PP have lost more than half their seats: "The People's Party is a liberal-conservative, Christian-democraticpolitical party in Spain." To the left of the socialists is one of them rainbow alliance sort of things: "Unidos Podemos (English: "United We Can"), re-styled to its female form Unidas Podemos ahead of the 2019 Spanish general election, is a left-wingelectoral alliance formed by Podemos, United Left, Equo and other left-wing parties in May 2016". But becoming politically correct was a bad move for them: they lost 29 seats.
I get that Simon Bridges is a right winger and therefore tends to be reflexively punitive towards the poor end of town. But the slushies are for the guards not the inmates. He seems to have inverted his own ideology and needs a dog whistling refresher course. Judith could help with that.
And as someone just pointed out on Morning Report, he seems to have forgotten hair straighteners and curved screens as part of the Joyce/Coleman vanity project at the Ministry for Everything
Yep……..and all that's all just the superficial sort of stuff that gets into the media.
Then there's what I'd call the 'James Casson Effect'. Something that's been allowed to become pervasive in a number of Munstries and Departments, especially over the past decade or so – and it's probably the biggest roadblock (at least so far) to what we've been promised from our current Coalition Government.
We get what we deserve though at times eh? The signs and the record was there in plain sight for Ministers to see
The CGT debacle flushed out some anti-boomer sentiment from younger journalists, but one is doing a reality check on that bias:
"Things look a little different once you zoom in a little, where the idea that boomers are exceptionally propertied starts to get a little murkier. According to the Ministry of Social Development, in the 2013 Census, only 60% of those aged 65-69 (boomers, in other words) were owner-occupiers, compared to nearly 52% of those who were aged 40-44. Compare that to the whopping 82% of those aged 65-69 in 2001 – the preceding Silent Generation – who owned their own homes."
"More discouraging statistics abound when you dig deeper. More than 60% of those aged 65 and over rely on superannuation for all or most of their income, meaning they make at the very most $33,000 a year if they’re married, and $21,000 if they’re living alone. Those over 65 are the most likely age group to have persistent low income, and more likely than other age groups to drop into low income territory. 2013 Census data shows only 8.7% of those aged 65 or over at the time got more than $60,000 a year in income, the largest share (25%) receiving between $15,001 and $20,000." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/29-04-2019/stop-demonising-the-boomers/
Won't surprise anyone here, but popular delusions abound when younger generations lack the time and effort to discover what's really going on. Generalisations gain currency instead, feeding generational bias, whereas fact-based class analysis shows that the old triadic class structure has fractured, and the current fractured social structure provides a more realistic form of wealth and income grouping.
Bernard Hickey has an interesting take on Jacinda dumping the CGT.
One advantage the baby boomer generation had through the 2000s was it was larger and voted at a higher rate. But those electoral advantages are ending, which makes Ardern's complete capitulation for a decade doubly surprising.
Voting rates tend to rise a bit as cohorts age, and that will happen as the bulge of millennials goes through the electoral system and become more numerous.
Put simply, the electoral tailwinds for the 2020, 2023 and 2026 elections are behind any party that appeals to those aged 18-39, and they are the age groups that have been hit hardest by the explosion in housing costs over the last decade. This chart of the demographic layout for the 2026 election shows the contrast with the 2008 chart above: the young will overpower the old in electoral terms.
Hickey goes on to highlight the volatile political landscape developing:
The Greens would argue they are the party to reap this whirlwind, but a party of the nativist right could just as easily grab that support with calls for aggressive redistribution of wealth, along with tough migration controls and heavy state investment in housing and public transport.
Scarily for the Greens, this landscape is tailor-made for a backlash against climate change policies that increase the living costs of the poor.
The surprisingly strong showing of the Finns Party in last week's Finnish elections gives a hint of how volatile this new landscape could be. It opposed both migration and policies aimed at combating climate change.
Agree, all relevant considerations. Shows just how out of touch rightists in Aotearoa have gotten in recent years, too. That pending demographic swing ought to be the primary design criterion in respect of a support party for the Nats.
Rightist here operate in a culture of moderation, or even passive pragmatism, whereas those over in Trumpland are vociferous in a culture of bigotry, denial, racism, you name it. So I think designing a new rightist party here is a different kettle of fish. How to be sensible, principled and future-oriented? That's what I'd design for, if I was with them. You can immediately see the problem eh? People saying "You're kidding. That's way less than 5%!"
With Labour's growing failure to deliver coupled with the lefts focus on race and identity, it reminded me of what Steve Bannon said.
“If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”
Bannon was tapping into an old American tradition. As early as the 1680s, powerful white people were serving up racism to assuage the injuries of class, elevating the status of white indentured servants over that of enslaved black people.
Some two centuries later, W. E. B. Du Bois observed that poor white people were compensated partly by a “public and psychological wage”—the “wages of whiteness,” as the historian David Roediger memorably put it.
These wages pit people of different races against one another, averting a coalition based on shared economic interests.
So, Joan C. Williams is a professor and the director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. She does contemporary class analysis (unusual for a law prof):
"I wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review in which I explained what I (a white, liberal law professor) thought so many of my white, liberal, highly educated peers were failing to see: that middle-income white people had voted for Trump not so much because they liked him (though many did) or because they were racist (though plenty were) but foremost as an expression of class anger. After the essay went viral, I expanded it into a book, White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America."
"All told, I’ve spent a good deal of the past two years talking with progressives about the broken relationship between elite white people and the white working class. (I use the term working class to refer to Americans with household incomes between the 30th and 80th percentiles. This group, which has median earnings of about $75,000, is also commonly referred to as the “middle class.”) Democrats presently have a unique opportunity to appeal to the working class, because their base is newly open to a populist message: Income inequality has gotten so bad that people across the political spectrum, college-educated and non-college-educated alike, are feeling a serious pinch. Bernie Sanders got 72 percent of the votes from Democrats under 30 in the 2016 primaries in part by decrying the rigged economy. In the past three decades, education costs have nearly tripled at public universities and doubled at private ones; at the same time, too many people with a college degree are settling for jobs that don’t require one."
The Pelosi blather stance hasn't contained any signal that the Dems are learning why their voters have been losing enthusiasm for liberal establishment thinking.
“Why not just wait for the white working class to die off?” asked an audience member at last year’s Berkeley Festival of Ideas. I get this question a lot, and I always reply: “Do you understand now why they voted for Trump? Your attitude is offensive, and Trump is their middle finger.”
Answer: no. Who would expect a Dem to understand anything? They even make our Labour folk here seem relatively clued up.
"An important, largely overlooked 2017 study by the Democracy Fund’s Voter Study Group identified five distinct types of Trump voters. Two of them—Staunch Conservatives and Free Marketeers, who together account for more than half of Trump voters—are unlikely to ever go for Democrats in substantial numbers. (Free Marketeers may not like Trump’s trade wars, but many cheer his gutting of regulations.) The other two big blocs, American Preservationists and Anti-elites, each include about a fifth of Trump voters, and believe that the economy is rigged in favor of the wealthiest Americans. (The final bloc, the Disengaged, accounted for 5 percent of Trump voters.)"
Such sophisticated usage of identity-politics is rare in political analysis. If it were to replace stereotype-driven over-generalisations, there would be a drop in the banality level of blog commentary.
It is difficult when someone abuses you for doing nothing. Like abuse for an absence without any context or understanding just based on their own sad lives – still hurtful and hateful though imo.
After the murders of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Christchurch I put lots of links and articles up to try and create change. A change for the better where hate and supremacy ideas are discarded, where toxic 'whiteness' and toxic 'masculinity' can be put away to allow non-toxic interactions and connections, to allow others into the space normally reserved for non-others. Some have taken that as an attack on them – if they are toxic then yes you need to change, if not then you don't.
I have been shell shocked by the carnage in Sri Lanka and have really struggled to find a way to talk about it. So much pain.
This link tells some of the stories from the horror over there.
One week ago many dozens of children were killed in Sri Lanka's Easter Sunday attacks. Dressed in their finest clothes for one of the most important church services of the year, this was the first generation in decades to grow up free of violence. Their stories – and the struggle for the surviving children to comprehend the carnage – take the island down a devastatingly familiar path.
A change for the better where hate and supremacy ideas are discarded, where toxic 'whiteness' and toxic 'masculinity' can be put away to allow non-toxic interactions and connections, to allow others into the space normally reserved for non-others. Some have taken that as an attack on them
Absolutely there is no question that Anglo-Europeans have dominated the past 200 years of world history. There is nothing new about this, at all points in our history there always was at least one dominant empire or culture that led the way for a time.
But since the end of WW2 something entirely new has been going on. For most of human history empires endured for centuries or even millenia, but this is no longer true. The American's barely managed 50 years, the Chinese I predict will struggle to match even that … the age of empire is over. It's dying before our eyes. This 'white supremacy' trope you're so obsessed with is already a zombie, the British Empire is long gone, the Americans are like the road runner off the edge of the cliff waiting for gravity to take hold.
There are already more middle class Indians and Chinese than there are white people altogether. Almost 4 billion people have escaped absolute poverty and entered a basic middle class life. Another 4 billion will follow in the next few decades. Twenty years ago places like Panama were desperately undeveloped, now I have on my cellphone pictures taken in a small town supermarket indistinguishable from anything in New Zealand. The world is changing at incredible speed everywhere.
The scientific revolution began with just a relative handful of intellectual giants. People like Newton, Leibniz and Kepler were systemically developing extraordinary ideas at a time when their next door neighbours had barely gotten over burning witches at the stake. For 200 years progress was slow and sporadic, but then from around the middle of the 1800's everything changed. There was a literal explosion of technologies and engineering, resulting in the transformation of human life. The human revolution may have started within a small cultural and elitist confine, but was rapidly extended everywhere.
Now the revolution is global and there is no going back to our old ways. Every nation, every culture has arrived at this unique point in our evolution along their own path. It was often a dark, brutal and tragic journey, but we made it. We are all the children of thousands of generations of men and women who overcame impossible odds to gift to us this moment in time.
Because this is the moment in our story when we cease being children and take up our adult burdens. We are now responsible for our future as a species, and we must now repay our unfathomable debt to the planet who nurtured us thus far. This is the moment when open our inner eyes and seek out the hidden gems in each one of us, when the transcendent connections become visible. This is when we join together as one human race in all of our glorious diversity. There is nothing 9 billion humans cannot achieve.
But this vision will crumble to bitter ashes if we cannot take the first step, we must first learn to trust each other again. Trustworthiness is the foundation of all things, without we will be lost.
"You just didn't care. You don't give a shit about the victims of these massacres, they were nothing to you if they couldn't be used to energise your anger and resentment."
That is what you said to me yesterday. If you think your insincere, toady comments are going to get me to 'repair' with a sack of shit like you white bollox you are sadly mistaken. I can't stand 'white' supremacists mainly because they are so dim.
there is no conflict – bit like when I call you weeze and pooze one two – a play on words if you will, an attempt at wit, biting and direct for sure, to make sure the point is received.
You seem really confused and desperate for friends – maybe stick to what you know – umm lol sorry lol – real world stuff is not your strong point
That you don't recognize the conflict your comments so emphatically portray, is unsurprising…it is why you can flip flop between outright abuse in one comment, then in another seek to signal your humility in offering condolence…
You flat out called others racist on a regular basis…
How are your comments not deeply confused, conflicted…and rank hypocrisy?
flip flop is an interesting one – you may struggle with this but here we go – people can hold ideas in their head that sometimes appear to conflict – this is called dialectical thinking – here's some very basic information for you to learn about this – and I've added the link to an interesting question – see if you can work out why it's relevant one two.
"Dialectical thinking is thinking that approaches insight by reconciling opposites. For example, international peace is a good thing, but nations must protect the interests of citizens — those statements can come into conflict, especially for people who believe in both. The reconciliation may be that nations must cease to be in one world, or it may be that peace is unattainable, or that citizens’ paramount interest is that their nation not go to war, or several other possible statements that allow both statements to be true."
And The Alien loves to get a kick in. A bit of argy bargy gets you all excited apparently.
Coming from you, Ghandi one minute, Dr Evil Mini Me the next, that's more than a little hypocritical, but at least I'm consistent. If I want to stab someone in the back, I always aim for the face so they see it coming.
Anyway, lesson learned, 12 is spelling ‘racist’ correctly now.
Is coming here just a way to fill your time in The Alien? A personal mental fitness test that you undertake cutting and thrusting at other commenters and their opinions. Just an empty exercise which you consider is thinking about politics.
I am here because I can see that politics and the world is unravelling and most of what we have been doing and thinking over the past century has been wrong, as it has led to this present which finds us not ready to think our way to a reasonable future, but to acknowledge what is the actual present.
So amuse yourself child-mind, you have noticed how I cast around for different approaches to life and going-forward which could be helpful. We have to be adaptive, in finding a broad path to follow that all who are serious about living a better way that is practical and sustainable.
Belief in white supremacy is an unusually banal form of conservatism. Multiculturalism made it irrelevant, globalisation left it behind, so anyone still clinging to that belief is delusional at best, sociopathic at worst.
I recently read a book about cultural elites in America. Only some are white, making a strong case that skin colour is incidental to success (regardless of birth advantage). In The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success (2014), Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld identify three components which, in combination, create remarkable success for groups. Implications for political collaboration are obvious!
A superiority complex is the first. Not, as usually understood, in a person, but shared as a key feature of the identity of the group: a "deeply internalised belief".
The second seems almost contradictory: insecurity. It provides a powerful incentive for group motivation. It "runs deep in every one of America's most successful groups".
The third is impulse control (traditionally part of self-discipline). It's "the ability to resist temptation, especially the temptation to give up in the face of hardship or quit instead of persevering at a difficult task."
They document this theory effectively in respect of various groups using social science stats. Also, there are 78 pages of notes prior to the index! "Every one of the premises underlying the theory of the triple package is supported by a well-substantiated and relatively uncontraversial body of empirical evidence." They cite various studies to prove that point.
From the intro: "One of the two authors has written for almost twenty years about successful ethnic minorities all over the world" – that's Amy Chua. "The other has written extensively on how the desire to live in the present has come increasingly to dominate modern Western culture, particularly in America, undermining the country's ability to live for the future." So that's why the US leads the way of climate-change denial.
Globalisation has horrors all its own. The nation state is the unit of political accountability – globalism is a way for feckless politicians to betray their constituents. This is a lot of the reason behind Brexit – high migration into the UK (fully a quarter of the per capita migration into NZ) under EU rules actually causing poorer outcomes for UK citizens.
So where is the accountability for these lousy outcomes? Corporatized governments love to gift cheap migrant labour to corporates in hopes of largess – how are we to contain their sociopathy?
globalism is a way for feckless politicians to betray their constituents.
All forms of governance has it horrors, from the family unit upward. Our present forms of globalisation are manifestly inadequate, but that is only reason to improve them rather than discard them.
It took Europe centuries of bloody strife to get from dozens of tiny duchies and warlord fiefdoms to the nation state entities we have today. You'd better hope we get to a democratically accountable form of world federation much quicker than that.
What saddens me is that we are facing real problems – a backlog of environmental issues that have been left to fester while our self-styled representatives have sold off our dreams to chase the bright elusive butterfly of free market monetarism.
They can't even fess up to having made a total bollocks of everything they've touched, but they're relying on a unified response to these crisies, as if they have some right to our support, these wankers who've sold us out at every opportunity and have been consistently too arrogant to listen when we've tried to help them mitigate their most egregious errors.
It is always interesting to read your comments. My take is that nature will take its course. Everything dies before something new comes. We are the Dinosaur's of our millennium and with the current pollution and obvious unwillingness to do something about this, it will not matter what race or skin color or what the exchange rate of the day is. The damage is so much bigger than all of this. The technology to do some serious work exists but ideology, envy, greed etc is not having it. I doubt we have any time left for philosophy 101, let alone for some old fashion political discussion about the pro and cons of human endeavour. The younger generation senses the urgency but unfortunately, with those very old men running large nations, I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one.
I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one.
Objectively, from a purely materialistic perspective I can only agree with you. You make a case for despair that is hard to argue with.
Some people here persistently misread me, imagining that I argue for nothing but the status quo. Quite the opposite is true; I point to the extraordinary transformation in the material aspects of human life this past 200 years as evidence that radical change is not only possible, but that we are living in it right now.
And that while Western civilisation may have been dominant it this process to date, this is nothing like the apex or end point of the narrative. The next phase is nothing less than the transformation of the human heart across the entire planet; everyone knows this.
As a simple matter of personal faith I choose to believe in the unlimited potential of not only each single one of us, but in the as yet unsuspected, untapped potential when we learn how to spiritually connect collectively.
I'm not talking of the trivial case where like-minded people make easy company with each other, but what happens when people who don't like each other, who clash horribly and contend bitterly not only find ways to trust each other, but are able to put into action that deep mystery in Matthew 5:44 "Love thine enemy". Then we will work what would look like miracles.
This is the pivotal point in our human evolution. A dear friend once said to me that religious history to date was primarily about the development of the sanctified individual, but now we had to consider what the sanctified society might look like. We have only the dimmest of ideas, no more than any random person living in 1820 might grasp the nature of our lives in 2020.
I choose optimism and irrational defiance of the odds because it is the only moral option available to me. All other paths lead to death.
RL, I really admire you for your stance. It wont be our call though, China and India polluting the planet at a rate that is/will be irreversible.
We need to look no further than NZ: at the rubbish loads being thrown into the landscape, drink water being used to bath cows, or sucked out of the ground at a rate that will most likely salinate the water table
Yes, we should fight "the dying of the light" just to make sure that any ever so slight sliver of a chance is taken up to get things turned around.
"I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one."
That's how I see it too. The enormous increases in material wealth, comfort, convenience and security, and the enormous global population increase, have brought us collectively to a precipice.
What needs to be done is obvious – we must back up. Wealthy nations need to accept significantly lower standards of living (and spread (gift) their wealth globally), and nations still in the grip of crippling population growth need to find practical and moral ways to curb reproduction rates (a global one child policy might do the trick, if it could be maintained for a couple of generations – this might also precipitate localised collapses, but it would be worth the risk IMHO).
Neither of these changes will happen on the scale and at the pace needed to avoid toppling over the edge of our precipice – that's if they happen at all!
An alternative response involves continuing on the same path, further ramping up the pace of change and propelling ourselves skywards in the somewhat magical hope that humankind will evolve 'wings' before the 'splat'.
Don't want to be a pessimist – I prefer optimism. But we risk outsmarting ourselves if we try to negotiate with gravity.
I'm with RL re faith in our future but have a problem with "we". I acknowledge holism is best, but I see humanity currently like a waka in which the conservative paddlers are trying to take us one way, and the progressive paddlers are pulling us another way.
You could break it down to past-oriented vs future-oriented. Thinking we will get a consensus on trajectory seems currently unrealistic. Best case scenario is more paddlers will switch to heading for the future.
Innate human nature predisposes most folk to conceive the future in terms of the past – we recycle attitudes & values we are attached to. For the first time ever we collectively must engage a traumatic global process, but aversion to accepting the necessity runs deep.
Things will have to get worse to shift those addicted to complacency, conformity, denial, business as usual etc. Ultimately, though, collective resolution must prevail over despair. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, as the old saying goes. Determination will get us there, regardless how much damage gets done in the process.
As regards the thinking of the paddlers, neither left nor right will prevail. Both/and logic will. Agreement on whatever works, forged under increasing pressure, becomes the only way to survive.
"However, Mr Bridges told Morning Report he never said that and the comments he made were in reference to a regional conference he attended in Hamilton."
"I've come from a regional conference in Hamilton, they delivered a really clear message to me in our conservation". If you read the tea-leaves here, he seems to be sending the signal that conservation is just as viable a path to power as discipline & unity. Not many National Party members realise that the Bluegreens are more than a pet poodle, so he's positioning them as a pathway to power ever so subtly… 😎
The Grauniad, AKA Pravda, AKA Völkischer Beobachter is not merely a dull newspaper, it's a propaganda vehicle, “Assange’s principal media tormentor" and a "collaborator with the secret state."
Part 1 of 3
The night of Assange’s arrest, BBC Newsnight presenter Katie Razzell began in standard ‘impartial’ manner in describing his status: “Out of his hiding place and under arrest”.
‘Hiding place’ is BBC newspeak for ‘political asylum’. The implication was that Julian Assange had hidden in an attempt to evade justice. This was fake news, repeated on the airwaves and across the BBC website.
One of the most notorious examples of Assange-related fake news was the front-page accusation in the Guardian last November that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaigns manager, had met Assange in the embassy three times. No shred of evidence has ever been produced for this claim, which WikiLeaks and Manafort have both vehemently denied, and the story has been widely regarded as fake from virtually the hour of its publication. Luke Harding, the lead journalist on the story, and his editors Paul Johnson and Katharine Viner, have never apologised or retracted the story; nor have they responded to the many challenges about it. As we have previously noted, the Guardian has a disreputable record in publishing nasty, abusive and derogatory pieces about Assange.
A Guardian editorial on the eve of Assange’s expulsion at least stated that Assange should not be extradited to the US: “[He] has shone a light on things that should never have been hidden”. However, John Pilger was scathing of the paper he called “Assange’s principal media tormentor [and] a collaborator with the secret state”, noting that its editorial had “scaled new weasel heights”. He continued: “The Guardian has exploited the work of Assange and WikiLeaks in what its previous editor called ‘the greatest scoop of the last 30 years’. The paper creamed off WikiLeaks’ revelations and claimed the accolades and riches that came with them.
“With not a penny going to Julian Assange or to WikiLeaks, a hyped Guardian book led to a lucrative Hollywood movie. The book’s authors, Luke Harding and David Leigh, turned on their source, abused him and disclosed the secret password Assange had given the paper in confidence, which was designed to protect a digital file containing leaked US embassy cables.”.
The editorial misled its readers on why Assange had sought refuge: “When he first entered the Ecuadorian embassy he was trying to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and molestation. That was wrong”.
As we saw above, this is a grotesque twisting of the facts. Indeed, the Guardian editorial was steeped in sophistry: “the Assange case is a morally tangled web. He believes in publishing things that should not always be published – this has long been a difficult divide between the Guardian and him”.
Pilger demolished the Guardian’s obfuscation: “These ‘things’ are the truth about the homicidal way America conducts its colonial wars, the lies of the British Foreign Office in its denial of rights to vulnerable people, such as the Chagos Islanders, the exposé of Hillary Clinton as a backer and beneficiary of jihadism in the Middle East, the detailed description of American ambassadors of how the governments in Syria and Venezuela might be overthrown, and much more. It is all available on the WikiLeaks site.”
She's a hard road working out which news outlet one can trust.
I have it on fairly good authority that The Guardian is the place to go to find out what the establishment wants you, as a 'leftie', to think.
After groping around in the convoluted cess-pit that is the Jackie Walker persecution and the commentary from the Guardian on the issue…https://witchhuntfilm.org/
Somewhat surprised that Kim Hill passed up the opportunity to put Guardian journalist Freedland on a hot griddle.
Somewhat surprised that Kim Hill passed up the opportunity to put Guardian journalist Freedland on a hot griddle.
I was not at all surprised. She has a history of remaining silent as Grauniad hacks lie to her face. Did you hear her allow the notorious and discredited Luke Harding to chunter on uninterrupted last year?
She has a long and dishonorable record of allowing U.S. government functionaries to smear and ridicule Julian Assange…..
I remember when Freedland was the American correspondent on Kim's Nine to Noon. His book when he got back to Britain was about the virtues of the American political system his country could gain from. Nup.
I got angry listening to the Politics section of RNZ Nine to Noon today when it was revealed the supposed Left spokesman had worked for/ believed in the Rogernomics govt. The guy who tried to tell us the Labour Party preferred Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. Why don't you put a pillow over my face and stifle me. Mike Williams being cute about that revolutionary govt before him, though he obviously provided all the details about the Left's objection to Rogernomics for Paul Holmes's intelligent column on the matter. Says EVERYTHING about Labour.
And Trotter who could talk to point being forced out of the main media. Says a lot about RNZ also under Richard his-communist-father-a-much-better-man-than-him.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis has stamped out any hope Brian Tamaki may have held of winning government funding to deliver his Man Up programme in prisons…
… Tamaki has repeatedly criticised the Government for not funding him to deliver his programme in New Zealand prisons, despite never making a formal application as part of the Corrections tender process.
Davis said there was no verified, independent research showing the programme has achieved success, and lashed out at Tamaki, calling his claims duplicitous.
He said that, despite what Tamaki claims, Man Up has never been shut out of prisons, and has never followed the proper application process.
“If they’re going to lie about the small stuff, how am I going to trust them with the big stuff?”
Hi Marty, A bit of a pedantic question… are you happy about the decision because of the political side of it, i.e. Tamaki is potentially politically toxic?
Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of Tamaki nor fundamentalist anything.
Tamaki has his 'constituents' in prison and as we know there are many ways to skin a cat. By that I mean reaching out and communicating with inmates must take many forms and appearances.
I oppose tamaki, the man up program, toxic christianity, and lying. If prisoners use faith to help them sort stuff out I am all for it – I'm not convinced a person doing tamaki's plan ends up better or worse tbh.
Tamaki has his 'constituents' in prison and as we know there are many ways to skin a cat.
If one of those ways is a "Man Up" programme telling domestic abusers it's their wives' fault for provoking them, it would be better if the cat kept its skin on.
Well said Kelvin Davis. Brian Tamaki is pretty self-serving with double heapings of pudding. And a bit of Christmas holly on the top for the look of the thing.
Israel destroyed the Notre Dame of Gaza – but there was only silence from the West
by TONY GREENSTEIN, 28 April 2019
Since 2009 53 mosques and churches have been vandalised or set fire to in Israel. As is normally the case with attacks on non-Jews, the Israeli Police have not exerted themselves. Only 9 indictments to date have been filed by the police.
What makes this worse is that there are sections of Israeli society who openly justify the destruction of churches and mosques on religious grounds.
Yes. Like the sections of Israeli society in this story… some appear not to like The Daily Blog too much – that's their loss; good thinks happen there too, such as this. How to stamp out other people's sacred places? With glittering balls and booze, that's how.
Government needs “National NZ Port Strategy”
Sunday, 28 April 2019, 1:10 pm
Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre press release- 28- April 2019.
“Government needs “National NZ Port Strategy” so Ports work together not fighting over freight”
A new “National NZ Port Strategy” is needed here in NZ for export of freight.
Today on News hub’s ‘The nation’ show there was a ‘Port discussion’ that was enlightening to us. https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2019/04/exclusive-no-point-investing-in-northport-without-building-rail-link-working-group.html
After watching the panel discussion about the mess our NZ Port issues are about, we now see clearly that the current Government needs a new “National NZ Port Strategy Plan” for NZ Ports to be actively working together instead of fighting over freight, as the current model of ‘independent’ scrapping over freight is damaging both the regions and the loss of residential wellbeing in regions who undercut other Ports to get freight income from capturing ‘lower cost freight’ through their Port because those Ports are now operating at a loss and now forced to sell part of their Port as Napier Port is attempting to do now.
Napier Port are leaving us with a legacy of a residential environmental disaster in their ‘wake.’
History of CEAC meetings with two of our central Port executives; – At both Napier and Gisborne ports.
2016:
Our Committee was invited to the Napier Port boardroom in November 2016 to discuss the massive truck noise and pollution affecting all Napier residents living near the ‘truck network roads’ to and from Napier port, and we sought funding for mitigation for smooth quiet road surfacing and noise barriers and Napier Port said they had no money then.
At that meeting we were sadly advised that sending logs out of NZ was virtually not viable for them, as the Port staff advised us ‘they could not compete with Wellington Port’ who were actually sending their logs out at such a low cost that Napier Port could not afford to compete for freight at those charges.
2011:
In 2011 we brokered a meeting with the Gisborne ‘Eastland Port’ Executives as we were asking them to use rail to move logs to their Port for export rather than using trucks.
The executives also confirmed to us at the meeting that the cost to send each log out of NZ was so low that they made very little money on shipping logs.
So it is now painfully clear now that we need to send a clear message to Government that the whole transportation of our export freight from our NZ Ports is in need of a reset policy.
One that now can offer all forms of ‘land transport’ using rail and road options to make freight costs lower so freight is viable to ship from NZ while giving all Ports adequate funding to offer residential citizens adequate mitigation to lower the transportation effects of road truck freight noise and pollution adversely affecting all those living near busy export road networks to their local port facilities.
Shane Jones, as Regional Development Minister, was also shown on a video clip saying he will be setting up an election policy to change the way the ports in NZ operate “independently” as he said it is not acceptable and needs to change”.
We welcome Shane Jones’ position on this change.
So we seek the labour caucus acceptance to a real Port policy change away from the current conflicting manner that all ports are currently undercutting the charges of freight at the expense of residents and Ports not having any capital to offer residents any mitigation.
All HB/Gisborne residents living near Port bound trucks are now facing a legacy of a residential environmental disaster in their ‘wake’
Business
National weekly rent edges closer to $500
Monday, 29 April 2019, 9:13 am
Press Release: Trademe
New Zealand’s national median weekly hit $495 in March after climbing 5.3 per cent on last year, as every region in the country experienced an annual increase in rent, according to the latest Trade Me Rental Price Index.
Trade Me’s Head of Rentals Aaron Clancy said the country’s rental market was looking very healthy and this was the first time in five months that every region in the country experienced a year-on-year increase. “There’s a high demand for rentals across the country with a significant 28 per cent increase in the number of enquiries compared to March 2018.
No it is not govt policy, Andrea Vance is just stirring, she know's it isn't, and you know it isn't. Hooten of course believes his own spin. Next week Labour will be accused of being flat earthers if a govt MP says they can see for miles and miles.
It’s not easy being a government in the age of the internet and pretending to have power over something that is essentially beyond control, but that doesn’t stop them trying.
The British government is ignoring its previous online mishaps and outlined tough new measures to police the internet, which is all well and good, but all it’s going to do is make Britain a global center for Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
A White Paper last week detailed how the UK wants to bring in a “code of practice” for social networks and internet firms, giving it the power to be able to fine them if they breach it and perhaps even block offending sites.
However I did glace at a program on BBC today about Google power over us and the guy explaining the power of Google takes every letter we place on Google into a large search engine to send to millions to attach their interest of selling to you their items.
The google system uses algorithms to identify what we look at all the time.
Ecuador shows how technology built for China’s political system is now being applied — and sometimes abused — by other governments. Today, 18 countries — including Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates and Germany — are using Chinese-made intelligent monitoring systems, and 36 have received training in topics like “public opinion guidance,” which is typically a euphemism for censorship, according to an October report from Freedom House, a pro-democracy research group.
With China’s surveillance know-how and equipment now flowing to the world, critics warn that it could help underpin a future of tech-driven authoritarianism, potentially leading to a loss of privacy on an industrial scale. Often described as public security systems, the technologies have darker potential uses as tools of political repression.
“They’re selling this as the future of governance; the future will be all about controlling the masses through technology,” Adrian Shahbaz, research director at Freedom House, said of China’s new tech exports.
Of all of the David Icke alternative media view of the world order, he decides to believe the one about Jews being the ones who are descended from "the reptilians" …
Lovetosee the proponents of this cite evidence in Jewish DNA (warning what Jewish DNA, do not have either common Y chromosome or maternal ancestry).
When it comes to the largest companies in the world like those selling cellphones, it is wise to ignore all PR and go to the science. I expect this study will lead to 'debate' rather than change. But there it is.
I can't find the study referred to in the article (Kumiko Nakata is a bona fide fertility researcher). But there's others.
"Cell phone radiation may negatively affect sperm quality in men by decreasing the semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm count, motility, and viability, thus impairing male fertility."
Thanks for putting that up as I was about to after I spotted it, so Wifi causes infertility to as we put up a post two years ago that high frequencies from 'smart meters' also cause cancer and other affects.
Eco Maori worrys about OUR Kaumatua not finding the time to pass there great knowledge of speaking on the Pae Pae and other great Maori culture knowledge on to Te Mokopuna we must never let this knowledge go as that is what some peoples goals to make Maori look so bad that te Mokopuna don't want to have anything to do with OUR GREAT CULTURE .Maori have to do what ever it takes to keep OUR CULTURE Pumping. We must look after our kaumatua and there knowledge there is HEAPS that has already been misplaced or losted if we try hard enough we will find it Kia kaha Whanau.
But historical traumas related to colonisation, cultural and language suppression through assimilation policies along with a move from rural to urban areas, which broke ties with iwi and hapū, had all directly impacted on the length and quality of Māori lives.
"Everything around them was in turmoil," he said.
The flow on effects ares still being felt as well, Edwards said, with some Māori lacking in confidence or ability to fulfil cultural expectations placed on them as they got older, including taking on speaking roles at the marae
But historical traumas related to colonisation, cultural and language suppression through assimilation policies along with a move from rural to urban areas, which broke ties with iwi and hapū, had all directly impacted on the length and
The flow on effects ares still being felt as well, Edwards said, with some Māori lacking in confidence or ability to fulfil cultural expectations placed on them as they got older, including taking on speaking roles at the marae.
Another sobering statistic is the gap between Māori and non-Māori life expectancy, which is about seven years. Life expectancy for Māori females was 77.1 years, when compared to non-Māori females at 83.9 years.
Māori male life expectancy sat at 73 years, with non-Māori men at 80.3 years.
"And I ask, is that a just society, is that a society we can be proud of
Ka kite ano links below P.S I am talking to my WHANAU about this issue of our GREAT kite aronui
I know why simon didn't get rolled I have hinted at that.
Methanthamean is causing heaps of damage to OUR society why is methamphetamine higher in places with high tangata whenua populations its a big problem in Te tairawhiti as well a North land both with 45 % Maori populations.? ? ? ? ??
We must be vigilant on our boarder security as if we get a bad disease that will cost many billions lost income to NZ.
Its sad all the WARS being waged around the world at the minute I have said that it's the tamariki that suffer the most from WAR fools don't GET IT.
I have come to the conclusion that intelligent people under estimate there mahi + the carbon barons money influenceing society that climate change is a hoaxes that has lead to the under estimate of glaciers melt and other facts about climate change .
The beluga whale is a awesome creature we are there Guardians .
Condolences to the people of Mozambican I did not realise that it was the same country hit six weeks ago by a hurricane OUR African cousin are feeling the brunt of human caused climate change Kia kaha people .
That's good that soft plastic recycling in Auckland has resumed its sad that the rest of the country could not be included but is all about being cost effective.
Condolences to John the African American directors Whanau I like his movies I have seen quite a few of them . Ka kite ano P.S had a bit of pressure to deal with lately like water of a ducks back
Gregory you are barking up the wrong tree who can afford those expensive driving lessons you are taking about another point us how much driving do you actually do on NZ Roads not much at all I say it will be a plane ride on most of your journeys Deflecting the road toll road problems from the people WHOM are responsible for it.
Insurance premiums rising it will be a luxury for the wealthy cause by global warming and climate change can you see how the common people are going to suffer this is just one phenomenon .
I have a food allergy if I see kai moana I eat it I just found out why my children did not eat fish when they were younger long story it use to piss me off heaps of fish and only I eat it . the epiepen Pharmac issue I hope Pharmac can come up with a viable solution to the problem. Maybe get someone to come up with a better cheaper design to admit the drugs many ways to solve a problem.
Children living at home till 25 because its to expensive to live in Aotearoa . That's the side effects of having a banker run the country for nine years setting the system up to serve the wealthy it displaces Alot of others and causes a big mess I see this all around the world . ?
We should never stop learning new things when we don't we end up stuck in the PAST like some neanderthal.
I agree with Chris people need to make sure there houseing is safe from the effects of climate change Yea plastic is a big problem for all of Papatuanukue. And I seen it with my own eyes building on land filled in with sand a tsunami or earth quake will make a big mess of these houses . It's cool having a well known person taking about plastic waste issues the Papatuanukue has.
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
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. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
The Government will reshape vocational education and training to return decision making to regions and enable greater industry input into work-based learning Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds says. “The redesigned system will better meet the needs of learners, industry, and the economy. It includes re-establishing regional polytechnics that ...
The Government is taking action to better manage synthetic refrigerants and reduce emissions caused by greenhouse gases found in heating and cooling products, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds says. “Regulations will be drafted to support a product stewardship scheme for synthetic refrigerants, Ms. Simmonds says. “Synthetic refrigerants are found in a ...
People travelling on State Highway 1 north of Hamilton will be relieved that remedial works and safety improvements on the Ngāruawāhia section of the Waikato Expressway were finished today, with all lanes now open to traffic, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“I would like to acknowledge the patience of road users ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister, Penny Simmonds, has announced a new appointment to the board of Education New Zealand (ENZ). Dr Erik Lithander has been appointed as a new member of the ENZ board for a three-year term until 30 January 2028. “I would like to welcome Dr Erik Lithander to the ...
The Government will have senior representatives at Waitangi Day events around the country, including at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, but next year Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has chosen to take part in celebrations elsewhere. “It has always been my intention to celebrate Waitangi Day around the country with different ...
Two more criminal gangs will be subject to the raft of laws passed by the Coalition Government that give Police more powers to disrupt gang activity, and the intimidation they impose in our communities, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. Following an Order passed by Cabinet, from 3 February 2025 the ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Justice Christian Whata as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Whata’s appointment as a Judge of the Court of Appeal will take effect on 1 August 2025 and fill a vacancy created by the retirement of Hon Justice David Goddard on ...
The latest economic figures highlight the importance of the steps the Government has taken to restore respect for taxpayers’ money and drive economic growth, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Data released today by Stats NZ shows Gross Domestic Product fell 1 per cent in the September quarter. “Treasury and most ...
Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour today announced legislation changes to strengthen freedom of speech obligations on universities. “Freedom of speech is fundamental to the concept of academic freedom and there is concern that universities seem to be taking a more risk-averse ...
Police Minister, Mark Mitchell, and Internal Affairs Minister, Brooke van Velden, today launched a further Public Safety Network cellular service that alongside last year’s Cellular Roaming roll-out, puts globally-leading cellular communications capability into the hands of our emergency responders. The Public Safety Network’s new Cellular Priority service means Police, Wellington ...
State Highway 1 through the Mangamuka Gorge has officially reopened today, providing a critical link for Northlanders and offering much-needed relief ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“The Mangamuka Gorge is a vital route for Northland, carrying around 1,300 vehicles per day and connecting the Far ...
The Government has welcomed decisions by the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and Ashburton District Council confirming funding to boost resilience in the Canterbury region, with construction on a second Ashburton Bridge expected to begin in 2026, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Delivering a second Ashburton Bridge to improve resilience and ...
The Government is backing the response into high pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Otago, Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard says. “Cabinet has approved new funding of $20 million to enable MPI to meet unbudgeted ongoing expenses associated with the H7N6 response including rigorous scientific testing of samples at the enhanced PC3 ...
Legislation that will repeal all advertising restrictions for broadcasters on Sundays and public holidays has passed through first reading in Parliament today, Media Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “As a growing share of audiences get their news and entertainment from streaming services, these restrictions have become increasingly redundant. New Zealand on ...
Today the House agreed to Brendan Horsley being appointed Inspector-General of Defence, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Mr Horsley’s experience will be invaluable in overseeing the establishment of the new office and its support networks. “He is currently Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, having held that role since June 2020. ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government has agreed to the final regulations for the levy on insurance contracts that will fund Fire and Emergency New Zealand from July 2026. “Earlier this year the Government agreed to a 2.2 percent increase to the rate of levy. Fire ...
The Government is delivering regulatory relief for New Zealand businesses through changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act. “The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill, which was introduced today, is the second Bill – the other being the Statutes Amendment Bill - that ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed further progress on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway Road of National Significance (RoNS), with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board approving funding for the detailed design of Stage 1, paving the way for main works construction to begin in late 2025.“The Government is moving at ...
The Government today released a request for information (RFI) to seeking interest in partnerships to plant trees on Crown-owned land with low farming and conservation value (excluding National Parks) Forestry Minister Todd McClay announced. “Planting trees on Crown-owned land will drive economic growth by creating more forestry jobs in our regions, providing more wood ...
Court timeliness, access to justice, and improving the quality of existing regulation are the focus of a series of law changes introduced to Parliament today by Associate Minister of Justice Nicole McKee. The three Bills in the Regulatory Systems (Justice) Amendment Bill package each improve a different part of the ...
A total of 41 appointments and reappointments have been made to the 12 community trusts around New Zealand that serve their regions, Associate Finance Minister Shane Jones says. “These trusts, and the communities they serve from the Far North to the deep south, will benefit from the rich experience, knowledge, ...
The Government has confirmed how it will provide redress to survivors who were tortured at the Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Child and Adolescent Unit (the Lake Alice Unit). “The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that many of the 362 children who went through the Lake Alice Unit between 1972 and ...
It has been a busy, productive year in the House as the coalition Government works hard to get New Zealand back on track, Leader of the House Chris Bishop says. “This Government promised to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and reduce the cost of living. Our record this ...
“Accelerated silicosis is an emerging occupational disease caused by unsafe work such as engineered stone benchtops. I am running a standalone consultation on engineered stone to understand what the industry is currently doing to manage the risks, and whether further regulatory intervention is needed,” says Workplace Relations and Safety Minister ...
Mehemea he pai mō te tangata, mahia – if it’s good for the people, get on with it. Enhanced reporting on the public sector’s delivery of Treaty settlement commitments will help improve outcomes for Māori and all New Zealanders, Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka says. Compiled together for the ...
Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
More building consent and code compliance applications are being processed within the statutory timeframe since the Government required councils to submit quarterly data, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “In the midst of a housing shortage we need to look at every step of the build process for efficiencies ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is proud to announce the first three recipients of the Government’s $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund which will enable more Kiwis faster access to mental health and addiction support. “This fund is part of the Government’s commitment to investing in ...
New Zealand is providing Vanuatu assistance following yesterday's devastating earthquake, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. "Vanuatu is a member of our Pacific family and we are supporting it in this time of acute need," Mr Peters says. "Our thoughts are with the people of Vanuatu, and we will be ...
The Government welcomes the Commerce Commission’s plan to reduce card fees for Kiwis by an estimated $260 million a year, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says.“The Government is relentlessly focused on reducing the cost of living, so Kiwis can keep more of their hard-earned income and live a ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour has welcomed the Early Childhood Education (ECE) regulatory review report, the first major report from the Ministry for Regulation. The report makes 15 recommendations to modernise and simplify regulations across ECE so services can get on with what they do best – providing safe, high-quality care ...
The Government‘s Offshore Renewable Energy Bill to create a new regulatory regime that will enable firms to construct offshore wind generation has passed its first reading in Parliament, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says.“New Zealand currently does not have a regulatory regime for offshore renewable energy as the previous government failed ...
Legislation to enable new water service delivery models that will drive critical investment in infrastructure has passed its first reading in Parliament, marking a significant step towards the delivery of Local Water Done Well, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly say.“Councils and voters ...
New Zealand is one step closer to reaping the benefits of gene technology with the passing of the first reading of the Gene Technology Bill, Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins says. "This legislation will end New Zealand's near 30-year ban on gene technology outside the lab and is ...
Cosmic CatastropheThe year draws to a close.King Luxon has grown tired of the long eveningsListening to the dreary squabbling of his Triumvirate.He strolls up to the top floor of the PalaceTo consult with his Astronomer Royal.The Royal Telescope scans the skies,And King Luxon stares up into the heavensFrom the terrestrial ...
Spinoff editor Mad Chapman and books editor Claire Mabey debate Carl Shuker’s new novel about… an editor. Claire: Hello Mad, you just finished The Royal Free – overall impressions? Mad: Hi Claire, I literally just put the book down and I would have to say my immediate impression is ...
Christmas and its buildup are often lonely, hard and full of unreasonable expectations. Here’s how to make it to Jesus’s birthday and find the little bit of joy we all deserve. Have you found this year relentless? Has the latest Apple update “fucked up your life”? Have you lost two ...
Despite overwhelming public and corporate support, the government has stalled progress on a modern day slavery law. That puts us behind other countries – and makes Christmas a time of tragedy rather than joy, argues Shanti Mathias. Picture the scene on Christmas Day. Everyone replete with nice things to eat, ...
Asia Pacific Report “It looks like Hiroshima. It looks like Germany at the end of World War Two,” says an Israeli-American historian and professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University about the horrifying reality of Gaza. Professor Omer Bartov, has described Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza as an ...
The New Zealand government coalition is tweaking university regulations to curb what it says is an increasingly “risk-averse approach” to free speech. The proposed changes will set clear expectations on how universities should approach freedom of speech issues. Each university will then have to adopt a “freedom of speech statement” ...
Report by Dr David Robie – Café Pacific. – COMMENTARY: By Caitlin Johnstone New York prosecutors have charged Luigi Mangione with “murder as an act of terrorism” in his alleged shooting of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson earlier this month. This news comes out at the same time as ...
Pacific Media Watch The union for Australian journalists has welcomed the delivery by the federal government of more than $150 million to support the sustainability of public interest journalism over the next four years. Combined with the announcement of the revamped News Bargaining Initiative, this could result in up to ...
Piracy is a reality of modern life – but copyright law has struggled to play catch-up for as long as the entertainment industry has existed. As far back as 1988, the House of Lords criticised copyright law’s conflict with the reality of human behaviour in the context of burning cassette ...
MONDAY“Merry Xmas, and praise the Lord,” said Sheriff Luxon, and smiled for the camera. There was a flash of smoke when the shutter pressed down on the magnesium powder. The sheriff had arranged for a photographer from the Dodge Gazette to attend a ceremony where he handed out food parcels to ...
It’s a little under two months since the White Ferns shocked the cricketing world, deservedly taking home the T20 World Cup. Since then the trophy has had a tour around the country, five of the squad have played in the WBBL in Australia while most others have returned to domestic ...
Comment: If we say the word ‘dementia’, many will picture an older person struggling to remember the names of their loved ones, maybe a grandparent living out their final years in an aged care facility. Dementia can also occur in people younger than 65, but it can take time before ...
As he makes a surprise return to Shortland Street, actor Craig Parker takes us through his life in television. Craig Parker has been a fixture on television in Aotearoa for nearly four decades. He had starring roles in iconic local series like Gloss, Mercy Peak and Diplomatic Immunity, featured in ...
The Ōtautahi musician shares the 10 tracks he loves to spin, including the folk classic that cured him of a ‘case of the give-ups’. When singer-songwriter Adam McGrath returns to Kumeu’s Auckland Folk Festival from January 24-27, he’s not planning on simply idling his way through – he wants the late ...
Alex Casey spends an afternoon on the job with River, the rescue dog on a mission to spread joy to Ōtautahi rest homes.Almost everyone says it is never enough time. But River the rescue dog, a jet black huntaway border collie cross, has to keep a tight pace to ...
Asia Pacific Report Fiji activists have recreated the nativity scene at a solidarity for Palestine gathering in Fiji’s capital Suva just days before Christmas. The Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre and Fijians for Palestine Solidarity Network recreated the scene at the FWCC compound — a baby Jesus figurine lies amidst the ...
By 1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and 1News reporters A number of Kiwis have been successfully evacuated from Vanuatu after a devastating earthquake shook the Pacific island nation earlier this week. The death toll was still unclear, though at least 14 people were killed according to an earlier statement from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Scully, Professor in Modern History, University of New England Bunker.Image courtesy of Michael Leunig, CC BY-NC-SA Michael Leunig – who died in the early hours of Thursday December 19, surrounded by “his children, loved ones, and sunflowers” – was the ...
The House - On Parliament's last day of the year, there was the rare occurrence of a personal (conscience) vote on selling booze over the Easter weekend. While it didn't have the numbers to pass, it was a chance to get a rare glimpse of the fact ...
A new poem by Holly Fletcher. bejeweled log i was dreaming about wasps / wee darlings that followed me / ducking under objects / that i was fated to pickup / my fingers seeking / and meeting with tiny proboscis’s / but instead / i wake up / roll sideways ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Flora Hui, Research Fellow, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Honorary Fellow, Department of Surgery (Ophthalmology), The University of Melbourne Versta/Shutterstock Australians are exposed to some of the highest levels of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world. While we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Terry, Professor of Business Regulation, University of Sydney Michael von Aichberger/Shutterstock Even if you’ve no idea how the business model underpinning franchises works, there’s a good chance you’ve spent money at one. Franchising is essentially a strategy for cloning ...
If something big is going to happen in Ferndale, it’s going to happen at Christmas. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If there’s one episode of Shortland Street you should watch each year, it’s the annual Christmas cliffhanger. The final episode of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William A. Stoltz, Lecturer and expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University US President-elect Donald Trump has named most of the members of his proposed cabinet. However, he’s yet to reveal key appointees to America’s powerful cyber warfare and intelligence institutions. ...
Announcing the top 10 books of the the year at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (Faber & Faber, $37) The phenomenal Irish writer is the unsurprising chart topper for 2024 with her fourth novel that, much like her first ...
The government has confirmed its plan to break up Te Pūkenga / New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and re-establish independent polytechnics. ...
Looks Iike Pedro Sanchez has won some sort of victory in the Spanish general election.
"With more than 11 million votes counted, PSOE are projected to get 129 seats, PP 67, Citizens 54 and Podemos 32. The far-right party Vox received strong support in polling before Sunday’s vote, but that has not materialised into as many votes as they had hoped. The anti-immigration, anti-feminist, anti-Catalan party is projected to win 23 seats in the Spanish parliament." https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2019/apr/28/spain-election-turnout-increases-as-voters-head-to-polls-for-third-time-in-four-years-live-updates
PP have lost more than half their seats: "The People's Party is a liberal-conservative, Christian-democratic political party in Spain." To the left of the socialists is one of them rainbow alliance sort of things: "Unidos Podemos (English: "United We Can"), re-styled to its female form Unidas Podemos ahead of the 2019 Spanish general election, is a left-wing electoral alliance formed by Podemos, United Left, Equo and other left-wing parties in May 2016". But becoming politically correct was a bad move for them: they lost 29 seats.
Thank God for Mr Sanchez.
The EU elections desperately needed a left wing signal.
I get that Simon Bridges is a right winger and therefore tends to be reflexively punitive towards the poor end of town. But the slushies are for the guards not the inmates. He seems to have inverted his own ideology and needs a dog whistling refresher course. Judith could help with that.
And as someone just pointed out on Morning Report, he seems to have forgotten hair straighteners and curved screens as part of the Joyce/Coleman vanity project at the Ministry for Everything
limos with heated seats…
Yep……..and all that's all just the superficial sort of stuff that gets into the media.
Then there's what I'd call the 'James Casson Effect'. Something that's been allowed to become pervasive in a number of Munstries and Departments, especially over the past decade or so – and it's probably the biggest roadblock (at least so far) to what we've been promised from our current Coalition Government.
We get what we deserve though at times eh? The signs and the record was there in plain sight for Ministers to see
Once was tim Yes it appears Steven Joyce is not preparing Bridges for 'election material this time.
We wonder who 'Scheming Steven Joyce has in his sights' this time to take over National now?
The CGT debacle flushed out some anti-boomer sentiment from younger journalists, but one is doing a reality check on that bias:
"Things look a little different once you zoom in a little, where the idea that boomers are exceptionally propertied starts to get a little murkier. According to the Ministry of Social Development, in the 2013 Census, only 60% of those aged 65-69 (boomers, in other words) were owner-occupiers, compared to nearly 52% of those who were aged 40-44. Compare that to the whopping 82% of those aged 65-69 in 2001 – the preceding Silent Generation – who owned their own homes."
"More discouraging statistics abound when you dig deeper. More than 60% of those aged 65 and over rely on superannuation for all or most of their income, meaning they make at the very most $33,000 a year if they’re married, and $21,000 if they’re living alone. Those over 65 are the most likely age group to have persistent low income, and more likely than other age groups to drop into low income territory. 2013 Census data shows only 8.7% of those aged 65 or over at the time got more than $60,000 a year in income, the largest share (25%) receiving between $15,001 and $20,000." https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/29-04-2019/stop-demonising-the-boomers/
Won't surprise anyone here, but popular delusions abound when younger generations lack the time and effort to discover what's really going on. Generalisations gain currency instead, feeding generational bias, whereas fact-based class analysis shows that the old triadic class structure has fractured, and the current fractured social structure provides a more realistic form of wealth and income grouping.
Bernard Hickey has an interesting take on Jacinda dumping the CGT.
Hickey goes on to highlight the volatile political landscape developing:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/04/18/543088/jacinda-ardern-just-did-a-john-key
Agree, all relevant considerations. Shows just how out of touch rightists in Aotearoa have gotten in recent years, too. That pending demographic swing ought to be the primary design criterion in respect of a support party for the Nats.
Indeed. Opposed to the likes of Trump in the States who took advantage of both the growing demographic and wealth disparity.
Rightist here operate in a culture of moderation, or even passive pragmatism, whereas those over in Trumpland are vociferous in a culture of bigotry, denial, racism, you name it. So I think designing a new rightist party here is a different kettle of fish. How to be sensible, principled and future-oriented? That's what I'd design for, if I was with them. You can immediately see the problem eh? People saying "You're kidding. That's way less than 5%!"
With Labour's growing failure to deliver coupled with the lefts focus on race and identity, it reminded me of what Steve Bannon said.
Bannon was tapping into an old American tradition. As early as the 1680s, powerful white people were serving up racism to assuage the injuries of class, elevating the status of white indentured servants over that of enslaved black people.
Some two centuries later, W. E. B. Du Bois observed that poor white people were compensated partly by a “public and psychological wage”—the “wages of whiteness,” as the historian David Roediger memorably put it.
These wages pit people of different races against one another, averting a coalition based on shared economic interests.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-democrats-white-people-problem/573901/
So, Joan C. Williams is a professor and the director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law. She does contemporary class analysis (unusual for a law prof):
"I wrote an essay for the Harvard Business Review in which I explained what I (a white, liberal law professor) thought so many of my white, liberal, highly educated peers were failing to see: that middle-income white people had voted for Trump not so much because they liked him (though many did) or because they were racist (though plenty were) but foremost as an expression of class anger. After the essay went viral, I expanded it into a book, White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America."
"All told, I’ve spent a good deal of the past two years talking with progressives about the broken relationship between elite white people and the white working class. (I use the term working class to refer to Americans with household incomes between the 30th and 80th percentiles. This group, which has median earnings of about $75,000, is also commonly referred to as the “middle class.”) Democrats presently have a unique opportunity to appeal to the working class, because their base is newly open to a populist message: Income inequality has gotten so bad that people across the political spectrum, college-educated and non-college-educated alike, are feeling a serious pinch. Bernie Sanders got 72 percent of the votes from Democrats under 30 in the 2016 primaries in part by decrying the rigged economy. In the past three decades, education costs have nearly tripled at public universities and doubled at private ones; at the same time, too many people with a college degree are settling for jobs that don’t require one."
The Pelosi blather stance hasn't contained any signal that the Dems are learning why their voters have been losing enthusiasm for liberal establishment thinking.
“Why not just wait for the white working class to die off?” asked an audience member at last year’s Berkeley Festival of Ideas. I get this question a lot, and I always reply: “Do you understand now why they voted for Trump? Your attitude is offensive, and Trump is their middle finger.”
Answer: no. Who would expect a Dem to understand anything? They even make our Labour folk here seem relatively clued up.
"An important, largely overlooked 2017 study by the Democracy Fund’s Voter Study Group identified five distinct types of Trump voters. Two of them—Staunch Conservatives and Free Marketeers, who together account for more than half of Trump voters—are unlikely to ever go for Democrats in substantial numbers. (Free Marketeers may not like Trump’s trade wars, but many cheer his gutting of regulations.) The other two big blocs, American Preservationists and Anti-elites, each include about a fifth of Trump voters, and believe that the economy is rigged in favor of the wealthiest Americans. (The final bloc, the Disengaged, accounted for 5 percent of Trump voters.)"
Such sophisticated usage of identity-politics is rare in political analysis. If it were to replace stereotype-driven over-generalisations, there would be a drop in the banality level of blog commentary.
It is difficult when someone abuses you for doing nothing. Like abuse for an absence without any context or understanding just based on their own sad lives – still hurtful and hateful though imo.
After the murders of our Muslim brothers and sisters in Christchurch I put lots of links and articles up to try and create change. A change for the better where hate and supremacy ideas are discarded, where toxic 'whiteness' and toxic 'masculinity' can be put away to allow non-toxic interactions and connections, to allow others into the space normally reserved for non-others. Some have taken that as an attack on them – if they are toxic then yes you need to change, if not then you don't.
I have been shell shocked by the carnage in Sri Lanka and have really struggled to find a way to talk about it. So much pain.
This link tells some of the stories from the horror over there.
I'm sending love to the synagogue victims too – and to all victims of hate murders.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/28/san-diego-synagogue-shooting-rabbi-wounded
A change for the better where hate and supremacy ideas are discarded, where toxic 'whiteness' and toxic 'masculinity' can be put away to allow non-toxic interactions and connections, to allow others into the space normally reserved for non-others. Some have taken that as an attack on them
Absolutely there is no question that Anglo-Europeans have dominated the past 200 years of world history. There is nothing new about this, at all points in our history there always was at least one dominant empire or culture that led the way for a time.
But since the end of WW2 something entirely new has been going on. For most of human history empires endured for centuries or even millenia, but this is no longer true. The American's barely managed 50 years, the Chinese I predict will struggle to match even that … the age of empire is over. It's dying before our eyes. This 'white supremacy' trope you're so obsessed with is already a zombie, the British Empire is long gone, the Americans are like the road runner off the edge of the cliff waiting for gravity to take hold.
There are already more middle class Indians and Chinese than there are white people altogether. Almost 4 billion people have escaped absolute poverty and entered a basic middle class life. Another 4 billion will follow in the next few decades. Twenty years ago places like Panama were desperately undeveloped, now I have on my cellphone pictures taken in a small town supermarket indistinguishable from anything in New Zealand. The world is changing at incredible speed everywhere.
The scientific revolution began with just a relative handful of intellectual giants. People like Newton, Leibniz and Kepler were systemically developing extraordinary ideas at a time when their next door neighbours had barely gotten over burning witches at the stake. For 200 years progress was slow and sporadic, but then from around the middle of the 1800's everything changed. There was a literal explosion of technologies and engineering, resulting in the transformation of human life. The human revolution may have started within a small cultural and elitist confine, but was rapidly extended everywhere.
Now the revolution is global and there is no going back to our old ways. Every nation, every culture has arrived at this unique point in our evolution along their own path. It was often a dark, brutal and tragic journey, but we made it. We are all the children of thousands of generations of men and women who overcame impossible odds to gift to us this moment in time.
Because this is the moment in our story when we cease being children and take up our adult burdens. We are now responsible for our future as a species, and we must now repay our unfathomable debt to the planet who nurtured us thus far. This is the moment when open our inner eyes and seek out the hidden gems in each one of us, when the transcendent connections become visible. This is when we join together as one human race in all of our glorious diversity. There is nothing 9 billion humans cannot achieve.
But this vision will crumble to bitter ashes if we cannot take the first step, we must first learn to trust each other again. Trustworthiness is the foundation of all things, without we will be lost.
Just pretend words from you – oh great gatekeeper of the status quo – self centred feathering of your own toxic nest – yucky
I expressed myself clearly and sincerely in an attempt to repair the chasm between us. I hoped you might have risen to that.
"You just didn't care. You don't give a shit about the victims of these massacres, they were nothing to you if they couldn't be used to energise your anger and resentment."
That is what you said to me yesterday. If you think your insincere, toady comments are going to get me to 'repair' with a sack of shit like you white bollox you are sadly mistaken. I can't stand 'white' supremacists mainly because they are so dim.
a sack if shit like you white bollox…
And yet you shout rascist at any opportunity while also sending messages of support …out the other side of your face ..
You understand the negative feedback loop your conflicting messages create…right?
there is no conflict – bit like when I call you weeze and pooze one two – a play on words if you will, an attempt at wit, biting and direct for sure, to make sure the point is received.
You seem really confused and desperate for friends – maybe stick to what you know – umm lol sorry lol – real world stuff is not your strong point
That you don't recognize the conflict your comments so emphatically portray, is unsurprising…it is why you can flip flop between outright abuse in one comment, then in another seek to signal your humility in offering condolence…
You flat out called others racist on a regular basis…
How are your comments not deeply confused, conflicted…and rank hypocrisy?
flip flop is an interesting one – you may struggle with this but here we go – people can hold ideas in their head that sometimes appear to conflict – this is called dialectical thinking – here's some very basic information for you to learn about this – and I've added the link to an interesting question – see if you can work out why it's relevant one two.
"Dialectical thinking is thinking that approaches insight by reconciling opposites. For example, international peace is a good thing, but nations must protect the interests of citizens — those statements can come into conflict, especially for people who believe in both. The reconciliation may be that nations must cease to be in one world, or it may be that peace is unattainable, or that citizens’ paramount interest is that their nation not go to war, or several other possible statements that allow both statements to be true."
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-dialectical-thinking-and-critical-thinking
All at an elementary level…you clearly have misunderstood…which is another indicator why you apparently can't recognize your own behaviours…
It's not posaible to reconcile your own behaviour if you don't recognize that a pattern exists…
Jekyll and Hyde is more where you're at, mm…
No that isn't why it is relevant to you one two – try again.
Shitwit mardymardy. Never bite shit.
gave it a go trev, to be fair
He wouldn't – MM can spell racist properly
Why did you join in 1-2. You really are a space-filler here, and a contentious one that I don't look to for authentic comment. Have you another home?
And The Alien loves to get a kick in. A bit of argy bargy gets you all excited apparently.
Coming from you, Ghandi one minute,
Dr EvilMini Me the next, that's more than a little hypocritical, but at least I'm consistent. If I want to stab someone in the back, I always aim for the face so they see it coming.Anyway, lesson learned, 12 is spelling ‘racist’ correctly now.
At times, I feel so close and then my hopes get dashed, in such a cold unthinking way …
Change your login to etc'. and wing it for the win
greywarsshark.
well said 1000%
I couldnt have said it better except others besides The Alien are roaming around here trying to tick off us all with their 'kicks'. like;
James.
Ad
Gosman.
Psyco milt.
ect'.
I feel left out! How disappointing!
You know you've made it when you get on some wet blanket's top five list. 🙄
Is coming here just a way to fill your time in The Alien? A personal mental fitness test that you undertake cutting and thrusting at other commenters and their opinions. Just an empty exercise which you consider is thinking about politics.
I am here because I can see that politics and the world is unravelling and most of what we have been doing and thinking over the past century has been wrong, as it has led to this present which finds us not ready to think our way to a reasonable future, but to acknowledge what is the actual present.
So amuse yourself child-mind, you have noticed how I cast around for different approaches to life and going-forward which could be helpful. We have to be adaptive, in finding a broad path to follow that all who are serious about living a better way that is practical and sustainable.
Belief in white supremacy is an unusually banal form of conservatism. Multiculturalism made it irrelevant, globalisation left it behind, so anyone still clinging to that belief is delusional at best, sociopathic at worst.
I recently read a book about cultural elites in America. Only some are white, making a strong case that skin colour is incidental to success (regardless of birth advantage). In The Triple Package: What Really Determines Success (2014), Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld identify three components which, in combination, create remarkable success for groups. Implications for political collaboration are obvious!
A superiority complex is the first. Not, as usually understood, in a person, but shared as a key feature of the identity of the group: a "deeply internalised belief".
The second seems almost contradictory: insecurity. It provides a powerful incentive for group motivation. It "runs deep in every one of America's most successful groups".
The third is impulse control (traditionally part of self-discipline). It's "the ability to resist temptation, especially the temptation to give up in the face of hardship or quit instead of persevering at a difficult task."
They document this theory effectively in respect of various groups using social science stats. Also, there are 78 pages of notes prior to the index! "Every one of the premises underlying the theory of the triple package is supported by a well-substantiated and relatively uncontraversial body of empirical evidence." They cite various studies to prove that point.
From the intro: "One of the two authors has written for almost twenty years about successful ethnic minorities all over the world" – that's Amy Chua. "The other has written extensively on how the desire to live in the present has come increasingly to dominate modern Western culture, particularly in America, undermining the country's ability to live for the future." So that's why the US leads the way of climate-change denial.
Globalisation has horrors all its own. The nation state is the unit of political accountability – globalism is a way for feckless politicians to betray their constituents. This is a lot of the reason behind Brexit – high migration into the UK (fully a quarter of the per capita migration into NZ) under EU rules actually causing poorer outcomes for UK citizens.
So where is the accountability for these lousy outcomes? Corporatized governments love to gift cheap migrant labour to corporates in hopes of largess – how are we to contain their sociopathy?
globalism is a way for feckless politicians to betray their constituents.
All forms of governance has it horrors, from the family unit upward. Our present forms of globalisation are manifestly inadequate, but that is only reason to improve them rather than discard them.
It took Europe centuries of bloody strife to get from dozens of tiny duchies and warlord fiefdoms to the nation state entities we have today. You'd better hope we get to a democratically accountable form of world federation much quicker than that.
What saddens me is that we are facing real problems – a backlog of environmental issues that have been left to fester while our self-styled representatives have sold off our dreams to chase the bright elusive butterfly of free market monetarism.
They can't even fess up to having made a total bollocks of everything they've touched, but they're relying on a unified response to these crisies, as if they have some right to our support, these wankers who've sold us out at every opportunity and have been consistently too arrogant to listen when we've tried to help them mitigate their most egregious errors.
Perhaps time for a name change to Resigned Logix, I'm tired of hearing about how the world changes over aeons, the get used to it approach.
I'm tired of hearing about how the world changes over aeons, the get used to it approach.
Maybe it was where I wrote above "The world is changing at incredible speed everywhere."
Was that it?
Hi RL
It is always interesting to read your comments. My take is that nature will take its course. Everything dies before something new comes. We are the Dinosaur's of our millennium and with the current pollution and obvious unwillingness to do something about this, it will not matter what race or skin color or what the exchange rate of the day is. The damage is so much bigger than all of this. The technology to do some serious work exists but ideology, envy, greed etc is not having it. I doubt we have any time left for philosophy 101, let alone for some old fashion political discussion about the pro and cons of human endeavour. The younger generation senses the urgency but unfortunately, with those very old men running large nations, I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one.
Indeed
I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one.
Objectively, from a purely materialistic perspective I can only agree with you. You make a case for despair that is hard to argue with.
Some people here persistently misread me, imagining that I argue for nothing but the status quo. Quite the opposite is true; I point to the extraordinary transformation in the material aspects of human life this past 200 years as evidence that radical change is not only possible, but that we are living in it right now.
And that while Western civilisation may have been dominant it this process to date, this is nothing like the apex or end point of the narrative. The next phase is nothing less than the transformation of the human heart across the entire planet; everyone knows this.
As a simple matter of personal faith I choose to believe in the unlimited potential of not only each single one of us, but in the as yet unsuspected, untapped potential when we learn how to spiritually connect collectively.
I'm not talking of the trivial case where like-minded people make easy company with each other, but what happens when people who don't like each other, who clash horribly and contend bitterly not only find ways to trust each other, but are able to put into action that deep mystery in Matthew 5:44 "Love thine enemy". Then we will work what would look like miracles.
This is the pivotal point in our human evolution. A dear friend once said to me that religious history to date was primarily about the development of the sanctified individual, but now we had to consider what the sanctified society might look like. We have only the dimmest of ideas, no more than any random person living in 1820 might grasp the nature of our lives in 2020.
I choose optimism and irrational defiance of the odds because it is the only moral option available to me. All other paths lead to death.
RL, I really admire you for your stance. It wont be our call though, China and India polluting the planet at a rate that is/will be irreversible.
We need to look no further than NZ: at the rubbish loads being thrown into the landscape, drink water being used to bath cows, or sucked out of the ground at a rate that will most likely salinate the water table
Yes, we should fight "the dying of the light" just to make sure that any ever so slight sliver of a chance is taken up to get things turned around.
Thank you for holding the torch.
Thanks for droppin in Foreign Waka, and I follow your reasoning closely. This time you are truly prescient.
"I fear chances are very very slim to get out of this one."
That's how I see it too. The enormous increases in material wealth, comfort, convenience and security, and the enormous global population increase, have brought us collectively to a precipice.
What needs to be done is obvious – we must back up. Wealthy nations need to accept significantly lower standards of living (and spread (gift) their wealth globally), and nations still in the grip of crippling population growth need to find practical and moral ways to curb reproduction rates (a global one child policy might do the trick, if it could be maintained for a couple of generations – this might also precipitate localised collapses, but it would be worth the risk IMHO).
Neither of these changes will happen on the scale and at the pace needed to avoid toppling over the edge of our precipice – that's if they happen at all!
An alternative response involves continuing on the same path, further ramping up the pace of change and propelling ourselves skywards in the somewhat magical hope that humankind will evolve 'wings' before the 'splat'.
Don't want to be a pessimist – I prefer optimism. But we risk outsmarting ourselves if we try to negotiate with gravity.
I'm with RL re faith in our future but have a problem with "we". I acknowledge holism is best, but I see humanity currently like a waka in which the conservative paddlers are trying to take us one way, and the progressive paddlers are pulling us another way.
You could break it down to past-oriented vs future-oriented. Thinking we will get a consensus on trajectory seems currently unrealistic. Best case scenario is more paddlers will switch to heading for the future.
Innate human nature predisposes most folk to conceive the future in terms of the past – we recycle attitudes & values we are attached to. For the first time ever we collectively must engage a traumatic global process, but aversion to accepting the necessity runs deep.
Things will have to get worse to shift those addicted to complacency, conformity, denial, business as usual etc. Ultimately, though, collective resolution must prevail over despair. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, as the old saying goes. Determination will get us there, regardless how much damage gets done in the process.
As regards the thinking of the paddlers, neither left nor right will prevail. Both/and logic will. Agreement on whatever works, forged under increasing pressure, becomes the only way to survive.
Infrequent visitor here, but I appreciate your deep trawling for truth.
Really interesting post Redlogix, (gee it’s got me posting and not just reading here!)
A lot in there that I hadn’t thought of but makes sense, really like the point about the age of empires being over.
Certainly lessons from the past but your right, the future will be different to what we think.
RNZ: "The New Zealand Herald yesterday reported that National leader Simon Bridges was expected to deliver a strong message to his caucus tomorrow that the only path to power was through discipline and unity." https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/387990/simon-bridges-responds-to-national-leadership-and-unity-rumours
"However, Mr Bridges told Morning Report he never said that and the comments he made were in reference to a regional conference he attended in Hamilton."
"I've come from a regional conference in Hamilton, they delivered a really clear message to me in our conservation". If you read the tea-leaves here, he seems to be sending the signal that conservation is just as viable a path to power as discipline & unity. Not many National Party members realise that the Bluegreens are more than a pet poodle, so he's positioning them as a pathway to power ever so subtly… 😎
He prolly needs to praxis saying 'conversation' franko.
The Grauniad, AKA Pravda, AKA Völkischer Beobachter is not merely a dull newspaper, it's a propaganda vehicle, “Assange’s principal media tormentor" and a "collaborator with the secret state."
Part 1 of 3
The night of Assange’s arrest, BBC Newsnight presenter Katie Razzell began in standard ‘impartial’ manner in describing his status: “Out of his hiding place and under arrest”.
‘Hiding place’ is BBC newspeak for ‘political asylum’. The implication was that Julian Assange had hidden in an attempt to evade justice. This was fake news, repeated on the airwaves and across the BBC website.
One of the most notorious examples of Assange-related fake news was the front-page accusation in the Guardian last November that Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaigns manager, had met Assange in the embassy three times. No shred of evidence has ever been produced for this claim, which WikiLeaks and Manafort have both vehemently denied, and the story has been widely regarded as fake from virtually the hour of its publication. Luke Harding, the lead journalist on the story, and his editors Paul Johnson and Katharine Viner, have never apologised or retracted the story; nor have they responded to the many challenges about it. As we have previously noted, the Guardian has a disreputable record in publishing nasty, abusive and derogatory pieces about Assange.
A Guardian editorial on the eve of Assange’s expulsion at least stated that Assange should not be extradited to the US: “[He] has shone a light on things that should never have been hidden”. However, John Pilger was scathing of the paper he called “Assange’s principal media tormentor [and] a collaborator with the secret state”, noting that its editorial had “scaled new weasel heights”. He continued: “The Guardian has exploited the work of Assange and WikiLeaks in what its previous editor called ‘the greatest scoop of the last 30 years’. The paper creamed off WikiLeaks’ revelations and claimed the accolades and riches that came with them.
“With not a penny going to Julian Assange or to WikiLeaks, a hyped Guardian book led to a lucrative Hollywood movie. The book’s authors, Luke Harding and David Leigh, turned on their source, abused him and disclosed the secret password Assange had given the paper in confidence, which was designed to protect a digital file containing leaked US embassy cables.”.
The editorial misled its readers on why Assange had sought refuge: “When he first entered the Ecuadorian embassy he was trying to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and molestation. That was wrong”.
As we saw above, this is a grotesque twisting of the facts. Indeed, the Guardian editorial was steeped in sophistry: “the Assange case is a morally tangled web. He believes in publishing things that should not always be published – this has long been a difficult divide between the Guardian and him”.
Pilger demolished the Guardian’s obfuscation: “These ‘things’ are the truth about the homicidal way America conducts its colonial wars, the lies of the British Foreign Office in its denial of rights to vulnerable people, such as the Chagos Islanders, the exposé of Hillary Clinton as a backer and beneficiary of jihadism in the Middle East, the detailed description of American ambassadors of how the governments in Syria and Venezuela might be overthrown, and much more. It is all available on the WikiLeaks site.”
http://coldtype.net/Assets19/pdf/ColdType183.May2019.pdf?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_trials_of_julian_assange_coldtype_special_issue_is_now_on_line&utm_term=2019-04-27
She's a hard road working out which news outlet one can trust.
I have it on fairly good authority that The Guardian is the place to go to find out what the establishment wants you, as a 'leftie', to think.
After groping around in the convoluted cess-pit that is the Jackie Walker persecution and the commentary from the Guardian on the issue…https://witchhuntfilm.org/
Somewhat surprised that Kim Hill passed up the opportunity to put Guardian journalist Freedland on a hot griddle.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018692568/jonathan-freedland-the-man-without-shame-has-tremendous-power
Somewhat surprised that Kim Hill passed up the opportunity to put Guardian journalist Freedland on a hot griddle.
I was not at all surprised. She has a history of remaining silent as Grauniad hacks lie to her face. Did you hear her allow the notorious and discredited Luke Harding to chunter on uninterrupted last year?
She has a long and dishonorable record of allowing U.S. government functionaries to smear and ridicule Julian Assange…..
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-hatchet-man-speaks-alex-gibney.html
Rosemary,
"trust nothing you hear or see.".
Only trust your own powerful 'women's premonition.'.
I remember when Freedland was the American correspondent on Kim's Nine to Noon. His book when he got back to Britain was about the virtues of the American political system his country could gain from. Nup.
His book when he got back to Britain was about the virtues of the American political system…
A pamphlet then?
Or perhaps a simple flyer?
I got angry listening to the Politics section of RNZ Nine to Noon today when it was revealed the supposed Left spokesman had worked for/ believed in the Rogernomics govt. The guy who tried to tell us the Labour Party preferred Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders. Why don't you put a pillow over my face and stifle me. Mike Williams being cute about that revolutionary govt before him, though he obviously provided all the details about the Left's objection to Rogernomics for Paul Holmes's intelligent column on the matter. Says EVERYTHING about Labour.
And Trotter who could talk to point being forced out of the main media. Says a lot about RNZ also under Richard his-communist-father-a-much-better-man-than-him.
Why don't you put a pillow over my face and stifle me.
No, no sumsuch, no need for anything that drastic.
Smiles, and maybe even laughter when you close your eyes and picture Mike Williams on a Lime scooter.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12206865
Medialens has consistently, convincingly and exhaustively exposed The Guardian journalists over the past ten years.
Good one.
Hi Marty, A bit of a pedantic question… are you happy about the decision because of the political side of it, i.e. Tamaki is potentially politically toxic?
Don't get me wrong, I am no fan of Tamaki nor fundamentalist anything.
Tamaki has his 'constituents' in prison and as we know there are many ways to skin a cat. By that I mean reaching out and communicating with inmates must take many forms and appearances.
I oppose tamaki, the man up program, toxic christianity, and lying. If prisoners use faith to help them sort stuff out I am all for it – I'm not convinced a person doing tamaki's plan ends up better or worse tbh.
Tamaki has his 'constituents' in prison and as we know there are many ways to skin a cat.
If one of those ways is a "Man Up" programme telling domestic abusers it's their wives' fault for provoking them, it would be better if the cat kept its skin on.
Mighty big 'if' there PM.
What 'if' the program was useful for some inmates and provided support for them to make the changes needed in their life?
I get we aren't supposed to like Tamaki, but we need to be doing something for our growing prison population, and perhaps the 'Bishop' has a way.
Not that much of an "if", really.
Oops.. perhaps not.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/112332984/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-brian-tamaki-going-about-getting-programme-in-prison-the-wrong-way
Well said Kelvin Davis. Brian Tamaki is pretty self-serving with double heapings of pudding. And a bit of Christmas holly on the top for the look of the thing.
Good on Kelvin Davis. And how can you have social services delivered by a dickhead like Tamaki who believes homosexuals are evil?
Man Up sounds like macho bullshit to me.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12093681
Israel destroyed the Notre Dame of Gaza – but there was only silence from the West
by TONY GREENSTEIN, 28 April 2019
Since 2009 53 mosques and churches have been vandalised or set fire to in Israel. As is normally the case with attacks on non-Jews, the Israeli Police have not exerted themselves. Only 9 indictments to date have been filed by the police.
What makes this worse is that there are sections of Israeli society who openly justify the destruction of churches and mosques on religious grounds.
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/04/should-we-set-fire-to-churches-mosques.html
Yes. Like the sections of Israeli society in this story… some appear not to like The Daily Blog too much – that's their loss; good thinks happen there too, such as this. How to stamp out other people's sacred places? With glittering balls and booze, that's how.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/04/24/guest-blog-lois-griffiths-the-crusades-have-not-ended/
Thanks for that, JO. It's a pity we never hear Lois Griffiths on RNZ any more. She was "let go" after 2005.
Yesterday we sent this report to media.
Government needs “National NZ Port Strategy”
Sunday, 28 April 2019, 1:10 pm
Press Release: Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre
Citizens Environmental Advocacy Centre press release- 28- April 2019.
“Government needs “National NZ Port Strategy” so Ports work together not fighting over freight”
A new “National NZ Port Strategy” is needed here in NZ for export of freight.
Today on News hub’s ‘The nation’ show there was a ‘Port discussion’ that was enlightening to us.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2019/04/exclusive-no-point-investing-in-northport-without-building-rail-link-working-group.html
After watching the panel discussion about the mess our NZ Port issues are about, we now see clearly that the current Government needs a new “National NZ Port Strategy Plan” for NZ Ports to be actively working together instead of fighting over freight, as the current model of ‘independent’ scrapping over freight is damaging both the regions and the loss of residential wellbeing in regions who undercut other Ports to get freight income from capturing ‘lower cost freight’ through their Port because those Ports are now operating at a loss and now forced to sell part of their Port as Napier Port is attempting to do now.
Napier Port are leaving us with a legacy of a residential environmental disaster in their ‘wake.’
History of CEAC meetings with two of our central Port executives; – At both Napier and Gisborne ports.
2016:
Our Committee was invited to the Napier Port boardroom in November 2016 to discuss the massive truck noise and pollution affecting all Napier residents living near the ‘truck network roads’ to and from Napier port, and we sought funding for mitigation for smooth quiet road surfacing and noise barriers and Napier Port said they had no money then.
At that meeting we were sadly advised that sending logs out of NZ was virtually not viable for them, as the Port staff advised us ‘they could not compete with Wellington Port’ who were actually sending their logs out at such a low cost that Napier Port could not afford to compete for freight at those charges.
2011:
In 2011 we brokered a meeting with the Gisborne ‘Eastland Port’ Executives as we were asking them to use rail to move logs to their Port for export rather than using trucks.
The executives also confirmed to us at the meeting that the cost to send each log out of NZ was so low that they made very little money on shipping logs.
So it is now painfully clear now that we need to send a clear message to Government that the whole transportation of our export freight from our NZ Ports is in need of a reset policy.
One that now can offer all forms of ‘land transport’ using rail and road options to make freight costs lower so freight is viable to ship from NZ while giving all Ports adequate funding to offer residential citizens adequate mitigation to lower the transportation effects of road truck freight noise and pollution adversely affecting all those living near busy export road networks to their local port facilities.
Shane Jones, as Regional Development Minister, was also shown on a video clip saying he will be setting up an election policy to change the way the ports in NZ operate “independently” as he said it is not acceptable and needs to change”.
We welcome Shane Jones’ position on this change.
So we seek the labour caucus acceptance to a real Port policy change away from the current conflicting manner that all ports are currently undercutting the charges of freight at the expense of residents and Ports not having any capital to offer residents any mitigation.
All HB/Gisborne residents living near Port bound trucks are now facing a legacy of a residential environmental disaster in their ‘wake’
http://www.scoop.co.nz/?from=top-banner-purotu-1
Business
National weekly rent edges closer to $500
Monday, 29 April 2019, 9:13 am
Press Release: Trademe
New Zealand’s national median weekly hit $495 in March after climbing 5.3 per cent on last year, as every region in the country experienced an annual increase in rent, according to the latest Trade Me Rental Price Index.
Trade Me’s Head of Rentals Aaron Clancy said the country’s rental market was looking very healthy and this was the first time in five months that every region in the country experienced a year-on-year increase. “There’s a high demand for rentals across the country with a significant 28 per cent increase in the number of enquiries compared to March 2018.
Labour wants to impose control over the NZ media
https://twitter.com/avancenz/status/1120933475484176384
No it is not govt policy, Andrea Vance is just stirring, she know's it isn't, and you know it isn't. Hooten of course believes his own spin. Next week Labour will be accused of being flat earthers if a govt MP says they can see for miles and miles.
It may not be Government policy just yet, but it seems it is something the Government is considering.
The media should face the same consequences for lying and inciting violence as MPs do.
How Russia wants to control the internet
Have you Russiagate Truthers heard of the Five Eyes? The NSA?
I've heard of 5 eyes and the NSA but I'm yet to fully grasp your point.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/456667-internet-uk-control-vpn/
It’s not easy being a government in the age of the internet and pretending to have power over something that is essentially beyond control, but that doesn’t stop them trying.
The British government is ignoring its previous online mishaps and outlined tough new measures to police the internet, which is all well and good, but all it’s going to do is make Britain a global center for Virtual Private Networks (VPN).
A White Paper last week detailed how the UK wants to bring in a “code of practice” for social networks and internet firms, giving it the power to be able to fine them if they breach it and perhaps even block offending sites.
Freedom of speech confined within the "code of practice". The global influence of China?
Yes Chairman
I would not be at all surprised there.
However I did glace at a program on BBC today about Google power over us and the guy explaining the power of Google takes every letter we place on Google into a large search engine to send to millions to attach their interest of selling to you their items.
The google system uses algorithms to identify what we look at all the time.
Scary eh?
Bet China are using this system all the time too.
Yes, cleangreen. Big Brother is growing and becoming more technologically advanced.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/24/technology/ecuador-surveillance-cameras-police-government.html
A week back I thought I was being darkly funny when I suggested outsourcing NZ’s control of the internet to the Chinese.
Naomi Klein was warning of this over a decade ago
American giants like IBM, Honeywell and General Electric are all in on it.
http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/05/chinas-all-seeing-eye
The google system uses algorithms to identify what we look at all the time.
Why I use Brave.
Hell I'd vote for him! If nothing else he has balls. Aussie candidate shares social media post claiming world run by Jewish shapeshifting lizards.
https://www.news.com.au/national/federal-election/federal-election-2019-live-on-the-campaign-trail-on-monday-april-29/live-coverage/4c4e7062bfa29b1ca6994ad40a344028
And after David Icke was banned from Australia too
Of all of the David Icke alternative media view of the world order, he decides to believe the one about Jews being the ones who are descended from "the reptilians" …
Lovetosee the proponents of this cite evidence in Jewish DNA (warning what Jewish DNA, do not have either common Y chromosome or maternal ancestry).
WiFi causing the rising infertility? Short term exposure causes declines in sperm motility and raises their death rates.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12226105
When it comes to the largest companies in the world like those selling cellphones, it is wise to ignore all PR and go to the science. I expect this study will lead to 'debate' rather than change. But there it is.
I can't find the study referred to in the article (Kumiko Nakata is a bona fide fertility researcher). But there's others.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4074720/
And again
"Cell phone radiation may negatively affect sperm quality in men by decreasing the semen volume, sperm concentration, sperm count, motility, and viability, thus impairing male fertility."
http://www.journal-ina.com/article.asp?issn=2394-2916;year=2018;volume=5;issue=1;spage=1;epage=5;aulast=El-Hamd
Wethebleeple;
Thanks for putting that up as I was about to after I spotted it, so Wifi causes infertility to as we put up a post two years ago that high frequencies from 'smart meters' also cause cancer and other affects.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2644196/
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/387843/secret-green-party-donor-to-match-contributions-up-to-25k
They are correct in saying that.
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute
https://youtu.be/hlfQVvsNLFk
I see some producers are still trying to set Eco Maori up puppets
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/GKSRyLdjsPA
Some people are trying to blame me for their actions
Eco Maori worrys about OUR Kaumatua not finding the time to pass there great knowledge of speaking on the Pae Pae and other great Maori culture knowledge on to Te Mokopuna we must never let this knowledge go as that is what some peoples goals to make Maori look so bad that te Mokopuna don't want to have anything to do with OUR GREAT CULTURE .Maori have to do what ever it takes to keep OUR CULTURE Pumping. We must look after our kaumatua and there knowledge there is HEAPS that has already been misplaced or losted if we try hard enough we will find it Kia kaha Whanau.
But historical traumas related to colonisation, cultural and language suppression through assimilation policies along with a move from rural to urban areas, which broke ties with iwi and hapū, had all directly impacted on the length and quality of Māori lives.
"Everything around them was in turmoil," he said.
The flow on effects ares still being felt as well, Edwards said, with some Māori lacking in confidence or ability to fulfil cultural expectations placed on them as they got older, including taking on speaking roles at the marae
But historical traumas related to colonisation, cultural and language suppression through assimilation policies along with a move from rural to urban areas, which broke ties with iwi and hapū, had all directly impacted on the length and
The flow on effects ares still being felt as well, Edwards said, with some Māori lacking in confidence or ability to fulfil cultural expectations placed on them as they got older, including taking on speaking roles at the marae.
Another sobering statistic is the gap between Māori and non-Māori life expectancy, which is about seven years. Life expectancy for Māori females was 77.1 years, when compared to non-Māori females at 83.9 years.
Māori male life expectancy sat at 73 years, with non-Māori men at 80.3 years.
"And I ask, is that a just society, is that a society we can be proud of
Ka kite ano links below P.S I am talking to my WHANAU about this issue of our GREAT kite aronui
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/103759887/tide-turning-regarding-mori-experiences-of-ageing-academic
Some people still under estimate Eco Maori just blind with HATE.
https://youtu.be/xkVMdwPkEyg
Some Eco Maori Music for the minute .
https://youtu.be/Us-TVg40ExM
Kia ora Newshub.
I know why simon didn't get rolled I have hinted at that.
Methanthamean is causing heaps of damage to OUR society why is methamphetamine higher in places with high tangata whenua populations its a big problem in Te tairawhiti as well a North land both with 45 % Maori populations.? ? ? ? ??
We must be vigilant on our boarder security as if we get a bad disease that will cost many billions lost income to NZ.
Its sad all the WARS being waged around the world at the minute I have said that it's the tamariki that suffer the most from WAR fools don't GET IT.
I have come to the conclusion that intelligent people under estimate there mahi + the carbon barons money influenceing society that climate change is a hoaxes that has lead to the under estimate of glaciers melt and other facts about climate change .
The beluga whale is a awesome creature we are there Guardians .
Condolences to the people of Mozambican I did not realise that it was the same country hit six weeks ago by a hurricane OUR African cousin are feeling the brunt of human caused climate change Kia kaha people .
That's good that soft plastic recycling in Auckland has resumed its sad that the rest of the country could not be included but is all about being cost effective.
Condolences to John the African American directors Whanau I like his movies I have seen quite a few of them . Ka kite ano P.S had a bit of pressure to deal with lately like water of a ducks back
Gregory you are barking up the wrong tree who can afford those expensive driving lessons you are taking about another point us how much driving do you actually do on NZ Roads not much at all I say it will be a plane ride on most of your journeys Deflecting the road toll road problems from the people WHOM are responsible for it.
Kia ora The AM Show
Insurance premiums rising it will be a luxury for the wealthy cause by global warming and climate change can you see how the common people are going to suffer this is just one phenomenon .
I have a food allergy if I see kai moana I eat it I just found out why my children did not eat fish when they were younger long story it use to piss me off heaps of fish and only I eat it . the epiepen Pharmac issue I hope Pharmac can come up with a viable solution to the problem. Maybe get someone to come up with a better cheaper design to admit the drugs many ways to solve a problem.
Children living at home till 25 because its to expensive to live in Aotearoa . That's the side effects of having a banker run the country for nine years setting the system up to serve the wealthy it displaces Alot of others and causes a big mess I see this all around the world . ?
We should never stop learning new things when we don't we end up stuck in the PAST like some neanderthal.
I agree with Chris people need to make sure there houseing is safe from the effects of climate change Yea plastic is a big problem for all of Papatuanukue. And I seen it with my own eyes building on land filled in with sand a tsunami or earth quake will make a big mess of these houses . It's cool having a well known person taking about plastic waste issues the Papatuanukue has.
Ka kite ano P.S – – – – –
Ka pai to Hangi Masters NZ in Auckland Rewi to much we need to keep OUR culture pumping and Kai is a big part of our culture Kia kaha .