I certainly recall….(having had lower echelon connectivity with Southern Polytechnic’s) The VERY Lucrative remuneration of same CEO’s. Also Ms Penny Simmonds…..Nat mp in waiting role. I’d say Mr Phil….Ker would be very similar politically..
Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker had an increase.
His pay was $330,000 to $339,999, compared with $320,000 to $329,999 the previous year.
In Invercargill, Southern Institute of Technology chief executive Penny Simmonds received $270,000 to $279,999, up from $250,000 to $259,999 the previous year.
We have to decide what our tertiary institutions are for. This government has signalled it wants polytechnics to provide a skilled workforce for building housing, infrastructure and health. They should not be a vessel for harvesting foreign cash with dodgy courses, a means to ship in cheap labour. They should train Kiwis old, new, and pending to do the jobs NZ needs them to do.
The chiefs of some of these "personal fiefdoms' will have been hooked on Steven Joyce's corrupt backdoor to residency model. Now they are throwing their toys out of the cot.
Simmonds was selected as the National Party candidate for Invercargill in May 2020 following Sarah Dowie's decision to retire. Dowie had originally been selected to run again in September 2019. Simmonds had been rumoured as a potential candidate for about fifteen years prior.
Hi Muttonbird…and fkn Aye ! Keerist it was past time that Labour sorted this and other shit out. Good on them for pulling the comfy blanket remuneration away from some of these CEO's. I , as maybe you, see the Apprenticeships (Labour restarting ) and all other things in process to get young NZ a Future.
The (now departed) CEO of the new organization, Te Pūkenga was getting $688,235 – one of the highest public sector salaries in the country – and he appointed 6 deputies – on salaries higher than the incumbent polytechnic CEOs (all of whom were retained on the books).
The total wages bill is now over $11 million (figures from 2021 – when they weren't fully operational – so expect it to be higher now) for 139 FTE staff.
When my wife was studying at the local polytech less than 50% of her class were even turning up to class. Half the courses were for jobs that weren't there – e.g. travel agents. Lucrative cash generators but of little practical use given the low volume of jobs in that particular area and even lower vacancies due to hardly any turnover.
I would however like to see a return to the community college concept as well with all the delight educating and training in artistic and practical skills that community colleges used to provide. Second chance learning. Needs to be back to fully utilise secondary schools as well which should be a broader community asset.
“I would however like to see a return to the community college concept as well with all the delight educating and training in artistic and practical skills that community colleges used to provide. Second chance learning. Needs to be back to fully utilise secondary schools as well which should be a broader community asset.”
Absolutely. That… disappeared under Mr …Ker's "Leadership" and of course the sir Key Nat govt.
No need to ask whether I fought against….
Hence my pissed off at his and Penny's comments now.
I can only speak from my experience watching the heartbreaking destruction of Unitec under the incompetent leadership of Rick Eade. If that was any guide then polytech CEO leadership has been long afflicted by an over supply of mediocre talent that has gigantic egos and an even bigger sense of hubris.
Unitec Council Chair, Dr Lee Mathias said: “I want to thank Rick for his tremendous contribution to Unitec’s transformation, which includes significant progress towards the redevelopment of our Mt Albert campus, the introduction of new industry partnerships and a strong foundation to deliver more flexible, work-integrated teaching models that our future students and employers will demand. In his time at Unitec, Rick has also raised the profile of contemporary applied learning in New Zealand.”
"Has the bully boy been intimidated by an articulate and forceful minister?"
Of course he has. Bully boys (and bully girls for that matter) are not usually very bright. Their one source of power is to harass and intimidate those they perceive to be vulnerable. In the case of bully boys, women who have an ethnic background (ie. darker skin) are generally easy targets. He's going to have to call on his 'mates' inside the Police Force to keep him abreast of any meaty stories – don't have to be true – that he can hit Hipkins with in due course.
So it turns out organic AI is already working quite smoothly and efficiently in service of the state as we speak…just watch the host of this show mechanically outline what she has been told to say and think about Unions and Workers….then for the next eighteen minutes, no matter what is said or explained to her, come back again and again and again to her original programming….unluckily for her she is sitting next to Eddie Dempsey from the RMT….watch and enjoy.
It’s a bit like reading The Guardian on Western foreign interventions or real progressive change..trained human bots spewing propaganda endlessly in service of power.
Eddie Dempsey nicely brings the media position in the UK on workers striking into sharp focus at about 12 minutes in….if you don't want to watch all 18 minutes.
"You took the money though and didn't give it back"
"Its a bit of a cheek saying the trade unions are being greedy asking for a pay rise when the profits of the footsie top 350 companies have gone up 73% since 2019. When are we going to ask are they being greedy"
"Companies taking huge profits out to tax havens" while workers wages continue to decline in real terms.
Meanwhile Starmer has sacked a frontbench MP who joined the picket line:
The Guardian understands Tarry was told he was sacked as shadow minister for buses and local transport for saying that it was “not acceptable to offer below inflation pay rises” because it would be a real-terms pay cut for workers.
Of course The Guardian are in no position to take the moral high ground on this (or anything I can think of), no can or should forget that it was The Guardian who actively led the charge to undermine and destroy Jeremy Corbyn, that has now given the UK that piece of shit Centrist Liberal, Starmer…and it goes without saying that Corbyn would have been on the picket lines with his progressive MP's had he still been leader of the Labour Party.
Sure, however I think the Forde report outlines the factionalism inside the party was more responsible than a newspaper.
Both UK Labour and the NZ Labour party have a crisis of ideology:
Mr Corbyn also said the Forde report showed Labour needed to "decide what it is for".
"Are we a democratic socialist party, run by members and affiliated unions, that aims for a fundamental transfer of wealth and power from the few to the many?" he asked. "Or are we something else?"
Corbyn should have purged all the Centrist out…but he was and is too much of a inclusionist to ever do that, I guess he didn't realize that Centrists are as fundamentalist about their ideology as any communist ever was about theirs….still it was probably his biggest mistake IMO.
Funny the BBC reporting on it, as they, at the time, were some of the most openly biased against him……
Agreed Adrian…the Guardian's reporting of the anti-semitic issue was scandalous. This and its less than friendly reporting on Corbyn's Brexit position condemned Labour to lose the last election, which is presumably the outcome the Guardian wanted-Boris instead of Jeremy.
"Labour need Dempsey as leader not Smarmy Starmer"…Yes they do, either him or Mick Lynch…then we would instantly get to see The Guardian and all other so called 'Liberal' press show their real colours, and do the job they are their for..undermining real progressive change (that and selling Western Imperialist wars and interventions as the moral high ground to the Liberal class)…
How The Guardian Betrayed Not Only Corbyn But The Last Vestiges Of British Democracy
The Guardian was despicable in its Corbyn takedown, especially that awful Jonathan Freedland. After every anti-Corbyn article, I went looking for the anti-semitism he was supposed to have engaged in, and could never find anything more than puerile conjecture and upsetting the Israeli govt.
The thing that really grind my gears about The Guardian is that, even after being exposed time and again as being nothing more than Free Market Imperialist Trojan horse that more than any other news source really undermines any serious progressive movement…yet so many 'Lefties' still take it seriously and trust it as a news source….put it this way…there hasn't been a Western intervention the Guardian hasn't supported since Iraq…enough said!!
Interim Cass report indicated changes would be coming for the UK's primary gender clinic, the Tavistock.
Yesterday it was announced the treatment of minors would be transferred to two regional centres, where a comprehensive set of professional support services would be utilised.
. The regional centres should be experienced providers of tertiary paediatric care to ensure a focus on child health and development, with strong links to mental health services. They should have established academic and education functions to ensure that ongoing research and training is embedded within the service delivery model. The centres should have an appropriate multi-professional workforce to enable them to manage the holistic needs of this population, as well as the ability to provide essential related services or be able to access such services through provider collaborations. These should include, but not be limited to: mental health services; services for children and young people with autism and other neurodiverse presentations; and for the subgroup for whom medical treatment may be considered appropriate, access to endocrinology services and fertility services. There should also be expertise in safeguarding, support of looked-after children and children who have experienced trauma. Staff should maintain a broad clinical perspective by working across related services within the tertiary centre and between tertiary and secondary centres in order to embed the care of children and young people with gender-related distress within a broader child and adolescent health context.
For those that have been following these reviews, this appears to be another significant move away from the "affirming healthcare" model we have for minors here in NZ.
Following that announcement, the Telegraph has published a personal account from a detransitioner. Link below to non-paywalled copy:
Detransition followed the deradicalisation. As the politics fell away, so did the desire to transition. I began to address with a therapist and gynaecologist – a good one this time – everything that had led me to the point of wanting surgical sterilisation. I was diagnosed with PMDD (an obscure and little known hormonal intolerance) and several learning disorders, including autism – a co-morbidity common to a disproportionate number of girls turning up in gender clinics.
It's great news for evidence-based care and a potential return to sanity for gender-confused youth in England and Wales. Finally, a proper review of the outcome for youth on puberty blockers and hormones and some decent clinical trials to be done on these off-label drugs. The sloppiness of care for young people for whom notes were not properly kept and outcomes not measured is astounding.
The big question I have is, will this be reported in New Zealand media?
Will the Ministry of Health finally admit that puberty blockers are not "safe and reversible"?
When will the government call for a similar review of gender-affirming care, in line with the concerning findings of the Cass Review?
A couple of thoughts. First, these anti-vax types are clearly capable of a terrorist outrage. This guy is being held for doing something very serious – otherwise he'd be out on bail. Look at the recent bomb threats to schools, apparently robocalls from an overseas location making bomb threats in relation to mask mandates. I don't know about you, but I would have thought an offshore account making bomb threats to schools would pretty much complete the bingo card to make sure you end up on the Five Eyes Kanban board "Work in Progress" column. These people are idiots, but they are dangerous idiots.
Secondly, recent events have shown how monumentally stupid Geoffrey Palmer's reforms repeal of the sedition laws were. In some respects a high water mark of globalist, neoliberal anti-statist law making it has really, really hobbled an effective state response to the anti-vax movement and the rise of seditious behaviour. The repeal of the sedition laws were informed by an ideology that saw the state as a sunset institution that was no longer deserved to be protected by archiac laws.
Well, we definitely need some sort of sedition law if only to protect those arrested from being charged with more serious offenses under anti-terror laws.
To be fair to Geoffrey Palmer, in the 1980s I don't think he could have envisaged the current state of play around the world today and the rise of despotic presidents together with their collective millions of loopy and braindead followers – some of which live in NZ.
In some respects a high water mark of globalist, neoliberal anti-statist law making it has really, really hobbled an effective state response to the anti-vax movement and the rise of seditious behaviour.
The best description yet from the fallout of neoliberalism. Roger and Ruth should be hanging their heads in shame.
Domino effect persists in UK,as housing restrictions on new builds are in effect,due to lack of grid capacity for electricity supply,due to demand from energy hungry data centres,Heat pumps and EV charging.
Australian electricity consumers can expect Nightmare bills as wholesale markets rocket.The grid upgrades and carbon taxes will further increase electricity costs going forward,add to inflation hence increased consumer costs,and transfer of jobs to lower cost manufacturing economies such as NZ.
Well they could just burn some more coal for all their much needed gadgets and stuff.
And if they wanted to appear as Green and considerate for the planet, they could like us not mine themselves but import coal from countries that are far away from us and where we don't care ab9out the pollution cause it is there and not here near by.
Well it appears that they will have to import more coal, or start mining again themselves.
Fwiw, our Hydro Dams are looking good thanks to the relentless rain that we had. That gives me a big happy. Points still stands, we are importing cheap Indonesian coal to generate electricty.
blablabla, we should not laugh at people whilst we are sharing the same boat.
We the People / He Tangata must make a decision to cut on electricity consumption, one way or another. Energy Wars, Water Wars all that stuff is happening already, its creeping into our 'save western first highly advanced' world, and should no longer delude ourselfs that us doing as they do is lesser or better. It is not.
I make funny noises about E – Cars not because I don't like driving. I grew up in Germany and driving on a good road with no speed limit and a car/bike is awesome fun. So is riding a bike. Or walking. Or taking the train.
I make these noises because we already don't generate the Energy we want to consume, we supplement with fossil fuels because of that 'want' and we He Tangata need to bend our mind around that we need to Want less.
E-cars, Heat Pumps, electronic storage/gadgets use energy. That energy needs t o come from somewhere and we should finally get honest and candid about where it is going to come from. Cause those E-cars don't drive without the E.
More an ESG thing which causes a transfer of demand (unquantified) like high immigration makes us have the highest cost housing,rents,a substantive infrastructure quagmire etc.
the UK is the use transformation ,from making things to data centres,and electrification of bus fleets etc.
Here we are producing and consuming the same amount of electricity,it is only the generation type mix that is changed ( gas replaced 50% by wind) consumption has transformed from industry and primary production (decrease) to residential and commercial use (the latter being blingy signs at the mall)
You also need to remember that a huge amount of FF is used in transporting FF,40% of shipping for example.The 2 largest population country's,are mostly dependent of FF for energy,and more importantly for food, food transport and transformation.
Australia with a substantive renewable (solar,wind .hydro) has problems with actually getting it into the grid when needed,and which to reorient the systems (with go round availability ) is close to 22B.
They also have problems with their pumped hydro,due to there being too much water (overfill dams)
The countries it affects FIRST are the developing countries….always going to be the case as a bidding war begins….then we move to national interest as the countries with the resources hold on to them (or dispense them for political gain)…anyone spring to mind?
A quick look around the globe reveals that the 'first world' are somewhat energy (and minerally) challenged.
High prices also see demand destruction (the US saw gasoline volumes decrease 3%).Europe diesel is well down in consumption.
Australia is not renewing its fuel subsidy,here we kept it decrease inflationary pressures ( and interest rates down) If we removed the subsidy on fuel and RT would we see an uptake on PT? Auckland PT use is the worst in years (excluding lockdown).
Youre still thinking local…..we import (currently, the time will come when that option disappears) virtually everything we need to maintain our economy….many western economies are similarly placed, with the addition of the fact they are net food importers.
Households are working more towards living within their means,with larger repayments in their mortgage debt (front loading) and increased household savings 17 billion in the last year,2.1 billion in the last month.
High prices see householders move to a war footing fast,and not so much revenge vacationing as Europe and the US.
a lot of the inflation is in Shelter (rent and housing building cost) and utilities such as rates (which are out of control) which does add to rent costs.
One of the Fed analysts said the problem was not so much employment (an indicator) but mor about high shelter costs with new build costs increasing 17% y on y (familiar) and increased interest rates will see both a decrease in housing prices and costs.
There has been also a move out of corporate residential housing purchases in the US,and the decrease in finacialization ( speculators) has seen a decrease in commodity prices as they return to value stocks.
"Last week, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in more than eight months. It’s a warning sign foreshadowing what’s to come. Jobless claims for the week ending July 15 increased to 251,000, representing the most significant spike since the pandemic time period of November 13 last year, when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits. The Department of Labor also pointed out that employers advertised fewer jobs in May, another signal of a declining job market, which the Fed is hoping for."
True,not good for land agents here (they will have more articles in herald etc)
GDP figures (and inflation) coming out of Europe now,with strong gdp in Italy,Spain,France. Germany just broke even at .1% Attribution is west,south Europe is from Tourism.
West / spain /portugal/ France ( mostly med though)
Italy lost a good PM ,he had reduced reliance on Russian gas,with increased supply from Algeria (and deal coming with israel) The big fail with the italian economy was the Euro which constrained growth,they are whist indebted the housing market (like spain has been stable) Germany had a large increase in housing cost (value)
Greece is also insulated from Russian gas,as it gets supplied from Azerbaijan.
Powerdown is an intentional strategy. This looks more like decades of ignoring the limits of growth merging with the covid/brexit/climate crisis. Be good if we looked at a sustainable and resilient response rather than chasing green BAU.
The EU has started the single largest intentional energy use reduction we've seen since the 1979 oil crisis. Doesn't have to fit anyone's specific definition. Certainly won't run as any prophet foretold.
This is nothing like Business As Usual for nearly 500 million people and for all EU governments as well as the UK, and it is as permanent as the eye can see. COVID and the Ukraine War is the acceleration of change that's been waiting to happen.
9 of the top 10 countries leading an energy transition are already in Europe or the EEA:
When Florida Power & Light faced a spate of bad publicity and political blowback, a small but ambitious news website called the Capitolist sprang to the public utility’s defense.
[…]
While portraying itself as a feisty independent outlet, the Capitolist — which aims its content directly at Tallahassee decision makers — was bankrolled and controlled by executives of the power company through a small group of trusted intermediaries from an Alabama consulting firm, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald, based on a massive leak of documents. The internal communications, contracts and financial records show how a team of elite communications experts consulting for FPL plucked the Capitolist from obscurity and used it as part of an elaborate, off-the-books political strategy to advocate for rate hikes, agitate for legislative favors, slam political opponents and eliminate anything — even home solar panels — that the publicly traded utility worried might undermine its near monopoly on selling power in the Sunshine State.
The arguments are complex in the US,as the generation mix changes are dependent on tax breaks (accelerated depreciation) and subsidy replacing what is effectively low carbon generation.
In the inflation bill introduced the US has recognized the importance of E=mc2,and brought in taxbreaks for existing infrastructure,and subsidy for the grid upgrades necessary for intermittent power such as wind ad solar ( need to modulate frequency)
"TOKYO — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.
The attacks — on 58 people since July 8 — are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns."
As the cost of living soars, people are struggling to make ends meet with one in six New Zealanders saying they’ve experienced homelessness.
And 4% of New Zealanders also said they had to sleep rough in the past year.
A survey from Orange Sky – a not-for-profit organisation that provides free mobile laundry and shower services to people experiencing homelessness – and market research company YouGov also found that 14% of the population say they have been unable to pay living costs such as rent and bills in the past year.
And of the more than 1000 people surveyed, 54% said they were nervous about their financial security and 23% admitted they were scared about losing their homes due to financial struggles.
The Greens are trying to pressure the Government to extend eligibility for the Cost of Living payment to those on benefits and pensions:
The eligibility criteria for the Government's cost of living payment is too narrow, says the Green Party, which wants New Zealanders who receive a benefit or the pension to also get the $350 support.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says the urgent need to provide lower-income Kiwis with more support is highlighted by figures released last week showing an increase in the number of New Zealanders receiving weekly payments from the Ministry of Development (MSD) to cover the costs of essential items.
"What it shows is that people are further behind in meeting those basic essentials and that they need additional top-ups just to be above the bread line," he says.
But extending the cost of living payment to those receiving a benefit is also just a "short-term intervention", the MP says, and more "permanent solutions" are needed.
…
"Unless we increase benefits, those figures regarding the amount that people need for hardship grants and the debt that people are getting into won't be decreasing any time soon," the Green MP said.
He said it "makes no sense" for MSD to spend money and resources delivering temporary supports and hardship grants "when they could simply be increasing benefits to livable levels and not be pushing people constantly to their call centre just to get some extra top-ups just to make ends meet".
I would like to apologize for my angry rants on this site for the last year or two, especially the long ones.
I've been allowing my mental health and cynicism to get the better of me and attacking fellow progressives because I just see everything getting worse for poorer people, I also really care about the left and want it to be successful and sometimes that passion can sometimes turn into near hatred of things I support.
Anyway, I'm not going to comment on here or other sites for awhile and I’m going try to avoid politics in general for awhile while I work on my mental health, hopefully I can learn to love politics and be hopeful and engage in discourse in a healthy and kind way in future.
All the best to everyone on this blog and solidarity with you all.
A horrific video posted online on Thursday appears to show a Ukrainian prisoner of war being castrated by his Russian captors.
[…]
The victim in the video wears Ukrainian-style camouflage fatigues and is shown gagged, his hands tied behind his back. He lies helpless on the floor as the man in a Russian uniform, which features a “Z” patch, uses a box cutter to cut off his clothes and then appears to castrate him while shouting degrading insults in Russian. At least two other men who appear to be Russian soldiers can be seen in the video.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
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Well theres a Silver lining ! : )
I certainly recall….(having had lower echelon connectivity with Southern Polytechnic’s) The VERY Lucrative remuneration of same CEO’s. Also Ms Penny Simmonds…..Nat mp in waiting role. I’d say Mr Phil….Ker would be very similar politically..
Sour grapes from natfans…IMO.
Be sure that these were topics of intense discussion for lower echelon Staff !
We have to decide what our tertiary institutions are for. This government has signalled it wants polytechnics to provide a skilled workforce for building housing, infrastructure and health. They should not be a vessel for harvesting foreign cash with dodgy courses, a means to ship in cheap labour. They should train Kiwis old, new, and pending to do the jobs NZ needs them to do.
The chiefs of some of these "personal fiefdoms' will have been hooked on Steven Joyce's corrupt backdoor to residency model. Now they are throwing their toys out of the cot.
Penny Simmons, National Party MP, ex-chief executive of the Southern Institute of Technology?
There was never much doubt of Penny’s political …ambition
Whatever happened to Sarah?
I see Hamish is big in Queenstown real estate nowadays.
Todd fled to London, afaik.
“Hamish Walker is out of the House and into the housing market.
The disgraced former Clutha-Southland MP has announced he is joining Harcourts as a real estate salesman in Queenstown.
Walker said he had qualified and worked in real estate before entering Parliament, and was now returning to his roots.
In July, the then-National MP announced he would not seek re-election after being found to have leaked private Covid-19 patient information to several media outlets.
Walker said this week he was looking forward to helping connect people to property and spending more time at home.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123310399/former-mp-hamish-walker-launches-real-estate-career-in-queenstown
looking forward to helping connect people to property
Ric…VERY Rich People…to Very Expensive Property : )
Ah the Gravy Train…….there is a better quality of Gravy with..the RIGHT Connections : )
Hi Muttonbird…and fkn Aye ! Keerist it was past time that Labour sorted this and other shit out. Good on them for pulling the comfy blanket remuneration away from some of these CEO's. I , as maybe you, see the Apprenticeships (Labour restarting ) and all other things in process to get young NZ a Future.
Doesn't seem to be much blanket pulling going on.
The (now departed) CEO of the new organization, Te Pūkenga was getting $688,235 – one of the highest public sector salaries in the country – and he appointed 6 deputies – on salaries higher than the incumbent polytechnic CEOs (all of whom were retained on the books).
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/122774439/nzs-new-mega-polytech-to-pay-six-deputy-chief-executives-250k-to-400k-each
The total wages bill is now over $11 million (figures from 2021 – when they weren't fully operational – so expect it to be higher now) for 139 FTE staff.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/126785490/staff-wage-bill-for-tertiary-education-provider-te-pkenga-is-11m-boss-tells-mps
Hipkins wanted the organization to be:
In July, Hipkins said he expected NZIST would be “nimble” and not “another layer of management”.
Not seeing much sign that he's got what he wanted.
lol…..Mkay….. Belladonna. Happy now? : )
When my wife was studying at the local polytech less than 50% of her class were even turning up to class. Half the courses were for jobs that weren't there – e.g. travel agents. Lucrative cash generators but of little practical use given the low volume of jobs in that particular area and even lower vacancies due to hardly any turnover.
I would however like to see a return to the community college concept as well with all the delight educating and training in artistic and practical skills that community colleges used to provide. Second chance learning. Needs to be back to fully utilise secondary schools as well which should be a broader community asset.
“I would however like to see a return to the community college concept as well with all the delight educating and training in artistic and practical skills that community colleges used to provide. Second chance learning. Needs to be back to fully utilise secondary schools as well which should be a broader community asset.”
Absolutely. That… disappeared under Mr …Ker's "Leadership" and of course the sir Key Nat govt.
No need to ask whether I fought against….
Hence my pissed off at his and Penny's comments now.
There is a recurring theme here…..we appear incapable of reforming anything at all.
Sadly…some truth in that. BUT…we have to fight to try and make a difference. As ever.
For sure those at the "top" are fighting hard to maintain their Status…Quo.
"For sure those at the "top" are fighting hard to maintain their Status…Quo."
As ever was….ultimately futilely….the real problem is what form the change takes.
I can only speak from my experience watching the heartbreaking destruction of Unitec under the incompetent leadership of Rick Eade. If that was any guide then polytech CEO leadership has been long afflicted by an over supply of mediocre talent that has gigantic egos and an even bigger sense of hubris.
So..I assume that glowing brown nose….also steamed like a freshly laid cow turd on a winters morn : ) ?
Liam Sloan resigned from NMIT to become the CEO at ARA in Christchurch. Not really to be counted as a dis-allusioned CEO surely?
Just an observation:
Mercenary Mitchell has been very quiet during QT in the house lately.
Is it because he finds he can't puff and sneer quite so readily about Chris Hipkins as Police Minister as he thought he could against Poto?
Has the bully boy been intimidated by an articulate and forceful minister?
Poto is a nice woman. They are quite often the target du jour of the mercen..bull… Ah nat mp type.
They come unstuck against the likes of Jacinda. Who can eviscerate quite..nicely. As in their guts (?) are spilled…all nicely of course.
Chris would easily have the measure of these type of shitheads…also : )
"Has the bully boy been intimidated by an articulate and forceful minister?"
Of course he has. Bully boys (and bully girls for that matter) are not usually very bright. Their one source of power is to harass and intimidate those they perceive to be vulnerable. In the case of bully boys, women who have an ethnic background (ie. darker skin) are generally easy targets. He's going to have to call on his 'mates' inside the Police Force to keep him abreast of any meaty stories – don't have to be true – that he can hit Hipkins with in due course.
In his electorate he is known as being lazy. Without an easy mark, he can’t cut it.
So it turns out organic AI is already working quite smoothly and efficiently in service of the state as we speak…just watch the host of this show mechanically outline what she has been told to say and think about Unions and Workers….then for the next eighteen minutes, no matter what is said or explained to her, come back again and again and again to her original programming….unluckily for her she is sitting next to Eddie Dempsey from the RMT….watch and enjoy.
It’s a bit like reading The Guardian on Western foreign interventions or real progressive change..trained human bots spewing propaganda endlessly in service of power.
Eddie Dempsey nicely brings the media position in the UK on workers striking into sharp focus at about 12 minutes in….if you don't want to watch all 18 minutes.
Ms Widdecomb didn't disappoint.
https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/1132895182247084037
Brilliant-thanks for that Adrian.
"You took the money though and didn't give it back"
"Its a bit of a cheek saying the trade unions are being greedy asking for a pay rise when the profits of the footsie top 350 companies have gone up 73% since 2019. When are we going to ask are they being greedy"
"Companies taking huge profits out to tax havens" while workers wages continue to decline in real terms.
Labour need Dempsey as leader not Smarmy Starmer.
Meanwhile Starmer has sacked a frontbench MP who joined the picket line:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/27/sam-tarry-sacked-labour-frontbench-rail-strike-picket-line-keir-starmer
Funny AND True
Of course The Guardian are in no position to take the moral high ground on this (or anything I can think of), no can or should forget that it was The Guardian who actively led the charge to undermine and destroy Jeremy Corbyn, that has now given the UK that piece of shit Centrist Liberal, Starmer…and it goes without saying that Corbyn would have been on the picket lines with his progressive MP's had he still been leader of the Labour Party.
Sure, however I think the Forde report outlines the factionalism inside the party was more responsible than a newspaper.
Both UK Labour and the NZ Labour party have a crisis of ideology:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-62226042
Corbyn should have purged all the Centrist out…but he was and is too much of a inclusionist to ever do that, I guess he didn't realize that Centrists are as fundamentalist about their ideology as any communist ever was about theirs….still it was probably his biggest mistake IMO.
Funny the BBC reporting on it, as they, at the time, were some of the most openly biased against him……
Agreed Adrian…the Guardian's reporting of the anti-semitic issue was scandalous. This and its less than friendly reporting on Corbyn's Brexit position condemned Labour to lose the last election, which is presumably the outcome the Guardian wanted-Boris instead of Jeremy.
"Labour need Dempsey as leader not Smarmy Starmer"…Yes they do, either him or Mick Lynch…then we would instantly get to see The Guardian and all other so called 'Liberal' press show their real colours, and do the job they are their for..undermining real progressive change (that and selling Western Imperialist wars and interventions as the moral high ground to the Liberal class)…
How The Guardian Betrayed Not Only Corbyn But The Last Vestiges Of British Democracy
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2008/S00085/how-the-guardian-betrayed-not-only-corbyn-but-the-last-vestiges-of-british-democracy.htm
The Guardian was despicable in its Corbyn takedown, especially that awful Jonathan Freedland. After every anti-Corbyn article, I went looking for the anti-semitism he was supposed to have engaged in, and could never find anything more than puerile conjecture and upsetting the Israeli govt.
Ken Loach says it better than anyone else:
https://youtu.be/PVP6PlX_UUA
The thing that really grind my gears about The Guardian is that, even after being exposed time and again as being nothing more than Free Market Imperialist Trojan horse that more than any other news source really undermines any serious progressive movement…yet so many 'Lefties' still take it seriously and trust it as a news source….put it this way…there hasn't been a Western intervention the Guardian hasn't supported since Iraq…enough said!!
Interim Cass report indicated changes would be coming for the UK's primary gender clinic, the Tavistock.
Yesterday it was announced the treatment of minors would be transferred to two regional centres, where a comprehensive set of professional support services would be utilised.
https://cass.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cass-Review-Letter-to-NHSE_19-July-2022.pdf
For those that have been following these reviews, this appears to be another significant move away from the "affirming healthcare" model we have for minors here in NZ.
Following that announcement, the Telegraph has published a personal account from a detransitioner. Link below to non-paywalled copy:
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2022%2F07%2F28%2Fhad-gone-gender-transition-would-have-committed-suicide%2F
It's great news for evidence-based care and a potential return to sanity for gender-confused youth in England and Wales. Finally, a proper review of the outcome for youth on puberty blockers and hormones and some decent clinical trials to be done on these off-label drugs. The sloppiness of care for young people for whom notes were not properly kept and outcomes not measured is astounding.
The big question I have is, will this be reported in New Zealand media?
Will the Ministry of Health finally admit that puberty blockers are not "safe and reversible"?
When will the government call for a similar review of gender-affirming care, in line with the concerning findings of the Cass Review?
Especially after this week, when the FDA put out a warning that puberty blockers may cause serious side effects, it seems irresponsible for the Ministry to still be pushing these drugs are "safe" and "irreversible" when these drugs have not undergone clinical trials to prove such an assertion (https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/20636/Risk-of-pseudotumor-cerebri-added-to-labeling-for?autologincheck=redirected).
Or is political virtue signalling more important than evidence-based care of vulnerable youth?
post up now, would love to hear your further thoughts if you have time.
https://thestandard.org.nz/why-is-the-uks-only-youth-gender-identity-clinic-closing-and-what-does-this-mean-for-new-zealand/
I guess he's FO what happens when you FA.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/taupo-man-graham-philip-charged-with-sabotage-believed-to-be-first-in-new-zealand-history/ZHOBLOZT5JG5HI4UGXGUQUUHJ4/
A couple of thoughts. First, these anti-vax types are clearly capable of a terrorist outrage. This guy is being held for doing something very serious – otherwise he'd be out on bail. Look at the recent bomb threats to schools, apparently robocalls from an overseas location making bomb threats in relation to mask mandates. I don't know about you, but I would have thought an offshore account making bomb threats to schools would pretty much complete the bingo card to make sure you end up on the Five Eyes Kanban board "Work in Progress" column. These people are idiots, but they are dangerous idiots.
Secondly, recent events have shown how monumentally stupid Geoffrey Palmer's
reformsrepeal of the sedition laws were. In some respects a high water mark of globalist, neoliberal anti-statist law making it has really, really hobbled an effective state response to the anti-vax movement and the rise of seditious behaviour. The repeal of the sedition laws were informed by an ideology that saw the state as a sunset institution that was no longer deserved to be protected by archiac laws.Well, we definitely need some sort of sedition law if only to protect those arrested from being charged with more serious offenses under anti-terror laws.
To be fair to Geoffrey Palmer, in the 1980s I don't think he could have envisaged the current state of play around the world today and the rise of despotic presidents together with their collective millions of loopy and braindead followers – some of which live in NZ.
The best description yet from the fallout of neoliberalism. Roger and Ruth should be hanging their heads in shame.
Mr Kemara has thoughts.
https://twitter.com/Te_Taipo/status/1552763988085092352
I was eating a magnum in parliament and wanted to throw away the wrapper. At that moment Christopher Luxon rounded the corner.
Me (holding up magnum wrapper): Where's ya bin?
Christopher: I've been in Te Puke. Thanks for asking.
Me: No no. Where's ya wheelie bin?
Christopher: Oh. I've really been in Hawaii, but I tell people Te Puke.
That is like the old joke about New Zealanders:
Kiwi person #1: "What's a Hindu?"
Kiwi person #2: "It lays iggs."
Luxon is a better handyman than his mentor then: Key couldn't hammer a nail, but Luxon can round a corner.
About that Kamala Harris introduction everyone's piling in on.
https://twitter.com/Johanna_Ann/status/1552471527500775424
own goal from the GC people this week. So fucking stupid.
Domino effect persists in UK,as housing restrictions on new builds are in effect,due to lack of grid capacity for electricity supply,due to demand from energy hungry data centres,Heat pumps and EV charging.
https://twitter.com/GeorgeNHammond/status/1552552547474456578
Australian electricity consumers can expect Nightmare bills as wholesale markets rocket.The grid upgrades and carbon taxes will further increase electricity costs going forward,add to inflation hence increased consumer costs,and transfer of jobs to lower cost manufacturing economies such as NZ.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-29/aemo-reports-record-wholesale-power-price-customer-nightmare/101279554
Well they could just burn some more coal for all their much needed gadgets and stuff.
And if they wanted to appear as Green and considerate for the planet, they could like us not mine themselves but import coal from countries that are far away from us and where we don't care ab9out the pollution cause it is there and not here near by.
Actually Asia and Europe are using coal in record amounts as global gas prices skyrocket.(as does OZ)
Here we only import coal for the Rankine units at huntly.Industrial use is all local production and being replace by heat pump boilers.
Well it appears that they will have to import more coal, or start mining again themselves.
Fwiw, our Hydro Dams are looking good thanks to the relentless rain that we had. That gives me a big happy. Points still stands, we are importing cheap Indonesian coal to generate electricty.
this is from last year: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nz-importing-record-amount-of-coal-to-power-homes-and-businesses/3ZLXNQYGRXIOAEWAA5XWF344JM/#:~:text=%22Coal%20imported%20during%202020%20was,tonnes%20consumed%20for%20electricity%20generation.%22
The government: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-statistics-and-modelling/energy-statistics/coal-statistics/
more statistics:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1084011/new-zealand-coal-import-volume/
blablabla, we should not laugh at people whilst we are sharing the same boat.
We the People / He Tangata must make a decision to cut on electricity consumption, one way or another. Energy Wars, Water Wars all that stuff is happening already, its creeping into our 'save western first highly advanced' world, and should no longer delude ourselfs that us doing as they do is lesser or better. It is not.
I make funny noises about E – Cars not because I don't like driving. I grew up in Germany and driving on a good road with no speed limit and a car/bike is awesome fun. So is riding a bike. Or walking. Or taking the train.
I make these noises because we already don't generate the Energy we want to consume, we supplement with fossil fuels because of that 'want' and we He Tangata need to bend our mind around that we need to Want less.
E-cars, Heat Pumps, electronic storage/gadgets use energy. That energy needs t o come from somewhere and we should finally get honest and candid about where it is going to come from. Cause those E-cars don't drive without the E.
Is this the 'power down' thing?
More an ESG thing which causes a transfer of demand (unquantified) like high immigration makes us have the highest cost housing,rents,a substantive infrastructure quagmire etc.
I'd go more with energy decline rather than governance and social license….remembering that all the demanded infrastructure requires yet more energy.
the UK is the use transformation ,from making things to data centres,and electrification of bus fleets etc.
Here we are producing and consuming the same amount of electricity,it is only the generation type mix that is changed ( gas replaced 50% by wind) consumption has transformed from industry and primary production (decrease) to residential and commercial use (the latter being blingy signs at the mall)
Globally….remember the bulk of our energy is sourced from fossil…which will not be replaced by electricity anytime soon….and likely never.
You also need to remember that a huge amount of FF is used in transporting FF,40% of shipping for example.The 2 largest population country's,are mostly dependent of FF for energy,and more importantly for food, food transport and transformation.
Australia with a substantive renewable (solar,wind .hydro) has problems with actually getting it into the grid when needed,and which to reorient the systems (with go round availability ) is close to 22B.
They also have problems with their pumped hydro,due to there being too much water (overfill dams)
Not just transporting FF, but also extracting, refining and transporting minerals (materials)…without which none of the infrastructure can occur.
The reducing availability of energy is going to force some very difficult decisions.
The countries it affects most are developing.
Sri Lanka,Bangladesh,Pakistan,India,Laos,Myanmar.
https://twitter.com/SStapczynski/status/1552587708446707712?cxt=HHwWgMDUye-S84srAAAA
The countries it affects FIRST are the developing countries….always going to be the case as a bidding war begins….then we move to national interest as the countries with the resources hold on to them (or dispense them for political gain)…anyone spring to mind?
A quick look around the globe reveals that the 'first world' are somewhat energy (and minerally) challenged.
High prices also see demand destruction (the US saw gasoline volumes decrease 3%).Europe diesel is well down in consumption.
Australia is not renewing its fuel subsidy,here we kept it decrease inflationary pressures ( and interest rates down) If we removed the subsidy on fuel and RT would we see an uptake on PT? Auckland PT use is the worst in years (excluding lockdown).
https://at.govt.nz/about-us/reports-publications/at-metro-patronage-report/
Youre still thinking local…..we import (currently, the time will come when that option disappears) virtually everything we need to maintain our economy….many western economies are similarly placed, with the addition of the fact they are net food importers.
I was thinking more in terms of peak money,as we are a debtor nation and how we can pay down our commitments,b4 we totally munt our economy.
Thats a problem facing everyone…the old adage of not needing to outrun the bear may apply.
Households are working more towards living within their means,with larger repayments in their mortgage debt (front loading) and increased household savings 17 billion in the last year,2.1 billion in the last month.
High prices see householders move to a war footing fast,and not so much revenge vacationing as Europe and the US.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/statistics/series/registered-banks/banks-liabilities-deposits-by-sector
Yep, had seen that…is worth remembering thats aggregate data…those who can are, many are unable.
Wage increases have also added over a billion to employees over the last yr
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/employment-indicators-june-2022/
https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/labour-market
Youth employment going up .
15–19 years – up 16.9 percent (19,180 jobs)
a lot of the inflation is in Shelter (rent and housing building cost) and utilities such as rates (which are out of control) which does add to rent costs.
Yep and until that employment rate/ remuneration falls the RBNZ will keep hiking (unless the FED reverses first)
One of the Fed analysts said the problem was not so much employment (an indicator) but mor about high shelter costs with new build costs increasing 17% y on y (familiar) and increased interest rates will see both a decrease in housing prices and costs.
There has been also a move out of corporate residential housing purchases in the US,and the decrease in finacialization ( speculators) has seen a decrease in commodity prices as they return to value stocks.
https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1552130138804047873
Scroll down for NZ.
"Last week, the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level in more than eight months. It’s a warning sign foreshadowing what’s to come. Jobless claims for the week ending July 15 increased to 251,000, representing the most significant spike since the pandemic time period of November 13 last year, when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits. The Department of Labor also pointed out that employers advertised fewer jobs in May, another signal of a declining job market, which the Fed is hoping for."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/07/22/why-the-fed-needs-to-crush-the-economy-and-job-market-to-save-it/?sh=15b86afe43b9
(Unable to scroll twitter as I dont have account.)
Central Banks have one blunt tool to curb inflation (when credibility lost)….and it induces unemployment.
Glass half full with employment data,as the open available vacancies fell to 11.3 million ( update next week)
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
Fast food position in California is no good to redundant mortgage broker from New York…x 1000s
True,not good for land agents here (they will have more articles in herald etc)
GDP figures (and inflation) coming out of Europe now,with strong gdp in Italy,Spain,France. Germany just broke even at .1% Attribution is west,south Europe is from Tourism.
If Italy keeps that up they may return their economy to the size it was pre GFC.
and attribution is west means?
West / spain /portugal/ France ( mostly med though)
Italy lost a good PM ,he had reduced reliance on Russian gas,with increased supply from Algeria (and deal coming with israel) The big fail with the italian economy was the Euro which constrained growth,they are whist indebted the housing market (like spain has been stable) Germany had a large increase in housing cost (value)
Greece is also insulated from Russian gas,as it gets supplied from Azerbaijan.
Powerdown is an intentional strategy. This looks more like decades of ignoring the limits of growth merging with the covid/brexit/climate crisis. Be good if we looked at a sustainable and resilient response rather than chasing green BAU.
The EU has started the single largest intentional energy use reduction we've seen since the 1979 oil crisis. Doesn't have to fit anyone's specific definition. Certainly won't run as any prophet foretold.
This is nothing like Business As Usual for nearly 500 million people and for all EU governments as well as the UK, and it is as permanent as the eye can see. COVID and the Ukraine War is the acceleration of change that's been waiting to happen.
9 of the top 10 countries leading an energy transition are already in Europe or the EEA:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/04/these-countries-are-leading-the-transition-to-sustainable-energy/#:~:text=Sweden%2C%20Norway%20and%20Denmark%20have,Energy%20Transition%20Index%20(ETI).
Yeah but only Norway,Iceland,and NZ are non nuke.Norway also has one of the highest consumption rates in the world ,
Right now real time production is 14.68 gw, local consumption is 11.24 rest exported.
And a heck of a lot of Norway's internal green energy consumption is funded by their North Sea oil exports.
https://www.spglobal.com/en/research-insights/articles/norway-s-new-oil-bonanza-holds-lessons-for-britain
They also lost over 200 billion in investment value in their wealth fund,due to investment in meme stock.
But are UK and Australian owners following suit and trying to limit alternative generation?
https://twitter.com/hcrystal/status/1552265815105339392
https://www.yahoo.com/news/leaked-us-power-companies-secretly-110017016.html
When Florida Power & Light faced a spate of bad publicity and political blowback, a small but ambitious news website called the Capitolist sprang to the public utility’s defense.
[…]
While portraying itself as a feisty independent outlet, the Capitolist — which aims its content directly at Tallahassee decision makers — was bankrolled and controlled by executives of the power company through a small group of trusted intermediaries from an Alabama consulting firm, according to an investigation by the Miami Herald, based on a massive leak of documents. The internal communications, contracts and financial records show how a team of elite communications experts consulting for FPL plucked the Capitolist from obscurity and used it as part of an elaborate, off-the-books political strategy to advocate for rate hikes, agitate for legislative favors, slam political opponents and eliminate anything — even home solar panels — that the publicly traded utility worried might undermine its near monopoly on selling power in the Sunshine State.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article263757423.html
The arguments are complex in the US,as the generation mix changes are dependent on tax breaks (accelerated depreciation) and subsidy replacing what is effectively low carbon generation.
https://twitter.com/lenhe_j/status/1552646381155692550?cxt=HHwWjMClqYnqjYwrAAAA
In the inflation bill introduced the US has recognized the importance of E=mc2,and brought in taxbreaks for existing infrastructure,and subsidy for the grid upgrades necessary for intermittent power such as wind ad solar ( need to modulate frequency)
"TOKYO — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.
The attacks — on 58 people since July 8 — are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japanese-city-alarmed-by-biting-clawing-attacking-monkeys/2022/07/27/a9e9ddec-0d8c-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html
Shocking survey findings:
https://www.renews.co.nz/1-in-6-nzers-have-experienced-homelessness-new-study-finds/
The Greens are trying to pressure the Government to extend eligibility for the Cost of Living payment to those on benefits and pensions:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/07/greens-want-cost-of-living-payment-extended-to-kiwis-on-benefit-more-permanent-solutions-to-address-inequality.html
Enacting the recommendations of WEAG report when?
What's the word on the street on Tuiono?
Does he have enough backing to put his name in the ring by Thursday?
Be serious.
I would like to apologize for my angry rants on this site for the last year or two, especially the long ones.
I've been allowing my mental health and cynicism to get the better of me and attacking fellow progressives because I just see everything getting worse for poorer people, I also really care about the left and want it to be successful and sometimes that passion can sometimes turn into near hatred of things I support.
Anyway, I'm not going to comment on here or other sites for awhile and I’m going try to avoid politics in general for awhile while I work on my mental health, hopefully I can learn to love politics and be hopeful and engage in discourse in a healthy and kind way in future.
All the best to everyone on this blog and solidarity with you all.
I will miss your posts Corey
Best wishes from a glass half-empty fellow traveller – go well.
Now imagine the crimes they’re not recording and posting.
https://twitter.com/vokiratas/status/1552759641104334848
A horrific video posted online on Thursday appears to show a Ukrainian prisoner of war being castrated by his Russian captors.
[…]
The victim in the video wears Ukrainian-style camouflage fatigues and is shown gagged, his hands tied behind his back. He lies helpless on the floor as the man in a Russian uniform, which features a “Z” patch, uses a box cutter to cut off his clothes and then appears to castrate him while shouting degrading insults in Russian. At least two other men who appear to be Russian soldiers can be seen in the video.
https://news.yahoo.com/horrifying-footage-appears-to-show-russian-captors-castrating-a-ukrainian-prisoner-of-war-221414554.html