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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TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
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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…
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?
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.