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
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• 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.
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 http://www.maramatanga.ac.nz/sites/default/files/12-IN-10%20Web%20ready%20%283%29.pdf
(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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Hi,When I started writing Webworm in 2020, I wrote a lot about the conspiracy theories that were suddenly invading our Twitter timelines and Facebook feeds. Four years ago a reader, John, left this feedback under one of my essays:It’s a never ending labyrinth of lunacy which, as you have pointed ...
And if you said this life ain't good enoughI would give my world to lift you upI could change my life to better suit your moodBecause you're so smoothAnd it's just like the ocean under the moonOh, it's the same as the emotion that I get from youYou got the ...
Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
Three weeks in, and the 24/7 news cycle is not helping anyone feel calm and informed about the second Trump presidency. One day, the US is threatening 25% trade tariffs on its friends and neighbours. The reasons offered by the White House are absurd, such as stopping fentanyl coming in ...
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Wherever you look, you'll hear headlines claiming we've passed 1.5 degrees of global warming. And while 2024 saw ...
Photo by Heather M. Edwards on UnsplashHere’s the key news, commentary, reports and debate around Aotearoa’s politics and economy in the week to Feb 10 below. That’s ahead of live chats on the Substack App and The Kākā’s front page on Substack at 5pm with: on his column in The ...
Is there anyone in the world the National Party loves more than a campaign donor? Why yes, there is! They will always have the warmest hello and would you like to slip into something more comfortable for that great god of our age, the High Net Worth Individual.The words the ...
Waste and fraud certainly exist in foreign aid programs, but rightwing celebration of USAID’s dismantling shows profound ignorance of the value of soft power (as opposed to hard power) in projecting US influence and interests abroad by non-military/coercive means (think of “hearts and minds,” “hugs, not bullets,” “honey versus vinegar,” ...
Health New Zealand is proposing to cut almost half of its data and digital positions – more than 1000 of them. The PSA has called on the Privacy Commissioner to urgently investigate the cuts due to the potential for serious consequences for patients. NZNO is calling for an urgent increase ...
We may see a few more luxury cars on Queen Street, but a loosening of rules to entice rich foreigners to invest more here is unlikely to “turbocharge our economic growth”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Let us not dance daintily around the elephant in the room. Our politicians who serve us in the present are not honest, certainly not as honest as they should be, and while the right are taking out most of the trophies for warping narratives and literally redefining “facts”, the kiwi ...
A few weeks ago I took a look at public transport ridership in 2024. In today’s post I’m going to be looking a bit deeper at bus ridership. Buses make up the vast majority of ridership in Auckland with 70 million boardings last year out of a total of 89.4 ...
Oh, you know I did itIt's over and I feel fineNothing you could say is gonna change my mindWaited and I waited the longest nightNothing like the taste of sweet declineSongwriters: Chris Shiflett / David Eric Grohl / Nate Mendel / Taylor Hawkins.Hindsight is good, eh?The clarity when the pieces ...
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on UnsplashHere’s what we’re watching in the week to February 16 and beyond in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty:Monday, February 10The Kākā’s weekly wrap-up of news about politics and the economy is due at midday, followed by webinar for paying subscribers in Substack’s ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, February 2, 2025 thru Sat, February 8, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Today, I stumbled across a Twitter Meme: the ending of The Lord of the Rings as a Chess scenario: https://x.com/mellon_heads/status/1887983845917564991 It gets across the basic gist. Aragorn and Gandalf offering up ‘material’ at the Morannon allows Frodo and Samwise to catch Sauron unawares – fair enough. But there are a ...
Last week, Kieran McAnulty called out Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis for their claims that Kāinga Ora’s costs were too high.They had claimed Kāinga Ora’s cost were 12% higher than market i.e. private devlopersBut Kāinga Ora’s Chair had already explained why last year:"We're not building to sell, so we'll be ...
Stuff’s Political Editor Luke Malpass - A Fellow at New Zealand IniativeLast week I half-joked that Stuff / The Post’s Luke Malpass1 always sounded like he was auditioning for a job at the New Zealand Initiative.Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. For a limited time, subscriptions are 20% off. Thanks ...
At a funeral on Friday, there were A4-sized photos covering every wall of the Dil’s reception lounge. There must have been 200 of them, telling the story in the usual way of the video reel but also, by enlargement, making it more possible to linger and step in.Our friend Nicky ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is methane the ...
The Government’s idea is that the private sector and Community Housing Providers will fund, build and operate new affordable housing to address our housing crisis. Meanwhile, the Government does not know where almost half of the 1,700 children who left emergency housing actually went. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong ...
Oh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youOh, home, let me come homeHome is wherever I'm with youSongwriters: Alexander Ebert / Jade Allyson CastrinosMorena,I’m on a tight time frame this morning. In about an hour and a half, I’ll need to pack up and hit the road ...
This is a post about the Mountain Tui substack, and small tweaks - further to the poll and request post the other day. Please don’t read if you aren’t interested in my personal matters. Thank you all.After oohing-and-aahing about how to structure the Substack model since November, including obtaining ...
This transcript of a recent conversation between the Prime Minister and his chief economic adviser has not been verified.We’ve announced we are the ‘Yes Government’. Do you like it?Yes, Prime Minister.Dreamed up by the PR team. It’s about being committed to growth. Not that the PR team know anything about ...
The other day, Australian Senator Nick McKim issued a warning in the Australian Parliement about the US’s descent into fascim.And of course it’s true, but I lament - that was true as soon as Trump won.What we see is now simply the reification of the intention, planning, and forces behind ...
Among the many other problems associated with Musk/DOGE sending a fleet of teenage and twenty-something cultists to remove, copy and appropriate federal records like social security, medicaid and other supposedly protected data is the fact that the youngsters doing the data-removal, copying and security protocol and filter code over-writing have ...
Jokerman dance to the nightingale tuneBird fly high by the light of the moonOh, oh, oh, JokermanSong by Bob Dylan.Morena folks, I hope this fine morning of the 7th of February finds you well. We're still close to Paihia, just a short drive out of town. Below is the view ...
It’s been an eventful week as always, so here’s a few things that we have found interesting. We also hope everyone had a happy and relaxing Waitangi Day! This week in Greater Auckland We’re still running on summer time, but provided two chewy posts: On Tuesday, a guest ...
Queuing on Queen St: the Government is set to announce another apparently splashy growth policy on Sunday of offering residence visas to wealthy migrants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, February 7:PM Christopher ...
The fact that Waitangi ended up being such a low-key affair may mark it out as one of the most significant Waitangi Days in recent years. A group of women draped in “Toitu Te Tiriti” banners who turned their backs on the politicians’ powhiri was about as rough as it ...
Hi,This week’s Flightless Bird episode was about “fake seizure guy” — a Melbourne man who fakes seizures in order to get members of the public to sit on him.The audio documentary (which I have included in this newsletter in case you don’t listen to Flightless Bird) built on reporting first ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk The 119th Congress comes with a price tag. The oil and gas industry gave about $24 million in campaign contributions to the members of the U.S. House and Senate expected to be sworn in January 3, 2025, according to a ...
Early morning, the shadows still long, but you can already feel the warmth building. Our motel was across the road from the historic homestead where Henry Williams' family lived. The evening before, we wandered around the gardens, reading the plaques and enjoying the close proximity to the history of the ...
Thanks folks for your feedback, votes and comments this week. I’ll be making the changes soon. Appreciate all your emails, comments and subscriptions too. I know your time is valuable - muchas gracias.A lot is happening both here and around the world - so I want to provide a snippets ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
Today marks a historic moment for Taranaki iwi with the passing of the Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill in Parliament. "Today, we stand together as descendants of Taranaki, and our tūpuna, Taranaki Maunga, is now formally acknowledged by the law as a living tūpuna. ...
Labour is relieved to see Children’s Minister Karen Chhour has woken up to reality and reversed her government’s terrible decisions to cut funding from frontline service providers – temporarily. ...
It is the first week of David Seymour’s school lunch programme and already social media reports are circulating of revolting meals, late deliveries, and mislabelled packaging. ...
The Green Party says that with no-cause evictions returning from today, the move to allow landlords to end tenancies without reason plunges renters, and particularly families who rent, into insecurity and stress. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
A bill to make revenue collection on imported and exported goods fairer and more effective had its first reading in Parliament, Customs Minister Casey Costello said today. “The Customs (Levies and Other Matters) Amendment Bill modernises the way in which Customs can recover the costs of services that are needed ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Department of Internal Affairs [the Department] has achieved significant progress in completing applications for New Zealand citizenship. “December 2024 saw the Department complete 5,661 citizenship applications, the most for any month in 2024. This is a 54 per cent increase compared ...
Reversals to Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions begin tonight and will be in place by 1 July, says Minister of Transport Chris Bishop. “The previous government was obsessed with slowing New Zealanders down by imposing illogical and untargeted speed limit reductions on state highways and local roads. “National campaigned on ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has announced Budget 2025 – the Growth Budget - will be delivered on Thursday 22 May. “This year’s Budget will drive forward the Government’s plan to grow our economy to improve the incomes of New Zealanders now and in the years ahead. “Budget 2025 will build ...
For the Government, 2025 will bring a relentless focus on unleashing the growth we need to lift incomes, strengthen local businesses and create opportunity. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today laid out the Government’s growth agenda in his Statement to Parliament. “Just over a year ago this Government was elected by ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour welcomes students back to school with a call to raise attendance from last year. “The Government encourages all students to attend school every day because there is a clear connection between being present at school and setting yourself up for a bright future,” says Mr ...
The Government is relaxing visitor visa requirements to allow tourists to work remotely while visiting New Zealand, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Tourism Minister Louise Upston say. “The change is part of the Government’s plan to unlock New Zealand’s potential by shifting the country onto ...
The opening of Kāinga Ora’s development of 134 homes in Epuni, Lower Hutt will provide much-needed social housing for Hutt families, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I’ve been a strong advocate for social housing on Kāinga Ora’s Epuni site ever since the old earthquake-prone housing was demolished in 2015. I ...
Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay will travel to Australia today for meetings with Australian Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF). Mr McClay recently hosted Minister Farrell in Rotorua for the annual Closer Economic Relations (CER) Trade Ministers’ meeting, where ANZLF presented on ...
MONDAYSheriff Seymour rode slowly down the main street of Dodge on his faithful white horse Atlas Network.He liked what he saw.Children were being fed free lunches prepared by kind people who collected the scraps from an offal rendering plant.“Very strongly flavoured liver, such as ox liver, can be soaked overnight ...
Once upon a time it was all about being an astronaut, a firefighter or doctor; but these days kids have their sights set on becoming vloggers or YouTubers.That’s according to a 2019 study by Lego that surveyed 3000 children between the ages of eight to 12 from the US, the ...
Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was. From the moment I started high school and realised almost every other girl in my year was at least partially interested in what the boys were up to, I realised that I would be single for life. The feeling wasn’t one of ...
The Pacific profiles series shines a light on Pacific people in Aotearoa doing interesting and important work in their communities, as nominated by members of the public. Today, Selina Alesana Alefosio.All photos by Geoffery Matautia.On a bright Sunday morning from her grandparent’s home in Pito-one, I spoke with ...
The White Lotus star reflects on her life in TV, including the local ad reference that doesn’t work in Australia, and her bananas co-star on Neighbours.Morgana O’Reilly was scrolling her phone next to her sleeping son on an idle Saturday morning when she got the call confirming that she ...
Claire Mabey explores the pros and cons of puff quotes on book covers.In January, Publishers Weekly put out an article by Sean Manning – publisher of Simon & Schuster’s flagship US imprint – in which he said he’d “no longer require authors to obtain blurbs for their books”.The ...
New Zealand’s Entomological Society is hosting its annual bug of the year contest. Here are some of the insects in the running. For some reason – perhaps humans’ inherent competitiveness, the idealisation of democracy, the need to demarcate winners and losers – one of the best ways to get people ...
A journey along the border, with words and illustrations by Bob Kerr.The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members.The Sunset Limited leaves Union Station New Orleans on time at nine in the morning. We ...
Neville Peat is the 2024 recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in nonfiction. He’s written 56 books, mostly on natural history; this excerpt is from The Falcon and the Lark: A New Zealand High Country Journal, first published in 1992. The falcon wintering on the Rock and ...
It was a light-hearted gesture Greta Pilkington will be forever grateful for – thanks to an Aussie rival who jumped in when the Olympic sailor couldn’t be at her own graduation.Pilkington, then 20, had been leading a double life – while qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the ILCA ...
I was born in the back of my grandfather’s ute, by an overgrown windbreak in a remote place called Wahi-Rakauyou can’t find on a map. I was born a girl but given the man’s name Harvey, as my dad always wanted a violent-minded boy to one day help him ...
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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
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• Twitter – @smcnz
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• 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.
https://www.efworld.org/uploads/files/75555390665357702-susancavebaragwanath.pdf
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
http://www.maramatanga.ac.nz/sites/default/files/12-IN-10%20Web%20ready%20%283%29.pdf
(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
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1111274533862981635
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 ?