an overview on that but I imagine there will be one.
I have remembered more info that is valid for this and put it up further along the post.
Yes, it is there like an unreliable cat waiting for the right moment to bite you on the ankle. So nice to look at, so innocent a pleasure, and so difficult to know how to protect yourself. I have avoided having that, but others I know have been bitten.
The only thing about smoking is that it has become established. It is stupid not to notice how Prohibition went in the USA – it encouraged crime and now with tobacco becoming hard to obtain because of the price, it has gone up on the Bell curve of effectiveness from pricing to falling effectiveness because of the enhancement of the price raising the intrinsic value of the ciggies.
“What if we were to form a mass vigil for all the children who have died in New Zealand as a result of child abuse? One candle for every little life. Between 2010 and 2016 that was 66 lives.
What if we demanded an adequate social welfare system within which children and families had wrap around care?
What if we valued children so much in New Zealand that our leader Adern would raise the pay of our teachers in early childhood and schools to demonstrate the value of their work?
But she didn’t. And we looked the other way. We did not call a mass uprising to say we wanted our teachers and schools supported. We did not yell loud enough and say ‘this is not us’.
If the recent death of the child in Maketu doesn’t raise the hairs on your arms in the same way that the spine-chilling hakas did in the aftermath of the shootings it is because we have normalised it.
Another child has died in suspicious circumstances in New Zealand and we are in no position to deny that we are a violent society.”
All this ‘this is not us’ bullshit….I’m over it. It is us. We kill our kids.
I agree we need to be making a huge fuss about it and start doing some serious research into why it is happening. And start to fix it.! There are lots of theories and ideas, of course, but in order to start making the first meaningful steps to stop these tragic happenings we need some serious data and a workable plan.
The new IDI might be able to produce deeper information about relationships and generational issues, but there’s only so far one can go with probabilistic ID linkage between such diverse datasets.
I suspect the main problem is that the numbers of mortality are too low to get real relationships from, and the gap between detecting non-lethal abuse/neglect and identifying it in the morgue is so wide. Even though health professionals are getting better at looking for it, there’d still be a massive underreporting of child injuries resulting from assault – often difficult to tell an arm broken by accident with an arm broken by dragging etc. So we see the ones who turn up dead, but you’d be lucky to see maybe a quarter of assault injuries attributed to something other than accident.
So basically asfar as I can see the main thing we can do is lower family stress by reducing inequality and hardship, throwing more social workers at everyone, and then hoping that the upper-income sociopaths get outed by their kids at school.
OOOOOH …. Eric Idle, – my absolute favourite of the Python team !
There’s just something about his eyes, his face shape, his voice , mannerisms that perfectly suited his comic cheeky , cheerful persona, – Life of Brian , – speaking to the Roman guard … ” Nah – I’m only pullin’ your leg ,- its crucifixion really , yeah I know the way , out the door , one cross each, line on the left ”
Hahahaa! – as if hes an old hand at being crucified and its just the same old , same old , humdrum routine …
The guy used to have me in hysterics of laughter 🙂
Hoots ethos must be really feeling threatened, he slips the knife into Winston again over at the fish wrap this morning. 2020 is sure going to be an interesting election.
Not particularly anti. It’s just that the dude has survived more announcements of his political demise than Christopher Lee turned to dust in all the Hammer Horrors combined.
Big ups to all those attending the service this morning in Hagley Park…
An overly heavy weight fell upon the city, still rebuilding its strength post-eqs. You can almost touch it. It is on people’s faces. It will take time to dissipate.
grim
heavy
burdensome
(of course, the city is a minor bit-part and thoughts and wishes go first and foremost to the victims and their families and communities.)
It was a special event, an involving experience for everyone (& there were many), full of character and community; & a huge credit to all involved in putting together such a good display of NZ values of respect.
Agreed. American leadership is so shite their citizens are openly embarrassed, and for some time now many travelling pretend to be Canadian to take the heat off.
I went to live in Canada in 1968 when the anti-Vietnam war riots were spreading around the US and US young were dogging the ‘draft’ to go to Vietnam so this is a historical event that happens every time politics changes rapidly,
This time it’s Trump draining the ‘Washington swamp’ finally, so maybe some of the former ‘Washington intelligence staff’ are running away from being tracked as US citizens.
Had some relations here from the UK recently who had been travelling through Asia and Australia, they said any Americans they met would say they are from the State they are from in the USA rather than the USA. Does that tell you something about how they feel about the USA and it’s International Relations ?
Russian troops have landed in Venezuela, no doubt that will making a few waves for trump.
“The arrival of two Russian air force planes carrying nearly 100 Russian troops outside Caracas on Saturday has escalated the political crisis in Venezuela.”
Admittedly, Matthew is enmeshed in a rather abysmal lot. There is Hosking who daily writes about Hosking and little else.
There is Audrey Young who struggles in later life to know what a Topic is. Whether on Dan’s panel – Or Whatever. Although she is marginally more alive than Johnny Armstrong.
So from the large Herald nursery, only about two writers cut the mustard with Fact and Humour and Balance.
I punished myself today and read a bit of smooth Hooton dated 2004, where he was jacking up National in a bouquet of Flowers and Perfume – and a Brash of bright future. Oh Yeah.
Hooton does nothing but unjack everyone – EXCEPT – his idols – Johnny Key, Frau Bennett and Billy English, each of whom gave New Zealand great wealth. Huge wealth. Incredible wealth. Tax Cuts Tax Cuts Tax Cuts.
National have decided they must get rid of Winston Peters. He is too good to be allowed to stay alive. He is a threat to Simon. Equally a threat to “strange person of power” Papakura Collins. He is the enemy of excessive Wealth.
Not a single Journalist of the Herald has ever written a word about the real people of New Zealand.
The ones who go to work. Often two jobs a day. Both Parents. Struggling to pay for a bit of Fonterra’s bland cheese. Unhoused. Batted around by Dickensian Landlords.
Hooton is in decay. Yes. But he is not the only one who has hated and destroyed the backbone of the real people of this our Nation.
Michael Fay and David Richwhite infamous!! Yes and they hollowed it out sold shares to the workers in the bank branches complete with loans to buy their shonkey shares!!
Luckily my eldest son needed our signature on the loan and we explained why we thought it was a bad idea. Son was so relieved. No job and a debt was how they left many having unloaded worthless shares.
The bank folded and those people were left paying for fresh air. That pair went to Ireland and did similar over there.
“Not a single Journalist of the Herald has ever written a word about the real people of New Zealand.
The ones who go to work. Often two jobs a day. Both Parents. Struggling to pay for a bit of Fonterra’s bland cheese. Unhoused. Batted around by Dickensian Landlords.”
Oh – so you mean your definition of ‘real people of new zealand’.
Plenty of tea New Zealanders are going perfectly fine and dandy – they are real New Zealanders as well.
Global State of the Climate 2018 – Expert Reaction
Friday, 29 March 2019, 9:17 am
Press Release: Science Media Centre
The physical signs and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In their 2018 State of the Global Climate report, they say 2018 saw record sea level rise and exceptionally high land and ocean temperatures over the past four years, continuing the warming trend observed over the past two decades.
The statement also covers climate impacts on human populations over the past year, such as at climate hazards, displacements and food security.
The SMC asked experts to comment, feel free to use these comments in your reporting.
Professor James Renwick, climate scientist and Head of the VUW School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, comments:
“The 25th annual State of the Climate report from the WMO is an excellent and accessible summary, but it makes for sobering reading. Carbon dioxide concentrations are at record levels, ocean heat content and sea levels are both at record highs, sea ice extent is well below normal in both hemisphere, glaciers and ice sheets are melting. On and on in the now-familiar litany of all the ways the climate is warming and changing around us. Even more worrying is the range of associated extreme weather events and impacts on human populations. World hunger is on the rise and we are now talking of millions of people displaced as a result of weather and climate extremes.
“Ecosystems are being affected worldwide, on land and in the oceans, where acidification is associated with rising temperatures and loss of dissolved oxygen. The record heat in New Zealand and the Tasman Sea during summer 2017/18 is an example of what we can expect much more of in future years. With no action on climate change, that record warm summer in New Zealand would be counted as a cold summer in another 50 years. The associated increases in climate and weather extremes would displace hundreds of millions and would threaten the fabric of societies everywhere.
“The globe is currently running a temperature of about 1°C above pre-industrial levels. To rein in the warming at no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial, global emissions need to halve by 2030, and go to zero by 2050. Yet, emissions increased to record levels in 2018! Policy-makers must really take on board that climate change is an existential threat to global society, to the global economy, and to all ecosystems on earth. I hope the planned United Nations Climate Action Summit later this year really galvanises action by governments around the world.”
No conflict of interest.
Gregor Macara, climate scientist, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), comments:
“In a week that has seen the highest 48-hour rainfall total ever in New Zealand, it seems fitting that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is highlighting the increasing impacts of climate change around the world.
“New Zealand is far from immune and has experienced many of the indicators the WMO has concluded are becoming more pronounced globally.
“These include:
• New Zealand’s hottest ever month in January 2018 when the mean temperature was 20.3°C, a remarkable 3.1°C above average
• At New Zealand climate stations over the past six years, for every record or near-record low monthly mean temperature there have been 12 record or near-record highs.
• A hot March this year – higher temperatures than what it’s usually like in mid to late summer.
• Marine heatwaves over the past two summers – likely a contributor to this week’s wettest 48 hours on record.
• A near record 40-day dry spell in Nelson this summer which included significant wildfires.
• 2018 coming in at NZ’s equal-second warmest year on record .” [High-res graph available here under creative commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)].
No conflict of interest.
Professor Jim Salinger, Visiting Scholar, Penn State University, comments:
“The 25th Anniversary issue shows hastening climate warming globally. This was true for the New Zealand region, a combined land and marine area of 4 million sq. km (the size of the Indian subcontinent), with the warmest year on 150 years of land and sea records.
“It is very alarming that the carbon dioxide levels reaching a highest 406 ppm – up from 280 ppm in the 19th century, and methane jumping unexpectedly by 25 ppb to a record 1850 ppb by 2017.
“The extra 3.7 mm of sea level rise will be very significant for the coast of Australia, and especially New Zealand with its many seaside urban areas and long coasts.
“The record warm summer ending in February 2019 produced the largest ice loss on the Southern Alps glaciers since the regular end of summer snowline surveys started 42 years ago.
“We’ve seen Queensland Groper in the Bay of Islands, Northland, 3000 km out of range, snapper in Milford Sound in Fiordland, and massive mortality in the aquaculture fisheries of the Marlborough Sounds. These are a harbinger of climate in the latter part of the 20th century if we do not take action to reduce emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and the production of greenhouse gases from other sources such as waste and agriculture immediately.”
No conflict of interest.
ends
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand’s only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
Contact Science Media Centre NZ
• Website – http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz
• Email – smc@sciencemediacentre.co.nz
• Phone – +64 4 499 5476
• Mobile – +64 21 859 365
• Facebook
• Twitter – @smcnz
• YouTube
• Postal Address – PO Box 598, Wellington 6140
I’m so grateful to see the entire text of the media release faithfully pasted here including the contact details. That newfangled hyperlinking idea will never catch on. Off to scribe some papyrus and summon my faithful carrier pigeon.
Basic science says planetary gas traps heat, so digging up and burning carbon would inevitably increase the temperature globally. Especially if nothing is done to stop the concentration of co2 in the atmosphere. It really does not matter whether we have past the tipping point, we have or we will if nothing changes. So let’s grow the co2 level some more…
So we are running at the cliff, it looks now that we’ve run right off the top…
PM Jacinda Ardern was at the Memorial Service this morning, Soon she flies for a one day meeting with China. She will probably read that Report on her way. I’m sure James Shaw will read it as well.
Cleangreen, I know you didn’t mean to make it sound like she is neglectful, but it did rather read that way. Her plate is full.
A terrorist Attack which killed 50 and injured as many more.
A flight to China to salvage relations.
Gun law changes.
A Climate Change Tipping point Report.
A budget being prepared.
The ongoing repairs and replacements needed because of previous neglect.
I so admire this young woman who has taken on that role with such aplomb and sincerity.
She will do her level best for us all, and next election it is to be hoped we vote her a greater mandate to bring in change.
I marched on that day and held two banners up saying save rail save a planet.
I am nervous as the murders have shifted the spotlight off the most serious issue we now face for us and our children’s future.
I am 75 so don’t feel personally threatened as my life is now limited but when I look at my 7yr old grandson I almost cry at what he will face going forward so Jacinda must feel this too with a very young Girl under a year old.
Facebook is finally banning white nationalist content
The new ban, which will also apply to content supporting white separatism, comes after months of advocacy from civil rights groups.
Facebook has announced a ban on content that includes “praise, support and representation of white nationalism and separatism” — a significant policy shift that comes after months of criticism from civil rights groups.
The change, which was first reported Wednesday by Motherboard, will go into effect next week and will also apply to Instagram. The platform will also direct users who try to post this content to Life After Hate, an organization that helps people leave hate groups.
In a blog post published on Wednesday, Facebook explained its decision, noting that the new policy is the result of months of discussions between Facebook and outside groups. Previously, Facebook had banned content promoting white supremacy (generally, the belief that whites are superior to other races).
But the platform allowed white nationalist content (which promotes a belief that a white majority should control the social and political direction of predominantly white countries) and white separatist content (which argues that whites should create a separate ethnostate devoid of people of color). While their proponents argue that these ideologies are very different, groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center argue that the latter two often express a belief in white supremacy, making them all very similar.
Facebook says additional conversations with civil rights groups and experts “confirmed that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups,” leading the social media platform to expand its policy on hate language.
Twitter is considering labeling tweets that violate its rules but should remain on the platform because they’re in the public interest.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal, policy and trust made the announcement during an on-stage interview with the Washington Post on Wednesday.
The social media company is trying to find a way of maintaining its standards while adding context to tweets from politicians and other figures that may be offensive but are important for public debate.
Twitter has come under fire from some critics who say President Donald Trump’s tweets often violate its rules against bullying, dehumanization and threatening harm.
Well I guess even that little step is something on the way to cleaning up the garbage tip that these ‘social media’ sites have created over the past decade.
Well I hope that Twitter applies some consistency and removes the hate speech of Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar Mosque.
Hate speech and conspiracy theories like his recent rant in Aotea Square have helped radicalize so many, whether Muslim, Jewish, white supremacists or whoever. It has no place in NZ.
I’m no fan of Netanyahu and his extremist mates, but that guy’s just really irresponsible. Unless you’ve got solid evidence to suggest Mossad had anything to do with this (and good luck with that), ranting like an unhinged lunatic about Zionist conspiracy theories is just pathetic. He’s just tipping the scales in the other direction, and it’s helping no one, least of all NZ’s Muslim community.
If all this sounds familiar, it’s because sadly it is. This is not the first time Facebook has declared it will take action in this way.
In April 2016, Robert Godwin, a 74-year-old grandfather, was shot and killed in Cleveland, Ohio having been chosen at random by a killer who broadcast it live on Facebook.
At the time CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook’s annual developer conference, “We have a lot of work [to do], and we will keep doing all we can to prevent tragedies like this from happening”. In May of 2017 the company announced plans to add 3000 more staff to review user content to help battle violent videos.
Not much has changed. Today’s announcement sounds awfully hollow in light of the lack of action since 2016 and does little to assuage anyone’s concerns about the company and its ability to self-regulate.
Have people seen the film The Cleaners?
It sounds relevant https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/the-cleaners/
A thoroughly unnerving picture of our times, this gripping doco immerses us in the surreal world of the content moderators who decide what we see (or don’t see) on social media.
A thanks on 8.1 – – Thanks CG! Would have missed it otherwise
Soddenleaf
I agree with your point that we have no time here so we need to plan for the event now also. build less use of carbon emissions to slow the rate of destruction.
Yes Climate change updates like mine on 8 should be a subject that stays on the radar every day no matter what else goes on today.
As Climate change is about to kill at random many people who are also innocent in our communities as sea level rise and warming/ melting of our glaciers will flood many regions.
We saw this happen at the Franz Josef Glacier and all the flooding down at properties flooded at Hokitika perhaps from the melting of the glaciers there also?
How much pain and suffering does it take before the Government moves ‘decisively’ now?
We impatiently await James report, and hope like hell we have consensus on real change.
In the interim planting trees is a no brainer – soon as we (I) get some rains to support them…
The heat island effect in cities will only be exacerbated in future unless we take steps now to offset temperatures with the evaporative cooling and shading effect of trees. In addition trees perform many functions to enhance urban living.
Food, shade, shelter, habitat, aesthetic beauty, carbon capture, biodiversity, rain capture and transpiration, air cleaning, oxygen production…
To build resilience in communities we should get started, not wait on governments, though obviously we are… all hands on deck!
I put trees in recently that’ll take nearly a decade to bear food. Trees are a vote for the future. Start now.
Thinking about better outcomes for young children and teenagers and when they become young parents. This is heartening, and should be the norm now but probably not.
This gives an example of the background of the why of NZ’s poor record with parents and children on world statistical tables.
Dr Susan Baragwanath was the instigator of about 11 schools for teenage mothers, who the careless, condemning conformists with cold-blooded puritan minds were freezing out from society, and this was when the true facts about NZ early sexuality exploration and its effects were known – (by such as Jenny Shipley and the superior types in National Party).
Founder, He Huarahi Tamariki Schools
Dr. Susan Cave Baragwanath believes her fellowship came about because she had a problem, and she could not find anyone in New Zealand to help her solve it. She was a career secondary school teacher and administrator who had taught internationally. When she returned permanently to New Zealand in 1989 after 20 years away, she accepted a position as a deputy principal in one of the country’s poorest schools.
In the first week, she found a 14-year-old girl giving birth to a child in the school toilets. Baragwanath contacted the authorities about her continuing education, and she was told to forget about it. Baragwanath looked up New Zealand’s domestic law; there it was, in black and white, “every child is entitled to have a free basic formal education until the age of 19 years”. The only education available to this student, if she did not return to school (and she couldn’t as there were no childcare facilities), was distance learning. Her family did not own a phone, so she could not call her tutor, and she waited weeks for her school work to be delivered by mail. As a result, she quickly fell out of the system.
The pattern in New Zealand was for teenagers to have multiple pregnancies before age 21 and become state beneficiaries for life. Without proper research and a concrete plan going forward there seemed to Baragwanath no escape from this pattern continuing.
Maori focus:
Maori and teenage parents – Report on research. 2012
Marginalising Māori Parents
by Elizabeth Strickett and Helen Moewaka-Barnes
Massey University
Marginalising Maori Parents – for Massey University
(p.10 gives information about difficulties for young fathers)
But if government could push the InZone style with good funding for it, I guess as a charter school with good overview, so that it can be offered to young parents – there would be immediate improvements and a dramatic rise in successful young people handling their lives well, whether they had a job, apart from parenting or not. But some in government might feel that sort of result really isn’t their thing
Ahem … t’was I. I’ve turned them back on, and I’m not sure how they came to be off. If there is a technical issue, I’m sure Lprent will let us know. In the mean time, enjoy the rainbow.
Awww thanks for that.
I always remember Sir Paul Reeves being interviewed some years back on Nat Radio on a Sat Morning by Kim Hill and she had a slot then when she would invite some well known person on to give a playlist of their favourite music and to talk about what it meant for them. This was a favourite of his – he particularly like the backing of the Uke and the soft way it was sung. He had first heard it Hawaii IIRC and it was one of his favourite songs. I admit on hearing itI fell for it as well – but I was never able to find it – I just remembered it. I think the singer was a little younger then by the sound of it also – but still beautiful.
Thanks once again. I’ve stored it on my youtube.
I pointed out an article on great farming practice in the Kaipara recently, and now, in Southland, a catchment wide initiative involving more than 600 farms.
They’re treating each farm individually (smart!) and collecting massive data as they go on all manner of systems and processes. This is commendable work, and it seems they’ve done their homework.
I hope some of the trial farms involve earthworks and water retention.
But… yay for this initiative.
I also like the links on the side of the page. Get involved – Become a Citizen Scientist – etc.
Climate, to some odd people, is an enormous black hole.
One such odd person being the Honourable Simon Bridges and the other his idol, the Honourable Donald Trump.
Neither of whom have ever shown any glimpse of Reality.
The ultimate Goofs in Goofs clothing.
But as long as they can sell today’s youth off into Slums – without hope of housing or a fair slice of Life – Bridges and Trump will have achieved their Monstrous aims.
I took a drive through Panmure the other day. It was Tuesday. Its the Neighbour of expensive Remuera.
Panmure is the sort of filth Simon wants. It is dreadful. Few townships in the entire world could be as sick. Long Live dead head Simon. Long live mexicop Trump.
\Winston Peters has carved a career out of race baiting immigrants.
But at least he finally has the grace to admit he was wrong to have done so. (sort of)
Maybe, just maybe, Winston Peters has sensed the wind of change blowing through the nation’s psyche.
“If you want to look at someone who’s had the longest political career of anybody in this parliament, and you think that I would claim that I’m blameless over that long career. Well, you might but I don’t assume such a thing, and I never will.”
Jenny I think the media has miss reported Winston on a number of occasions, he has been critical of the quality of the immigrants we are bringing in ie the Christchurch Mosque Shooter and the share number of Asians entering the country when we do not have the housing stock and Infrastructure to support this level of Immigration.
Labour are continuing down this track of bringing in large numbers of Immigrants which is putting pressure on ordinary New Zealanders. ie housing and social services ?
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Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 26 through Sat, Aug 1, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe four types of climate denier, and why you should ignore them allThe shill, the grifter, the egomaniac and the ideological ...
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean?They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are ...
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...
So, the Hit and Run inquiry has reported back, and found some appalling shit at NZDF and NZSIS. And while they quibble a few of the details - the name of a dead child - they basicly uphold Hager and Stephenson's version of events. The SAS went to those villages. ...
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...
Michelle Boag - LeakerThe Heron report (PDF) was released yesterday, and it was a bit disappointing to say the least. It correctly found that former National Party president Michelle Boag and National Party MP Hamish Walker were politically motivated in leaking peoples private medical information, but didn’t look further into ...
On different trajectories and from different ends of the political spectrum, last night’s One News/Colmar Brunton poll has the Green Party and ACT converging around the five percent mark. And, as odd as it may sound, they head into the election campaign with a lot in common.Putting the Greens and ...
Truth In Advertising: Labour, it would seem, is the party that knows nothing about running the economy right up until the moment that it does. HOW DID LABOUR acquire its reputation for being a poor economic manager? As with most things political and historical, it’s a long story.In the beginning, the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Government rulemakers looking to decide how much money to spend to avoid adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere need a good estimate of what a warming climate will cost in social damages, for example through more extreme weather events. That point makes ...
Fact Check: New Zealand’s own relationship with China might, however, be salvageable if our own Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was willing to equip its minister, Winston Peters, with a few facts. Legislating for the protection of national security – the very action our Foreign Minister is decrying – ...
I hope we can all agree that charging only certain returning expats for isolation costs is the right call. Instead of a blanket fee, which may have resulted in a small number of Kiwis deciding not to return home because of financial reasons, the Government has chosen to implement a ...
Back at the beginning of this government, the Greens made a foolish decision to support the Electoral Integrity Act - demanded by Winston Peters to keep his own backbench in line as part of his coalition deal with Labour - as an act of good faith within the coalition. It ...
SATURDAY AUGUST 1Artefact (Prime, 7.30pm). The series presented by Dame Anne Salmond screened on Māori Television, but is totally worth revisiting if you saw it the first time. Dame Anne tells the stories of taonga that highlight the history of Aotearoa. Further reading: this 2013 interview with Dame Anne by the lovely ...
Have unions and the Government sold workers short with their attempt at fixing the so-called “Hobbit Law”? Unionist Ian Powell argues that the union movement has been outmanoeuvered, and the Government has agreed to a new piece of anti-worker legislation that retains the principles of the previous National Government’s hated ...
Most of the claims made by anti-fluoride propagandists are simply wrong. Image source:Fluoridation and the ‘sciency’ facts of critics Anti-fluoride propagandists continually cite studies from areas of endemic fluorosis in their arguments against ...
An article in the EETimes suggests that advances in autonomous vehicles are not moving as quickly as expected because those working on them have confused complicated problems with complex ones. Engineering can only take you so far in complex worlds. Complicated systems tend to have fairly predictable inputs, processes and outputs. Complex systems (like ...
Last week, after Judith Collins announced that National would be cruel and vicious to kiwis caught overseas by the pandemic, and rob them at the border if they returned home, Labour looked like it was falling all over itself to cry "me too". But now, it looks like kindness has ...
If entry into New Zealand from abroad is safe, it should be allowed. People arriving from places that are Covid-free, or no more risky than New Zealand, and who get here on flights that do not intersect with risky places, should return to normal travel arrangements. Currently, the Cook ...
Liz SlootenScientists from the University of Otago, working with colleagues from around the world, have found that New Zealand right whales are doing much better than right whales in other parts of the world. The research was published as the feature article in the journal Marine Ecology Progress ...
Back in 2019, the government asked for a comprehensive, independent review of the Resource Management Act and associated legislation. That review has now reported back and recommended a complete repeal and re-enactment. Despite the headlines, this is not a "scrapping" - we're still going to have a resource management law, ...
By Associate Professor Mik Black, Department of Biochemistry, University of OtagoThe increased availability of complex biological data sets means that analysis and computation are becoming critically important skills for New Zealand’s future scientists. Because of this, we need to be doing everything we can to help our students develop ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzIs humanity doomed? If in 2030 we have not reduced ...
Britain's spy agencies are supposedly overseen by various watchdogs, including the investigatory powers tribunal. But it turns out that MI6 at least has contempt for those watchdogs, and attempted to interfere with the operations of the tribunal by concealing evidence from its judges: MI6 has been accused of “inappropriate interference” ...
Daphna Whitmore So far this year over 7.4 million people have died from preventable communicable diseases. There were 4.3 million children who died under the age of five. Nearly one million people have died of HIV/AIDS in the past six months. A similar number of people have died from malaria ...
Four weeks ago I wrote about the last time a sizable asteroid hit our planet – the ‘Tunguska Event’ of 1908, when an object about 50 metres across exploded above the Siberian taiga – but smaller cosmic rocks shoot close by Earth fairly frequently. In the past 42 hours ...
Last month, China imposed a new "national security law" on Hong Kong. The law imposes a penalty of life imprisonment for secession, subversion, and "colluding with foreign forces" - which basicly means peacefully advocating for democracy or independence. It has been used to crush peaceful protests and interpreted by the ...
Powerful Connection: Neoliberalism is the antithesis of everything that has traditionally been associated with the feminine aspects of human nature. Kindness and compassion, nurturance and inclusiveness: such qualities have no place in the neoliberal order. When Jacinda proclaimed her determination to practice the “politics of kindness”, she was, wittingly or ...
The bad news: Jacinda Ardern still wants to bill exiled kiwis for returning home. The good news: it would require a law change, which the Greens won't back, so she'll need to go grovelling to National. The other good news: she's running out of time to do it. This ...
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...
If you want to understand what is happening in this year’s election campaign, it’s worth looking to the past for guidance. Colin James delves into recent contests and finds some interesting parallels. July 28 is 53 days before the 2020 election. Just 53 days before the 2017 election ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters Wildfires burned much less acreage in the U.S. than average during the first half of the year, but with hot and dry conditions expected over much of the nation in the coming months, fire activity is likely to ramp up. ...
Today a full bench of the High Court is hearing Andrew Borrowdale's challenge to the legality of the COVID-19 lockdown. That lockdown ended two months ago, so the point seems moot - but it was never about ending it. Instead, as Andrew Geddis points out, its about a key principle ...
So far, this has been a relatively policy-free election campaign. The government has been trying to keep a low profile, on the basis that anything they say will only piss someone off, so better to say as little as possible. When its not knifing its leader, National has promised roads, ...
I hardly ever comment on polls, because horse-race politics is superficial and boring and most changes are statistically meaningless and so unworthy of attention (let alone the excitement they provoke amongst mathematically illiterate political journalists desperate to fill airtime). But we've now had two polls in a row showing Labour ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on its inquiry into the operation of the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. As you'd expect, they find that the law was "necessary and appropriate", but would like to see a permanent replacement providing for health emergency powers as the Health ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... John Cook in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Major new climate study rules out less severe global warming scenariosAn analysis finds the most ...
It hasn’t taken long for the advent of Judith Collins as National party leader to change the tone of the political debate. After several days of headlines and airwaves dominated by reports of a National MP sending pornographic images to young women, the National leader had had enough of that ...
Don Franks An already fired up general election looks like getting even edgier. When final votes have been counted, a rather unlikely coalition government now seems possible As National and Labour implode with sexual proclivities while New Zealand First fling their last toys from the cot, others show more maturity. ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 19 through Sat, July 25, 2020Editor's ChoiceThe Climate Expert Who Delivered News No One Wanted to Hear From 2009: How a scientist known as the “father of global ...
There’s ultimately two key narratives overall that are seeking to take front row in order to reshape the world as a whole going forward from the COVID pandemic. The first is a very desperate attempt to reimpose “a return” to what is perceived as “the old normal”, quite impossible. ...
Henry Anderson-Elliott, University of CambridgeOn the morning of August 31 2017, I didn’t meet a remarkable polar bear. It was my third week of fieldwork-based out of Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, studying the conservation of the bears on the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Having spent a few days transcribing interviews in ...
SUNDAY JULY 26Country Calendar (TVNZ 1, 7.00pm). Tonight, kiwifruit growing in the King Country. Crazy!Normal People (TVNZ 1, 10.30pm). Holy cow, if you thought it was slow on a binge-watch, imagine what it's like in weekly doses. Nevertheless, it's like Richard Linklater's Boyhood – you don't really see the scope of ...
. . “The Martians had no resistance to the bacteria in our atmosphere to which we have long since become immune. Once they had breathed our air, germs, which no longer affect us, began to kill them. The end came swiftly. All over the world, their machines began to stop ...
In October 2018, Sealord's fishing boat Ocean Dawn repeatedly bottom-trawled in a Benthic Protection Area on the Chatham Rise. It was a crime which devastated a pristine marine environment. And today, they've been properly punished for it: Sealord has today been ordered to forfeit a $24 million fishing vessel for ...
Jovan Byford, The Open UniversityWith prospects of a COVID-19 vaccine looking up, attention is also turning to the problem of anti-vax ideas. According to a recent survey, one in six Britons would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Although vaccine hesitancy is a complex problem with ...
Paula Koelemeijer, Royal Holloway and Stephen Hicks, Imperial College LondonSeismic activity doesn’t just come from earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. Everyday human activity also gives rise to vibrations that travel through the ground as seismic waves, something we call “anthropogenic noise”. When pandemic lockdown measures brought daily life to a ...
Last night, the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2020 was passed unanimously by Parliament. The Act updates the 1972 Equal Pay Act to create a bargaining framework for equal pay claims and hopefully avoid the need to take them to court. It doesn't go far enough - there's no pay transparency ...
The New Zealand government has done the right thing and granted journalist Behrouz Boochani refugee status: Eight months after arriving in New Zealand, acclaimed author Behrouz Boochani has been granted refugee status. The Kurdish-Iranian writer joins a small group of successful applicants – with almost two thirds of asylum ...
Carve-Up: 120 years after the Eight-Power Intervention of 1900 the racist assumptions of the Western powers vis-à-vis China have hardly changed at all. They still arrogate to themselves the right to dispose of the future of the Chinese people as they see fit. There remains the same racist assumption that ...
Both Labour and National are talking about requiring people arriving in New Zealand to pay $3,000 of the cost of the mandatory managed isolation/quarantine period. The policy has been criticised as “shameful”. There are petitions against it. I have some concerns about the politics behind the proposal, but I’m neither ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity and Migrante Aotearoa are jointly holding a rally to speak up for human rights in the Philippines. The human rights situation in the Philippines has deteriorated significantly since President Duterte came to power in 2016. As many as 27,000 people have been killed in police operations during ...
Just where in the economic spectrum does the current National Party stand? In government, a political party is so busy it rarely has time to have a political ideology (neoliberals and communists excepted). Most policy is driven by necessity, instinct (which, I suppose, is a kind of ideology) ...
Together, Not Apart: In political terms, 2020 represents the exact reverse of 1984. Then, the tide was running with the challengers. Now, it is running with the incumbents. If Labour and the Greens can plausibly guarantee to keep us working and keep us safe, then traditional demographic voting patterns will ...
Hosted by Selwyn Manning and EveningReport.nz, ” A View from Afar” is a podcast series dedicated to exploring current affairs, international relations, political events and military-security issues from somewhat uncommon angles. In this first episode we continue the coverage of the Portland protests first offered on these pages. The conversation ...
A ballot for five Member's Bills was held today and the following bills were drawn: Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Shane Reti) Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion (Safe Areas) Amendment Bill (Louisa Wall) Lawyers and Conveyancers (Employed Lawyers Providing Free Legal Services) Amendment Bill ...
A farmer in Te Anau has slashed and burned 800 hectares of native forest: A Te Anau farmer accused of slashing and burning down 800 hectares of native forest in two years has been served with an interim court order to stop. Southland District Council says Peter Chartres caused ...
WELLINGTON – Thursday July 23, 2020 Good morning everybody. I’m the latest leader of the National Party. It’s me! Judith Collins. There has been a lot said over the past week month few months years about the culture within the National Party. Today I would like to clear a few ...
Last night, the New Plymouth District Council approved the creation of a Māori ward to ensure that Māori would have a voice in their local government. Its the second time they've tried to do this - an earlier attempt in 2015 was overturned by a racist referendum. And predictably, there ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
It's been another week of creating jobs, supporting local businesses, and investing in infrastructure up and down the country - all of which are helping to keep our economy moving post-COVID-19. ...
The Green Party have secured legislative amendments in a bill expected to pass third reading this week, to ensure better rules for school teachers and staff, so they can de-escalate children with diverse needs and cognitive differences, such as autism, rather than using unnecessary and often traumatising force. ...
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says.Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has ridiculed the National Party "circus", with the politician saying it was in "chaos" after the resignation of another MP.Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon announced on Monday he would retire from politics after he allegedly sent inappropriate pornographic images to a young woman. Following a ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today outlined what he saw as the requirements to re-open New Zealand's borders for tourists and travellers. If New Zealand was dealing solely with an Australian state such as Tasmania, we wouldn't need a vaccine, said Mr Peters, but these moves were complicated by the ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters appears to have prompted last-minute alterations to proposed legislation for commercial landlords and their tenants. Mr Peters told reporters on Wednesday said that he was making sure the proposed bill was in step with what the parties had actually agreed to. He said he ...
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprise and New Zealand First List MP Shane Jones attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new NZ Post "super depot" in Wellington. The state-owned postal service, which got $280 million from the Coalition Government last month, is expanding its operations to handle surging parcel volumes. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First CHECK AGAINST DELIVERYIntroduction Good afternoon. Welcome to you all here today and party supporters watching from around the country. We appreciate your hard work keeping New Zealand First strong; thank you for keeping the faith. Sixty-three days out from Election Day, ...
The diversity of conservation boards around Aotearoa is increasing with 47 appointments to 14 of the 15 conservation boards across New Zealand announced today by the Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage. ...
The Green Party is honoured to be remembering former co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons today at a public memorial service in the heart of Wellington at the Cathedral of St. Paul’s. Following her passing in March, this celebration of her life brings together her friends, family and colleagues to honour her life ...
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced a $2.5 million boost for South Westland to help a regional alliance of local businesses and government agencies provide nature based jobs. ...
Investing in infrastructure is one major way we can create jobs, stimulate the economy, and keep New Zealand moving post COVID-19. That's why this week we rolled out a massive number of infrastructure announcements - in Tairāwhiti, Wairarapa, Otago, Southland and more! ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says the National Party’s Auckland Transport announcement today is a breath-taking plan on the never never. While it is promising to see that National all of a sudden has rediscovered railways in Auckland, including trains ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP A range of projects announced by the Hon Shane Jones in Southland and Otago will build communities and create jobs, according to New Zealand First List MP Mark Patterson. The town of Gore received funding to build a new public library and ...
News that Rio Tinto has announced that it is planning to wind-down operations at the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter could not have a come at a worse time for the people of Southland. While it has been clear that Rio Tinto was never going to support Southlanders over the long haul, ...
Whenua/land, roto/lakes and awa/rivers in the central North Island will benefit from increased habitat protection with new biosecurity investment across iwi and Crown-managed lands and lakes announced Conservation and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage in Rotorua today. ...
As part of a broader plan to reduce the increasing amount of rubbish ending up in New Zealand’s landfills, the Government is to fund new recycling infrastructure and expand the national waste levy scheme.$124 million Government investment in recycling infrastructurePlans confirmed to increase and expand the waste ...
The Government is providing an investment totalling more than $100 million for regions to protect against and mitigate the effects of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones have announced. Six regions will receive funding from the $3 billion allocated to infrastructure projects from the ...
Three major local projects at Te Kuiti and Otorohanga have been given the money to get moving after the impact of Covid 19, says the Minister of Māori Development Hon Nanaia Mahuta. The projects range from a Sports Centre for Te Kuiti, a redevelopment of the Otorohanga Kiwi House and ...
The Coalition Government has extended three New Zealand Defence Force deployments to the Middle East and Africa by two years, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “These deployments promote peace in the Middle East and Africa by protecting civilians and countering the spread of ...
The release of the National Climate Change Risk Assessment shows that the progress this Government has made to solve the climate crisis is essential to creating cleaner and safer communities across New Zealand. “Because of this report, we can see clearer than ever that the action our Government is taking ...
The second round of the Community Resilience Fund is now open for applications for sport and recreation organisations experiencing financial hardship between 1 July and 30 September 2020. “The fund opens today for five weeks – closing on September 6. The amount awarded will be decided on a case-by-case basis ...
Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today declared Rakitū Island, off the coast of Aotea/Great Barrier Island, predator free. “I’m delighted to announce that with rats now gone, Rakitū is officially predator free. This is a major milestone because Rakitū is the last DOC administered island in the Hauraki Gulf Marine ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing $8.75 million to restore significant historic sites at Ōhaeawai in the Far North, upgrade marae and fund fencing and riparian planting. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones made the announcements following a service at the historic St Michael’s Anglican Church at Ōhaeawai today. Just ...
The Chatham Islands will receive close to $40 million for projects that will improve its infrastructure, add to its attraction as a visitor destination, and create jobs through a planned aquaculture venture, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. “The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the islands, first ...
The Government is delivering more initiatives to reduce energy hardship and to give small electricity consumers a voice, Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods said today. “In addition to the initiatives we have already delivered to support New Zealand families, we are responding to the Electricity Price Review with further ...
Government, iwi, NGOs and rehabilitation groups are working together to turn around the fortunes of the nationally endangered hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin following a series of terrible breeding seasons. The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage helped launch the Five Year Action Plan at the annual Yellow-Eyed Penguin symposium in Dunedin today. “I ...
The membership of the Tourism Futures Taskforce has now been confirmed, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced at an event at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua today. “The main purpose of the independent Tourism Futures Taskforce is to lead the thinking on the future of tourism in New Zealand,” Kelvin Davis said. Joining ...
More than $300 million in funding has been approved to protect strategic tourism businesses, drive domestic tourism through regional events and lift digital capability in the tourism industry, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. A $400 million Tourism Recovery Package was announced at Budget 2020, and with today’s announcements is ...
From 2021 permits will be required for New Zealanders wanting to export hard-to-recycle plastic waste. The Associate Minister for the Environment, Eugenie Sage, today announced the requirements as part of New Zealand’s commitments to the Basel Convention, an international agreement of more than 180 countries which was amended in May ...
The building and construction sector is still showing strong growth, with the number of new dwellings consented up more than 8 per cent compared to last year, reflecting a welcome confidence in the Government’s COVID-19 response package, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. “While it is still too ...
Government investment of $23 million for Bay of Plenty flood protection will allow local communities to address long-standing flood risks and provide jobs, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced in Rotorua today. These projects are being funded by the Infrastructure Reference Group’s (IRG) shovel ...
Investment for projects that will create hundreds of jobs in Rotorua were announced today by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. These projects will provide opportunities for economic development in a region that has been hard hit by COVID-19,” Winston Peters said. Fletcher ...
For the first time, primary schools will have access to funding for counsellors for their students, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin announced today. “A major investment of $75.8 million will provide greater access to guidance counsellors to help primary and secondary school students deal with mental health and wellbeing issues,” ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark today welcomed the release of the Report of the Government Inquiry into Operation Burnham and related matters, and the Government response. “I thank the Inquiry for their thorough and detailed report, on a highly complex issue. I accept the recommendations of the report, and fully support ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has announced $6 million of One Billion Trees funding for seven regional initiatives to create jobs and provide long-lasting environmental and economic benefits. The projects range from improving one of the poorest-quality water catchments in Otago to restoring 52km of waterways around Hokianga Harbour. Six of the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today announced $5.5 million in funding from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) for two Kawerau projects and says this is a significant boost for the people of Kawerau. “These projects will bring much-needed investment and will create up to 60 jobs for locals,” Mr Peters ...
Kaingaroa Village in the Bay of Plenty is to get $5 million to help fund a comprehensive upgrade of its infrastructure, facilities and housing, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. Mr Tabuteau travelled to the remote village to make the announcement, telling Kaingaroa residents how the funding ...
The Rangiuru Business Park project near Te Puke is getting $18 million from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This is all about unlocking the potential of this region. When it’s finished, the Rangiuru Business Park will be the Bay of Plenty’s ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has today announced that a $26 million investment in Ōpōtiki will see important public amenities upgraded and further progress made on new aquaculture opportunities. “The people of Ōpōtiki have been waiting decades for real investment in key infrastructure, and support for the incredible aquaculture opportunities ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio wishes to congratulate the Cook Islands community throughout Aotearoa for the 9th year of Te ‘Epetoma o Te Reo Māori Kūki ‘Āirani, the Cook Islands Language Week. “This is a proud milestone that reflects on the huge effort made by the Cook ...
Aucklanders in the Eastern Suburbs will soon have more ways to get around, with Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter kicking off construction on Section 2 of Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai, the Glen Innes to Tāmaki Drive Shared Path today. The Glen Innes ...
The Government is stepping up the fight against measles and protecting hundreds of thousands more young adults by investing up to $40 million for a year-long measles-catch-up campaign and $23 million to fully fund and develop the National Immunisation Solution, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced at Mangere ...
Attorney-General David Parker has today released the findings of the Government inquiry held into Operation Burnham and related events. The operation took place on 21-22 August 2010 in Tirgiran Valley, Afghanistan, and was carried out by NZSAS troops and other nations’ forces operating as part of the International Security Assistance ...
From tomorrow, community groups around New Zealand can apply to a $36 million fund established to encourage locally-led solutions as communities rebuild and recover from COVID-19, announced Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni and Minister for Community and Voluntary Sector Poto Williams. “The Community Capability and Resilience Fund (CCRF) builds ...
The Government has committed to improving Māori health and wellbeing over the next five years. The Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health) today released Whakamaua: Māori Health Action Plan 2020-2025 which sets the pathway towards achieving healthy futures for all Māori. “As kaitiaki of the system, the Ministry of Health ...
New environmental standards will make the re-consenting of existing marine farms more consistent across the country. The new regulations for the National Environmental Standards for Marine Aquaculture (NES-MA) will come into effect on 1 December, Environment Minister David Parker and Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash said. “The NES-MA removes complexities and ...
Today marks a milestone as the Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta co-sign an Addendum – with the Iwi Chairs of Te Rarawa, Ngāi Takoto and Te Aupōuri – to the Te Hiku o Te Ika Iwi-Crown Social Development and Wellbeing Accord (the ...
The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill (No 2) passed its third reading today and will become law, announced Minister for Veterans Ron Mark. This amends the Veterans’ Support Act 2014 in response to recommendations from the 2018 review of the operation of the Act by Professor Ron Paterson. “Veterans have been ...
Minister for Racing Winston Peters says race courses can improve safety with this year’s first round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. The Racing Safety Development Fund makes available $990,000 for distribution over two funding rounds for the 2020/21 financial year. “The racing industry is integral to the ...
The Government’s commitment to increase primary sector jobs and opportunities has been further boosted today with the re-opening of the Taratahi Agriculture Centre, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The Wairarapa-based training centre is reopening its doors after two years to deliver industry taster and familiarisation courses, to help workers displaced ...
New Zealanders are being invited to help recognise the work of the many “unsung heroes” in our ethnic communities during COVID-19. “Aotearoa New Zealand is home to 920,000 people who identify their ethnicity as Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, Asian, and Continental European. During the extraordinary time of the COVID-19 ...
The Government is allocating $40 million to assist with the cost of mediation and arbitration for New Zealand businesses and landlords to resolve issues about adjusting rent as they face the economic impacts of COVID-19, Justice Minister Andrew Little said. The Government had previously announced funding to improve access to ...
The Government has announced details of a planned new law to give Police the power to conduct random roadside drug testing of drivers, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter and Minister of Police Stuart Nash announced today. The Land Transport (Drug Driving) Amendment Bill was introduced to the house today ...
More warmer, drier homes and a big building boost for regional centres across New Zealand are two of the major benefits from a $500 million investment in the upgrade and renewal of state homes. Associate Housing Minister Kris Faafoi has confirmed the multi-million dollar expansion of the Kāinga Ora – ...
The Government will provide $8 million towards the revitalisation of the Paihia waterfront in the iconic Bay of Islands, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Bay of Islands is the cornerstone of Northland tourism and Paihia the hub for maritime-based tourism and recreation in the area. “Weather and economic ...
Health Minister Chris Hipkins welcomes confirmation of Canterbury DHB’s move into state-of-the-art Christchurch Hospital Hagley building which will serve the community well for decades to come. The Ministry of Health is on track to hand over the facility on 10 August 2020. Sterile Services is due to be operational on ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Timor-Leste’s Journalist Association (AJTL) and journalism students marched through the streets of the capital Dili today calling on the government to scrap plans to change the law to make defamation a criminal offence. Under the proposed law journalists could face jail sentences. Opponents of the proposed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Household Finances, Grattan Institute The announcement of stage 4 restrictions in Victoria marks a new, and depressing, stage in Australia’s response to COVID-19. The new measures will close non-essential retailers and most child-care centres across Melbourne, and impose ...
China said on Monday it will suspend its extradition agreement with New Zealand in response to Wellington suspending its existing extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Reuters reports. ...
China said on Monday it will suspend its extradition agreement with New Zealand in response to Wellington suspending its existing extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Reuters reports. ...
On Saturday the man behind Game of Thrones hosted the ceremony for the prestigious Hugo Awards. Sam Brooks recaps. In a blog post just over a year ago, American writer George R.R. Martin said that New Zealand had “formal written permission” to jail him if he didn’t have The Winds of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Danielle Wood, Chief executive officer, Grattan Institute How do you occupy a child for long enough to get any work done? This will be the question confronting more than 150,000 Melbourne families for at least the next six weeks. The Stage 4 ...
China said on Monday it will suspend its extradition agreement with New Zealand in response to Wellington suspending its existing extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Reuters reports. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Non-essential retailers across Melbourne will be shut except for “click and collect” and delivery sales, and industries including meatworks and construction will be drastically scaled back, under Victoria’s unprecedented lockdown. The business shutdown details came ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced sweeping changes to businesses across metropolitan Melbourne, including closure of retail stores and restrictions on some industries, including construction. The new constraints ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean (Computing and Security), Edith Cowan University In what seems to be a common occurrence, Chinese video-sharing app TikTok is once again in the headlines. After months of speculation about national security risks and users’ data being harvested by ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Controversial Papua New Guinea citizen Joe Chan has been arrested in Malaysia – this time under the name Djoko Soegiarto Tjandra. And also this time as an Indonesian, a wanted and convicted fugitive and graft convict, reports the PNG Post-Courier. He has been on the run ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a ...
We need to crack on with building the systems and infrastructure necessary to be able to safely accommodate far more travellers than the system can currently handle. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Trigg, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor of English Literature, University of Melbourne In our series Art for Trying Times, authors nominate a work they turn to for solace or perspective during this pandemic. The Greeks are at the gates, and the city ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there are plans to increase testing of staff at airports and isolation facilities and to equip GPs to ramp up testing. ...
What happens when New Zealand’s queen of K-Pop rallies a room full of kids to become homegrown popstars? You get TVNZ On Demand’s K-Pop Academy.Korean pop music – or “K-pop” – is, arguably, the biggest musical genre on the planet. BTS is its most famous name, but South Korea is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University Creative destruction “is the essential fact about capitalism”, wrote the great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. New technologies and processes continuously revolutionise the economic structure from within, “incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is condemning Kaikoura District Council and Tararua District Council for failing to identify earthquake-prone buildings , as required by law. Union spokesperson Louis Houlbrooke says, “These Councils broke the law ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has welcomed today’s release of the first National Climate Change Risk Assessment , but say that unless it’s paired up with a framework that enables councils to act on the assessments, communities will be ...
With women leading both major parties and the highest number of female MPs (38%) since women were first allowed to stand for Parliament in 1919, it’s time that proper attention was paid to one of the most fatal of women’s cancers. ...
Taxpayer handouts to electric car buyers will not save the planet, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who has studied electric cars for over a decade, says: “The lobby group Drive Electric , which wants the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, UNSW With Victorians heading into a new round of even harsher lockdown measures, there will again be a focus on how people will cope — the ...
Respected business journalist Rod Oram visits the Nelson region next week to give two talks on the opportunities that Covid-19 presents for New Zealand to tackle climate change, poverty and what he calls “other deeply systemic failures”. Oram has ...
Transparency and clear disclosure of actions and policies have been key to the COVID-19 response, Reserve Bank Head of Financial System Policy and Analysis Toby Fiennes said delivering a speech in Wellington today. Market discipline is one of the three ...
Latest from the Beehive- The tourist industry is the biggest beneficiary of government funding distributed as loans or grants from an array of programmes and pots in the past few days. The $311 million of funding involved has resulted in the $400 million Tourism Recovery Package being fully allocated. Invitations, ...
As Victoria locks down again over a second wave of Covid-19, Andrew Geddis looks at how New Zealand might respond should community transmission be again detected here Melbourne’s adoption of “stage 4” restrictions to combat its Covid-19 outbreak - stay-at-home orders, limited exercise time, a night-time curfew - are a timely warning to us here ...
A major new report has outlined the biggest and most pressing risks New Zealand faces from climate change, and they go well beyond the science of changing weather patterns. What’s all this then?One of the most dangerous and concerning aspects of climate change is the unpredictability of it all. Some ...
The country's first national climate change risk assessment has identified 10 significant areas that need to be urgently addressed by the government in the next six years. ...
The first ever National Climate Change Risk Assessment has found 'New Zealand’s climate is warming, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe', Marc Daalder reports Over the next 70 years, wildfires and extreme storms will become more common in New Zealand, vast swathes ...
Time is running out to make voting easy in the 2020 General Election and referendums. About 500,000 eligible New Zealanders still haven’t enrolled to vote and half of them are under the age of 30. “Make voting easy this year by getting your enrolment ...
By Bryan Kramer, Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Police Assistant Commissioner Lesa Gale of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) staged a press conference to announce the arrest of five members of an Australian drug syndicate connected to the recent drug bust in PNG. This was a multi-agency operation that had ...
Announcing eight new episodes coming soon to The Spinoff and RNZ.Good news for people who love Bad News – Alice Snedden’s docu-comedy series tackling some of Aotearoa’s most contentious social and political issues is back for a second season.Like the first, which saw Alice go head-to-head with Don Brash in ...
One of the puzzling aspects of the global Coronavirus pandemic has been the absence of an international accord to grapple with the greatest challenge since the Second World War. After the global financial crisis of 2008-9, world leaders agreed to devise solutions – US presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama, ...
The Crazy Rich Asians author creates froth that may in fact be genius, says Sam Brooks. Kevin Kwan’s first novel Crazy Rich Asians had the kind of success every populist author dreams of. It became a beloved bestseller, which turned into a slightly less beloved trilogy, which then turned into ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Labour's economic plan is to focus on Covid recovery with investment in training and jobs, and that National's plan to reduce debt would mean $80 billion in cuts. ...
heTruly making a difference to New Zealanders’ mental health means addressing factors that go far beyond the health system’s remit. There’s a plan ready to go, writes Shaun Robinson of the Mental Health Foundation, and the next government must put it into action. “I need help.” That’s how many of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Celia Harris, Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University We are all living through a major historical event, a once-in-a-century pandemic that has radically changed how we work, learn, travel, socialise and spend our free time. But for many of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Howard Manns, Lecturer in Linguistics, Monash University Things are really jeffed up for Karens right now. The Miley (“coronavirus”) did a Melba (“made yet another a comeback”), and Joe and Jane Bloggs are being drongos. In the process, “Karen” has become the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn Moore, Social Researcher, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania In his book Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe writes that settler Australians wilfully misunderstood, hid and destroyed evidence of Aboriginal Australians’ farming practices. My analysis of secondary school textbooks shows this behaviour ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carl Grodach, Professor and Director of Urban Planning & Design, Monash University COVID-19 and the growing recession concentrated in the services sector will not just increase social inequality, but accelerate the growing spatial divide in our cities. As our new research report ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Glennda Scully, Professor, Curtin University The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a surge of calls to domestic violence support services, as survivors of violence spend more time at home with their abusers due to lockdowns and other restrictions. Many feel they can’t leave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carly Osborn, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide In our series Art for Trying Times, authors nominate a work they turn to for solace or perspective during this pandemic. There is a genre of novel that I have relied upon for many ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 3, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news, politics and the Covid-19 crisis, updated throughout the day. Get in touch at stewart@thespinoff.co.nz7.45am: PM defends limited border chargesJacinda Ardern has defended the government’s decision to only charge Kiwis returning back into ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Exploring the rapid rise of Billy TK’s NZ Public Party, report finds senior military officers misled ministers over Operation Burnham, and Lake Taupō water monitoring to be led by iwi.Within the space of a few months, Billy Te Kahika Jr ...
There are four big decisions to get ready to make in this year's elections. As well as picking a preferred party and candidate, voters will vote on the End of Life Choice Bill and whether they support a bill which would legalise cannabis. Here are the basics on the Cannabis Legalisation and ...
The Health Ministry ticked off the aged care sector for restricting visitors to rest homes before the national lockdown. David Williams reports On March 17, the coronavirus outbreak was seemingly in its infancy – yet it was closer to pushing politicians into drastic action than many thought. Ministry of Health ...
As the cannabis referendum draws nearer, Finlay Macdonald takes note of a new book about New Zealand's attitude towards marijuana Like any number of New Zealanders, I have a rich store of anecdote about my personal relationship with weed. Youthful adventure, horticultural experimentation, bad cabbage, Thai sticks and close shaves ...
We are more comfortable than ever telling stories about intimate experiences in public, so why is miscarriage still such a taboo subject? I recall my mother telling me a story, many years ago, about losing a baby to miscarriage. She had experienced bleeding and been told by her doctor to go home, put ...
Whether in the boardroom, or behind the lens, Angela Ruske has played a crucial part in the Otago Nuggets' golden NBL basketball season. As the Otago Nuggets were on their way to grasping their first men's NBL title, Angela Ruske was trying to stay calm courtside by focusing through her camera lens. ...
When do we get a prime minister who looks like New Zealand, asks Laura O’Connell Rapira.I want a Māori prime minister. I want a trans Samoan deputy prime minister and I want a former refugee as speaker of the house.I want a Muslim mayor. I want a disabled deputy mayor ...
People like me already don’t know when we will see ‘home’ again, thanks to the forthcoming border fees, writes Jai Breitnauer. We don’t need to be judged for it too.About eight weeks ago we got a message we had been dreading – my father-in-law was in hospital having been in ...
New Zealanders are about to vote on two of the most polarising social issues of our time - how much do you know about the cannabis and end of life referendums? In less than five weeks, New Zealanders will vote on two polarising issues in referendums, held at the same ...
What's in the diary for this week? Newsroom Pro collates the newsworthy events you need to know about. Today | 6 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Tuesday | 7 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Wednesday | 8 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Thursday | 9 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds ...
Social Credit has prevailed in the first round of its High Court challenge to the Overseas Investment Office decision to grant Chinese owned company Hong Kong Jingang permission to take over New Zealand’s second largest milk processing company, Westland ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As Melbourne moved to an extraordinary 8pm to 5am daily curfew and Stage 4 restrictions, and Victoria declared a “state of disaster”, Scott Morrison took to social media with a message for the embattled residents. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rodney Tiffen, Emeritus Professor, Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney James Murdoch is not the most obvious candidate for editorial heroism. His route to resigning from the News Corp board because of “disagreements over certain editorial content” has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anne Twomey, Professor of Constitutional Law, University of Sydney A “state of disaster” has been declared for the whole of Victoria from 6pm, Sunday August 2, for a month. How is this different from the existing “state of emergency” and what powers ...
As the state of Victoria continues to record shocking new Covid-19 numbers – 671 cases today – a strict new stage 4 lockdown is being imposed. Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist at the University of South Australia explains what the means.Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that metropolitan Melbourne will move ...
Jacinda Ardern’s “kind” government rather unkindly wants to push through under urgency this week amendments to residential rental tenancy law that are both unworkable and vicious, Tenancies War spokesman Mike Butler said today. If the Residential Tenancies ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced that metropolitan Melbourne will move to “stage 4” restrictions from 6pm Sunday, as new cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. The state recorded another 671 cases and ...
“We welcome the protest letter signed by European Ambassadors against Israel's plans to commence construction in the illegal settlement of "Givat Hamatos" and possibly the so-called E1 Area on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem. However, ...
By RNZ Pacific Nineteen more cases of covid-19 have been confirmed in Papua New Guinea, taking the total number so far in the country to 91. The Pandemic Response Controller, David Manning, announced the new cases in the capital Port Moresby where almost 80 of PNG’s cases had been confirmed ...
Open mike 29/03/2019 
Can we trust New Zealand’s military? There must now be serious doubt, given the landmark report released on Friday concluding the investigation into allegations made in the book Hit and Run by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson about a 2010 SAS killing raid in Afghanistan. The most recent Colmar Brunton ...8 hours ago
In New Zealand, we've just had the report of the Hit and Run inquiry, which found that a New Zealand led raid had accidentally killed civilians, including a child. meanwhile, around the same time, the British SAS was conducting its own raids in Afghanistan, and theirs were a hell of ...8 hours ago
Story of the Week... Opinion of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Rising Seas Could Menace Millions Beyond Shorelines, Study Finds As climate change raises sea levels, storm surges and high tides will ...11 hours ago
"Who's youse accusin' of innference?" Without the timely intervention of a team of top American political consultants and campaign experts, Boris Yeltsin would never have won his second term as President of the Russian Federation. The Russians waited 20 years to return the favour.WHEN IT COMES to the disinformation game, ...14 hours ago
As polling day in the American presidential election draws closer, things are looking bad for Donald Trump. The polls show that he is tracking well behind his Democrat rival. Most people assume that the President will be striving might and main to avoid what looks increasingly likely to be a ...17 hours ago
Our health professionals do an amazing job. Image credit: Wikipedia – Cardiac surgery. Finally, I have got back to these rankings. A long period in hospital and computer problems meant the June 2020 rankings were abandoned. Now, with a new personal defibrillator implanted in my chest and a new hard ...2 days ago
Over the last few days, reports have emerged of people travelling from New Zealand and testing positive for Covid-19 upon arrival at their destination. First in South Korea and now in Australia. What might these positive tests mean? They’re false-positives As Toby Morris and I have explained before, there are ...2 days ago
Former National Minister - Wayne MappYou could tell that the Hit and Run book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson was right on the money by the way former National Party Minister of Defence, Wayne Mapp, reacted to its now largely vindicated claims.Even though the recent inquiry into ...2 days ago
We are failing to think though the interdependencies in an economy. We miss economist Bryan Philpott (1921-2000). I miss him personally – we used to have such great discussions – but this column is about how the nation misses his economic experience and wisdom. We tend to ...3 days ago
TUESDAY AUGUST 4Grand Designs UK (Three, 7.30pm). ...5 days ago
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Daphna Whitmore So far this year over 7.4 million people have died from preventable communicable diseases. There were 4.3 million children who died under the age of five. Nearly one million people have died of HIV/AIDS in the past six months. A similar number of people have died from malaria ...6 days ago
. . For the mainstream media, today (22 July) was even a better day than yesterday. More Sex. More Politics. More Sex AND Politics. Yesterday, the msm dealt with Andrew Falloon. The obscure backbench MP had been found to have sent pornographic images to at least four women. The woman’s ...7 days ago
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Auckland Philippines Solidarity and Migrante Aotearoa are jointly holding a rally to speak up for human rights in the Philippines. The human rights situation in the Philippines has deteriorated significantly since President Duterte came to power in 2016. As many as 27,000 people have been killed in police operations during ...2 weeks ago
Hosted by Selwyn Manning and EveningReport.nz, ” A View from Afar” is a podcast series dedicated to exploring current affairs, international relations, political events and military-security issues from somewhat uncommon angles. In this first episode we continue the coverage of the Portland protests first offered on these pages. The conversation ...2 weeks ago
WELLINGTON – Thursday July 23, 2020 Good morning everybody. I’m the latest leader of the National Party. It’s me! Judith Collins. There has been a lot said over the past week month few months years about the culture within the National Party. Today I would like to clear a few ...2 weeks ago
Read article here ...2 weeks ago
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...3 days ago
The Green Party is calling for greater prioritisation of Māori and Pāsefika healthcare to fix systemic inequities in the health system. ...4 days ago
New Zealand needs to be more aggressive in pursuing economic opportunities and resist the short-term thinking affecting some of its major industry, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr Peters told Wellington Chamber of Commerce members this morning that the planned closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter will have ...2 weeks ago
The Government is providing an investment totalling more than $100 million for regions to protect against and mitigate the effects of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones have announced. Six regions will receive funding from the $3 billion allocated to infrastructure projects from the ...8 hours ago
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Timor-Leste’s Journalist Association (AJTL) and journalism students marched through the streets of the capital Dili today calling on the government to scrap plans to change the law to make defamation a criminal offence. Under the proposed law journalists could face jail sentences. Opponents of the proposed ...1 hour ago
China said on Monday it will suspend its extradition agreement with New Zealand in response to Wellington suspending its existing extradition treaty with Hong Kong, Reuters reports. ...3 hours ago
On Saturday the man behind Game of Thrones hosted the ceremony for the prestigious Hugo Awards. Sam Brooks recaps. In a blog post just over a year ago, American writer George R.R. Martin said that New Zealand had “formal written permission” to jail him if he didn’t have The Winds of ...3 hours ago
...7 hours ago
We need to crack on with building the systems and infrastructure necessary to be able to safely accommodate far more travellers than the system can currently handle. ...7 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive- The tourist industry is the biggest beneficiary of government funding distributed as loans or grants from an array of programmes and pots in the past few days. The $311 million of funding involved has resulted in the $400 million Tourism Recovery Package being fully allocated. Invitations, ...11 hours ago
As Victoria locks down again over a second wave of Covid-19, Andrew Geddis looks at how New Zealand might respond should community transmission be again detected here Melbourne’s adoption of “stage 4” restrictions to combat its Covid-19 outbreak - stay-at-home orders, limited exercise time, a night-time curfew - are a timely warning to us here ...11 hours ago
The first ever National Climate Change Risk Assessment has found 'New Zealand’s climate is warming, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe', Marc Daalder reports Over the next 70 years, wildfires and extreme storms will become more common in New Zealand, vast swathes ...12 hours ago
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Briscoes and Rebel Sports sales grow almost 30 percent on last year, while Tourism Holdings is boosted by domestic tourists using its camper vans ...19 hours ago
The Health Ministry ticked off the aged care sector for restricting visitors to rest homes before the national lockdown. David Williams reports On March 17, the coronavirus outbreak was seemingly in its infancy – yet it was closer to pushing politicians into drastic action than many thought. Ministry of Health ...19 hours ago
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As the cannabis referendum draws nearer, Finlay Macdonald takes note of a new book about New Zealand's attitude towards marijuana Like any number of New Zealanders, I have a rich store of anecdote about my personal relationship with weed. Youthful adventure, horticultural experimentation, bad cabbage, Thai sticks and close shaves ...19 hours ago
We are more comfortable than ever telling stories about intimate experiences in public, so why is miscarriage still such a taboo subject? I recall my mother telling me a story, many years ago, about losing a baby to miscarriage. She had experienced bleeding and been told by her doctor to go home, put ...19 hours ago
Whether in the boardroom, or behind the lens, Angela Ruske has played a crucial part in the Otago Nuggets' golden NBL basketball season. As the Otago Nuggets were on their way to grasping their first men's NBL title, Angela Ruske was trying to stay calm courtside by focusing through her camera lens. ...19 hours ago
New Zealanders are about to vote on two of the most polarising social issues of our time - how much do you know about the cannabis and end of life referendums? In less than five weeks, New Zealanders will vote on two polarising issues in referendums, held at the same ...20 hours ago
What's in the diary for this week? Newsroom Pro collates the newsworthy events you need to know about. Today | 6 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Tuesday | 7 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Wednesday | 8 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds Thursday | 9 July sdfsdf sfsdf sfds ...20 hours ago
New Young Adult Court List aims to give young offenders a fairer go from the start. ...20 hours ago
All the identicons seem to have disappeared since yesterday!? Tried Edge and Chrome.
lprent
All our pretty colours have gone. We need some images to brighten our pages of stark considerations. Helpfully yours, greywarshark.
It’s also a pretty good way of picking commenters I like to read as I scroll down OM.
Fixed. The identicon button was unchecked, though I don’t know why. As far as I know, the identicons don’t slow page loading or have any impact on the way pages look, so I guess it was entirely unintentional. Lprent will put me right in his usual style if I’ve got that wrong 😉
Good fix. I was bit busy.
But probably just an accident.
” New Zealand is on track. One child dies in NZ as a result of abuse every five weeks.
Three children are dead so far in New Zealand this year as a result of domestic violence and it is not even the end of March.
In many cases they get fleeting news coverage and we may not even learn their names.
Names matter. We refuse to speak the name of the mosque murderer in our search for non-violence. We won’t give him any air time – he was not us, says Prime Minister Jacinda Adern. He does not exist.
But he did. He really did! And so do the children that are dying in New Zealand as a result of domestic violence occurring right here. We need to speak their names. We need to be just as outraged by their deaths as we are by the mosque killings.
Yet we keep quiet about them because they are our national shame. We look the other way.
Currently there is an almost obscene celebration of ourselves as New Zealanders.
Adern has carefully crafted a response to a terrorist act in New Zealand so that tables have been completely turned and we have come up smelling of roses.
The message is: ‘This is not us – it is just one individual who lost the plot’.
Adern really is a good leader – she is doing well in protecting our national identity. National identities are important in a global economy.
I think it is wrong that the world’s tallest building (in Dubai) is lit up with an image of Jacinda Adern when our own dying children in New Zealand get limited media coverage.
Frankly, it’s tacky.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12215934
I agree.
And there’s not much more I can add….other than I won’t be celebrating our Our National Day of Unity until we sort this shit out.
So true Rosemary thanks for reminding us.
Blurb on NZ standards from the government on-line:
(How many people are employed in PR and seriously compromising their own integrity by writing this shit with a sure hand?)
Family Life in New Zealand | New Zealand Now
https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/why-choose-nz/family-friendly
Nov 12, 2018 – But rest assured, New Zealand is a great place to bring up children. It’s why so many Kiwis living abroad come back home when it’s time to start nesting. … There are wonderful opportunities for young people to grow up with easy … Families in New Zealand get great support from a range of public services.
Maori have numerous systems going and success. But society is up against television and its content that is probably more anti-social than positive, also drugs – alcohol, mj, other chemicals, lack of meaningful jobs with decent pay,
peer pressure and modelling; also a general lack of respect from ignorant, snooty pakeha and middle-class whites who patronise and judge, is an observation of mine.
There has been action also from the private sector generally, and not all just to get on the money bandwagon from government. Which is how some charter schools see things when bad, but not all charter schools are no good, government should ensure better standards, mentors and overview.
Parents Centre –
https://www.parentscentre.org.nz/lobyingandadvocacy/default.asp
(Not always helped financially by government.)
Helping parents shouldn’t be a vacuum that business jumps in to fill
to sell their product.
https://www.momentumlife.co.nz/stories/why-kids-should-have-chores
About Author: Momentum Life is a leading provider of Life insurance, Funeral insurance and Accident insurance in New Zealand.
https://www.lifetimeincome.co.nz/about-us/news/2017/october/meet-the-grandparents-raising-their-grandchildren/
Life insurance – retirement plans.
Middle class working parent.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/parenting/24-01-2018/working-mothers-make-great-employees-so-stop-being-an-asshole-about-them/
http://www.homeandfamily.net.nz/about/ (120 years in Christchurch)
https://www.theparentingplace.com/our-story/
Ian and Mary Grant (Christian)
https://www.iosis.org.nz/about-us/story/
Baptist Christian – Mangere, Manurewa, Papakura.
There is Thrive – which sounds good but with little information about the people running it, no names. Under Waves Trust, 7 Henderson Valley Road, Henderson.
http://www.thrive.org.nz/contact/
Our Vision
Young parents and their children are able to reach their full potential by being connected and secure within their families and communities.
Our Mission
Thriving young people, parents and families.
Mahi tahi
We are a small team of social workers, support staff and volunteers who are committed to helping young teenage parents and their whānau flourish and thrive.
What we do
We offer a range of innovative one on one wrap around support along with various programmes that are tailored and targetted towards the needs, hopes and aspirations of teen parents.
Our first priority is the wellbeing of you and your unborn or new born baby, pepi. We work in partnership with teen parents to be or new teen parents, by ensuring that your voice is heard and that we speak with you and not for you.
The aim of all that we do is based on working to break through and address any and all of the pressing issues that a young parent, young couple face as they look to strengthen and uphold their new roles as parents to be or new parents.
Our highly skilled staff are there to guide, shape and assist every step of the way. We are have a strong reputation of building and maintaining a solid relationship with teen parents and their baby, pepi through an effective and continuous quality service provision.
WHY?
The team is focused on ensuring that you are given the necessary support, tools, and information that will improve the health and well-being of you and your child. Our commitment is based on teen parents reaching and fulfilling their potential and reaching their goals.
(This is the work and the attitude about the social need, that the government should be showing itself not through a second party.)
Then there is government’s Oranga Tamariki—Ministry for Children. I wonder how Maori feel they are getting on with their job? Can’t see an overview on that but I imagine there will be one.
I have remembered more info that is valid for this and put it up further along the post.
Substance abuse. I wonder if substance use/abuse is recorded when a death or extreme neglect and abuse are investigated?
Because I’ll bet that in the vast majority of cases alcohol use and abuse and/or legal or illegal drug use are significant factors.
My happy day will be when alcohol use attracts the same degree of social opprobrium as tobacco smoking.
Yes, it is there like an unreliable cat waiting for the right moment to bite you on the ankle. So nice to look at, so innocent a pleasure, and so difficult to know how to protect yourself. I have avoided having that, but others I know have been bitten.
The only thing about smoking is that it has become established. It is stupid not to notice how Prohibition went in the USA – it encouraged crime and now with tobacco becoming hard to obtain because of the price, it has gone up on the Bell curve of effectiveness from pricing to falling effectiveness because of the enhancement of the price raising the intrinsic value of the ciggies.
Hi Rosemary, I agree about the horrific rate we harm our vulnerable.
It is simplistic click bait shenanagins to convolute Prime Minister Arderns response to the Mosque murders, with our harm of our tamariki.
Our leader has already identified child poverty as the one issue she wants to address.
“… simplistic click bait shenanagins…”
Really? When I read Tulloch’s piece it resonated.
“What if we were to form a mass vigil for all the children who have died in New Zealand as a result of child abuse? One candle for every little life. Between 2010 and 2016 that was 66 lives.
What if we demanded an adequate social welfare system within which children and families had wrap around care?
What if we valued children so much in New Zealand that our leader Adern would raise the pay of our teachers in early childhood and schools to demonstrate the value of their work?
But she didn’t. And we looked the other way. We did not call a mass uprising to say we wanted our teachers and schools supported. We did not yell loud enough and say ‘this is not us’.
If the recent death of the child in Maketu doesn’t raise the hairs on your arms in the same way that the spine-chilling hakas did in the aftermath of the shootings it is because we have normalised it.
Another child has died in suspicious circumstances in New Zealand and we are in no position to deny that we are a violent society.”
All this ‘this is not us’ bullshit….I’m over it. It is us. We kill our kids.
I agree we need to be making a huge fuss about it and start doing some serious research into why it is happening. And start to fix it.! There are lots of theories and ideas, of course, but in order to start making the first meaningful steps to stop these tragic happenings we need some serious data and a workable plan.
We have most of the data already.
The new IDI might be able to produce deeper information about relationships and generational issues, but there’s only so far one can go with probabilistic ID linkage between such diverse datasets.
I suspect the main problem is that the numbers of mortality are too low to get real relationships from, and the gap between detecting non-lethal abuse/neglect and identifying it in the morgue is so wide. Even though health professionals are getting better at looking for it, there’d still be a massive underreporting of child injuries resulting from assault – often difficult to tell an arm broken by accident with an arm broken by dragging etc. So we see the ones who turn up dead, but you’d be lucky to see maybe a quarter of assault injuries attributed to something other than accident.
So basically asfar as I can see the main thing we can do is lower family stress by reducing inequality and hardship, throwing more social workers at everyone, and then hoping that the upper-income sociopaths get outed by their kids at school.
Indeed, Rosemary…
There is a twisted sense of self being presented around by ‘Nz’, from what I have observed…
It is nothing new, as you well know…and from the experiences you share here…
The most vulnerable are still treated poorly and seemingly not valued…
Youth suicide rates…
Bullying and abuse (from all sources)…
NZ is not a united country…
It is a severley damaged and deluded one…
“It is a severley damaged and deluded one…”
OOOOOH …. Eric Idle, – my absolute favourite of the Python team !
There’s just something about his eyes, his face shape, his voice , mannerisms that perfectly suited his comic cheeky , cheerful persona, – Life of Brian , – speaking to the Roman guard … ” Nah – I’m only pullin’ your leg ,- its crucifixion really , yeah I know the way , out the door , one cross each, line on the left ”
Hahahaa! – as if hes an old hand at being crucified and its just the same old , same old , humdrum routine …
The guy used to have me in hysterics of laughter 🙂
Monty Python – Crucifixion – YouTube
Hoots ethos must be really feeling threatened, he slips the knife into Winston again over at the fish wrap this morning. 2020 is sure going to be an interesting election.
The definition of stupidity is doing the same thing again and expecting a different result.
Hootz and MSM still trying to drive the nail into Winnie ?
Still haven’t figured out it requires a stake through the heart and earnest prayer.
Mcflock is anti Winnie so you would use a nail gun for sure.
Winnie is legendary and the oldest sitting MP so don’t count him out as you will fail.
Not particularly anti. It’s just that the dude has survived more announcements of his political demise than Christopher Lee turned to dust in all the Hammer Horrors combined.
Big ups to all those attending the service this morning in Hagley Park…
An overly heavy weight fell upon the city, still rebuilding its strength post-eqs. You can almost touch it. It is on people’s faces. It will take time to dissipate.
grim
heavy
burdensome
(of course, the city is a minor bit-part and thoughts and wishes go first and foremost to the victims and their families and communities.)
It was a special event, an involving experience for everyone (& there were many), full of character and community; & a huge credit to all involved in putting together such a good display of NZ values of respect.
Americans must be getting pretty desperate for regime change in Venezuela now.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/28/venezuela-blackout-latest-news-maduro-sniper-prayers
Why does the USA have to poke it’s nose in everywhere, they need to tidy up the shambles they have at home ?
Agreed. American leadership is so shite their citizens are openly embarrassed, and for some time now many travelling pretend to be Canadian to take the heat off.
https://www.outsideonline.com/2201026/stop-telling-people-youre-canada
How’s them eggs for national pride?
Wethe peole,
you must be young saying that.
I am a naturalised Canadian and Kiwi born too.
I went to live in Canada in 1968 when the anti-Vietnam war riots were spreading around the US and US young were dogging the ‘draft’ to go to Vietnam so this is a historical event that happens every time politics changes rapidly,
This time it’s Trump draining the ‘Washington swamp’ finally, so maybe some of the former ‘Washington intelligence staff’ are running away from being tracked as US citizens.
‘..dogging the draft…” 😆
higherstandard
“dodging the draft”‘
Not me, as I did my time in the NZ army in 1964.
But the US kids were leaving US and coming over the border to Toronto where I was then as i bumped into several of them there.
Had some relations here from the UK recently who had been travelling through Asia and Australia, they said any Americans they met would say they are from the State they are from in the USA rather than the USA. Does that tell you something about how they feel about the USA and it’s International Relations ?
‘Cause Venezuela has ‘their’ oil.
Russian troops have landed in Venezuela, no doubt that will making a few waves for trump.
“The arrival of two Russian air force planes carrying nearly 100 Russian troops outside Caracas on Saturday has escalated the political crisis in Venezuela.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/03/trump-tells-russia-troops-venezuela-190327171525621.html
Cuba had to do the same thing in the 1960’s to protect itself from USA aggression ?
Hooton decay
Admittedly, Matthew is enmeshed in a rather abysmal lot. There is Hosking who daily writes about Hosking and little else.
There is Audrey Young who struggles in later life to know what a Topic is. Whether on Dan’s panel – Or Whatever. Although she is marginally more alive than Johnny Armstrong.
So from the large Herald nursery, only about two writers cut the mustard with Fact and Humour and Balance.
I punished myself today and read a bit of smooth Hooton dated 2004, where he was jacking up National in a bouquet of Flowers and Perfume – and a Brash of bright future. Oh Yeah.
Hooton does nothing but unjack everyone – EXCEPT – his idols – Johnny Key, Frau Bennett and Billy English, each of whom gave New Zealand great wealth. Huge wealth. Incredible wealth. Tax Cuts Tax Cuts Tax Cuts.
National have decided they must get rid of Winston Peters. He is too good to be allowed to stay alive. He is a threat to Simon. Equally a threat to “strange person of power” Papakura Collins. He is the enemy of excessive Wealth.
Not a single Journalist of the Herald has ever written a word about the real people of New Zealand.
The ones who go to work. Often two jobs a day. Both Parents. Struggling to pay for a bit of Fonterra’s bland cheese. Unhoused. Batted around by Dickensian Landlords.
Hooton is in decay. Yes. But he is not the only one who has hated and destroyed the backbone of the real people of this our Nation.
Home ownership keeps dropping. Kiwi paradise of renting forever must be maintain say Bridges. It’s the kiwi way to improvise more and more kiwis.
The Banks are not lending at present and are scared to lend on new building projects as the market may crash ?
The Banks are in the business of making money for their shraeholders, they are not interested in economic growth or looking after New Zealanders.
The NZ Banks are looking after their major shareholders in Australia and the USA.
The Labour Government was stupid selling the BNZ to Fay Richwhite IMHO ?
Michael Fay and David Richwhite infamous!! Yes and they hollowed it out sold shares to the workers in the bank branches complete with loans to buy their shonkey shares!!
Luckily my eldest son needed our signature on the loan and we explained why we thought it was a bad idea. Son was so relieved. No job and a debt was how they left many having unloaded worthless shares.
The bank folded and those people were left paying for fresh air. That pair went to Ireland and did similar over there.
Yep did the same thing to British Rail.
“Not a single Journalist of the Herald has ever written a word about the real people of New Zealand.
The ones who go to work. Often two jobs a day. Both Parents. Struggling to pay for a bit of Fonterra’s bland cheese. Unhoused. Batted around by Dickensian Landlords.”
Oh – so you mean your definition of ‘real people of new zealand’.
Plenty of tea New Zealanders are going perfectly fine and dandy – they are real New Zealanders as well.
James yes agree all the “parasites” working for the overseas banks and corporates who are stripping NZ and it’s workers ?
Sambimbo out, jimbo in.
100% OT. Well expressed.
Horeskin is infatuated with himself and his horeskin ?
Latest NZ scientific climate change report today 29th March 2019.
NZ P.M. Jacinda Ardern needs to read this NZ scientific report released today.
Our NZ climate is now moving out of reach of changing it so this report from senior NZ scientists are warning the Labour coalition Government.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1903/S00049/global-state-of-the-cliate-2018-expert-reaction.htm
SCOOP
Global State of the Climate 2018 – Expert Reaction
Friday, 29 March 2019, 9:17 am
Press Release: Science Media Centre
The physical signs and socio-economic impacts of climate change are accelerating according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
In their 2018 State of the Global Climate report, they say 2018 saw record sea level rise and exceptionally high land and ocean temperatures over the past four years, continuing the warming trend observed over the past two decades.
The statement also covers climate impacts on human populations over the past year, such as at climate hazards, displacements and food security.
The SMC asked experts to comment, feel free to use these comments in your reporting.
Professor James Renwick, climate scientist and Head of the VUW School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, comments:
“The 25th annual State of the Climate report from the WMO is an excellent and accessible summary, but it makes for sobering reading. Carbon dioxide concentrations are at record levels, ocean heat content and sea levels are both at record highs, sea ice extent is well below normal in both hemisphere, glaciers and ice sheets are melting. On and on in the now-familiar litany of all the ways the climate is warming and changing around us. Even more worrying is the range of associated extreme weather events and impacts on human populations. World hunger is on the rise and we are now talking of millions of people displaced as a result of weather and climate extremes.
“Ecosystems are being affected worldwide, on land and in the oceans, where acidification is associated with rising temperatures and loss of dissolved oxygen. The record heat in New Zealand and the Tasman Sea during summer 2017/18 is an example of what we can expect much more of in future years. With no action on climate change, that record warm summer in New Zealand would be counted as a cold summer in another 50 years. The associated increases in climate and weather extremes would displace hundreds of millions and would threaten the fabric of societies everywhere.
“The globe is currently running a temperature of about 1°C above pre-industrial levels. To rein in the warming at no more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial, global emissions need to halve by 2030, and go to zero by 2050. Yet, emissions increased to record levels in 2018! Policy-makers must really take on board that climate change is an existential threat to global society, to the global economy, and to all ecosystems on earth. I hope the planned United Nations Climate Action Summit later this year really galvanises action by governments around the world.”
No conflict of interest.
Gregor Macara, climate scientist, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), comments:
“In a week that has seen the highest 48-hour rainfall total ever in New Zealand, it seems fitting that the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is highlighting the increasing impacts of climate change around the world.
“New Zealand is far from immune and has experienced many of the indicators the WMO has concluded are becoming more pronounced globally.
“These include:
• New Zealand’s hottest ever month in January 2018 when the mean temperature was 20.3°C, a remarkable 3.1°C above average
• At New Zealand climate stations over the past six years, for every record or near-record low monthly mean temperature there have been 12 record or near-record highs.
• A hot March this year – higher temperatures than what it’s usually like in mid to late summer.
• Marine heatwaves over the past two summers – likely a contributor to this week’s wettest 48 hours on record.
• A near record 40-day dry spell in Nelson this summer which included significant wildfires.
• 2018 coming in at NZ’s equal-second warmest year on record .” [High-res graph available here under creative commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)].
No conflict of interest.
Professor Jim Salinger, Visiting Scholar, Penn State University, comments:
“The 25th Anniversary issue shows hastening climate warming globally. This was true for the New Zealand region, a combined land and marine area of 4 million sq. km (the size of the Indian subcontinent), with the warmest year on 150 years of land and sea records.
“It is very alarming that the carbon dioxide levels reaching a highest 406 ppm – up from 280 ppm in the 19th century, and methane jumping unexpectedly by 25 ppb to a record 1850 ppb by 2017.
“The extra 3.7 mm of sea level rise will be very significant for the coast of Australia, and especially New Zealand with its many seaside urban areas and long coasts.
“The record warm summer ending in February 2019 produced the largest ice loss on the Southern Alps glaciers since the regular end of summer snowline surveys started 42 years ago.
“We’ve seen Queensland Groper in the Bay of Islands, Northland, 3000 km out of range, snapper in Milford Sound in Fiordland, and massive mortality in the aquaculture fisheries of the Marlborough Sounds. These are a harbinger of climate in the latter part of the 20th century if we do not take action to reduce emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and the production of greenhouse gases from other sources such as waste and agriculture immediately.”
No conflict of interest.
ends
Science Media Centre NZ
Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.
The Science Media Centre is New Zealand’s only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.
Contact Science Media Centre NZ
• Website – http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz
• Email – smc@sciencemediacentre.co.nz
• Phone – +64 4 499 5476
• Mobile – +64 21 859 365
• Facebook
• Twitter – @smcnz
• YouTube
• Postal Address – PO Box 598, Wellington 6140
Thanks CG! Would have missed it otherwise
I’m so grateful to see the entire text of the media release faithfully pasted here including the contact details. That newfangled hyperlinking idea will never catch on. Off to scribe some papyrus and summon my faithful carrier pigeon.
Basic science says planetary gas traps heat, so digging up and burning carbon would inevitably increase the temperature globally. Especially if nothing is done to stop the concentration of co2 in the atmosphere. It really does not matter whether we have past the tipping point, we have or we will if nothing changes. So let’s grow the co2 level some more…
So we are running at the cliff, it looks now that we’ve run right off the top…
You know that you don’t need to post the entire thing after the link.
You trying to channel Ed?
Knowing what is relevant seems beyond some folk.
PM Jacinda Ardern was at the Memorial Service this morning, Soon she flies for a one day meeting with China. She will probably read that Report on her way. I’m sure James Shaw will read it as well.
Cleangreen, I know you didn’t mean to make it sound like she is neglectful, but it did rather read that way. Her plate is full.
A terrorist Attack which killed 50 and injured as many more.
A flight to China to salvage relations.
Gun law changes.
A Climate Change Tipping point Report.
A budget being prepared.
The ongoing repairs and replacements needed because of previous neglect.
I so admire this young woman who has taken on that role with such aplomb and sincerity.
She will do her level best for us all, and next election it is to be hoped we vote her a greater mandate to bring in change.
True that Patricia,
I marched on that day and held two banners up saying save rail save a planet.
I am nervous as the murders have shifted the spotlight off the most serious issue we now face for us and our children’s future.
I am 75 so don’t feel personally threatened as my life is now limited but when I look at my 7yr old grandson I almost cry at what he will face going forward so Jacinda must feel this too with a very young Girl under a year old.
We must keep up the pressure for change now.
Yes Cleangreen, at 77 I feel the same. Cheers.
In case you have missed it –
Face book is banning all white nationalist content.
https://www.vox.com/technology/2019/3/27/18284319/facebook-instagram-white-nationalism-ban
Meanwhile:
Twitter is considering labeling Trump tweets that violate its rules:
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/28/tech/trump-twitter-rules-label/index.html
Well I guess even that little step is something on the way to cleaning up the garbage tip that these ‘social media’ sites have created over the past decade.
There is still a long way to go.
Well I hope that Twitter applies some consistency and removes the hate speech of Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar Mosque.
Hate speech and conspiracy theories like his recent rant in Aotea Square have helped radicalize so many, whether Muslim, Jewish, white supremacists or whoever. It has no place in NZ.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/03/jews-outraged-after-mosque-leader-blames-mossad-for-christchurch-attack.html
I’m no fan of Netanyahu and his extremist mates, but that guy’s just really irresponsible. Unless you’ve got solid evidence to suggest Mossad had anything to do with this (and good luck with that), ranting like an unhinged lunatic about Zionist conspiracy theories is just pathetic. He’s just tipping the scales in the other direction, and it’s helping no one, least of all NZ’s Muslim community.
Has there been any evidence of Israeli involvement with the Christchurch Massacre ?
No. Zero evidence. He is just trying to import all the hate and bigotry that prevails in the ME to our country.
it is already here , that is why we have 50 dead in christchurch.
So we call out that rubbish no matter who spouts it. ” It is not welcome here” to quote our Pm.
It is significant that Trump has been identified as symptomatic of what’s wrong with twitter.
Chief Troll. He’s even got the haircut.
And a Trolls orange skin.
Paul Brislenon RNZ says:
Have people seen the film The Cleaners?
It sounds relevant
https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/the-cleaners/
A thoroughly unnerving picture of our times, this gripping doco immerses us in the surreal world of the content moderators who decide what we see (or don’t see) on social media.
A thanks on 8.1 – – Thanks CG! Would have missed it otherwise
Soddenleaf
I agree with your point that we have no time here so we need to plan for the event now also. build less use of carbon emissions to slow the rate of destruction.
Yes Climate change updates like mine on 8 should be a subject that stays on the radar every day no matter what else goes on today.
As Climate change is about to kill at random many people who are also innocent in our communities as sea level rise and warming/ melting of our glaciers will flood many regions.
We saw this happen at the Franz Josef Glacier and all the flooding down at properties flooded at Hokitika perhaps from the melting of the glaciers there also?
How much pain and suffering does it take before the Government moves ‘decisively’ now?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1903/S00049/global-state-of-the-cliate-2018-expert-reaction.htm
We impatiently await James report, and hope like hell we have consensus on real change.
In the interim planting trees is a no brainer – soon as we (I) get some rains to support them…
The heat island effect in cities will only be exacerbated in future unless we take steps now to offset temperatures with the evaporative cooling and shading effect of trees. In addition trees perform many functions to enhance urban living.
Food, shade, shelter, habitat, aesthetic beauty, carbon capture, biodiversity, rain capture and transpiration, air cleaning, oxygen production…
To build resilience in communities we should get started, not wait on governments, though obviously we are… all hands on deck!
I put trees in recently that’ll take nearly a decade to bear food. Trees are a vote for the future. Start now.
Thinking about better outcomes for young children and teenagers and when they become young parents. This is heartening, and should be the norm now but probably not.
This gives an example of the background of the why of NZ’s poor record with parents and children on world statistical tables.
Dr Susan Baragwanath was the instigator of about 11 schools for teenage mothers, who the careless, condemning conformists with cold-blooded puritan minds were freezing out from society, and this was when the true facts about NZ early sexuality exploration and its effects were known – (by such as Jenny Shipley and the superior types in National Party).
Founder, He Huarahi Tamariki Schools
Dr. Susan Cave Baragwanath believes her fellowship came about because she had a problem, and she could not find anyone in New Zealand to help her solve it. She was a career secondary school teacher and administrator who had taught internationally. When she returned permanently to New Zealand in 1989 after 20 years away, she accepted a position as a deputy principal in one of the country’s poorest schools.
In the first week, she found a 14-year-old girl giving birth to a child in the school toilets. Baragwanath contacted the authorities about her continuing education, and she was told to forget about it. Baragwanath looked up New Zealand’s domestic law; there it was, in black and white, “every child is entitled to have a free basic formal education until the age of 19 years”. The only education available to this student, if she did not return to school (and she couldn’t as there were no childcare facilities), was distance learning. Her family did not own a phone, so she could not call her tutor, and she waited weeks for her school work to be delivered by mail. As a result, she quickly fell out of the system.
The pattern in New Zealand was for teenagers to have multiple pregnancies before age 21 and become state beneficiaries for life. Without proper research and a concrete plan going forward there seemed to Baragwanath no escape from this pattern continuing.
Maori focus:
Maori and teenage parents – Report on research. 2012
Marginalising Māori Parents
by Elizabeth Strickett and Helen Moewaka-Barnes
Massey University
Marginalising Maori Parents – for Massey University
(p.10 gives information about difficulties for young fathers)
https://www.islandchild.org.nz/
This sounds a good initiative.
But if government could push the InZone style with good funding for it, I guess as a charter school with good overview, so that it can be offered to young parents – there would be immediate improvements and a dramatic rise in successful young people handling their lives well, whether they had a job, apart from parenting or not. But some in government might feel that sort of result really isn’t their thing
In the link it says that the doco shown in 2018 can be viewed on tv on demand. So if you can, very good, worth a look.
https://inzoneeducation.org.nz/media-coverage/
Better off fixing up out current schools.
Hopefully the hubs will sort the problem, however they need to be rammed through at all cost.
Check out the “Swamp Monster” in the background!
Talk about draining the swamp. lol
Hi marks for lprent for restoring our colours.
Ahem … t’was I. I’ve turned them back on, and I’m not sure how they came to be off. If there is a technical issue, I’m sure Lprent will let us know. In the mean time, enjoy the rainbow.
Thanks TRP.
A rainbow – couldn’t resist. Need a laugh.
Ha! And here’s a nice note to end the working week on:
Awww thanks for that.
I always remember Sir Paul Reeves being interviewed some years back on Nat Radio on a Sat Morning by Kim Hill and she had a slot then when she would invite some well known person on to give a playlist of their favourite music and to talk about what it meant for them. This was a favourite of his – he particularly like the backing of the Uke and the soft way it was sung. He had first heard it Hawaii IIRC and it was one of his favourite songs. I admit on hearing itI fell for it as well – but I was never able to find it – I just remembered it. I think the singer was a little younger then by the sound of it also – but still beautiful.
Thanks once again. I’ve stored it on my youtube.
Te reo putake “Twas you” Brilliant Cheers.
I pointed out an article on great farming practice in the Kaipara recently, and now, in Southland, a catchment wide initiative involving more than 600 farms.
They’re treating each farm individually (smart!) and collecting massive data as they go on all manner of systems and processes. This is commendable work, and it seems they’ve done their homework.
I hope some of the trial farms involve earthworks and water retention.
But… yay for this initiative.
I also like the links on the side of the page. Get involved – Become a Citizen Scientist – etc.
Good onya whoever set up that page.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-vision-is-clear/news/article.cfm?c_id=1504591&objectid=12214443
Blubberboy and friends sure burned through the cash https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12217589
Time to pass the (digital) hat around and present an offer for the blog to the liquidator!
Big spender of OPM ?
Hi Cleangreen
You are Right.
Climate, to some odd people, is an enormous black hole.
One such odd person being the Honourable Simon Bridges and the other his idol, the Honourable Donald Trump.
Neither of whom have ever shown any glimpse of Reality.
The ultimate Goofs in Goofs clothing.
But as long as they can sell today’s youth off into Slums – without hope of housing or a fair slice of Life – Bridges and Trump will have achieved their Monstrous aims.
I took a drive through Panmure the other day. It was Tuesday. Its the Neighbour of expensive Remuera.
Panmure is the sort of filth Simon wants. It is dreadful. Few townships in the entire world could be as sick. Long Live dead head Simon. Long live mexicop Trump.
I don’t know if we’re all extras in an antipodean version of Counterpart but I find myself agreeing with John Armstrong – weird.
Where was the royal family?
\Winston Peters has carved a career out of race baiting immigrants.
But at least he finally has the grace to admit he was wrong to have done so. (sort of)
Maybe, just maybe, Winston Peters has sensed the wind of change blowing through the nation’s psyche.
Jenny I think the media has miss reported Winston on a number of occasions, he has been critical of the quality of the immigrants we are bringing in ie the Christchurch Mosque Shooter and the share number of Asians entering the country when we do not have the housing stock and Infrastructure to support this level of Immigration.
Labour are continuing down this track of bringing in large numbers of Immigrants which is putting pressure on ordinary New Zealanders. ie housing and social services ?