I've decided to vote green thanks to james pointing out that lf labour slips a few more points lower and the greens don't make it back we could get an act nat government.
I just hope the greens are practical in dealing with agriculture.
'Rio Tinto is welcoming the latest party promise to work out transmission costs during its wind-down period.
Pacific operations managing director Kellie Parker said it was ‘‘recognition’’ from the Labour Party the smelter had ‘‘been paying too much for transmission costs’’.'
RIP Stephen F. who was one of the few free thinking public academic intellectuals remaining to help damp down the war mongering hysteria that has unfortunately infected large parts of the liberal left…
Very good. Cohen hits on the point we completely overlook, that Russian's judge Putin based on their own historical record, and by that measure he's the best leader they've ever had. Putin's success in stabilising Russia after it's betrayal by the West and collapse in the 90's is remarkable. He should be congratulated on this.
But the land is many ways is cursed; consisting of vast tracts of moderate to low productivity land stretched over 11 time zones with minimal internal waterways of use, and difficult transport. A long and tough winter keeps the growing seasons short. The Siberian steppes are prone to both flooding and fire. It has decent mineral and oil resources, but that's about it. In every other strategic respect, the landscape is a disaster.
On top of this the people themselves, after centuries of mis-rule, face a demographic collapse. Birth rates are appallingly low and life expectancies are somewhere between declining and outright grim.
The other aspect of Russia that we also fail to understand is just how difficult a country it is to defend. The vast, wide open steppes and river plains with no natural features or boundaries mean that traditionally the warring hordes could sweep over them at will. This has shaped their thinking deeply, more than anything else the Kremlin is obsessed with protecting their sovereignty, but faces difficult odds in doing so.
At present the Russians lack well defined geographic borders and may well be motivated to expand somewhat to meet natural features they might mount and effective defense on, but the idea they want to attack Europe or the USA is as Cohen put's it, is totally ludicrous. Their military may have some nice hardware, but utterly lack the industrial depth or demographics to support military adventure at any scale.
Literally since the Americans voted out GH Bush, their relationship with Russia has been on a downward trajectory. Trump at least came to the role as President with somewhat less of the usual Pentagon Cold War hysteria than any of his predecessors, but ultimately regardless of Trump's hopeless and botched attempts at doing a deal with Putin … the destination was always going to be the same, US alienation, isolation and withdrawal from it's post WW2 global trade order.
And this in turn leaves Russia eyeing local powers on it's immediate borders, like Germany, Turkey and China, that are now relatively free to impose their own expansionist agenda's … with considerable concern.
@RedLogix, I agree with nearly all of your assessment of Cohen’s position except your last couple of paragraphs, namely in Trumps dealings with Russia (and I am not saying he was going to do a great job on this front btw), but any good intentions or instincts around Russia/Putin he might have had have been completely distorted and undermined by the frankly unhinged Russia phobia that has been stirred up by Democratic party (on steroids since their loss in 2016) and gleefully stocked by the US military industrial complex aided in no small part by the CIA externally and the FBI internally (Russia gate).
I think you misread me a bit, because I largely agree with what you write above.
My view is that while the Americans may have won the Cold War (and no mean feat that was) … they've elected a series of Presidents since who really had very little vision about what to do with this victory.
Instead we've seen an incoherent series of betrayals, blunders and moral failures, that have resulted in the US led post-WW2 trade order to become a fragile shell of it's former self. Trump and COVID between them are going about kicking down anything left standing.
A Clinton administration would have gotten us to exactly the same destination, but more slowly and with prettier powerpoint presentations.
And yes the unhinged Russo-phobia from the Democrats is simply proof of this assertion.
The current bump in birth rates is effectively a generational echo of the baby bust they had in the 70's and 80', but it will never reach the peak it did then.
And if, as the Kremlin does, look at the data for the Russian population only, setting aside other substantial minority groups who regard themselves as separate and hostile to Moscow, the data is only worse.
good couple of posts, redlogix, also have to factor in how many millions left when soviet union collapsed , and people were allowed to leave. people who only look at overall statistics dont really get russia, they dont realise how many different races and areas there are. life expectancy in different areas are the shortest AND longest on the planet.
"Why in the world would Putin want to invade Latvia & Estonia?"
Invasion is usually good for domestic polling, the Russo-Japanese War being the best political hope of the prerevolutionary Russian government – the notoriously unsuccessful 'short victorious war'.
The reinvasion of Chechnya was the policy that brought Putin to power in the first place, and Georgia and the Ukraine can attest to his bellicosity. But his rationalizations for invading are less important than his military capacity and intentions.
One might as well ask "Why in the world would Hitler want to invade Russia?" The reasoning was not as relevant as the fact.
Yes I think Cohen gets it a bit wrong on this; I do believe there are good military reasons for Putin to expand Russia somewhat in order to establish more defensible borders.
In terms of their Siberia and Central Asian borders there is fuck all they can do about them, just too vast and open for any conceivable conventional response. All they can do is is what Putin has already made clear … put one Chinese boot into Russia and there will be no tanks or troops to meet the invasion. Just nuclear annihilation.
But European Russia, to the west of the Urals the situation is more delicate and dangerous. A complex mix of hostile groups like the Chechnya, the loss of the Baltic sea-border, the almost disastrous loss of access to the Black Sea, and the lack of any mountains to slow down invaders means the Kremlin looks to the west with considerable strategic angst. They definitely have no wish to invade Europe, but would dearly love to nudge their assets westward to borders they can defend.
I think that the Ukraine is the last of the easier cherries for Putin to pluck, but it is also much easier for the West to support, whether that be liberal democratic support, or military industrial.
The low countries of Eastern Europe are a logistical trap, frankly, which goes some way to explain why Putin has not taken them already. They are relatively low yielding, and not particularly supportive of a Russian reinvasion. The Ukraine is closer to being the industrial powerhouse Russia lost in East Germany, and they know they won't be getting that back.
Chechnya has the oil pipelines, but it is also a traditional Russian scapegoat, the terrain having allowed the locals to defeat multiple Russian conscript armies over the last few centuries. My sister-in-law was a journalist on the ground during the Chechen invasion – a very risky business.
Russian aggression is likely to continue to focus on the Ukraine, and possibly Turkey, for which they have a long religious based antipathy. But Putin is nothing if not creative, and support of various discontented groups in the sandpit, like various Yemeni factions will continue to yield disproportionate dividends – at least until the new Saudi king grows canny.
Yes a good analysis Stuart. I agree the Russian's are looking to project their power westward but it’s not going to be easy for them. Hence the uneasy tension between rhetoric and indecisive action we’re seeing.
The thinking maybe goes like this in the Kremlin: occupying and absorbing all the countries to Russia’s immediate west (except maybe Finland) would lodge Russian power against the triple barriers of the Baltic Sea, the Carpathian Mountains, and the Black Sea. Toss in the eastern half of Poland, and Russia’s open frontage would shrink by three-quarters, and that is a line the Russian army could work with.
At least that would be what might motivate them to invade, but to label this as boundless aggression comparable to Hitler's invasion of Russia, isn't a helpful comparison either. I believe the Kremlin's intentions are first and foremost defensive. And understanding this is the first step to dealing effectively with them. If nothing else there is a lot NATO could do to stop stoking Russian paranoia.
I believe the Kremlin's intentions are first and foremost defensive.
I'm not sure that I agree, but it's partly a matter of world view. Russia views the Ukraine as historically being part of their territory. Inconveniently, they have it backwards, Russia was historically part of the Ukraine.
It is more political and economic independence that goes to the heart of the matter however. With Glasnost, Russia attempted to catch up on the long season of underdevelopment that saw Russian sailors in my time taking sewing machines back to their country in triumph. Though there were fancy new startups by the truckload, the poor bore the brunt of the reforms, and there wasn't much of a state safety net. Yeltsin's coup saw the reinstatement of the old party bureaucracy who reaped the benefits of soviet empire, and Putin is their man.
Although a good argument can be made for a degree of economic nationalism, Putin immediately restarted the cold war intelligence apparatus, of which he had been part, but this time to counter predatory financiers and foreign competitors. This was to some degree laudable – but the wholesale theft of state assets carried out by Chernomyrdin (the Russian Roger Douglas) went into the pockets of Putin's associates.
The popular democracy movement did not suit the oligarchs at all, and journalists were killed, and political movements decapitated. Traditionally the US would strongly protest despotic innovations of this kind, but the Iraq invasion kept the US busy, while it utterly destroyed America's global moral authority. While that cat was away, Putin was able to gobble up a number of former satellites who preferred not to be Kremlin colonies.
It is improbable that Russia means to invade Eastern Europe at this time – but that is a function of the forces arrayed against such a possibility, not a lack of ambition on Putin's part. If cold war institutions like NATO withered and died, he would likely exploit the resulting opportunity – as can be seen from the Kremlin-backed interference in Belarus.
Thanks – Caspianreport is surprisingly fact-laden – he's become an exception to my usual avoidance of the region for its troll density.
China tends to play a long game, but Xi, though powerful at home, is much less successful abroad than Hu was. I would characterise China's efforts as a lapsed but not abandoned diplomatic and economic initiative.
If and when China's economy perks up, the effort will likely be restored, and in the meantime there will be some academic exchange. There may have been an agreement of some kind however. China moved away from its traditionally frosty relations with Russia, and gazumped a gas pipeline that had been headed for the Koreas.
They may have agreed to not contest areas of interest economically, a form of competition to which Russia is particularly susceptible, that being how they lost the first cold war after all.
" Invasion is usually good for domestic polling," as far as I know Putin has never had any problems with his domestic polling numbers whatsoever, but more importantly comparing anyone to Hitler is an automatic disqualification in any debate, so you lose…..try harder.
If you knew a bit more about Putin you wouldn't dismiss the parallel so quickly.
It's tragic really, how this murderous totalitarian picks up useful idiots on both the Left and Right, and dodgy journalists and marginal academics to support his aggression. But of course these are always the groups that pin their hopes on change, so it is natural to some extent.
How can anyone believe the news generated by Putin's bot army.
It's a numbers game. At its height there were over 2 million people in the KGB. They may not have been especially well resourced, and most of them were no Karlas, but it lent a heft to their operations that the smaller operations of their western colleagues sometimes struggled against.
The disinformation campaign that appears to have captured Billy TK may seem trivial – but another 10% and his faction would have decisive influence in parliament – no laughing matter. I'm not sure how many folk we have countering that influence, but not terribly many.
Tamihere has had enough of the left & right trying to out-bland each other.
The Māori Party would set up a separate Māori Parliament among other constitutional changes as outlined in its Mana Motuhake policy. Party co-leader John Tamihere announced the policy, which focuses on Te Tiriti o Waitangi, this morning at Waitangi.
Tamihere said it was a 25-year strategy, and the party's policies were aiming to break Māori out of welfare dependency and build a Māori middle class.
Long-term political strategy is incomprehensible to mainstream politicos, so expect much shock/horror from binary folk. I thought the guy was lightweight – maybe I got him wrong.
Tapping into the Māori middle class is hardly bold. And Tamihere is best judged on a 25 year timeframe when events may have caught up with his flapping gums.
Yeah because she's too young to realise that falling asset prices are a disaster of another kind. Banks don't lend, owners lose their equity and builders stop building. People stop spending, businesses go under and the poor get poorer. In the meantime a small minority of cashed up investors go on a bargain buying spree.
Anyone who imagines that collapsing house prices is the silver bullet to our housing crisis just hasn't been around long enough to understand.
A long laundry list of things. Off the top of my head:
Allowing local govt to get back into the subdivision game
Fund BRANZ to aggressively pursue smarter and more cost efficient building processes. Encourage continuity and skills retention in the building game, avoid boom and bust if at all possible.
Reform the RMA to streamline reasonable intensification and more efficient land use zoning
Govt puts up a $25k gift for all new home builds (as they do in Australia) and another $15k for first home buyers.
Tighter RBA limits on how much can be lent on the value of the land (as distinct from the value of the improvements)
Less emphasis on bank lending criteria around serviceability. Let people have more say in how much repayment commitment they want to take on to better account for how people work these days
Encourage multi-generational property ownership, recognise that many parents are keen to assist their children in some fashion.
More flexible occupancy types. At the moment we really have only three, owning, renting private or social housing. Overseas there are other options including group housing, and housing associations of various types that suit many people really well.
A Commission of Enquiry into costs in the building supply chain.
Allow all home owners to claim mortgage interest costs as a tax deductable to put them on an even footing with investors. (As in the USA for example.)
A more intelligent and controlled immigration policy. Good old fashioned demand vs supply remains the single largest factor driving prices.
This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, just some items that I can quickly come up with a view to improving the efficiency of the NZ housing market.
This reads to me like a series of band-aids. Instead we need a fundamental shift away from using housing as an investment vehicle, which is what economist Steve Keen suggests. I thought you might be supportive of his stance.
Just before Midnight last night, their neighbour returns swearing violently along their fenceline & then outside his house, just 4 or 5 metres from their bedroom: "F*king Ct !!!, Fking come here, you Fking Ct !!!, Fking Move, you Fking Ct !!!" at the top of his voice. Out of control abusing mate or girlfriend (who had presumably walked along road with him, lagging behind) – with clear underlying threat of violence. Went on & on outside their house in this vein for 45 mins "Fking Ct, Fking Ct"– constant very loud violent swearing & sporadic body slams into front porch wall near their bedroom … real atmosphere of impending violence. Then went off … only to return after 1:30am with stereo up full volume, thumping base with aggressive hip-hop 'Motherfucker' lyrics inside & frequent slams & bangs into internal walls until they finally headed off again around 3am.
My Mother recently turned 90, my father has just turned 89. They've lived in their house for almost 60 years … always with nice, older & middle-age neighbours … highly sociable area … never a violent neighbourhood in any way … my Mother's the sort of person with real courage who would go outside late at night if she heard someone – a child, a woman – needing help … pretty fearless … but is now very scared to go out at all. She was in the bathroom when this waste-of-space arrived home and got a real fright when someone suddenly started violently swearing straight outside their house. They rang me & I could hear this psychopathic little prick down the phone … his aggressive swearing effortlessly cut right through the heavy wind outside.
And this incident is actually relatively minor compared to the violent intimidation & severe sleep deprivation they've had to put up with for hours throughout the early morning over the past 3 years, including this guy running onto their property at 2 in the morning & smashing their fence & letterbox back in December, shouting threats, along with a whole lot more on a very frequent basis. The degree of stress & severe sleep deprivation it's caused them (esp) & for nearby neighbours as well.
Just want to thank the Labour Govt for unceremoniously dumping the most out-of-control uber-violent tenants (the ones landlords rightly avoid at all costs) on unsuspecting neighbourhoods & for the callous, bordering on sadistic No Eviction policy … cheers for turning my Elderly Parents' life into a Nightmare, two long-term Labour activists, sort of people who give to charity even when they can't afford it, always focus on other people's needs, putting themselves last, never complaining and apologetic when they're absolutely forced to … & cheers to Kris Faafoi … when you were thanking them for helping you out on election days in the past, Kris, wouldn't it have been the decent thing to let them know you were planning to dump a massive violent social problem on the other side of their bedroom wall with precisely zero chance of relief. Playthings for a Psychopath.
Yes swordfish. Redlogix is right. That is exactly what should be done. To begin with, the resultant publicity would force the landlord/lady or Winz to remove him saspo.
Secondly, I think this situation is more prevalent than most people know. There are 48 social housing apartments currently being built close to where I live. Locals are rightly fearful of the impact this might have on our neighbourhood. I'm sure the bulk of the tenants will prove to be good neighbours but it is inevitable there will be trouble makers. There is currently no easy way to have these problems solved.
Playing back would just invite threats, retaliation, violence. The chap is a nutter obviously, and there needs to be a prison where people who are anti-social like this live permanently and are kept on what would be a prison farm so they have controls on their life.
Well, you could try a citizen's arrest. Might have to join ACT, get a gun & licence first though, eh?
Every one who witnesses a breach of the peace is justified in interfering to prevent its continuance or renewal, and may detain any person committing it, in order to give him or her into the custody of a constable: provided that the person interfering shall use no more force than is reasonably necessary for preventing the continuance or renewal of the breach of the peace, or than is reasonably proportionate to the danger to be apprehended from its continuance or renewal.
Having recently been through similar, swordfish, I sympathise with your parents.
In the end, calling the police was the only thing that interrupted the behaviour. Police advice to record the incidents – and then refusal to accept the recordings – made their advice a waste of time. Actually the stress levels went drastically up when having to ensure that the interactions were being recorded
The suggestion to video the incidents was rejected by us, because of the not inconsiderable concern that openly filming incidents would both escalate and focus the aggression on the person holding the camera.
In the end, the Tenancy Tribunal hearing mediator actually advised us not to present our recordings, log or transcripts of some incidents for abusive behaviour because that would likely be overturned, and suggested that we accept the end of tenancy for failure to pay rent. When we asked how that would benefit other landlords who would look for any past incidents with the tenant, he told us not to worry about it. Did we want them out or not?
If someone can stay with your parents for a while, then call the police – even if it is more than once a day, until the tenant understands that any incident will result in a visit, and your parents have the benefit of having someone else in the house to make that decision and call.
As we were both neighbours and landlords, I was aware that the situation for any neighbour would have been the same. At least, it was only impacting on us. But, it was already difficult to get any practical action from the police, who regarded verbal abuse as not violent enough to prosecute. We were told he actually had to physically "get in your face and make threats".
Sounds like he did as much due diligence about this issue as he did when he obediently and thoughtlessly backed that insane plan to destroy Concert FM earlier this year.
Least impressive cabinet member by a considerable distance.
The type of situation you have raised is upsetting as your parents are elderly and no one should have to live like that. Were your parents not so frail the pig would not get away with it.
Some sort of action needs to be taken by a third party. Go to the local MP with your parents and take some cell phone recordings.
I have lived in fear of neighbours before and I could not wait for the day when they left.
The woman who the man is a pig to she probably fears for her life.
Guilt is bipartisan: both mainstream parties have been weakening the cops steadily the past 30 years or so. Originally that had wide public support due to paranoia about a police state, but things have slid to the opposite ridiculous extreme…
dont forget we also have polies wanting to allow more free speech and personal freedoms, and rip up RMA, which all contibute to the problem of bad neighbours . private property values versus free speech, with common decency caught in the middle. there is no easy answer , and blaming the polie you hate the most isnt a solution. blaming it on weakening police powers(?)(since when) is a sideshow. bad neighbours, like barking dogs, have always been a problem, since we all lived in adjoining caves. I know of instances(sister) where these cretins own there houses, so running to winz isnt an option. it really is a case by case problem. many of these neighbours from hell have mental health problems, addiction problems etc, so ,sometimes DHB is the best place to go. having lived in a deadend(in both meanings) street with a junkie for a neighbour , that was interesting. he kept all of the nearby villians away , and was scared of our dog, so we were good, but all the rest in the street hated him and our dog(us).
"Weakening the cops"? What do you mean by that, Dennis? Do you not consider that the police need to be monitored and controlled?
This awful case involving swordfish's parents is the sort of thing the police should be sorting out; instead they have wasted thousands of hours harassing—selectively harassing—people for marijuana possession, forcing Peter Ellis (R.I.P.) to regularly "check in" with the Christchurch police, and harassing journalists like Nicky Hager.
By weakening I meant the effect of funding constraints. Thus the feeble excuse the cops routinely give for failing to deal with such situations (“not enough resources”).
I agree re appropriate police tasks. Unfortunately the command/control hierarchy remains free to choose prosecuting cannabis users instead of responding to pleas for help from members of the public who are being victimised by others.
The noise in the wee hours is a straight out council noise control issue, and they will respond better if there is a clear pattern of behaviour. Documenting each incident clearly with time and date is where I would start, and play the long game.
Documenting each incident clearly with time and date is where I would start, and play the long game.
You would think so, wouldn't you. But after advising us to do so, both the police and the Tenancy Tribunal wanted nothing to do with the documentation and recordings.
The noise in the wee hours is a straight out council noise control issue, and they will respond better if there is a clear pattern of behaviour.
The tenant must have known about how the response works, because he would blast music for about 20-30 minutes then quieten down for a few hours and then repeat the pattern. Ensuring that if noise control was called, by the time they arrived all would be quiet.
Because the tenants were in a granny flat on our property we weren't able to use the noise control officer at Auckland Council. Noise control only responds to complaints made about another property.
Other neighbours are actually fairly loathe to get involved because of the quite real fear of reprisal.
On the flip side, the experience of a neighbour down the road who has battled with local council regarding an existing resource consent for a small rural venue, has neighbours (with strong local board and council links) putting in noise control complaints every time (once a month) when they have guests. Despite meeting all resource consent requirements and closing before 11pm, the council issues notices despite sound level recordings showing noise levels are well below guidelines. In our neck of the woods, the old boys network plays fast and loose with the regulations.
that's a different situation than I was commenting on. There's no guarantee that councils will do what we want, but that process of having dates and times and details is what they need to act.
I was thinking more of the age of swordfish's parents, and the escalation of stress involved in making sure all the documentation and everything is up to date. In my case, following this advice increased the already hyper-vigilance that was in place, and having that information may not be as conclusively beneficial as you would think.
They have the issue of being neighbours to someone who will likely respond negatively to the noise complaints, and any council prosecution. And even a successful prosecution might not be enough to allow the landlords to terminate the tenancy so that the neighbours were no longer there.
So there they remain. Sitting ducks for the retaliatory behaviour of the tenant.
The government and the police need to sort the loophole out when it comes to noise when drunk and disorderly behaviour occurs in a home which impacts on the neighbours. This is intimidating and a form of harassment.
ACT is nothing more than a bunch of ultra right wing white supremacists. They started out with potential – albeit well to the right on economic policies – but they ended up being taken over by the right's loony element who originally lived with National.
They're thinking is dangerously simplistic and ideologically stupid. They really should not be allowed near parliament. Seymour on his own is relatively harmless but if he brings some of the crackpots into parliament with him there will be problems.
And btw, I had some interaction with them in the mid to late 1990s so I know what I’m talking about.
Hey just wondering if anyone can help. I need to submit a link to TVNZ of the first tv debate for my complaint.
I am having difficulty doing this. I have joined tv on demand, but can't get the link to copy and have looked through various news websites including a quite glance at the Standard, but to no avail.
Nat supporters in the SFO management would have figured out the right time to kneecap Winston long ago. Labour supporters within would have adopted the Pontius Pilate stance. Morality in governance is a matter of (in)convenience…
ACT has dropped two of its more controversial policies: lowering the minimum wage and adding interest back onto student loans. Both the policies could still be found on the party’s website as of Tuesday morning, but ACT leader David Seymour said they were no longer active election policies.
So policies can now be either active or inactive. You can imagine this being enabled for public viewing of party websites: a red light for inactive policies, and a green light attached to those which are active. User-friendly for binary folk.
Health spokesperson Chris Hipkins announced the party's health policy in Auckland this morning, saying it had invested record amounts into DHBs, hospitals and mental health "after nine years of neglect under National".
Labour would:
Provide mental health support for all primary and intermediate students
The dental grant is good news. As long as the criteria is not changed for eligibility this is great news for when there is a start date. I have already been turned down twice by the DHB this year. It pays to shop around for a quote.
With the level of bias that exists in our media what guarantee does the public have that the questions being put to the PM in the debate are fair and Judith Collins has to account for her own record ?
Patrick Gower is well known for his right wing bias after his treatment of David Cunliffe in 2014 so what guarantee does the public have that this debate is fair and balanced.
I sincerely hope that any pressure from the National party wont effect the rules of the debate.
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Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 7, 2024 thru Sat, April 13, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week is about adults in the room setting terms and conditions of ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...
“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...
The Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...
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Shaw sounding quite reasonably buoyed this morning on RNZ by the polls last night.
Now is the time for Green voters swept up in Jacindamania in 2017 to go back.
I've decided to vote green thanks to james pointing out that lf labour slips a few more points lower and the greens don't make it back we could get an act nat government.
I just hope the greens are practical in dealing with agriculture.
Why are this pair still in business?…or not in prison?
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/09/29/casual-cruelty-destroys-young-mums-boss-demands-35000-to-prevent-dismissal-more-evil-than-we-thought/
Interesting Youth leaders debate last night. Chloe knocked it out of the park as expected.
Yes Maui, and the format drew out some good answers. Some answers were questioned further. Jack does a good job.
Young Voters Debate. Starts after about 10 minutes. No ads!
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/live-stream-young-voters-debate
'Rio Tinto is welcoming the latest party promise to work out transmission costs during its wind-down period.
Pacific operations managing director Kellie Parker said it was ‘‘recognition’’ from the Labour Party the smelter had ‘‘been paying too much for transmission costs’’.'
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/rio-tinto-welcomes-labour-pledge
WTF ?!
Having Rio Tinto operate in this country is like having tapeworms.
If a business isn't paying the same amount as a residential place then it's not paying enough.
RIP Stephen F. who was one of the few free thinking public academic intellectuals remaining to help damp down the war mongering hysteria that has unfortunately infected large parts of the liberal left…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUoJwXtMue4
Very good. Cohen hits on the point we completely overlook, that Russian's judge Putin based on their own historical record, and by that measure he's the best leader they've ever had. Putin's success in stabilising Russia after it's betrayal by the West and collapse in the 90's is remarkable. He should be congratulated on this.
But the land is many ways is cursed; consisting of vast tracts of moderate to low productivity land stretched over 11 time zones with minimal internal waterways of use, and difficult transport. A long and tough winter keeps the growing seasons short. The Siberian steppes are prone to both flooding and fire. It has decent mineral and oil resources, but that's about it. In every other strategic respect, the landscape is a disaster.
On top of this the people themselves, after centuries of mis-rule, face a demographic collapse. Birth rates are appallingly low and life expectancies are somewhere between declining and outright grim.
The other aspect of Russia that we also fail to understand is just how difficult a country it is to defend. The vast, wide open steppes and river plains with no natural features or boundaries mean that traditionally the warring hordes could sweep over them at will. This has shaped their thinking deeply, more than anything else the Kremlin is obsessed with protecting their sovereignty, but faces difficult odds in doing so.
At present the Russians lack well defined geographic borders and may well be motivated to expand somewhat to meet natural features they might mount and effective defense on, but the idea they want to attack Europe or the USA is as Cohen put's it, is totally ludicrous. Their military may have some nice hardware, but utterly lack the industrial depth or demographics to support military adventure at any scale.
Literally since the Americans voted out GH Bush, their relationship with Russia has been on a downward trajectory. Trump at least came to the role as President with somewhat less of the usual Pentagon Cold War hysteria than any of his predecessors, but ultimately regardless of Trump's hopeless and botched attempts at doing a deal with Putin … the destination was always going to be the same, US alienation, isolation and withdrawal from it's post WW2 global trade order.
And this in turn leaves Russia eyeing local powers on it's immediate borders, like Germany, Turkey and China, that are now relatively free to impose their own expansionist agenda's … with considerable concern.
@RedLogix, I agree with nearly all of your assessment of Cohen’s position except your last couple of paragraphs, namely in Trumps dealings with Russia (and I am not saying he was going to do a great job on this front btw), but any good intentions or instincts around Russia/Putin he might have had have been completely distorted and undermined by the frankly unhinged Russia phobia that has been stirred up by Democratic party (on steroids since their loss in 2016) and gleefully stocked by the US military industrial complex aided in no small part by the CIA externally and the FBI internally (Russia gate).
Adrian Yeah right what a load.
Sycophantic diatribe.
I think you misread me a bit, because I largely agree with what you write above.
My view is that while the Americans may have won the Cold War (and no mean feat that was) … they've elected a series of Presidents since who really had very little vision about what to do with this victory.
Instead we've seen an incoherent series of betrayals, blunders and moral failures, that have resulted in the US led post-WW2 trade order to become a fragile shell of it's former self. Trump and COVID between them are going about kicking down anything left standing.
A Clinton administration would have gotten us to exactly the same destination, but more slowly and with prettier powerpoint presentations.
And yes the unhinged Russo-phobia from the Democrats is simply proof of this assertion.
"Birth rates are appallingly low"
Russia
The current birth rate for Russia in 2020 is 12.194 births per 1000 people,
Europe
Birth rate 9.5 births per 1,000 (2020 est.)
The US
The current birth rate for U.S. in 2020 is 11.990 births per 1000 people,
Maybe we need to redefine appalling
Life expectancy in Russia continues to rise
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1041395/life-expectancy-russia-all-time/
65.48 years (2000)
The current life expectancy for Russia in 2020 is 72.57 years
Fair enough I was a bit less than accurate there. The story is complicated.
The current bump in birth rates is effectively a generational echo of the baby bust they had in the 70's and 80', but it will never reach the peak it did then.
And if, as the Kremlin does, look at the data for the Russian population only, setting aside other substantial minority groups who regard themselves as separate and hostile to Moscow, the data is only worse.
good couple of posts, redlogix, also have to factor in how many millions left when soviet union collapsed , and people were allowed to leave. people who only look at overall statistics dont really get russia, they dont realise how many different races and areas there are. life expectancy in different areas are the shortest AND longest on the planet.
"Why in the world would Putin want to invade Latvia & Estonia?"
Invasion is usually good for domestic polling, the Russo-Japanese War being the best political hope of the prerevolutionary Russian government – the notoriously unsuccessful 'short victorious war'.
The reinvasion of Chechnya was the policy that brought Putin to power in the first place, and Georgia and the Ukraine can attest to his bellicosity. But his rationalizations for invading are less important than his military capacity and intentions.
One might as well ask "Why in the world would Hitler want to invade Russia?" The reasoning was not as relevant as the fact.
Yes I think Cohen gets it a bit wrong on this; I do believe there are good military reasons for Putin to expand Russia somewhat in order to establish more defensible borders.
In terms of their Siberia and Central Asian borders there is fuck all they can do about them, just too vast and open for any conceivable conventional response. All they can do is is what Putin has already made clear … put one Chinese boot into Russia and there will be no tanks or troops to meet the invasion. Just nuclear annihilation.
But European Russia, to the west of the Urals the situation is more delicate and dangerous. A complex mix of hostile groups like the Chechnya, the loss of the Baltic sea-border, the almost disastrous loss of access to the Black Sea, and the lack of any mountains to slow down invaders means the Kremlin looks to the west with considerable strategic angst. They definitely have no wish to invade Europe, but would dearly love to nudge their assets westward to borders they can defend.
I think that the Ukraine is the last of the easier cherries for Putin to pluck, but it is also much easier for the West to support, whether that be liberal democratic support, or military industrial.
The low countries of Eastern Europe are a logistical trap, frankly, which goes some way to explain why Putin has not taken them already. They are relatively low yielding, and not particularly supportive of a Russian reinvasion. The Ukraine is closer to being the industrial powerhouse Russia lost in East Germany, and they know they won't be getting that back.
Chechnya has the oil pipelines, but it is also a traditional Russian scapegoat, the terrain having allowed the locals to defeat multiple Russian conscript armies over the last few centuries. My sister-in-law was a journalist on the ground during the Chechen invasion – a very risky business.
Russian aggression is likely to continue to focus on the Ukraine, and possibly Turkey, for which they have a long religious based antipathy. But Putin is nothing if not creative, and support of various discontented groups in the sandpit, like various Yemeni factions will continue to yield disproportionate dividends – at least until the new Saudi king grows canny.
Yes a good analysis Stuart. I agree the Russian's are looking to project their power westward but it’s not going to be easy for them. Hence the uneasy tension between rhetoric and indecisive action we’re seeing.
The thinking maybe goes like this in the Kremlin: occupying and absorbing all the countries to Russia’s immediate west (except maybe Finland) would lodge Russian power against the triple barriers of the Baltic Sea, the Carpathian Mountains, and the Black Sea. Toss in the eastern half of Poland, and Russia’s open frontage would shrink by three-quarters, and that is a line the Russian army could work with.
At least that would be what might motivate them to invade, but to label this as boundless aggression comparable to Hitler's invasion of Russia, isn't a helpful comparison either. I believe the Kremlin's intentions are first and foremost defensive. And understanding this is the first step to dealing effectively with them. If nothing else there is a lot NATO could do to stop stoking Russian paranoia.
I believe the Kremlin's intentions are first and foremost defensive.
I'm not sure that I agree, but it's partly a matter of world view. Russia views the Ukraine as historically being part of their territory. Inconveniently, they have it backwards, Russia was historically part of the Ukraine.
It is more political and economic independence that goes to the heart of the matter however. With Glasnost, Russia attempted to catch up on the long season of underdevelopment that saw Russian sailors in my time taking sewing machines back to their country in triumph. Though there were fancy new startups by the truckload, the poor bore the brunt of the reforms, and there wasn't much of a state safety net. Yeltsin's coup saw the reinstatement of the old party bureaucracy who reaped the benefits of soviet empire, and Putin is their man.
Although a good argument can be made for a degree of economic nationalism, Putin immediately restarted the cold war intelligence apparatus, of which he had been part, but this time to counter predatory financiers and foreign competitors. This was to some degree laudable – but the wholesale theft of state assets carried out by Chernomyrdin (the Russian Roger Douglas) went into the pockets of Putin's associates.
The popular democracy movement did not suit the oligarchs at all, and journalists were killed, and political movements decapitated. Traditionally the US would strongly protest despotic innovations of this kind, but the Iraq invasion kept the US busy, while it utterly destroyed America's global moral authority. While that cat was away, Putin was able to gobble up a number of former satellites who preferred not to be Kremlin colonies.
It is improbable that Russia means to invade Eastern Europe at this time – but that is a function of the forces arrayed against such a possibility, not a lack of ambition on Putin's part. If cold war institutions like NATO withered and died, he would likely exploit the resulting opportunity – as can be seen from the Kremlin-backed interference in Belarus.
Interesting, you make good points there.
And at a tangent, here may well be another factor complicating matters …China's growing attempts gain influence in Eastern Europe.
Thanks – Caspianreport is surprisingly fact-laden – he's become an exception to my usual avoidance of the region for its troll density.
China tends to play a long game, but Xi, though powerful at home, is much less successful abroad than Hu was. I would characterise China's efforts as a lapsed but not abandoned diplomatic and economic initiative.
If and when China's economy perks up, the effort will likely be restored, and in the meantime there will be some academic exchange. There may have been an agreement of some kind however. China moved away from its traditionally frosty relations with Russia, and gazumped a gas pipeline that had been headed for the Koreas.
They may have agreed to not contest areas of interest economically, a form of competition to which Russia is particularly susceptible, that being how they lost the first cold war after all.
" Invasion is usually good for domestic polling," as far as I know Putin has never had any problems with his domestic polling numbers whatsoever, but more importantly comparing anyone to Hitler is an automatic disqualification in any debate, so you lose…..try harder.
If you knew a bit more about Putin you wouldn't dismiss the parallel so quickly.
It's tragic really, how this murderous totalitarian picks up useful idiots on both the Left and Right, and dodgy journalists and marginal academics to support his aggression. But of course these are always the groups that pin their hopes on change, so it is natural to some extent.
Especially with Putins connections to the russian mafia/KGB .
Democracy has been usurped Putin is a Dicktator.Trump wants to emulate him.
Putin is now much richer than Trump.
How can anyone believe the news generated by Putin's bot army.
How can anyone believe the news generated by Putin's bot army.
It's a numbers game. At its height there were over 2 million people in the KGB. They may not have been especially well resourced, and most of them were no Karlas, but it lent a heft to their operations that the smaller operations of their western colleagues sometimes struggled against.
The disinformation campaign that appears to have captured Billy TK may seem trivial – but another 10% and his faction would have decisive influence in parliament – no laughing matter. I'm not sure how many folk we have countering that influence, but not terribly many.
Tamihere has had enough of the left & right trying to out-bland each other.
Long-term political strategy is incomprehensible to mainstream politicos, so expect much shock/horror from binary folk. I thought the guy was lightweight – maybe I got him wrong.
Tapping into the Māori middle class is hardly bold. And Tamihere is best judged on a 25 year timeframe when events may have caught up with his flapping gums.
Tamahere has used up all his capital a last gasp.
The Maori Parties connection to the National Party has done irreparable damage.
Tamahere is no fool. He is a qualified lawyer and has done the hard yards.
Bomber's incoherent review of the youth leader's debate features this emote:
Grammar & spelling are ever so 20th century, so he's mastering postmodern style…
I understand the only youth leader that agreed house prices needed to drop was Chloe Swarbrick.
‘Tame asked the candidates a yes or no answer question: Should house prices go down?
Swarbrick was the only one who played ball with a direct answer – yes, she said, they should.
The rest couldn’t give a straight answer.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/427149/politicians-try-to-woo-young-voters-in-fiery-debate
Revealing
Yeah because she's too young to realise that falling asset prices are a disaster of another kind. Banks don't lend, owners lose their equity and builders stop building. People stop spending, businesses go under and the poor get poorer. In the meantime a small minority of cashed up investors go on a bargain buying spree.
Anyone who imagines that collapsing house prices is the silver bullet to our housing crisis just hasn't been around long enough to understand.
"Anyone who imagines that collapsing house prices is the silver bullet to our housing crisis just hasn't been around long enough to understand."
Perhaps you should tell Nobel prize winning 93 year old behavioural economist Vernon Smith hes too young to understand then
Maybe Waring was also "too young" to realise some things as a first-term MP, but she was a fast learner – reckon Swarbrick might be too.
So what would be your answers to housing affordability issues?
A long laundry list of things. Off the top of my head:
This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, just some items that I can quickly come up with a view to improving the efficiency of the NZ housing market.
And CGT on all residential property speculation ie on all but the family home.
And get stuck in to a STATE house building programme.
This reads to me like a series of band-aids. Instead we need a fundamental shift away from using housing as an investment vehicle, which is what economist Steve Keen suggests. I thought you might be supportive of his stance.
Update on my Parents
Just before Midnight last night, their neighbour returns swearing violently along their fenceline & then outside his house, just 4 or 5 metres from their bedroom: "F*king Ct !!!, Fking come here, you Fking Ct !!!, Fking Move, you Fking Ct !!!" at the top of his voice. Out of control abusing mate or girlfriend (who had presumably walked along road with him, lagging behind) – with clear underlying threat of violence. Went on & on outside their house in this vein for 45 mins "Fking Ct, Fking Ct"– constant very loud violent swearing & sporadic body slams into front porch wall near their bedroom … real atmosphere of impending violence. Then went off … only to return after 1:30am with stereo up full volume, thumping base with aggressive hip-hop 'Motherfucker' lyrics inside & frequent slams & bangs into internal walls until they finally headed off again around 3am.
My Mother recently turned 90, my father has just turned 89. They've lived in their house for almost 60 years … always with nice, older & middle-age neighbours … highly sociable area … never a violent neighbourhood in any way … my Mother's the sort of person with real courage who would go outside late at night if she heard someone – a child, a woman – needing help … pretty fearless … but is now very scared to go out at all. She was in the bathroom when this waste-of-space arrived home and got a real fright when someone suddenly started violently swearing straight outside their house. They rang me & I could hear this psychopathic little prick down the phone … his aggressive swearing effortlessly cut right through the heavy wind outside.
And this incident is actually relatively minor compared to the violent intimidation & severe sleep deprivation they've had to put up with for hours throughout the early morning over the past 3 years, including this guy running onto their property at 2 in the morning & smashing their fence & letterbox back in December, shouting threats, along with a whole lot more on a very frequent basis. The degree of stress & severe sleep deprivation it's caused them (esp) & for nearby neighbours as well.
Just want to thank the Labour Govt for unceremoniously dumping the most out-of-control uber-violent tenants (the ones landlords rightly avoid at all costs) on unsuspecting neighbourhoods & for the callous, bordering on sadistic No Eviction policy … cheers for turning my Elderly Parents' life into a Nightmare, two long-term Labour activists, sort of people who give to charity even when they can't afford it, always focus on other people's needs, putting themselves last, never complaining and apologetic when they're absolutely forced to … & cheers to Kris Faafoi … when you were thanking them for helping you out on election days in the past, Kris, wouldn't it have been the decent thing to let them know you were planning to dump a massive violent social problem on the other side of their bedroom wall with precisely zero chance of relief. Playthings for a Psychopath.
Time to start telling a few home truths …
Record it. Get it on video. Take it to the media. It's right before an election.
Similar situation last year in USA: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12296654
Yes swordfish. Redlogix is right. That is exactly what should be done. To begin with, the resultant publicity would force the landlord/lady or Winz to remove him saspo.
Secondly, I think this situation is more prevalent than most people know. There are 48 social housing apartments currently being built close to where I live. Locals are rightly fearful of the impact this might have on our neighbourhood. I'm sure the bulk of the tenants will prove to be good neighbours but it is inevitable there will be trouble makers. There is currently no easy way to have these problems solved.
Record the noise and playback very loud at 7am next day for several hours
Yea dont think that would help much. Its the Police' job to get involved. So they should.
Yeah probably But payback sometimes is fun.
Playing back would just invite threats, retaliation, violence. The chap is a nutter obviously, and there needs to be a prison where people who are anti-social like this live permanently and are kept on what would be a prison farm so they have controls on their life.
Well, you could try a citizen's arrest. Might have to join ACT, get a gun & licence first though, eh?
An intolerable situation.
I would make suggestions, but I am sure you have tried them all, or at least thought about them.
I completely understand your feelings on this one.
Some people deserve to be shipped off to an island and left to fend for themselves.
Having recently been through similar, swordfish, I sympathise with your parents.
In the end, calling the police was the only thing that interrupted the behaviour. Police advice to record the incidents – and then refusal to accept the recordings – made their advice a waste of time. Actually the stress levels went drastically up when having to ensure that the interactions were being recorded
The suggestion to video the incidents was rejected by us, because of the not inconsiderable concern that openly filming incidents would both escalate and focus the aggression on the person holding the camera.
In the end, the Tenancy Tribunal hearing mediator actually advised us not to present our recordings, log or transcripts of some incidents for abusive behaviour because that would likely be overturned, and suggested that we accept the end of tenancy for failure to pay rent. When we asked how that would benefit other landlords who would look for any past incidents with the tenant, he told us not to worry about it. Did we want them out or not?
If someone can stay with your parents for a while, then call the police – even if it is more than once a day, until the tenant understands that any incident will result in a visit, and your parents have the benefit of having someone else in the house to make that decision and call.
As we were both neighbours and landlords, I was aware that the situation for any neighbour would have been the same. At least, it was only impacting on us. But, it was already difficult to get any practical action from the police, who regarded verbal abuse as not violent enough to prosecute. We were told he actually had to physically "get in your face and make threats".
& cheers to Kris Faafoi…
Sounds like he did as much due diligence about this issue as he did when he obediently and thoughtlessly backed that insane plan to destroy Concert FM earlier this year.
Least impressive cabinet member by a considerable distance.
The type of situation you have raised is upsetting as your parents are elderly and no one should have to live like that. Were your parents not so frail the pig would not get away with it.
Some sort of action needs to be taken by a third party. Go to the local MP with your parents and take some cell phone recordings.
I have lived in fear of neighbours before and I could not wait for the day when they left.
The woman who the man is a pig to she probably fears for her life.
@ 9 …Wow sympathy…I'm presuming Police were called? Not sure you can blame Labour ?
Guilt is bipartisan: both mainstream parties have been weakening the cops steadily the past 30 years or so. Originally that had wide public support due to paranoia about a police state, but things have slid to the opposite ridiculous extreme…
dont forget we also have polies wanting to allow more free speech and personal freedoms, and rip up RMA, which all contibute to the problem of bad neighbours . private property values versus free speech, with common decency caught in the middle. there is no easy answer , and blaming the polie you hate the most isnt a solution. blaming it on weakening police powers(?)(since when) is a sideshow. bad neighbours, like barking dogs, have always been a problem, since we all lived in adjoining caves. I know of instances(sister) where these cretins own there houses, so running to winz isnt an option. it really is a case by case problem. many of these neighbours from hell have mental health problems, addiction problems etc, so ,sometimes DHB is the best place to go. having lived in a deadend(in both meanings) street with a junkie for a neighbour , that was interesting. he kept all of the nearby villians away , and was scared of our dog, so we were good, but all the rest in the street hated him and our dog(us).
"Weakening the cops"? What do you mean by that, Dennis? Do you not consider that the police need to be monitored and controlled?
This awful case involving swordfish's parents is the sort of thing the police should be sorting out; instead they have wasted thousands of hours harassing—selectively harassing—people for marijuana possession, forcing Peter Ellis (R.I.P.) to regularly "check in" with the Christchurch police, and harassing journalists like Nicky Hager.
By weakening I meant the effect of funding constraints. Thus the feeble excuse the cops routinely give for failing to deal with such situations (“not enough resources”).
I agree re appropriate police tasks. Unfortunately the command/control hierarchy remains free to choose prosecuting cannabis users instead of responding to pleas for help from members of the public who are being victimised by others.
The situation has history. And isn't Labour proposing to make it harder to remove bad tenants? Seems highly relevant.
Welll..I'm pretty sure the POLICE are still in charge of
https://communitylaw.org.nz/community-law-manual/chapter-31-police-powers/being-arrested-or-detained-held-by-the-police-their-powers-and-your-rights/
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1961/0043/latest/DLM331230.html
And keep calling them….
Oh and surely this is also the Landlords responsibility too? Some would give 2 fks as long as the rent was paid…)
I don't think advice was being asked for. And you've heard of how intimidation works when limp authorities are called in by neighbours?
whatever…
The noise in the wee hours is a straight out council noise control issue, and they will respond better if there is a clear pattern of behaviour. Documenting each incident clearly with time and date is where I would start, and play the long game.
Documenting each incident clearly with time and date is where I would start, and play the long game.
You would think so, wouldn't you. But after advising us to do so, both the police and the Tenancy Tribunal wanted nothing to do with the documentation and recordings.
The noise in the wee hours is a straight out council noise control issue, and they will respond better if there is a clear pattern of behaviour.
The tenant must have known about how the response works, because he would blast music for about 20-30 minutes then quieten down for a few hours and then repeat the pattern. Ensuring that if noise control was called, by the time they arrived all would be quiet.
What did the council do?
Because the tenants were in a granny flat on our property we weren't able to use the noise control officer at Auckland Council. Noise control only responds to complaints made about another property.
Other neighbours are actually fairly loathe to get involved because of the quite real fear of reprisal.
On the flip side, the experience of a neighbour down the road who has battled with local council regarding an existing resource consent for a small rural venue, has neighbours (with strong local board and council links) putting in noise control complaints every time (once a month) when they have guests. Despite meeting all resource consent requirements and closing before 11pm, the council issues notices despite sound level recordings showing noise levels are well below guidelines. In our neck of the woods, the old boys network plays fast and loose with the regulations.
that's a different situation than I was commenting on. There's no guarantee that councils will do what we want, but that process of having dates and times and details is what they need to act.
I understand.
I was thinking more of the age of swordfish's parents, and the escalation of stress involved in making sure all the documentation and everything is up to date. In my case, following this advice increased the already hyper-vigilance that was in place, and having that information may not be as conclusively beneficial as you would think.
They have the issue of being neighbours to someone who will likely respond negatively to the noise complaints, and any council prosecution. And even a successful prosecution might not be enough to allow the landlords to terminate the tenancy so that the neighbours were no longer there.
So there they remain. Sitting ducks for the retaliatory behaviour of the tenant.
The government and the police need to sort the loophole out when it comes to noise when drunk and disorderly behaviour occurs in a home which impacts on the neighbours. This is intimidating and a form of harassment.
Evil fucks.
https://twitter.com/richardhills777/status/1310468565980516353
ACT is nothing more than a bunch of ultra right wing white supremacists. They started out with potential – albeit well to the right on economic policies – but they ended up being taken over by the right's loony element who originally lived with National.
They're thinking is dangerously simplistic and ideologically stupid. They really should not be allowed near parliament. Seymour on his own is relatively harmless but if he brings some of the crackpots into parliament with him there will be problems.
And btw, I had some interaction with them in the mid to late 1990s so I know what I’m talking about.
Hey just wondering if anyone can help. I need to submit a link to TVNZ of the first tv debate for my complaint.
I am having difficulty doing this. I have joined tv on demand, but can't get the link to copy and have looked through various news websites including a quite glance at the Standard, but to no avail.
Any ideas/
This it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96WMzTofHyA
edit:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/live-updates-first-leaders-debate-jacinda-ardern-v-judith-collins
Thanks so much Joe90
https://www.twitter.com/TovaOBrien/status/1310764782081826816
https://www.twitter.com/TovaOBrien/status/1310767419137220608
I've no time for NZF, but for any party to have this hanging over them in an election campaign is just wrong.
SFO should either have said "no decision before election" or made that decision about charges long ago.
Nat supporters in the SFO management would have figured out the right time to kneecap Winston long ago. Labour supporters within would have adopted the Pontius Pilate stance. Morality in governance is a matter of (in)convenience…
Peters should have known better and structured party finances in a way which would not go before the SFO.
Looks like NZF could suck the Kumara this time around ?
ACT gets real for a change: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300119429/election-2020-act-sheds-two-controversial-policies-as-david-seymours-star-rises
So policies can now be either active or inactive. You can imagine this being enabled for public viewing of party websites: a red light for inactive policies, and a green light attached to those which are active. User-friendly for binary folk.
Good news about social welfare from Labour on Radionz.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/427162/labour-health-policy-mental-health-for-school-children-mobile-dental-clinics
Health spokesperson Chris Hipkins announced the party's health policy in Auckland this morning, saying it had invested record amounts into DHBs, hospitals and mental health "after nine years of neglect under National".
Labour would:
The party has also already signalled it would implement reforms recommended by the Heather Simpson health and disability report, including establishing a Māori health authority and national public health agency, reducing the number of DHBs from 20 to between eight and 12, and abolishing DHB elections.
The dental grant is good news. As long as the criteria is not changed for eligibility this is great news for when there is a start date. I have already been turned down twice by the DHB this year. It pays to shop around for a quote.
The teeth are actually a very important part of the human anatomy.
Oh dear Winston
An open letter to Mediaworks.
With the level of bias that exists in our media what guarantee does the public have that the questions being put to the PM in the debate are fair and Judith Collins has to account for her own record ?
Patrick Gower is well known for his right wing bias after his treatment of David Cunliffe in 2014 so what guarantee does the public have that this debate is fair and balanced.
I sincerely hope that any pressure from the National party wont effect the rules of the debate.
Regards
Just cancels out Campbell tbh.
Ying and Yang and all that.
Sounds a bit like you don't actually know which is witch in any case..
Nat list MP Yang has called it quits (quite good of him really) – not sure about ‘Ying‘.
The teeth are actually a very important part of the human anatomy.