‘Waitoa chicken’ is free range and all sorts of fluffy nonsense.
Waitoa is a village sprung up around a Dairy Factory perched on top of a coal mine. Recent history includes the discovery Bibbies piggeries were burying radioactive medical waste below the water table. That’s right, a piggery had the contract for medical waste.
The Waihou river runs past the piggery then through the village of Waitoa. Every winter it breaches it’s banks and makes a large floodplain encompassing much of the flat farmed land in the immediate area.
I have this sneaking feeling Ed that you are on the right side of history.
Pretty sad to see the Australian drought get so bad that feed prices are going so high that cattlemen, intensive poultry, and intensive pig farms are simply looking less and less viable, just sending animals to the works because feed is getting far too expensive to make it viable.
Making Fun of Stupid People.
Victim No. 4: Paul Henry
pwned to be dominated by an opponent or situation
Making Fun of Stupid People is compiled by Hector Stoop, for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Victim No. 1 Cameron Slater; No. 2 Murray Deaker; No. 3 Kerre Woodham
….A few of the expected international companies and one of their many products include the following.
Lockheed Martin with self-steering bullets
Boeing with their portable Laser weapons
Britain’s BAE with their Thermal Imaging Night Vision system
Israel Aerospace Industries with insect-like drones that detect and destroy remote enemy targets and machine guns that can fire around corners
America’s Magpul Industry with machine guns that can fold into our pants’ pockets
Hawker Pacific, General Dynamics and others are expected.
A significant variety of other weaponry will be for sale……
” And you’d have to note, wouldn’t you, the repulsive and hypocritical outpouring of anger by our brave and moral western leaders at Jamal’s murder. They’ve been tut-tutting for two years about the Yemen war, making excuses for it, selling arms for it and avoiding personal responsibility for it, and it’s quite obvious that they care far, far more about Jamal’s death than about the 5,000 civilians who have been killed in the Yemeni conflict. What is a child’s death worth or the killing of guests at a wedding party compared to Jamal’s murder? I guess that we can always find excuses for Yemeni casualties – “collateral damage”, “human shields”, “full investigation”, etc ” ..
” He ( Trump ) had already blurted out that he didn’t want to give up US arms sales to Saudi Arabia. We had our own beloved prime minister referring to Jamal’s gruesome murder as a “killing”, rather than a murder.”
…”aid experts and United Nations officials say a more insidious form of warfare is also being waged in Yemen, an economic war that is exacting a far greater toll on civilians and now risks tipping the country into a famine of catastrophic proportions” …
The Labour NZF government has just signed the largest defence contract since the ANZAC frigate contract with $2 billion plus contract for four P8’s (replacing the 55 year old Orion’s).
I don’t think either Ron Mark or Jacinda Ardern are sociopaths in suits. And Ed, as far as I am aware neither fit into the 40% National voting group.
Being realistic on defence does not make someone a sociopath.
Where’s the realism ?
Who is poised to attack us?
Or are you referring to the need to “belong to the club”?….playing war games with the big swaggering bullies of the world.
Whose day will be very shortly over
The reality is that we could spend that money earmarked for hypothetical wars on the huge threats to NZ that are present already
Homelessness, climate change , child poverty,ecological desecration
The world has changed, and we have to find new ways of living in it.
Stuff your Darwinian realisms, time for the great new idea of collaboration and co operation…. a pox on your seedy old militarism masquerading as realism
I don’t think anybody’s poised to invade us, but our EEZ is constantly under threat from poaching.
And SAR is a big job requiring legs.
One thing that might be interesting to do (especially when large-scale disasters e.g. hurricanes or earthquakes hit) is a sort of google earth of a flyover. The crew have their main search equipment as always, but a static high-res camera just does photo surveillance. Secondary review can then be crowdsourced for signs of life, damage levels, and anything else that might be useful but requires large volumes of work to identify.
Where’s the Realism?
Its’ called Chap 1to Chap 7 UN Missions, or to the GofTD mission/ policy Statements to the NZDF which dictates the overall make up of the NZDF now and into the future.
Who is poised to attack us? If I knew I wouldn’t be here atm, its rather like having a punt on the Nags or this weeks lotto numbers? But from a Military POV once we have finish doing military planning we come up 4 courses of action two from the Enemies POV his Most likely CoA and Most Dangerous CoA and we try and counter this by coming up with our most MLCoA and MDCoA. This planning template can also be for CC and HDAR etc and if take the CC atm. Then this really opens a Pandora’s box and if you have been reading some of comments that I’ve post here over the last yrs, especially the 18 to 24mths. Then you would know some of the scenario’s I’ve post aren’t good regardless of it being MLCoA and MDCoA.
In a nut shell Military planning is plan for worst case, but hope for the best. In todays 24hr news cycle, todays pollies/ civil service and most people only now worry about today events. Not into future past the 3yr election cycle as they more worried about their back hip pocket than something that may or not happen in 5yrs, 10yrs, 15yrs or 20yrs time etc etc.
I’ve done the S2, S3, S5, S7 and S9 role in the last 5yrs on the home front and on operations before I was medical discharged for mental health reasons on the 2Jul 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_(military)
Good health and I remember your “Don’t declare war before July ?” I forget the actual date. I know that “Count down”. The waiting ’till your life is your own again. It takes time to repair and “come down” from stress. All the best. Govt’s shopping!!@#**
Wont be too long before US Navy publishes its contract price with Boeing for a block buy of P-8s along with a few for other nations, including NZ
We will then find out the average cost per plane in that block and it will come at a fraction of the price of $2 bill plus.
Theres going to be a lot of explaining to do why we ‘pay’ so much more than Us does. And 15% GST doesnt cover it all.
Even if we do it on the basis of USN price +50% and convert to $NZ . A big gap.
No ones explained why a large expense at Ohakea when the runway at Whenuapai could easily be extended at the SW end. The P-8s need more runway than the bigger , heavier 757s
As I understand it, the unit cost of a P8 is about $350 million. But a new user like NZ has to buy a training package, a simulator, a huge amount of spare parts, hence the higher costs. The contract price seems about right to me.
As for the shift to Ohakea, that will almost certainly be about closing Whenuapai and turning it into housing. Personally I always thought a base facility for the RNZAF on the second runway at Mangere made sense. A lot of countries do something like that, including Germany at Frankfurt.
francesca,
There are two fundamental reasons to buy the P8. The first is the enormous amount of EEZ around NZ and the Pacific realm nations. Only a P8 has got the range to do serious surveillance and search and rescue work.
The second is alliance relations with Australia and the US. Australia in particular. They are our permanent partner. They reasonably expect us to be able to surveil our part of the world, and provide search and rescue. Not really about fighting wars, although the P8 does have serious defence capability if that was a prospect.
You can’t buy a civilian spec P8. Helen Clark wanted to do that with the upgrade of the P3 in the early 2000’s. She soon found it impractical. A decent search and surveillance radar is also a mil spec radar. Similarly with all the data processing gear. As for all the other things the money could be spent on, well you could, but you would also have no idea what was happening in the oceans around us. Neither could you rescue anyone. At 1.2% of GDP, New Zealand has a pretty cheap defence force. It is half (as a percentage of GDP) of what Australia spends.
Those who think the days of the US are done in the Pacific are seriously mistaken. A country of over 350 million people, which is the richest in the world and with territories right across the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam, Midway, American Samoa, Northern Mariannas, to name just some) is not going to become irrelevant any time in the next 50 years (or more). What the US will have to do is accept that China is its co-equal, something it is finding hard to do. This is not just a thing for Trump, it is right across the US political system. They all find it hard to deal with the rise of China.
It’s pretty fatuous talking about our EEZ when you morons have illegally privatized the fishery resources therein, and allow them to be caught by foreign charter vessels. Just what value to NZ do you imagine there is now left to protect? And why can’t the thieves who stole those resources (with your connivance) pay for their protection? Nothing to do with us anymore. Fuck ’em.
The QMS was mostly done in the days of Prebble (1987 to 1990). Most people would say the QMS has worked pretty well. Just about all owned by New Zealanders with Maori interests having the biggest share.
“The QMS has resulted in the majority of fishing quota being bought by a small number of companies and wealthy individuals. This has been bad for small-scale fishers, bad for managing fish populations and bad for protecting the marine environment.”
“Claims that New Zealand’s QMS is an unmitigated success simply do not match the facts”
“There are lessons to be learned from New Zealand’s QMS, and they are not all good. After 30 years, New Zealand’s fisheries management needs a comprehensive review.”
The “biggest share” from a Treaty that granted fisheries to them in their entirety – just another resource theft. The biggest share from a resource declining from poor management practices, and returning little to NZ due to offshoring of most facets of the industry.
Gross misgovernance piled on gross mismanagement Wayne – this is the legacy your and your colleagues visited upon us. You’re like the fifth horseman of the apocalypse – faux government.
We don’t need to spend vast amounts of money training the young to kill and buying attack weapons to rescue the odd lost fisherman or help our Pacific neighbours in distress
Distress I might add destined to become critical largely through
The excesses of our lifestyles,not theirs
My preference is Costa Rica style neutrality and if that means a simpler way of life in NZ so be it
There is no other aircraft that can do the job across the full EEZ or search and rescue zone. The distances are simply too big.
So saying “Don’t buy the P8” is tantamount to saying we won’t do search and rescue out in the open ocean.
While the EEZ is only 200 miles from the coast, all the offshore islands means a lot of it is around 600 miles from the mainland of NZ. The search and rescue zone is bigger still.
The Saab and C295 do not have the range, nowhere near enough for the distances in the South Pacific.
The Kawasaki P1 is the Japanese equivalent to the P8. It was evaluated by the RNZAF alongside the P8. In some respects it is better, especially at low and slow. The concern was whether it would be supportable over a 50 year lifespan.
“There are two fundamental reasons to buy the P8. The first is the enormous amount of EEZ around NZ and the Pacific realm nations. Only a P8 has got the range to do serious surveillance and search and rescue work.”
Yeah, but is it range we don’t really need if it came to a push, and are they only really purchased so we can stay in the club to play war games with the big boys.
I have a relation in the UK who fly Dornier 228 twin turboprop out into the North Atlantic on Fisheries Patrol. Now there is a civilian aircraft and the German Navy also uses this aircraft for pollution control
It appears to have enough range to do those two jobs.
To round out my argument, as would be obvious, I fully support New Zealand having a close defence relationship with Australia. That means we can’t opt to only have civil fisheries patrol (though the Dornier would never enough range for long range search and rescue any event).
If we adopted the Costa Rican solution, we obviously would not have a defence relationship with Australia. I am prepared to bet we would not have much of a relationship at all. The current right of NZer’s to shift to Aus would permanently disappear. Much of rest of our co-operation would also evaporate. Trade and investment would shrink.
From time to time Australia might belittle us, but we are never put in the same category as the very much smaller and poorer South Pacific nations. The reason being that New Zealand is one fifth the size of Australia in population terms. In contrast Samoa is 4% of New Zealand’s population.
While some people might see us loosing the Australian partnership as a good thing, I don’t. The New Zealand social and economic fabric would be seriously harmed.
In part Costa Rica can have its policy because it is one of seven countries in Central America, all of which are much smaller than Mexico to the North, and Columbia to the South.
In a sense Mexico is Australia, and Columbia is New Zealand. The seven Central American states are the South Pacific nations.
So as an analogy to Costa Rica, Samoa does not have a defence force. We don’t mind that it doesn’t. But New Zealand is a major nation in the South Pacific, so what we do matters a lot. In my view, we can’t choose the Samoan option.
With the P-8 when you do things like software upgrades you have pay the same corruption-inflated price gouging money the United States Navy does, so that’ll be hundreds of millions over the lifespan of these aircraft.
Secondly, a twin turbofan aircraft based on a commercial airliner like the 737 is going to actually represent a step backwards in terms of low level loiter and performance. The windows are smaller, making something as basic as visual searches much harder. The twin turbofans are not very fuel efficient at low level, pushing up the sortie cost. The wing design means P-8 will stall at around 160 knots in a flaps up and loaded config, a good 30 knots higher than the P-3 Orion, and the Orion can cruise efficiently at low altitude on three engines where the twin P-8 can never shut down a powerplant. This stall potential is a well enough regarded problem for the USN to spend a considerable amount of money on software to ensure it’s simulators accurately train it’s P-8 pilots on how to deal with a stall.
All in all, the P-8 is fundamentally a commercial airliner designed for high altitude flight, and the basic design can only partially be remediated towards low level ASW/SAR operations. This is very bad news for NZ, since our ASW aircraft actually spend most of their time looking for missing fishermen and doing low level photography of fishing boats in the EEZ, both of which will be harder to do at 50 knots faster out of smaller windows and which will take a big toll on the airframe.
The above means that (presumably because they are all deeply corrupt and on the take from defense contractors) the USN has come up with the bizarre idea that they can limit airframe fatigue by at least partially letting some of the work be done by the MQ-4C Triton, which – SURPRISE! – will funnel another cool $180 odd million US per airframe to the the big defence contractors. Needless to say both the effectiveness of the MQ-4C to reliably spot anything useful in a SAR/Border protection role (like, say, a missing 8m recreational fishing boat or people smugglers) and it’s sortie rate have been questioned by a lot of independent observers.
Even more seriously, the tactical premise of the P-8 configuration – that modern sensors combined with drones mean ASW aircraft can swan about at 30,000 feet and still effectively detect submarines – is, to put it mildly, unproven. let’s put it this way, no one else in the ASW aircraft game seems to agree with the Americans.
Now, what that means is that in addition to constant and expensive upgrades EITHER the RNZAF will come cap in hand sometime in the future asking for for really, really expensive drones OR they’ll end up buying some sort of off the shelf converted twin turboprop commercial airliner OR the RNZAF P-8 fleet will run into airframe fatigue issues much earlier than they are telling us, meaning we will be buying or rebuilding P-8s much sooner than we are being told.
These aircraft are a gigantic lemon purchased buy an airforce that refuses to acknowledge what it actually does because it think winning wargames with it’s big boy friends is what it should be doing.
Well, the lemon as you call the P8, has been bought by Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the UK and the US. More nations will buy them. They can’t all be wrong.
Most of the surveillance is done by the radar and the MX20 camera, not by the mark one eyeball. People simply can’t see far enough. The radar is a very sophisticated profiling radar. The image is like a photograph.
Low, low level is not where most of the searching is done. That occurs only when the actual location is known. Prior to that 5,000 ft to 15,000 ft is the norm. The P8 is fine for that.
I wonder how often (if ever) the P3 has been used to look for missing divers? Their location is invariably near the coast and known within a mile or two.
An excellent comment again Sanctuary. With the P8 begin apart of the Special Projects Program, Boeing has the NZ Taxpayer by the balls as any update has to go through Boeing or one of its subsidiaries either approval or disapproval and it can even veto if Non US Systems as Boeing holds all IP in relation to the P8.
The P8 atm can’t launch any Sub weapons or Sonar Systems from 30Kft as the keep breaking up on impact with the ocean and now have to do it the old fashion way at 500ft of the deck, which Btw chew’s in the fatigue life of the P8. The reason why the Jap P1 wasn’t selected is because the NZ MoD and didn’t want to be the first of type of user Internationally because of what happen with regards to the NH-90’s and Project Protector aka the Landing Support Ship and the two the OPV’s which makes for some interesting reading.
The UK almost walked away from the F35 JSF some years back, because Lockheed and the US pollies refuse to give the Brits the IP rights of the F35 to the Brits. So the Brits could add, replace or do mid-life updates etc down the track. Before I left the service, I was reading a Janes Defence Report in the P8 and RC-135’s currently in RAF, stating that the RAF/ MOD can’t replace any the inferior US mission support systems for the UK mission support systems that were far superior to the US one, as these MSS were part of the botch MR4 and R4 Nimrod program.
You find that half or quarter of the cost of the P8 is in cost of new buildings, runways, passive and active security measures that come with the P8,
before you add in Capital Charge and GST. As the P8 is part of the US Special Projects Program (Air), which puts this aircraft in the same league as the F22, F35 JSF, B2 and the UAV’s such Triton, Reaper and X47 UAV’s etc.
What about if he didn’t change his mind. Would you take him back for another try or take him somewhere else? How you going to pay for all these flights ed? and will YOU offset the carbon used?
Every cent sunk into defense is a dead cost that will never be recovered. The government investing in, say, a fleet of electric trains sees the investment returned many times over in the economic activity generated. The government investing in a fleet of tanks simply spends the next 40 years paying for the crew, the fuel, the training, the upkeep and the ammunition.
If we do need to re-arm, the longer you can leave it before you do means you the more modern and better equipped you’ll be vis-a-vis any opponent who re-armed earlier and is left with aging kit (thus, Italy and the USSR in WW2 had re-armed to early and were left with heaps of useless eqipment, France to late so they were easily defeated, Germany before Britain and the USA last of all, giving the last two nations an advantange in equipment). This timing issue is seldom discussed but it means that unless you can identify an immediate threat (as in the a five – ten year window) you should spend anymore than the absolute minimum of a military. The trick is in timely spotting of the threat…
Meanwhile, they’re lionizing that coke-snorting, whore-chasing shepherd-killer today. On television a few minutes ago, Duncan Garner gushed about him and his dopey big brother being “fine young men.”
We were inflicted with exactly the same bullshit five years ago….
Every cent sunk into defense is a dead cost that will never be recovered.
That probably depends on whether the country concerned is a net producer of arms. Through their military complex the US has secured stable access to oil and also makes a lot of money selling older weapons. There is a huge flow on effect for US tech companies as some of the technologies developed are used in a wider setting – GPS being the most obvious example.
Well yes, but they’ve slaughtered all sorts of people along the way. Personally, I dislike the idea of using violence and murder to take something from someone that they have and you want.
Remember, since Nuremburg waging aggressive war (a sort of quasi-fascistic search for economic Lebensraum in America’s case) has been defined as a war crime. Whether or not you get held account for that, it is still a crime.
And the thing about creatting a military-industrial complex is it then requires constant feeding, to clear out old stock to try out new weapons, or to simply justify it’s existence.
I don’t disagree with those points. But i do think it is important to understand how the arms industry is part of the global economy and most importantly how it allows the US in particular to dominate the world both militarily and economically.
Which, of course, is why I say that weapons of war should not be made for profit. They should be researched, developed and produced by government and not sold to other nations.
Every cent sunk into defense is a dead cost that will never be recovered.
True but we do need to be able to defend ourselves. It is simply part of the cost of being an independent nation.
If we do need to re-arm, the longer you can leave it before you do means you the more modern and better equipped you’ll be vis-a-vis any opponent who re-armed earlier and is left with aging kit (thus, Italy and the USSR in WW2 had re-armed to early and were left with heaps of useless eqipment, France to late so they were easily defeated, Germany before Britain and the USA last of all, giving the last two nations an advantange in equipment).
I’d say that would be false economics as any nation that follows that philosophy will always find itself below where it needs to be when the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.
The government should run a permanent R&D department specifically for military. Small upgrades would be put into ships/planes/vehicles until the end of their design life. At that point new ships/planes/vehicles would be built with all new capabilities.
Small items such as guns/personal communications/ammo/bullet proof vests would be replaced as soon practicable.
Fully concur with your statement Sanctuary and when you throw in CC now its becoming a ****ing nightmare, as some of the major players who have skin in the game aka pollies, civil servant’s, parts of the Big end of town and parts of the general population are either avoiding it or don’t want to know about because of cost or pain in the short to medium term. From a military PoV it makes planning bloody hard as the major plays don’t want to make a decision in fear of upsetting someone.
I was a pioneer of aquaponics back in the day when it was only the university of Hawaii and me (but the Aussies caught up fast). I took much of my inspiration from chinampas, and early Chinese rice farmers. (Duck rice systems today are very similar).
The drainage systems encompassing much of NZ’s farmland would easily convert to aquaculture AND chinampa type design. Entire industries could feed off the excess nutrients already in the soil and headed for the drains.
It’s not excess nutrient if it is captured.
In the meantime. Here’s something positive and beautiful to enjoy.
So will we get an explanation today from Ardern or her Minister as to why we are suddenly giving residency to currently jailed, parole denied, convicted international drug dealers with gang affiliations?
Or will they continue their interpretation of being the most open and transparent govt ever?
Parole board doesnt/couldnt consider these sort of things. The Judge can give a lesser sentence or minimum non parole period. Parole Board cant consider any after jail deals.
What ever the reason should not be allowed. It is putting a criminals requirements above the general safety and wellbeing of Kiwis. The question is, how did the crims get in in the first place, first on a stolen passport, then years of crimes and now given residency. Another sterling migrant decision.
You have to wonder how in a country like NZ than only has a population of 4.5million we somehow now seem to attract a large amount of fraudulent, drug dealing or murderous migrants to come to our shores.
Maybe our new statistic is the most migrant criminals per capita getting citizenship here.
Maybe our bums on seats/no questions asked or inability to question or check paperwork and follow through checks years later, our penny pinching outsourcing and contract worker approach, long error filled processes at a government/ senior level policy for everything from OIA to RMA to immigration seems to favour the criminals while repelling the honest applicants. At the end of the day, it’s irrelevant because some lawyer at the end says push bad applications through..
Likewise any sort of enforcement is underfunded in NZ and no interest when applicants lie and mislead, so a bonus for the crims flocking here.
As is our woke left /hard right dichotomy that helps corruption and fraudulent criminals settle here and makes NZ feel like home.
Typical response, are you for NZ attracting criminals migrants or not?
As soon as evidence is put together showing a patten of offending often over years, then it is of course attack the messenger… We have a small population, why do we have so many migrant offenders operating here, undetected or just getting away with it? Most of them are only apprehended after multiple offences… they don’t pay taxes here…they come and go committing crimes and then instead of money going into appointments for doctors for blind kids here, it goes on criminal justice and prison for people who should not have ever got into the country in the first place or shown the door as soon as they committed the first offence.
And actually I’m pro immigration, but that’s not what NZ policy is about for the past 30 years, it is about neoliberalism, which relies on getting new money into countries to keep the Ponzi going. That’s why they have had to relax the immigration criteria and ain’t too worried whether the money is from criminal activity or not. Private prisons is good business for some, so more criminals are a bonus.
You’re dreaming if you think suddenly we have more bad people or crims coming here. Maybe they are measured better now. I have no problem with vetting people who get allowed to come here – but it is all subjective – you may be too young to remember the various ways euros and the english were encouraged to come here and there were plenty of crims in that lot. Lol you need to get real imo.
0h well,I suppose cheap drugs are of benefit to some so maybe you don’t really feel the need to have better laws – but look around the poor, working poor and the middle class are getting worse and worse off in this country while we are apparently in an economic boom.
Mental health, drug use, suicide is up especially for Maori and Pakeha men (who are NZ’s most evil these days), and many measures against other countries like literacy and infant deaths are performing poorly in NZ. So I don’t take your view that rampant immigration and criminal migrants coming to NZ and propping up neoliberalism here is not having an effect.
The mainstream is addicted to immigration because it is a short term fix to keep NZ poor business practices and laws running without having to change ,privatise assets and change to offshore human capital. Under Rogernomics the whole psychology of thinking about NZ workers has been changed into the negative and that has an effect on people’s mental health and how they view themselves. The woke lefties are helping them.
Local people are committing suicide and suffering mental health because there is little future for many people because now a situation has been created where it’s hard to get a secure job, the job’s pay is out of kilter with the cost of living so there is not much feeling you can get ahead and have social mobility anymore, nor is there interest in anybody unravelling how that can be remedied when simple basics like petrol/public transport, food or power is now taking up large chunks of people’s salaries.
Youth are in debt before they even start out in life. Then we hear about all these job shortage, but look deeper and then work out how affordable it is, to work those jobs and the cost of that degree or diploma and the cost of living while trying to get that study going.
I hate that social spending is being siphoned off into cooperate welfare and apprehending criminals that shouldn’t be here in the first place. The Ponzi’s are now everywhere you look. Auckland is rampant, but it’s spreading all over NZ now. Further poverty and suicide will follow.
I kind of agree @ marty mars.
There’s a helluva lot I agree with SaveNZ about in relation to his thoughts on immigration. It just seems to me that he seems to think we should absolve ourselves of ALL responsibility to those victims of our past immigration policies that set up a structure that allowed massive exploitation of those that could/can least afford it. Just (what he sees) as a few casualties whose lives have been devastated appears to be OK.
Quite disappointing really but it shows how the actions of a few arseholes allow a whole demographic to be tarred with the same brush and demonised.
I’ve watched a while over the past couple of years, and he’s correct about quite a few things to do with immigrant exploitation, shitty tertiary courses, who is exploiting whom and so on. I’m not sure however he realises the extent to which NZ Citizens ( and yes…… WASP Kiwis, not just immigrant politicians ) have been involved in all of it.
And I don’t see much thought given to the hypocrisy that thinks it OK for Koiwois to swan around the rest of the world – as economic migrants heading for a better income in Australia, or the UK or Trumps America – returning home at will if and when the going gets tuff, yet others are not allowed to seek a better life offshore.
I guess Koiwois are allowed to be esprayshnull and entrpreneurial and exceptional, but anyone from what we label a 3rd world is not entitled to hold any of those same hopes and esprayshuns going forward.
Christ! how this country has fallen.
Double standards much? I guess ethics and principle mean SFA these days.
I’m actually quite amused by the furore over a Czech, supposedly from the badlands (actually definately from the badlands) and the pearl clutching that’s going on when its contrasted against a Peter Theil and his many ilk
We give knighthoods to drug sellers …… sir doug myers
And personally I’d rather have this nasty little woman killing Pom booted out of the country …. or locked up again until he shows where he hid the body of his last victim.
And how the hell did he gain residency … after trying to cut his first wife s throat in England before moving here?.
Why is the information about his first wife ….. and the fact he is a english immigrant ,,,,missing from the NZ Govt information on him.
Presumably he lied on his residency application ….. so why did we not boot him out when he finished his last lag for killing a innocent woman ?.
who do you think is the worst criminal Chris T ?
“English-born Francis was sentenced to 12 years jail on May 2, 2003, for manslaughter.”
There is an incredibly stupid, or brilliantly scripted, response from an immigration lawyer who says that the man in question should be deported to the Philippines to be be met at the border by drug-user assassinating advocate, President Duterte.
The article also shows that Simon Bridges speaks in clichés, “gone by lunchtime”, “Let’s cut to the chase”.
He argues very poorly that the man should be gone straight away but does not know what the reasons are as to why he has been given residency upon release. So how can he argue for immediate deportation. Fair enough he should get as much information as he can, but he has pre-judged the issue, when it is obvious from the Minister that this is a special case.
Bridges then says that he had talked to his party’s former immigration minister, Woodhouse, who had never granted residency in a ‘like for like situation’. National always fronted and explained, he proudly asserted, but they had never granted such a residency. He is accusing Labour of not fronting to explain, but his party never put themselves in the situation where they had to explain why they gave residency to such man.
So, Bridges is not comparing like to like. He is asking for transparency and does not seem to recognise or care that revealing the reasons and the conditions is dangerous to the man in question and to the deal struck for him to get residency.
This is politicking by Bridges and shows the same response that he and his party had with the whole JLR shambles- no empathy, political gaming at other’s expense,
faulty reasoning, prejudging, disregard for natural justice.
So, not knowing why he had been given residency upon release, he still calls for ‘gone by lunchtime’. Not just saying something like “We deserve to know more when a convicted rat-bag gets residency instead of deportation,” which is a fair position to take- nor, “Perhaps the Minister might give me a confidential briefing considering this obviously special case.”
No, Simon Bridges, a former Crown prosecutor, who must know about deals done with special witnesses, crown protection, goes politicking.
I’m not diverting ………. especially as I think your just political point scoring.
you wrote “why we are suddenly giving residency”
I’m pointing out that far from being a new thing ….. far worse criminals ( two dead new zealand women with my example ) …….. have wrongly been allowed to stay here.
Now I suddenly await your criticism of the last National government …..
” Four of China’s ‘most wanted’ for alleged corruption are reported to be hiding out in Auckland ”
The Pommy woman killer is walking around in New Zealand Now ….
Like right fucking now ….. unless we got lucky and he died.
He could lining up his next victim ….. 3 relationships so far , 2 dead women and one with a half cut throat.
Which is of more danger to New Zealand ???
And Guess which drug the two time woman killer used and blamed …. hint, the one National pretends is not a drug …. ” Although alcohol can lead to addiction, disease, overdose and death, it is sold without a health warning label or a recommended dose. It is sold to pregnant women with no warning that it may lead to fetal deformity and to teenagers with no warning that they are especially vulnerable. ”
That’s not even the half of it @ reason!
There are people banged up at Madge’s pleasure for trying to chop their flatmate’s ear off in a fit of ‘P’ fueled pique in Strathmore (wellington) – that’s even after spending most of their time beforehand ushering people around the Wellington precincts in Uber Prius vehicular transport (all the while completely and utterly ‘out of it’).
IF, IF, IF we’d have had properly resourced services, this would never have got near to it.
IF, IF,IF we’d had a presence in some office that processes visa applications, they’d have been able to SEE the bloody bleeding obvious (of course that’s ONLY if it had been adequately staffed with one or two people with a bit of life experience rather than the churn of a few on contract with whatever academic degreeb[or not] they hold)
The muppetry still astounds me sometimes, but hey ….. responsible ‘officials’ are still able to pay their mortgages and continue to give who they regard as their Munster deep and meaningful advice.
/deep and meaningful sarc
IF………..
What I find hard to understand about Uber OnceWasTim …. is how they came in and broke just about every passenger service Land transport regulation going …. yet were never prosecuted or run out of town.
Examples
Passenger service vehicles have higher Wof standards and they can only be issued at VINZ vehicle testing stations.
Passenger service licence holders have to go through a police check and ‘fit and proper person’ criteria … ie no sex offenders .
Log book and driving hours regulations … so the drivers must have breaks and sleep periods ..
etc etc
Uber is a criminal immigrant that has been brazenly flouting our laws.
National …. the party of 80% non compliance …. thought they were sweet… I’m surprised they didn’t have Winz referring job seekers to them.
Except the SPD failed even more miserably than the CDU and the AFD increased it’s share of the vote around the same as the Greens but from a lower base. Troubling times indeed.
Something looks to be seriously amiss with the left in many parts of the World. How can someone like Bolsonaro win in Brazil when he is up against a member of a political party that was only just recently running Brazil and winning plaudits from leftists around the World.
Oh you know fascist demagogues. ever the sweet talkers, always managing to convince people that it’s only other people in the firing line.
The main problem is that division is easier to preach than unity: white vs black, middle class vs worker, men vs women, straight vs gay. Fear of the other is an easier sell than working with the other.
The left also recognises that the 1%er living surrounded by armed guards and constantly terrified of revolution is also a victim of the system, comrade.
No, wealthy vs poor.
Subtle difference. Is it really so divisive to point out by whom one is being kicked, rather than blaming anyone and everyone else?
But either way, that is the only real division within society recognised by most classic left authors. Everything else is artificially constructed by, and for the preservation of, captalism.
Because in troubled times, all sorts of morbid symptoms appear. When people get a gut feeling that neoliberal capitalism is not really serving their needs, their is no reason to believe that they will all march over in an orderly fashion to line up behind some sort of sensible, moderate social democracy.
Many of them will go nuts and fascism becomes possible again.
You are not telling us anything we don’t already know.
Except the opponent was not from some moderate Social Democratic party but from a far more left wing one. Supposedly this party should represent the views of the poor and working classes more than any moderate social democratic one.
Most people dont have fixed IP addresses, I noticed one day mine was a block allocated to Hawaii once- I think Telecom back then leased them for a short time.
Still happens http://www.forked.net/ip-address-leasing/
Im sure you knew that already , but LOL diverting again.
Duke has obviously not been around much. I have been banned for months from here and not once was tempted to create another profile to come back on. I serve my time and then pop back up.
Muttonbird. You, Dennis Frank and Dukefoil have been total arses, lately. Something in the water. Or overdose of jubilation at National disintegrating. Which I share, but the theory that National is competent enough to hide suborning the mental health system, to conceal their dishonesty, is extremely unlikely.
They are both single issue posters but that’s where the similarity ends, IMO. G’man is obsessed with Venezuela, while JohnSelway is obsessed with himself.
But that’s no defence of his behaviour here, is it? On this very thread 90% of his comments have been personal attacks and that’s before you get into the James-like performances of the other night. I won’t link to it because it was deliberately confrontational.
Given that, should Selway even be commenting here if it’s going to cause him stress?
The only thing not real about me is my name. Everything else is but thanks for reconfirming why some people prefer not to be honest about their mental health issues because they get met with derision and disbelief by people like you.
And obsessed with myself? Trying to correct the vacuous bullshit that came out of the mouths of you, Duke et al by using my experiences as an example isn’t being obsessed with myself. It’s about trying to fix the vapid pile of feces you have inside the dormant organ you call a brain.
Apart from “The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result…….?”.
Like expecting small Government, privatisation and de-regulation, to work, when it has manifestly failed!
In the Irish election there was a referendum on blasphemy.
“Many were unaware there was such an offence until a member of the public referred controversial remarks made by the actor and writer Stephen Fry on an RTÉ programme to gardai (Irish police).
The investigation was dropped last year, reportedly because officers could not find anyone who was offended.”
Our own blasphemy law is still on the books – as the past government decided to defer taking any action to remove it.
Of course the EU still has its restraints on free speech.
Article 10 states freedom of speech “carries with it duties and responsibilities” such as not inciting disorder and crime, protecting “health and morals” and protecting “the reputation or rights of others”.
It’s European Court of Human rights has clarified matters with a recent ruling
– an Austrian woman was convicted of defaming the prophet Mohammed for saying Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was “a paedophile who liked to do it with children”.
They noted that while he married a 6 year old historical evidence was that they did not have sex till she was 9 or 10. They noted child marriage was common at the time (Aisha’s father was Abu Bakr, who would go on to become the first caliph following Muhammad’s death) and he had other wives who he married at an older age and thus paedophilia was not his sexual preference.
“It held that by considering the impugned statements as going beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate, and by classifying them as an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace, the domestic courts put forward relevant and sufficient reasons.”
Hilariously they concluded her comments “had not been made in an objective manner contributing to a debate of public interest [and] could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship”.
I now expect a fatwa against the judges for impuning the faith of Moslems by claiming they worship Mohammed, rather than God.
Kia ora Newshub I believe in God but I’m not getting into what religion or what Parliament has in there pray BUT MAN has been acting like idiots for century’s that’s why Papatuanuku is such a big mess at the minute.
Mark I figured out Mike Hesson must have had a gig in India as soon as I heard about the new Black Caps coach Gary Stead .
Cancer is a big problem a lot food cause health problems Its cool Anna Peters from Australia is here protesting about the ADD’S they Bombard te Tamariki and moko’s with the shops should put all there bad foods behind locked doors . They are loaded with sugars and preservatives Ka pai .
Some one should look in the mirror pal.
With the way man handles things with Jakarta Boeing 737 planes crash it will turn into everyone covering there——- we won’t get the true facts.
It will change things banning single use plastics back in the 50’s they had uranium toothpaste so a world wide ban on single use plastics is a good phenomenon and big business will follow the dollar if it is better publicity for them to join the minimize plastics use movement that’s sweeping the Papatuanuku at the minute.
Duncan I have seen story’s in most of the online News sites around the Papatuanuku
about the Prince & Duchess visit to Aotearoa.
Aotearoa has better cultural harmony than most country’s I say our visitor’s will feel quite relaxed hear. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to strive for Equality we are far from that.
The Tooth fish industry is quite control controversial the fisheries is in Antarctic and Aotearoa can not police the fisheries so any big fishing fleet can wip down there and ravage the fisheries and could cause it to crash. Ka kite ano.
Here you go Go Oil Party yours and trumps policy’s are causing damage to our future generations O that’s correct you people are primitive your cognitive process only concerns goes out one foot I.E you people can only think about yourselves and the now no thoughts of the tomorrow or anyone else on Papatuanuku.
Around 93% of the world’s children under 15 years of age breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk, accounting for 1.8 billion children, according to a report published by the World Health Organization ahead of its first global conference on air pollution and health in Geneva.
This show Eco Maori that things change not long ago I was praising a court for throwing the changes to ballet laws out next minute a higher court instates it WTF.
The go oil party are big cheats like national are in NZ but thing’s in America are bad when It comes to Native people rights for Equality Kia kaha Tangata Whenua / People of the Land in America get out and vote for your children’s grandchildren’s future its everyone duty to our descendants to fight for a happy bright future for all and vote the muppets out .
The government didn’t need a physical address to come and steal our children for boarding school. The government didn’t need a physical address when it was time for us to be conscripted into their militaries. But now they need a physical address so that we can exercise one of the most basic principles and tenets of a representative democracy.
Human Caused Global Warming is here and now we know that tomorrow is going to be a disaster if we don’t ACT now and all combat climate change
Venice has been inundated by an exceptional high tide which put three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. Large swathes of the rest of Italy have also experienced flooding and heavy winds which toppled trees, killing four people.
Tourists and residents donned high boots to navigate the streets on Monday after strong winds raised the water level 156cm – more than 5 feet – before receding. Water levels exceeded the raised walkways normally erected in flooded areas of the city, forcing their removal. Transport officials also closed the water-bus system, except to outlying islands, due to the emergency. link is below ka kite ano.
I should have watched the video on planting the Sahara desert it looks like there will actually be no net benefit to combat climate warming but in regions that still have running water the equations change to benefit the stablising of our climate.
Ka kite ano
Here you go some more of the effects of trump spraying wai all over anyone who has a different point of view than a red muppet.
I wonder why more white players aren’t kneeling,” Schumer wrote on Instagram. “Once you witness the truly deep inequality and endless racism people of color face in our country, not to mention the police brutality and murders. Why not kneel next to your brothers? Otherwise how are you not complicit?” Ka kite ano
Kia ora Newshub I was quite good at the redban throwing comp.
There you go nationals judith got her trolls hyped up on that couple who got the first Kiwi build house she doesn’t care who she walks on.
Angela has been in power for years she has served her country well ka pai.
Brazil is not a very Equal country we will see if he is good for his people and country
I won’t burst the South manuka honeys marketing campaign but Its a fact that the best honey comes from Te tairawhiti / Ngati Porou whenua .
Its quite logical that dumb WAR will cause psychological damage to most people who are fighting in it.
I did not feel the Quake I seen the faces in Parliament I seen a national plastic —–glasses steam up
Ka kite ano P.S Ingrid it will be good when Te Ra comes out strong
The Crowd Goes Wild on the road James & Mulls
Yes we Kiwis don’t cheat like others do.
Thats the way Mulls nothing wrong with apologizing we one gets it wrong .
Thats Griss in the back ground get the Willey coach to join in te waiata to our guest the Prince & Duchess.
That looked like a cool wave making machine in Australia .
Anna plays bowls like some who play ten pin its a good sport bowls I was at the bowling in Tokomaru Bay a bit .
The Thunder Basket Ball team is going strong the most 3 pointers ever ka pai
Ka kite ano . The team is looking after The Crowd Goes Wild team no salt for Eco
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
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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 ...
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This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
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 ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
There is no conundrum, Stuff.
You just don’t eat meat produced on an industrial scale.
For 3 simple reasons.
1. It is incredibly cruel.
2. It is terrible for the environment.
3. It is bad for your health.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/108131459/editorial-the-chicken-conundrum
‘Waitoa chicken’ is free range and all sorts of fluffy nonsense.
Waitoa is a village sprung up around a Dairy Factory perched on top of a coal mine. Recent history includes the discovery Bibbies piggeries were burying radioactive medical waste below the water table. That’s right, a piggery had the contract for medical waste.
The Waihou river runs past the piggery then through the village of Waitoa. Every winter it breaches it’s banks and makes a large floodplain encompassing much of the flat farmed land in the immediate area.
Enjoy your chicken.
I have this sneaking feeling Ed that you are on the right side of history.
Pretty sad to see the Australian drought get so bad that feed prices are going so high that cattlemen, intensive poultry, and intensive pig farms are simply looking less and less viable, just sending animals to the works because feed is getting far too expensive to make it viable.
Predicted to last 20 years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/26/us-iran-usa-idUSBRE82P07120120326
That doesnt predict anything.
SE Australia has droughts like we have floods , every few years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought_in_Australia
Maybe this is the start of an international people’s movement Ed
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/26/we-have-a-duty-to-act-hundreds-ready-to-go-to-jail-over-climate-crisis
But unsurprising. It’s what happens when we allow unsustainable economics.
Ask the Matabeans or Navajos about unsustainable economics, as they had the same problem.
or the Rapa Nui people
Not a coincidence that the migrations to Hawaii, Rapanui and NZ roughly occurred at the same time in history
there were reasons ie windows of opportunity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4205595/
But it taste great – I know we will never stop eating chicken.
Making Fun of Stupid People.
Victim No. 4: Paul Henry
pwned to be dominated by an opponent or situation
Making Fun of Stupid People is compiled by Hector Stoop, for Daisycutter Sports Inc.
Victim No. 1 Cameron Slater; No. 2 Murray Deaker; No. 3 Kerre Woodham
http://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/10/making-fun-of-stupid-people-victim-no-4.html
http://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/10/making-fun-of-stupid-people-victim-no-3.html
This is a video of a supposedly intelligent person making fool of himself !
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eD2JKoKGrjA
Bridges. Hopeless.
I wouldn’t call john campbell supposedly intelligent but he always makes a fool of himself.
A bloody business
Mysterious Defence ‘forum’ an insult to democracy
John Hinchcliff – Stuff.co.nz, October 29, 2018
Cowards in suits always meet behind closed doors; their views and dealings being completely unacceptable to non-sociopath humans.
But what of all the Mum and Dad investors? Up to their necks in it as far as I’m concerned.
Is it just the cost of business for them too?
I think so. Like cashing in on a jacked up market in housing as the market separates society… Nothing to see here except my new car.
Shareholders in war. Right next door to you.
That’s why 40% vote National
They’re up to their necks….
Fisk on Jamal Khashoggi’s murder —
” And you’d have to note, wouldn’t you, the repulsive and hypocritical outpouring of anger by our brave and moral western leaders at Jamal’s murder. They’ve been tut-tutting for two years about the Yemen war, making excuses for it, selling arms for it and avoiding personal responsibility for it, and it’s quite obvious that they care far, far more about Jamal’s death than about the 5,000 civilians who have been killed in the Yemeni conflict. What is a child’s death worth or the killing of guests at a wedding party compared to Jamal’s murder? I guess that we can always find excuses for Yemeni casualties – “collateral damage”, “human shields”, “full investigation”, etc ” ..
” He ( Trump ) had already blurted out that he didn’t want to give up US arms sales to Saudi Arabia. We had our own beloved prime minister referring to Jamal’s gruesome murder as a “killing”, rather than a murder.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/khashoggi-latest-saudi-arabia-murder-yemen-consulate-istanbul-turkey-mecca-a8600886.html
Yemen ……… 46 mins
…”aid experts and United Nations officials say a more insidious form of warfare is also being waged in Yemen, an economic war that is exacting a far greater toll on civilians and now risks tipping the country into a famine of catastrophic proportions” …
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/26/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-war-yemen.html
They’re outraged because they made no money from it.
The Labour NZF government has just signed the largest defence contract since the ANZAC frigate contract with $2 billion plus contract for four P8’s (replacing the 55 year old Orion’s).
I don’t think either Ron Mark or Jacinda Ardern are sociopaths in suits. And Ed, as far as I am aware neither fit into the 40% National voting group.
Being realistic on defence does not make someone a sociopath.
Where’s the realism ?
Who is poised to attack us?
Or are you referring to the need to “belong to the club”?….playing war games with the big swaggering bullies of the world.
Whose day will be very shortly over
The reality is that we could spend that money earmarked for hypothetical wars on the huge threats to NZ that are present already
Homelessness, climate change , child poverty,ecological desecration
The world has changed, and we have to find new ways of living in it.
Stuff your Darwinian realisms, time for the great new idea of collaboration and co operation…. a pox on your seedy old militarism masquerading as realism
+ 1
Thanks francesca for saying that.
It mirrors my response.
Kinda simple, it’s got nothing to do with our defence needs.
Vulgar waste of money.
Seems like Winston’s desire to break from neo liliberalism is a wee way off.
I don’t think anybody’s poised to invade us, but our EEZ is constantly under threat from poaching.
And SAR is a big job requiring legs.
One thing that might be interesting to do (especially when large-scale disasters e.g. hurricanes or earthquakes hit) is a sort of google earth of a flyover. The crew have their main search equipment as always, but a static high-res camera just does photo surveillance. Secondary review can then be crowdsourced for signs of life, damage levels, and anything else that might be useful but requires large volumes of work to identify.
Where’s the Realism?
Its’ called Chap 1to Chap 7 UN Missions, or to the GofTD mission/ policy Statements to the NZDF which dictates the overall make up of the NZDF now and into the future.
Who is poised to attack us? If I knew I wouldn’t be here atm, its rather like having a punt on the Nags or this weeks lotto numbers? But from a Military POV once we have finish doing military planning we come up 4 courses of action two from the Enemies POV his Most likely CoA and Most Dangerous CoA and we try and counter this by coming up with our most MLCoA and MDCoA. This planning template can also be for CC and HDAR etc and if take the CC atm. Then this really opens a Pandora’s box and if you have been reading some of comments that I’ve post here over the last yrs, especially the 18 to 24mths. Then you would know some of the scenario’s I’ve post aren’t good regardless of it being MLCoA and MDCoA.
In a nut shell Military planning is plan for worst case, but hope for the best. In todays 24hr news cycle, todays pollies/ civil service and most people only now worry about today events. Not into future past the 3yr election cycle as they more worried about their back hip pocket than something that may or not happen in 5yrs, 10yrs, 15yrs or 20yrs time etc etc.
I’ve done the S2, S3, S5, S7 and S9 role in the last 5yrs on the home front and on operations before I was medical discharged for mental health reasons on the 2Jul 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staff_(military)
Good health and I remember your “Don’t declare war before July ?” I forget the actual date. I know that “Count down”. The waiting ’till your life is your own again. It takes time to repair and “come down” from stress. All the best. Govt’s shopping!!@#**
Wont be too long before US Navy publishes its contract price with Boeing for a block buy of P-8s along with a few for other nations, including NZ
We will then find out the average cost per plane in that block and it will come at a fraction of the price of $2 bill plus.
Theres going to be a lot of explaining to do why we ‘pay’ so much more than Us does. And 15% GST doesnt cover it all.
Even if we do it on the basis of USN price +50% and convert to $NZ . A big gap.
No ones explained why a large expense at Ohakea when the runway at Whenuapai could easily be extended at the SW end. The P-8s need more runway than the bigger , heavier 757s
Dukeofurl
As I understand it, the unit cost of a P8 is about $350 million. But a new user like NZ has to buy a training package, a simulator, a huge amount of spare parts, hence the higher costs. The contract price seems about right to me.
As for the shift to Ohakea, that will almost certainly be about closing Whenuapai and turning it into housing. Personally I always thought a base facility for the RNZAF on the second runway at Mangere made sense. A lot of countries do something like that, including Germany at Frankfurt.
francesca,
There are two fundamental reasons to buy the P8. The first is the enormous amount of EEZ around NZ and the Pacific realm nations. Only a P8 has got the range to do serious surveillance and search and rescue work.
The second is alliance relations with Australia and the US. Australia in particular. They are our permanent partner. They reasonably expect us to be able to surveil our part of the world, and provide search and rescue. Not really about fighting wars, although the P8 does have serious defence capability if that was a prospect.
You can’t buy a civilian spec P8. Helen Clark wanted to do that with the upgrade of the P3 in the early 2000’s. She soon found it impractical. A decent search and surveillance radar is also a mil spec radar. Similarly with all the data processing gear. As for all the other things the money could be spent on, well you could, but you would also have no idea what was happening in the oceans around us. Neither could you rescue anyone. At 1.2% of GDP, New Zealand has a pretty cheap defence force. It is half (as a percentage of GDP) of what Australia spends.
Those who think the days of the US are done in the Pacific are seriously mistaken. A country of over 350 million people, which is the richest in the world and with territories right across the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam, Midway, American Samoa, Northern Mariannas, to name just some) is not going to become irrelevant any time in the next 50 years (or more). What the US will have to do is accept that China is its co-equal, something it is finding hard to do. This is not just a thing for Trump, it is right across the US political system. They all find it hard to deal with the rise of China.
It’s pretty fatuous talking about our EEZ when you morons have illegally privatized the fishery resources therein, and allow them to be caught by foreign charter vessels. Just what value to NZ do you imagine there is now left to protect? And why can’t the thieves who stole those resources (with your connivance) pay for their protection? Nothing to do with us anymore. Fuck ’em.
The QMS was mostly done in the days of Prebble (1987 to 1990). Most people would say the QMS has worked pretty well. Just about all owned by New Zealanders with Maori interests having the biggest share.
“The QMS has resulted in the majority of fishing quota being bought by a small number of companies and wealthy individuals. This has been bad for small-scale fishers, bad for managing fish populations and bad for protecting the marine environment.”
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-events-and-notices/news/news-2017/06/failed-fisheries-management-system-costing-nz-economy-and-environment-experts-say.html
“Claims that New Zealand’s QMS is an unmitigated success simply do not match the facts”
“There are lessons to be learned from New Zealand’s QMS, and they are not all good. After 30 years, New Zealand’s fisheries management needs a comprehensive review.”
https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-fisheries-quota-management-system-on-an-undeserved-pedestal-82210
“Most people” would be utterly wrong.
The “biggest share” from a Treaty that granted fisheries to them in their entirety – just another resource theft. The biggest share from a resource declining from poor management practices, and returning little to NZ due to offshoring of most facets of the industry.
Gross misgovernance piled on gross mismanagement Wayne – this is the legacy your and your colleagues visited upon us. You’re like the fifth horseman of the apocalypse – faux government.
Excellent Stuart, well argued.
We don’t need to spend vast amounts of money training the young to kill and buying attack weapons to rescue the odd lost fisherman or help our Pacific neighbours in distress
Distress I might add destined to become critical largely through
The excesses of our lifestyles,not theirs
My preference is Costa Rica style neutrality and if that means a simpler way of life in NZ so be it
francesca,
There is no other aircraft that can do the job across the full EEZ or search and rescue zone. The distances are simply too big.
So saying “Don’t buy the P8” is tantamount to saying we won’t do search and rescue out in the open ocean.
While the EEZ is only 200 miles from the coast, all the offshore islands means a lot of it is around 600 miles from the mainland of NZ. The search and rescue zone is bigger still.
Saab’s Swordfish Maritime Patrol Aircraft, the Kawasaki P-1, and Airbus’ C295 MPA. .. ???
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-airshow-defence/maritime-patrol-aircraft-seen-as-key-in-asia-but-buyers-elusive-idUSKBN1FS186
The Saab and C295 do not have the range, nowhere near enough for the distances in the South Pacific.
The Kawasaki P1 is the Japanese equivalent to the P8. It was evaluated by the RNZAF alongside the P8. In some respects it is better, especially at low and slow. The concern was whether it would be supportable over a 50 year lifespan.
“There are two fundamental reasons to buy the P8. The first is the enormous amount of EEZ around NZ and the Pacific realm nations. Only a P8 has got the range to do serious surveillance and search and rescue work.”
Yeah, but is it range we don’t really need if it came to a push, and are they only really purchased so we can stay in the club to play war games with the big boys.
I have a relation in the UK who fly Dornier 228 twin turboprop out into the North Atlantic on Fisheries Patrol. Now there is a civilian aircraft and the German Navy also uses this aircraft for pollution control
It appears to have enough range to do those two jobs.
To round out my argument, as would be obvious, I fully support New Zealand having a close defence relationship with Australia. That means we can’t opt to only have civil fisheries patrol (though the Dornier would never enough range for long range search and rescue any event).
If we adopted the Costa Rican solution, we obviously would not have a defence relationship with Australia. I am prepared to bet we would not have much of a relationship at all. The current right of NZer’s to shift to Aus would permanently disappear. Much of rest of our co-operation would also evaporate. Trade and investment would shrink.
From time to time Australia might belittle us, but we are never put in the same category as the very much smaller and poorer South Pacific nations. The reason being that New Zealand is one fifth the size of Australia in population terms. In contrast Samoa is 4% of New Zealand’s population.
While some people might see us loosing the Australian partnership as a good thing, I don’t. The New Zealand social and economic fabric would be seriously harmed.
In part Costa Rica can have its policy because it is one of seven countries in Central America, all of which are much smaller than Mexico to the North, and Columbia to the South.
In a sense Mexico is Australia, and Columbia is New Zealand. The seven Central American states are the South Pacific nations.
So as an analogy to Costa Rica, Samoa does not have a defence force. We don’t mind that it doesn’t. But New Zealand is a major nation in the South Pacific, so what we do matters a lot. In my view, we can’t choose the Samoan option.
That isn’t the half of it.
With the P-8 when you do things like software upgrades you have pay the same corruption-inflated price gouging money the United States Navy does, so that’ll be hundreds of millions over the lifespan of these aircraft.
Secondly, a twin turbofan aircraft based on a commercial airliner like the 737 is going to actually represent a step backwards in terms of low level loiter and performance. The windows are smaller, making something as basic as visual searches much harder. The twin turbofans are not very fuel efficient at low level, pushing up the sortie cost. The wing design means P-8 will stall at around 160 knots in a flaps up and loaded config, a good 30 knots higher than the P-3 Orion, and the Orion can cruise efficiently at low altitude on three engines where the twin P-8 can never shut down a powerplant. This stall potential is a well enough regarded problem for the USN to spend a considerable amount of money on software to ensure it’s simulators accurately train it’s P-8 pilots on how to deal with a stall.
All in all, the P-8 is fundamentally a commercial airliner designed for high altitude flight, and the basic design can only partially be remediated towards low level ASW/SAR operations. This is very bad news for NZ, since our ASW aircraft actually spend most of their time looking for missing fishermen and doing low level photography of fishing boats in the EEZ, both of which will be harder to do at 50 knots faster out of smaller windows and which will take a big toll on the airframe.
The above means that (presumably because they are all deeply corrupt and on the take from defense contractors) the USN has come up with the bizarre idea that they can limit airframe fatigue by at least partially letting some of the work be done by the MQ-4C Triton, which – SURPRISE! – will funnel another cool $180 odd million US per airframe to the the big defence contractors. Needless to say both the effectiveness of the MQ-4C to reliably spot anything useful in a SAR/Border protection role (like, say, a missing 8m recreational fishing boat or people smugglers) and it’s sortie rate have been questioned by a lot of independent observers.
Even more seriously, the tactical premise of the P-8 configuration – that modern sensors combined with drones mean ASW aircraft can swan about at 30,000 feet and still effectively detect submarines – is, to put it mildly, unproven. let’s put it this way, no one else in the ASW aircraft game seems to agree with the Americans.
Now, what that means is that in addition to constant and expensive upgrades EITHER the RNZAF will come cap in hand sometime in the future asking for for really, really expensive drones OR they’ll end up buying some sort of off the shelf converted twin turboprop commercial airliner OR the RNZAF P-8 fleet will run into airframe fatigue issues much earlier than they are telling us, meaning we will be buying or rebuilding P-8s much sooner than we are being told.
These aircraft are a gigantic lemon purchased buy an airforce that refuses to acknowledge what it actually does because it think winning wargames with it’s big boy friends is what it should be doing.
Well, the lemon as you call the P8, has been bought by Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, the UK and the US. More nations will buy them. They can’t all be wrong.
Most of the surveillance is done by the radar and the MX20 camera, not by the mark one eyeball. People simply can’t see far enough. The radar is a very sophisticated profiling radar. The image is like a photograph.
Low, low level is not where most of the searching is done. That occurs only when the actual location is known. Prior to that 5,000 ft to 15,000 ft is the norm. The P8 is fine for that.
“…Low, low level is not where most of the searching is done. That occurs only when the actual location is known …”
Given that they’ll never spot that missing diver from 15000 feet I guess poor low level performance isn’t such a problem after all.
I wonder how often (if ever) the P3 has been used to look for missing divers? Their location is invariably near the coast and known within a mile or two.
An excellent comment again Sanctuary. With the P8 begin apart of the Special Projects Program, Boeing has the NZ Taxpayer by the balls as any update has to go through Boeing or one of its subsidiaries either approval or disapproval and it can even veto if Non US Systems as Boeing holds all IP in relation to the P8.
The P8 atm can’t launch any Sub weapons or Sonar Systems from 30Kft as the keep breaking up on impact with the ocean and now have to do it the old fashion way at 500ft of the deck, which Btw chew’s in the fatigue life of the P8. The reason why the Jap P1 wasn’t selected is because the NZ MoD and didn’t want to be the first of type of user Internationally because of what happen with regards to the NH-90’s and Project Protector aka the Landing Support Ship and the two the OPV’s which makes for some interesting reading.
The UK almost walked away from the F35 JSF some years back, because Lockheed and the US pollies refuse to give the Brits the IP rights of the F35 to the Brits. So the Brits could add, replace or do mid-life updates etc down the track. Before I left the service, I was reading a Janes Defence Report in the P8 and RC-135’s currently in RAF, stating that the RAF/ MOD can’t replace any the inferior US mission support systems for the UK mission support systems that were far superior to the US one, as these MSS were part of the botch MR4 and R4 Nimrod program.
Actually Duke,
You find that half or quarter of the cost of the P8 is in cost of new buildings, runways, passive and active security measures that come with the P8,
before you add in Capital Charge and GST. As the P8 is part of the US Special Projects Program (Air), which puts this aircraft in the same league as the F22, F35 JSF, B2 and the UAV’s such Triton, Reaper and X47 UAV’s etc.
If you ever needed evidence of how sick humanity is… it’s all right there.
And the local mayor:
“Mayor Grant Smith has earlier defended the forum as nothing illegal or unethical.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/107482371/ethics-debate-too-late-for-defence-forum-protesters
Mayor Grant Smith needs to be taken to Yemen.
And bought back?
Then asked again if the forum is unethical.
What about if he didn’t change his mind. Would you take him back for another try or take him somewhere else? How you going to pay for all these flights ed? and will YOU offset the carbon used?
Two things to remember about the military:
Every cent sunk into defense is a dead cost that will never be recovered. The government investing in, say, a fleet of electric trains sees the investment returned many times over in the economic activity generated. The government investing in a fleet of tanks simply spends the next 40 years paying for the crew, the fuel, the training, the upkeep and the ammunition.
If we do need to re-arm, the longer you can leave it before you do means you the more modern and better equipped you’ll be vis-a-vis any opponent who re-armed earlier and is left with aging kit (thus, Italy and the USSR in WW2 had re-armed to early and were left with heaps of useless eqipment, France to late so they were easily defeated, Germany before Britain and the USA last of all, giving the last two nations an advantange in equipment). This timing issue is seldom discussed but it means that unless you can identify an immediate threat (as in the a five – ten year window) you should spend anymore than the absolute minimum of a military. The trick is in timely spotting of the threat…
Meanwhile, they’re lionizing that coke-snorting, whore-chasing shepherd-killer today. On television a few minutes ago, Duncan Garner gushed about him and his dopey big brother being “fine young men.”
We were inflicted with exactly the same bullshit five years ago….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/dont-mention-hookers-or-cocaine.html
Yes, we are in the middle of 4 days of brain dead commentary gushing on and on how ‘down to earth …….. etc etc ad nauseas.
you’re just ginger-phobic
Mozzy you have all the class of a two dollar whore.
You will never be half the man these guys are.
Your envy and bitterness is astounding .
Idiot.
Every cent sunk into defense is a dead cost that will never be recovered.
That probably depends on whether the country concerned is a net producer of arms. Through their military complex the US has secured stable access to oil and also makes a lot of money selling older weapons. There is a huge flow on effect for US tech companies as some of the technologies developed are used in a wider setting – GPS being the most obvious example.
Well yes, but they’ve slaughtered all sorts of people along the way. Personally, I dislike the idea of using violence and murder to take something from someone that they have and you want.
Remember, since Nuremburg waging aggressive war (a sort of quasi-fascistic search for economic Lebensraum in America’s case) has been defined as a war crime. Whether or not you get held account for that, it is still a crime.
And the thing about creatting a military-industrial complex is it then requires constant feeding, to clear out old stock to try out new weapons, or to simply justify it’s existence.
I don’t disagree with those points. But i do think it is important to understand how the arms industry is part of the global economy and most importantly how it allows the US in particular to dominate the world both militarily and economically.
Which, of course, is why I say that weapons of war should not be made for profit. They should be researched, developed and produced by government and not sold to other nations.
True but we do need to be able to defend ourselves. It is simply part of the cost of being an independent nation.
I’d say that would be false economics as any nation that follows that philosophy will always find itself below where it needs to be when the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.
The government should run a permanent R&D department specifically for military. Small upgrades would be put into ships/planes/vehicles until the end of their design life. At that point new ships/planes/vehicles would be built with all new capabilities.
Small items such as guns/personal communications/ammo/bullet proof vests would be replaced as soon practicable.
Fully concur with your statement Sanctuary and when you throw in CC now its becoming a ****ing nightmare, as some of the major players who have skin in the game aka pollies, civil servant’s, parts of the Big end of town and parts of the general population are either avoiding it or don’t want to know about because of cost or pain in the short to medium term. From a military PoV it makes planning bloody hard as the major plays don’t want to make a decision in fear of upsetting someone.
Weapons of war should not be made for profit.
That said, we do need to be able to defend ourselves.
For the Green readers.
I was a pioneer of aquaponics back in the day when it was only the university of Hawaii and me (but the Aussies caught up fast). I took much of my inspiration from chinampas, and early Chinese rice farmers. (Duck rice systems today are very similar).
The drainage systems encompassing much of NZ’s farmland would easily convert to aquaculture AND chinampa type design. Entire industries could feed off the excess nutrients already in the soil and headed for the drains.
It’s not excess nutrient if it is captured.
In the meantime. Here’s something positive and beautiful to enjoy.
So will we get an explanation today from Ardern or her Minister as to why we are suddenly giving residency to currently jailed, parole denied, convicted international drug dealers with gang affiliations?
Or will they continue their interpretation of being the most open and transparent govt ever?
Work it out.
hes in prison and was likely a (secret) witness in trails that convicted major drug dealers
His lawyer got him a good deal, but his residency comes with strict conditions
Then they probably wouldn’t have denied him parole.
And if he is a snitch, way to let every one know.
What are these strict conditions btw
The strict conditions are probably like the strict conditions imposed on others we don’t get to hear about.
What do you mean ‘wouldnt have denied parole’
Parole board doesnt/couldnt consider these sort of things. The Judge can give a lesser sentence or minimum non parole period. Parole Board cant consider any after jail deals.
What ever the reason should not be allowed. It is putting a criminals requirements above the general safety and wellbeing of Kiwis. The question is, how did the crims get in in the first place, first on a stolen passport, then years of crimes and now given residency. Another sterling migrant decision.
You have to wonder how in a country like NZ than only has a population of 4.5million we somehow now seem to attract a large amount of fraudulent, drug dealing or murderous migrants to come to our shores.
Maybe our new statistic is the most migrant criminals per capita getting citizenship here.
Maybe our bums on seats/no questions asked or inability to question or check paperwork and follow through checks years later, our penny pinching outsourcing and contract worker approach, long error filled processes at a government/ senior level policy for everything from OIA to RMA to immigration seems to favour the criminals while repelling the honest applicants. At the end of the day, it’s irrelevant because some lawyer at the end says push bad applications through..
Likewise any sort of enforcement is underfunded in NZ and no interest when applicants lie and mislead, so a bonus for the crims flocking here.
As is our woke left /hard right dichotomy that helps corruption and fraudulent criminals settle here and makes NZ feel like home.
Just a few criminals who have made NZ their new home making the news…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12005146
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842563
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/82387108/did-fraud-suspect-joanne-harrison-approve-her-own-leave-then-flee-nz
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/365583/punjabi-singer-gets-home-detention-for-drivers-licences-bribes
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12077932
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11905478
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12011961
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/news/000564.html
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84891031/Child-abuser-wins-right-to-stay-in-New-Zealand-for-humanitarian-reasons
You’re rabid. Just admit you don’t like ANY immigrants.
“we somehow now seem to attract a large amount of fraudulent, drug dealing or murderous migrants to come to our shores.”
Lol we always did noddy – read the history of this country.
Typical response, are you for NZ attracting criminals migrants or not?
As soon as evidence is put together showing a patten of offending often over years, then it is of course attack the messenger… We have a small population, why do we have so many migrant offenders operating here, undetected or just getting away with it? Most of them are only apprehended after multiple offences… they don’t pay taxes here…they come and go committing crimes and then instead of money going into appointments for doctors for blind kids here, it goes on criminal justice and prison for people who should not have ever got into the country in the first place or shown the door as soon as they committed the first offence.
And actually I’m pro immigration, but that’s not what NZ policy is about for the past 30 years, it is about neoliberalism, which relies on getting new money into countries to keep the Ponzi going. That’s why they have had to relax the immigration criteria and ain’t too worried whether the money is from criminal activity or not. Private prisons is good business for some, so more criminals are a bonus.
Nice, the blind kid ‘story’, so classy.
You’re dreaming if you think suddenly we have more bad people or crims coming here. Maybe they are measured better now. I have no problem with vetting people who get allowed to come here – but it is all subjective – you may be too young to remember the various ways euros and the english were encouraged to come here and there were plenty of crims in that lot. Lol you need to get real imo.
0h well,I suppose cheap drugs are of benefit to some so maybe you don’t really feel the need to have better laws – but look around the poor, working poor and the middle class are getting worse and worse off in this country while we are apparently in an economic boom.
Mental health, drug use, suicide is up especially for Maori and Pakeha men (who are NZ’s most evil these days), and many measures against other countries like literacy and infant deaths are performing poorly in NZ. So I don’t take your view that rampant immigration and criminal migrants coming to NZ and propping up neoliberalism here is not having an effect.
The mainstream is addicted to immigration because it is a short term fix to keep NZ poor business practices and laws running without having to change ,privatise assets and change to offshore human capital. Under Rogernomics the whole psychology of thinking about NZ workers has been changed into the negative and that has an effect on people’s mental health and how they view themselves. The woke lefties are helping them.
Local people are committing suicide and suffering mental health because there is little future for many people because now a situation has been created where it’s hard to get a secure job, the job’s pay is out of kilter with the cost of living so there is not much feeling you can get ahead and have social mobility anymore, nor is there interest in anybody unravelling how that can be remedied when simple basics like petrol/public transport, food or power is now taking up large chunks of people’s salaries.
Youth are in debt before they even start out in life. Then we hear about all these job shortage, but look deeper and then work out how affordable it is, to work those jobs and the cost of that degree or diploma and the cost of living while trying to get that study going.
I hate that social spending is being siphoned off into cooperate welfare and apprehending criminals that shouldn’t be here in the first place. The Ponzi’s are now everywhere you look. Auckland is rampant, but it’s spreading all over NZ now. Further poverty and suicide will follow.
I kind of agree @ marty mars.
There’s a helluva lot I agree with SaveNZ about in relation to his thoughts on immigration. It just seems to me that he seems to think we should absolve ourselves of ALL responsibility to those victims of our past immigration policies that set up a structure that allowed massive exploitation of those that could/can least afford it. Just (what he sees) as a few casualties whose lives have been devastated appears to be OK.
Quite disappointing really but it shows how the actions of a few arseholes allow a whole demographic to be tarred with the same brush and demonised.
I’ve watched a while over the past couple of years, and he’s correct about quite a few things to do with immigrant exploitation, shitty tertiary courses, who is exploiting whom and so on. I’m not sure however he realises the extent to which NZ Citizens ( and yes…… WASP Kiwis, not just immigrant politicians ) have been involved in all of it.
And I don’t see much thought given to the hypocrisy that thinks it OK for Koiwois to swan around the rest of the world – as economic migrants heading for a better income in Australia, or the UK or Trumps America – returning home at will if and when the going gets tuff, yet others are not allowed to seek a better life offshore.
I guess Koiwois are allowed to be esprayshnull and entrpreneurial and exceptional, but anyone from what we label a 3rd world is not entitled to hold any of those same hopes and esprayshuns going forward.
Christ! how this country has fallen.
Double standards much? I guess ethics and principle mean SFA these days.
I’m actually quite amused by the furore over a Czech, supposedly from the badlands (actually definately from the badlands) and the pearl clutching that’s going on when its contrasted against a Peter Theil and his many ilk
We give knighthoods to drug sellers …… sir doug myers
And personally I’d rather have this nasty little woman killing Pom booted out of the country …. or locked up again until he shows where he hid the body of his last victim.
And how the hell did he gain residency … after trying to cut his first wife s throat in England before moving here?.
Why is the information about his first wife ….. and the fact he is a english immigrant ,,,,missing from the NZ Govt information on him.
Presumably he lied on his residency application ….. so why did we not boot him out when he finished his last lag for killing a innocent woman ?.
who do you think is the worst criminal Chris T ?
“English-born Francis was sentenced to 12 years jail on May 2, 2003, for manslaughter.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4651604/Cop-begs-killer-to-come-clean
Never heard of them
They never should have got in either
Should you not be asking why both got it?
Is it just easier to try to divert the topic from this dude?
“this nasty little woman killing Pom booted out of the country ”
Pom ? he was born here.
“English-born Francis was sentenced to 12 years jail on May 2, 2003, for manslaughter.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4651604/Cop-begs-killer-to-come-clean
I’ve had the displeasure of meeting this nasty little prick ( he was a painter ) … and he was a very ugly sneering Pom.
Stuff reported it correctly.
On what information do you claim he was born here duke ?
There is an incredibly stupid, or brilliantly scripted, response from an immigration lawyer who says that the man in question should be deported to the Philippines to be be met at the border by drug-user assassinating advocate, President Duterte.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/10/immigrant-drug-lord-karel-sroubek-should-be-gone-by-lunchtime-simon-bridges.html?fbclid=IwAR2bUOADXMlaHvXw1ELPvqb85oMowjTzz5KJwT8FnE_75LudnBgQ2mAnSag
The article also shows that Simon Bridges speaks in clichés, “gone by lunchtime”, “Let’s cut to the chase”.
He argues very poorly that the man should be gone straight away but does not know what the reasons are as to why he has been given residency upon release. So how can he argue for immediate deportation. Fair enough he should get as much information as he can, but he has pre-judged the issue, when it is obvious from the Minister that this is a special case.
Bridges then says that he had talked to his party’s former immigration minister, Woodhouse, who had never granted residency in a ‘like for like situation’. National always fronted and explained, he proudly asserted, but they had never granted such a residency. He is accusing Labour of not fronting to explain, but his party never put themselves in the situation where they had to explain why they gave residency to such man.
So, Bridges is not comparing like to like. He is asking for transparency and does not seem to recognise or care that revealing the reasons and the conditions is dangerous to the man in question and to the deal struck for him to get residency.
This is politicking by Bridges and shows the same response that he and his party had with the whole JLR shambles- no empathy, political gaming at other’s expense,
faulty reasoning, prejudging, disregard for natural justice.
/agreed
Woodhouse wasnt the only national immigration minister during the 9 years, just towards the very end.
Remember this guy who wasnt deported under national – despite being a convicted sex offender
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11844260
Nationals excuse was ‘they delegated to INZ these sort of decisions’
ie ‘cases involving residence class visa holders convicted of a criminal offence’
“but does not know what the reasons are as to why he has been given residency upon release.”
And why is that again?
I see Simon has used one of the most unfortunate quotes in NZ history with which to illustrate his latest barking-at-cars effort.
“Gone by lunchtime”, was what Brash was going to do with NZ’s nuclear free legislation, iirc.
Simon really is a buffoon.
I agree. Stupid comment
but kind of irrelevant to why this bloke got given residency
So, not knowing why he had been given residency upon release, he still calls for ‘gone by lunchtime’. Not just saying something like “We deserve to know more when a convicted rat-bag gets residency instead of deportation,” which is a fair position to take- nor, “Perhaps the Minister might give me a confidential briefing considering this obviously special case.”
No, Simon Bridges, a former Crown prosecutor, who must know about deals done with special witnesses, crown protection, goes politicking.
I’m not diverting ………. especially as I think your just political point scoring.
you wrote “why we are suddenly giving residency”
I’m pointing out that far from being a new thing ….. far worse criminals ( two dead new zealand women with my example ) …….. have wrongly been allowed to stay here.
Now I suddenly await your criticism of the last National government …..
” Four of China’s ‘most wanted’ for alleged corruption are reported to be hiding out in Auckland ”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11847325
What are you on about?
Any of them that came in under National or Labour that are as seriously dodgy as this bloke shouldn’t have.
Now back to this bloke who is actually now?
The Pommy woman killer is walking around in New Zealand Now ….
Like right fucking now ….. unless we got lucky and he died.
He could lining up his next victim ….. 3 relationships so far , 2 dead women and one with a half cut throat.
Which is of more danger to New Zealand ???
And Guess which drug the two time woman killer used and blamed …. hint, the one National pretends is not a drug …. ” Although alcohol can lead to addiction, disease, overdose and death, it is sold without a health warning label or a recommended dose. It is sold to pregnant women with no warning that it may lead to fetal deformity and to teenagers with no warning that they are especially vulnerable. ”
Maybe you need to get your priority s right ?
The dangers of ecstasy
That’s not even the half of it @ reason!
There are people banged up at Madge’s pleasure for trying to chop their flatmate’s ear off in a fit of ‘P’ fueled pique in Strathmore (wellington) – that’s even after spending most of their time beforehand ushering people around the Wellington precincts in Uber Prius vehicular transport (all the while completely and utterly ‘out of it’).
IF, IF, IF we’d have had properly resourced services, this would never have got near to it.
IF, IF,IF we’d had a presence in some office that processes visa applications, they’d have been able to SEE the bloody bleeding obvious (of course that’s ONLY if it had been adequately staffed with one or two people with a bit of life experience rather than the churn of a few on contract with whatever academic degreeb[or not] they hold)
The muppetry still astounds me sometimes, but hey ….. responsible ‘officials’ are still able to pay their mortgages and continue to give who they regard as their Munster deep and meaningful advice.
/deep and meaningful sarc
IF………..
What I find hard to understand about Uber OnceWasTim …. is how they came in and broke just about every passenger service Land transport regulation going …. yet were never prosecuted or run out of town.
Examples
Passenger service vehicles have higher Wof standards and they can only be issued at VINZ vehicle testing stations.
Passenger service licence holders have to go through a police check and ‘fit and proper person’ criteria … ie no sex offenders .
Log book and driving hours regulations … so the drivers must have breaks and sleep periods ..
etc etc
Uber is a criminal immigrant that has been brazenly flouting our laws.
National …. the party of 80% non compliance …. thought they were sweet… I’m surprised they didn’t have Winz referring job seekers to them.
Greens just took 19.5% in Hesse German regional election…up from 11%.
Go those Greens! Only exit polls at this stage though.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-28/merkels-cdu-suffers-crushing-losses-hesse-election-worst-result-spd-130-years
Except the SPD failed even more miserably than the CDU and the AFD increased it’s share of the vote around the same as the Greens but from a lower base. Troubling times indeed.
Something looks to be seriously amiss with the left in many parts of the World. How can someone like Bolsonaro win in Brazil when he is up against a member of a political party that was only just recently running Brazil and winning plaudits from leftists around the World.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/28/jair-bolsonaro-wins-brazil-presidential-election
Thanks for your concern
The real question is why are 55% of Brazilians so concerned about Communism they are willing to vote for someone like Bolsonaro .
Because they listen to liars like you. But thanks for your concern.
Seems like they don’t listen to people on the left though…
Oh you know fascist demagogues. ever the sweet talkers, always managing to convince people that it’s only other people in the firing line.
The main problem is that division is easier to preach than unity: white vs black, middle class vs worker, men vs women, straight vs gay. Fear of the other is an easier sell than working with the other.
The left is great at playing the whole division game. At it’s heart it is all about Class war remember?
The left also recognises that the 1%er living surrounded by armed guards and constantly terrified of revolution is also a victim of the system, comrade.
Yeah but they frame the debate as poor vs wealthy.
No, wealthy vs poor.
Subtle difference. Is it really so divisive to point out by whom one is being kicked, rather than blaming anyone and everyone else?
But either way, that is the only real division within society recognised by most classic left authors. Everything else is artificially constructed by, and for the preservation of, captalism.
Because in troubled times, all sorts of morbid symptoms appear. When people get a gut feeling that neoliberal capitalism is not really serving their needs, their is no reason to believe that they will all march over in an orderly fashion to line up behind some sort of sensible, moderate social democracy.
Many of them will go nuts and fascism becomes possible again.
You are not telling us anything we don’t already know.
Except the opponent was not from some moderate Social Democratic party but from a far more left wing one. Supposedly this party should represent the views of the poor and working classes more than any moderate social democratic one.
Indeed deepest condolences to Brazil, misinformation strikes again…
Dodgy bolsonaro, did exactly what trump did to get elected, social media.
Calling out mainstream media as ‘fake news’ exactly like trump.
Unless of course it’s a particular network ‘Record’ owned by a dodgy billionare bishop, just like trump used fox news.
Worked for trump, worked for tropical trump.
Expect this model to continue exploiting the misinformed and social media soaked citizens of other countries.
The Listening Post has been covering the Brazilian media for quite some time, they did another report on them in the weekend in relation to Bolsonaro.
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/10/jair-bolsonaro-future-brazil-media-181027123537118.html
serious work related accidents increased in 2017.The education model seems to be failing again.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1810/S00792/work-related-serious-non-fatal-injuries-increase.htm
back from hiding under other names and still doing your usual Gish/Gosman Gallop?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Eh? I never use any other name than this one. I am sure any of the moderators who can verify IP addresses can confirm that.
Most people dont have fixed IP addresses, I noticed one day mine was a block allocated to Hawaii once- I think Telecom back then leased them for a short time.
Still happens
http://www.forked.net/ip-address-leasing/
Im sure you knew that already , but LOL diverting again.
I think Duke thinks you are me and I am you.
S/he mentioned it once I think
Duke has obviously not been around much. I have been banned for months from here and not once was tempted to create another profile to come back on. I serve my time and then pop back up.
Funny that you both have the same sort health issues
😮
They are both single issue trolls but that’s where the similarity ends, IMO.
Gosman is fixated with Venezuela. JohnSelway is fixated with himself.
Muttonbird. You, Dennis Frank and Dukefoil have been total arses, lately. Something in the water. Or overdose of jubilation at National disintegrating. Which I share, but the theory that National is competent enough to hide suborning the mental health system, to conceal their dishonesty, is extremely unlikely.
Hey, I’ve taken a step back as was requested. Perhaps you didn’t notice.
I said my bit, that I was shocked at the convenience of the events that weekend.
I also said more info was needed on the order of events, not minute detail of Jami Lee Ross’ medical records.
Some info has been released and I think you’ll find I haven’t said another thing about it since.
But have a crack anyway. Everyone else has…
I didn’t know Gosman had bipolar. And if he does there’s nothing funny about it
😮
They are both single issue posters but that’s where the similarity ends, IMO. G’man is obsessed with Venezuela, while JohnSelway is obsessed with himself.
Heh. This was a double post because I suspect you can’t say G*sman without it going into moderation…
Taking a step back? Still giving John, shit it seems. For telling it how it is, not how you want it to be.
Meh. I don’t think he’s the real deal, that’s all.
As his experiences with the mental health system mirror my families. Yes he is.
But that’s no defence of his behaviour here, is it? On this very thread 90% of his comments have been personal attacks and that’s before you get into the James-like performances of the other night. I won’t link to it because it was deliberately confrontational.
Given that, should Selway even be commenting here if it’s going to cause him stress?
You don’t fucking decide where I comment. And stress? The Standard? Please – it’s about a stressful as a cloudy day.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/201606/5-keys-handling-judgmental-and-opinionated-people
The only thing not real about me is my name. Everything else is but thanks for reconfirming why some people prefer not to be honest about their mental health issues because they get met with derision and disbelief by people like you.
And obsessed with myself? Trying to correct the vacuous bullshit that came out of the mouths of you, Duke et al by using my experiences as an example isn’t being obsessed with myself. It’s about trying to fix the vapid pile of feces you have inside the dormant organ you call a brain.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/201606/5-keys-handling-judgmental-and-opinionated-people
Yep because health issues are really funny.
Your credibility is plummeting by the day.
How would you know what health issues I have?
Apart from “The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result…….?”.
Like expecting small Government, privatisation and de-regulation, to work, when it has manifestly failed!
This.
In the Irish election there was a referendum on blasphemy.
“Many were unaware there was such an offence until a member of the public referred controversial remarks made by the actor and writer Stephen Fry on an RTÉ programme to gardai (Irish police).
The investigation was dropped last year, reportedly because officers could not find anyone who was offended.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45999270
Our own blasphemy law is still on the books – as the past government decided to defer taking any action to remove it.
Of course the EU still has its restraints on free speech.
Article 10 states freedom of speech “carries with it duties and responsibilities” such as not inciting disorder and crime, protecting “health and morals” and protecting “the reputation or rights of others”.
It’s European Court of Human rights has clarified matters with a recent ruling
– an Austrian woman was convicted of defaming the prophet Mohammed for saying Islam’s Prophet Muhammad was “a paedophile who liked to do it with children”.
They noted that while he married a 6 year old historical evidence was that they did not have sex till she was 9 or 10. They noted child marriage was common at the time (Aisha’s father was Abu Bakr, who would go on to become the first caliph following Muhammad’s death) and he had other wives who he married at an older age and thus paedophilia was not his sexual preference.
“It held that by considering the impugned statements as going beyond the permissible limits of an objective debate, and by classifying them as an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace, the domestic courts put forward relevant and sufficient reasons.”
Hilariously they concluded her comments “had not been made in an objective manner contributing to a debate of public interest [and] could only be understood as having been aimed at demonstrating that Muhammad was not worthy of worship”.
I now expect a fatwa against the judges for impuning the faith of Moslems by claiming they worship Mohammed, rather than God.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/10/austrian-woman-s-conviction-for-calling-prophet-muhammad-a-paedophile-upheld.html
Coming back home yesterday Qantas were playing this Australian artist I’ve never encountered before. Very moving:
Wow that’s excellent. Thanks for sharing it.
Anyone want to buy the entire deserted village of Waitaki, next to the Waitaki dam?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/29/for-sale-one-deserted-village-left-behind-in-rush-to-new-zealands-cities
Calling out Britain’s irresponsible and dishonest State TV
Kia ora Newshub I believe in God but I’m not getting into what religion or what Parliament has in there pray BUT MAN has been acting like idiots for century’s that’s why Papatuanuku is such a big mess at the minute.
Mark I figured out Mike Hesson must have had a gig in India as soon as I heard about the new Black Caps coach Gary Stead .
Cancer is a big problem a lot food cause health problems Its cool Anna Peters from Australia is here protesting about the ADD’S they Bombard te Tamariki and moko’s with the shops should put all there bad foods behind locked doors . They are loaded with sugars and preservatives Ka pai .
Some one should look in the mirror pal.
With the way man handles things with Jakarta Boeing 737 planes crash it will turn into everyone covering there——- we won’t get the true facts.
It will change things banning single use plastics back in the 50’s they had uranium toothpaste so a world wide ban on single use plastics is a good phenomenon and big business will follow the dollar if it is better publicity for them to join the minimize plastics use movement that’s sweeping the Papatuanuku at the minute.
Duncan I have seen story’s in most of the online News sites around the Papatuanuku
about the Prince & Duchess visit to Aotearoa.
Aotearoa has better cultural harmony than most country’s I say our visitor’s will feel quite relaxed hear. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to strive for Equality we are far from that.
The Tooth fish industry is quite control controversial the fisheries is in Antarctic and Aotearoa can not police the fisheries so any big fishing fleet can wip down there and ravage the fisheries and could cause it to crash. Ka kite ano.
Here you go Go Oil Party yours and trumps policy’s are causing damage to our future generations O that’s correct you people are primitive your cognitive process only concerns goes out one foot I.E you people can only think about yourselves and the now no thoughts of the tomorrow or anyone else on Papatuanuku.
Around 93% of the world’s children under 15 years of age breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk, accounting for 1.8 billion children, according to a report published by the World Health Organization ahead of its first global conference on air pollution and health in Geneva.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/29/health/air-pollution-children-health-who-india-intl/index.html P.S I have other duty’s for our new mokopuna
This show Eco Maori that things change not long ago I was praising a court for throwing the changes to ballet laws out next minute a higher court instates it WTF.
The go oil party are big cheats like national are in NZ but thing’s in America are bad when It comes to Native people rights for Equality Kia kaha Tangata Whenua / People of the Land in America get out and vote for your children’s grandchildren’s future its everyone duty to our descendants to fight for a happy bright future for all and vote the muppets out .
The government didn’t need a physical address to come and steal our children for boarding school. The government didn’t need a physical address when it was time for us to be conscripted into their militaries. But now they need a physical address so that we can exercise one of the most basic principles and tenets of a representative democracy.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/29/north-dakota-id-law-native-americans-vote-senate-race
Human Caused Global Warming is here and now we know that tomorrow is going to be a disaster if we don’t ACT now and all combat climate change
Venice has been inundated by an exceptional high tide which put three-quarters of the lagoon city under water. Large swathes of the rest of Italy have also experienced flooding and heavy winds which toppled trees, killing four people.
Tourists and residents donned high boots to navigate the streets on Monday after strong winds raised the water level 156cm – more than 5 feet – before receding. Water levels exceeded the raised walkways normally erected in flooded areas of the city, forcing their removal. Transport officials also closed the water-bus system, except to outlying islands, due to the emergency. link is below ka kite ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/29/venice-experiences-worst-flooding-since-2008
Instead of fighting wars we should be replanting lands that man has turned into deserts . Afforestation
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
I should have watched the video on planting the Sahara desert it looks like there will actually be no net benefit to combat climate warming but in regions that still have running water the equations change to benefit the stablising of our climate.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori music.
Here you go some more of the effects of trump spraying wai all over anyone who has a different point of view than a red muppet.
I wonder why more white players aren’t kneeling,” Schumer wrote on Instagram. “Once you witness the truly deep inequality and endless racism people of color face in our country, not to mention the police brutality and murders. Why not kneel next to your brothers? Otherwise how are you not complicit?” Ka kite ano
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/29/super-bowl-football-advertising-boycott-halftime-show
Kia ora Newshub I was quite good at the redban throwing comp.
There you go nationals judith got her trolls hyped up on that couple who got the first Kiwi build house she doesn’t care who she walks on.
Angela has been in power for years she has served her country well ka pai.
Brazil is not a very Equal country we will see if he is good for his people and country
I won’t burst the South manuka honeys marketing campaign but Its a fact that the best honey comes from Te tairawhiti / Ngati Porou whenua .
Its quite logical that dumb WAR will cause psychological damage to most people who are fighting in it.
I did not feel the Quake I seen the faces in Parliament I seen a national plastic —–glasses steam up
Ka kite ano P.S Ingrid it will be good when Te Ra comes out strong
The Crowd Goes Wild on the road James & Mulls
Yes we Kiwis don’t cheat like others do.
Thats the way Mulls nothing wrong with apologizing we one gets it wrong .
Thats Griss in the back ground get the Willey coach to join in te waiata to our guest the Prince & Duchess.
That looked like a cool wave making machine in Australia .
Anna plays bowls like some who play ten pin its a good sport bowls I was at the bowling in Tokomaru Bay a bit .
The Thunder Basket Ball team is going strong the most 3 pointers ever ka pai
Ka kite ano . The team is looking after The Crowd Goes Wild team no salt for Eco
James & Mulls I think this is a good Waiata for the minute Aotearoa is a slice of Heaven .