Of course this extends to New Zealand main stream media lead by RNZ, who have taken to parroting any old shit that comes their way with gusto….never ever once correcting or following up with new updates which spoil their narrative ( propaganda).
Just witness the shameful silence from all NZ media on the public destruction of Assange to really understand exactly how deeply embedded and complete manufacturing consent has entrenched itself into our media…..not even RNZ's Media Watch will even mention this one, so who's left to keep citizens informed?… .
Fake news and/or withheld news ( both as dangerous as each other) is real alright, but it originates from MSM just as much as it does from social and fringe media…but then I guess at the end of the day, everyone has their own ideology they are pushing, RNZ just as much as the next guy…still it’s sad to see it being so blatant.
Dead right adrian RNZ news is Pathetic and nine times out of ten sourced either from CNN or BBC which kinda explaines why no news about Assange !!.I think they do have reporters but perhaps no computers ?Personally i hate their whole business model with a few exceptions theyre supposed to be free to air but the station is run like any standard commercial one with every second accounted for WTF ??.Aarron Mate is a god send to cynical bastards like me and id reccomend anyone not familier with his work to check out his interview with his old man whos pretty cool in his own right also as a starter.
I don't really care either way as I'm not in to cannabis myself. We had the vote, and > 50% said "No" so IMO, we accept democracy and move on, even though it was close and it didn't have the outcome we wanted / expected.
But a draft bill doesn't mean much at all as it can change significantly going through the parliamentary process.
Seymour had the right process, take the proposal through Parliament, have it submitted on debated so it gets well publicised, and then take it to referendum if parliament hasn't got the fortitude to pass it outright.
It would have been interesting to see the outcome if both proposals had gone through the same process, either way. I suspect that Seymour's initial bill would have failed had it been put to referendum before it went through parliament too.
afaik the rationale for legalisation rather than decriminalisation for personal possession was because legalisation allowed for legal control over production, access to cannabis for disabled and unwell people who couldn't otherwise access it, way better health care and health promotion, and would drop the conviction rate for Māori who are over represented in charges due to systemic racism (lives destroyed).
There really is a big difference between legalisation and decriminalisation.
The yes and undecided vote was strong enough to warrant going for the full thing. It was always going to require education. I completely agree that covid has been a factor, negatively impacting on the Yes campaign's ability to do that educating.
The decriminalisation option was presented to Cabinet along with the chosen option.
It was immediately discounted on the ground there would remain an illicit supply.
The chosen option made it a choice option with a guaranteed legal supply rather than an addiction reduction health issue that had been the previous focus of the Greens and Drug Foundation.
Yes you've said that three times now so you can stop bleating. If it hadn't been for covid disrupting campaigning the thing probably would have passed.
a) I don't have to stop "bleating" about anything, especially when it is so obvious.
b) Blaming Covid for a dumb question is a cop out.
[When you repeat your own words often enough and start to be believe them it’s called ‘smoking your own dope’ and when you demonstrate that repeatedly in your comments it’s called ‘bleating’. None of your bleats addresses the points made by NOEL @ 3 and solkta @ 3.1.1. and it is just another of your reading fails here, which is becoming an issue. This is your warning – Incognito]
I think you are confusing not being obvious to you personally, while everyone else who was actually looking at polls before the actual question was published noticed it wouldn't win, if they went full legal.
[Really? What does the term “full legal” actually mean in this context? Sounds like a red herring to me. And what polls are you referring to? For your convenience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_New_Zealand_cannabis_referendum#Polling. Should they have pulled the referendum when ‘the polls’ showed that it was “so obvious” that “it wouldn’t win”? Sounds like a thing Trump would do/say: stop the counting, I’ve won! Your comments are becoming more and more like tedious trolling – Incognito]
Polls were all over the place. "Full legal" would be available to all ages next to broccoli in the supermarket. There were many models to choose from. Decriminalisation can also mean any number of things. Until the question was formulated it could not be asked.
Forgive me for having a personal opinion on the daily open mike thread.
You have a history of being pretty much the only mod on here with a personal thing against my opinions, even on open mike, which I thought was a bit more open.
As you are the only one that seems to feel the need to give me warnings or bin me for a few comments you disagree with.
All good. It is your prerogative.
I apologise if anything I have said about weed offended you, while adding, I have not been offensive to anyone, said bad words, or even tried to be argumentative, besides saying my point of view. on what is supposed to be the open mike section.
If it helps I wont post anything to do with the topic after this.
Briefly, it is not personal, it is not about disagreeing with you, it is not about me being offended by you, and it is not about weed. All red herrings. If you cannot or won’t back your opinions with evidence and robust argument, for example and particularly when you assert “especially when it is so obvious”, you’re straying in moderation territory. You’ve been around here long enough to know how it works and your ‘response’ frankly is pathetic.
Other commenters disagree with you and you refuse to engage with them in good faith. Instead, you bleat.
You have not addressed even one point I made in my Moderation note just as you don’t address issues raised by other commenters unless it suits you. Maybe it is a reading/comprehension problem maybe it is that you don’t want to but these are hallmarks of a wannabe-troll.
You’re wasting Moderator time now and apologising for things that don’t matter is meaningless and irrelevant and even though it possibly shows that your intentions are not those of a wannabbe-troll, the impact is the same 🙁
If it helps I wont post anything to do with the topic after this.
I hope the answer to your question is self-evident.
Agree Alwyn. I am not sure what Covid had/s to do with the poll on Cannabis. Are we going to blame Covid on all sorts of unrelated issues?
The issue is a dead duck now.
The Govt has far more important issues to deal with than what is basically a lifestyle/leisure choice. You know things such as poverty, housing, energy costs undoing vestiges of neoliberalism such as employment contracts.
Policing has for many years(since the mid 80s to my knowledge) not concentrated on possession per se. It becomes an issue for Police when put together with issues such as burglary, growing for supply etc.
As long as medicinal cannabis is allowed to be grown, marketed and used more than is currently the case (price & supply) then I am happy to leave another vote for leisure activities for another day.
There was a national road trip campaign that was cancelled at time of the first lockdown that never went ahead. Effective campaigning on a complex issue requires complex discussions with voters, and these happen best face to face. Right wing groups opposed however just needed to break out all the old slogans and misinformation. Groups in favour had less money and the types of campaigning available suited those who had money.
"There was a national road trip campaign that was cancelled".
So? After all there was a National Party campaign launch that had to be cancelled because the Labour Government brought in a second lock-down that started just before the date of the launch.
The Labour Party had already had their launch when the lock-down was put in place.
Policing has for many years(since the mid 80s to my knowledge) not concentrated on possession per se. It becomes an issue for Police when put together with issues such as burglary, growing for supply etc.
Everybody who voted in the Referendum should have informed himself or herself about what they were voting on. There is/was plenty of good data and information out there for those who looked for it. There is/was also plenty of mis- and dis-information out there for those who wanted it, for whatever reason or agenda.
I cannot open many of these files. In any case I have obviously not explained myself. I am talking about an earlier stage than the decision to charge with an offence. Unless you have tables on the use of Police discretion then the tables will not show the concept I am talking about.
I am not saying there were no charges of possession. I am saying police often exercise a discretion on whether or not to charge and one of these involves possession of small amounts of cannabis for own use where this is the only thing the person could be charged with. If this were not the case then the Police could be knocking on the doors of many households on Saturday night to check dinner party guests or hosts.
Possession charges coming to Police notice often go hand in hand with other charges as disorderly conduct (ie smart alec comments, unruly gatherings etc) or driving offences. They might find that a search of a vehicle after someone has come to their attention with unruly conduct/possession of a stash on cannabis on their person that in fact they have cannabis for supply, holding instruments of burglary. So the suspicion of possession is not followed up but the more serious crimes are. Or possession is bundled up along with the more serious crimes.
So it also falls into the category usually of a ‘public’ crime and the usual stereotypes about policing people who spend large amounts of time in public as opposed to the dinner party example above.
In high number crime scenes ie where there is rioting or other militancy that could go either way violently it would be lacking in nous/discretion for Police to suddenly wade in to arrest people for possession, even though it may be evident that this is happening.
There is a police term called 'cuffing' that describes this to an extent. Though perhaps better described as 'potential' crimes than as 'reported' crimes as this happens after the crimes are committed but before someone is charged.
Cuffing: The under-recording of reported crimes, the term being derived from the magician’s art of making objects disappear up the sleeve or cuff (Young 1991) (wiki)
Police often will work against giving a discretion as in the much vaunted broken windows campaigns.
'The broken windows theory (wiki) is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behaviour, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes.'
So in cases where people committing minor street crime might have been given a warning or a caution or nothing are followed up with the full weight of the law behind them.
I have academic quals in the field and have no reason to doubt the research/knowledge about the use of Police discretion generally, to go for the most serious crime/s in preference to more minor ones.
There is one sheet which shows imprisonment just for the charge of possession without and with other charges, which is interesting how much the former is going down.
Imprisonment just on possession of weed and no other crimes
2010 – 176
2020 – 16
Added it to their other charges
2010 – 717
2020 – 457
Think it is safe to say the cops are using discretion unless you have other violent charges to go with it
I have academic quals in the field and have no reason to doubt the research/knowledge about the use of Police discretion generally, to go for the most serious crime/s in preference to more minor ones.
Excellent, that makes you the most qualified of us to provide those “tables on the use of Police discretion” that you asked for in the first paragraph of your comment.
What Police concentrate on and how they use discretion are not quite the same thing, are they? As someone with academic qualifications you’d know to avoid ambiguity, don’t you?
Unfortunately, it becomes rather pointless to discuss this further with you, as you cannot seem to open a basic webpage of the Ministry of Justice nor an Excel file with very useful data!?
Perhaps you can elaborate on the broken window theory in the context of the disproportional charging and convicting of Māori and Pacific Peoples? There wouldn’t be systematic and institutional bias here, do you think? It was one of the arguments in favour of the failed Referendum, IIRC.
I couldn't open the spreadsheets in Open Office. I assume this is because they are XL documents and Microsoft deliberately make these only openable in the recent versions of their program. It really fucks me off when Crown agencies supply stuff in file formats that are not universal. They could simply save them as a CSV file to be universal.
My bad, I assumed, wrongly, it seems, that most people with a device can open these files.
The Excel file is a *.xlsx file.
There are ways to open such files without having Microsoft Office installed but I agree that another file format would make things easier. One size does not fit all.
csv files don't have the functionality of .xlsx files. In particular, I think multiple tabs might be an issue.
Open office should be able to import .xlsx files, simply because like it or not excel is still ubiquitous and having an amazing programme that nobody else can talk to is useless. It might be more complex than simply trying to open them though.
At home, I use Libreoffice (which was basically open office but there were some corporate/IP shenanigans so many of the open source crowd upped stakes and made a new program).
What Police concentrate on and how they use discretion are not quite the same thing, are they?
Yes they are different. I was using the broken windows campaign as an example where a previous discretion by Police had changed to enforcement.
Excellent, that makes you the most qualified of us to provide those “tables on the use of Police discretion” that you asked for in the first paragraph of your comment.
You can get an idea of police use of discretion by looking at the figure that Chris T provided. These show an exercise of Police discretion in single offences relating to possession of cannabis. I am not sure you would ever get tables on police discretion, rating as it does up with intuition and 'feelings' about a situation. (My comment was a bit tongue in cheek) And I am certain that a person who has had the police discretion in their favour (say on close orange/red light offence) is not going to say 'pick me, pick me and record all about me.' Warnings that are given and noted are a step up.
Perhaps you can elaborate on the broken window theory in the context of the disproportional charging and convicting of Māori and Pacific Peoples? There wouldn’t be systematic and institutional bias here, do you think? It was one of the arguments in favour of the failed Referendum, IIRC.
Well the broken windows theory is not so much relevant. This is to illustrate that concentrating on lesser offences rather than using a discretion not to charge, may stop more serious offences occurring later.
The concept that is relevant to the disproportionate charging of Maori and Pacific Peoples is the concept of public offences.
Offences committed by people in public are much easier to police than offences committed in private. People who by circumstance are forced to live their lives in the public eye are more likely to be seen, charged etc with offences. Public order/disorder offences such as fighting, urinating in public. drinking in public, frequenting public places for partying etc, right down to the wholesale littering by the visiting Gypsy family that raised hackles.
People who have access to large emptyish houses or sections in which to party, including to commit cannabis offences, are much less likely to come to the attention of the Police than people who have no places to meet as young people so they meet in parks etc.
These public activities, particularly those where people are unruly are more likely to result in attention from the Police. If there are multiple other offences taking place then the Police may overlook (use discretion) single possession of cannabis offences but then equally include them on a charge sheet if there are multiple other offences being committed.
There were concerns from time to time about the Police lack of focus on white collar crime and on domestic violence (not traditionally public offences) – behind closed doors. Both took public campaigns before they were concentrated on and before the discretion that Police sometimes exercised not to charge the people involved in domestic violence offences were dispensed with. Police now charge even though in older times if the people showed a level of contrition they were not.
Apart from the concept of public or private offences, the whole question of Maori/Pacific peoples offending is similar to why the
health stats
education stats
employment/unemployment stats
for these of our citizens also of concern.
Public offences also spill over into offences against uninvolved others such as unprovoked assaults against passersby, damage to the property of others.
I am not convinced that a successful Cannabis referendum result and follow-up per se would have lessened the offences that people are charged with, bearing in mind that possession is picked up and added or used as a gateway to investigate other more serious offences.
Public order/disorder offences without cannabis would still catch people. Carrying more than enough for personal use would still trigger investigations into possible more serious crimes. Public order/disorder offences are public, are seen and there are economic, health, education reasons why people are living their social lives in public.
"If it hadn't been for voters seeing National's, and Labours, true colours during covid, without the usual right wing PR spin/lies, National would have won".
Fixed it for you.
National lost many of their normal votes because Conservatives like to feel safe. National promising to open the borders to thousands of students, cheap workers and tourists, with private isolation, made them feel, rightly, unsafe!
finally an insight into the work of OT and how complex it is. So sick of everyone barking about the agency as if they are the problem rather than the appalling rates of child abuse that’s happening.
it really pisses me off to hear the media beat up about what’s going on. I have no idea about their ceo and how competent she is or otherwise. What I can say about the many social workers I have met who work there is they are passionate about the children, compassionate towards the families, some of whom are perpetrators and committed to their jobs. Do they always get things right? Hell no! This article illustrates the complexities of what they are dealing with, the knife edge of the judgment calls they have to make. They also run the risks of being targeted by dysfunctional family members on online forums, including receiving death threats.
maybe Maori would do better running the agency, but there is no evidence to support this. Sometimes people think there are really simple answers to very serious complex issues.
I realise many will disagree with my perspective and want to blame the problems on racism or a non NZder ceo of OT.
Reading through, here are the questions that come up for me:
why was there not a social worker in those visits who speaks Samoan given at least one of the parents is Samoan and speaks Samoan at home as does the child?
(that btw Anker is institutional racism. If the situation was in Samoa, that problem wouldn’t exist. Can you see how the dominant culture is failing this child, family and community from a non-Pākehā culture?)
what is the background here? Why is there no emergency foster care set up *before the first visit? I'm also raising my eyebrows that the medical people didn't pick up the extent of the bruising, but it's not clear if the other bruising happened after the A & E visit. These are systemic issues. I don't blame Oranga Tamariki here particularly, I do hold successive govts to account, as well as the NZ public who vote in govts that run these systems so badly and that insist on putting money ahead of child welfare. Again, systemic racism.
The family that take the kids in, an aunty, are offered financial support via OT and WINZ. I don't know what OT are like in that regard, but WINZ is often a nightmare, logistically and culturally (WINZ culture). They're the last organisation I would suggest a stressed family should have to engage with.
The father will be visited by the police, probably charged and convicted. Will he lose his job? Go to prison? There needs to be a holding to account of him and the mother, as well as prevention and roads to redemption, but this is truly ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff with the potential to damage many lives long term. If we had culturally appropriate systems, then I do believe that we would have far better ways of dealing with situations like. Not perfect, but better, because Māori and Pacifika place people at the centre of the ways they organise their societies.
It's also obvious here about the interconnected nature of the issues, and ambulances at the bottom of the cliff may or may not be doing their best but they're just not equipped to deal with whole systems in a good way.
I don't actually care about the blaming so much as I care that our critiques make us look long and hard at what kind of society we want. Mostly I see Pākehā relatively ok with the state of things and that makes me incredibly sad.
This child could have ended up dead. He was hit (assaulted in anger).
There are consequences for having a child removed and the abuser could blame the child for the loss of a home, income or a criminal conviction. A child is never to blame for this. This is why children may never be returned to live with the abuser/s.
OT has clearly not been working for Maori for the last 70 years. 3 generations of being marginalised by a government agency.
The Royal Commission into the Abuse in Care is going to show the damage done to children due to organisational failure.
"Not perfect, but better, because Māori and Pacifika place people at the centre of the ways they organise their societies."
This gets said as if it is a truism. I'd suggest there is as much variety in the raising of children in both Maori and Pacifika communities as there is in European.
The tolerance and normalisation of violence (and other forms of abuse) is just part of that. Greed. violence, abuse, depravity are all traits that all humans share. Genetically we are all pretty much the same and all have the potential to behave in the same ways (accepting that there are genetic traits that increase propensity).
Every culture has/had it's notion of just violence – Maori and Pacifika included. The real question is whether non-violence is part of the desired modern culture. In those traditional ways, lore vs law, like in any culture there was both good and bad. Those aspects of traditional culture that were violent – do we accept them or reject them or are we simply pretending that they never existed?
Capitalism (and by virtue of capitalism colonialism) has deliberately and consciously broken down traditional structures and thought patterns and identity, has caused economic deprivation and hardship and loss of land.
This story reflects some of that – the expectation and normalisation of violence, the need to be tough and hard to be a real man, the expectation that as a matai he should be allowed to do whatever he wants, that because he belonged to a church it couldn't possibly be him doing this.
These aspects aren't that uncommon across all cultures in NZ, while also not common. Most families don't inflict this abuse on children regardless of culture.
Institutions, foster care, intervention – these things often failed anyone who was put in them. I had enough family through them to know that.
Unfortunately, the penny doesn’t drop far enough [apologies for the bad pun] to realise and accept that contextual problems such as these need comprehensive contextual approaches to try improve matters.
Ok. Well maybe a Samoan speaking social worker, but that may be ill advised given the community networks in the Samoan community. Leave the s/w open to bias or pressure and back lash from the community. You are surely not suggesting all social worker speak Samoan? I am unclear what difference speaking to this father in Samoan would have made. He was violently abusing his son with a blunt instrument and lying about it, claiming it was racism from the s/w. I don't see that speaking Samoan was going to change that. Afterall this man is a criminal. Of the worse sort. Beating children. Sorry whatever you plight, no excuses. So many others face racism in NZ and are good parents and don't beat their kids or the wives for that matter. I guess you are not thinking that if the social workers had of spoken Samoan this guy would have fessed up and apologized.
My understanding is violence towards children was culturally sanctioned in Samoan families. I am not sure if that is changing.
I don't agree that the dominant culture is failing this child at all. School picked it up, so have done so sooner, but they got there, first dr missed it, likely working 12 hour shift in ED with dozens more patients to see, not good, but initially child was seen and assessed. Social workers, Pakeha by the looks made some very tough decisions, organised family conference, which shows good cultural inclusion. No I don't see that this is about the dominant culture failing this child. There were some mis steps which need looking into i.e first dr, first teacher, but other than that, the services did their job.
I hope the guy is getting some sort of treatment. He could have taken responsibility and got some for himself when he started beating his kids but he didn't. Unfortunately treatment for these offenders doesn't help everyone.
The on thing we do agree on is that it is very sad for the kids. I would say its disastrous for these kids.
Brigid I didn't see the story. What was the basis for these children being removed from their parents? Am keen to know.
Accept people will disagree with my point of view vehemently as is their right to do.
I don't think it is a cop out to say I don't expect them to always get things right. The reality is they are dealing with very emotional extreme situations and all the time they are having to make their best judgements, knowing if it goes wrong, their head is on the block.
It was an article at Newsroom but "These stories have been temporarily removed after the High Court granted an interim injunction restraining Newsroom from publishing them."
The children, all of Maori decent were put with an English foster couple over two years ago. There was no family available to take them. The arrangement was termed a 'forever home'. Oranga Tamariki, in their wisdom decided to up lift the kids after two years because they claimed the foster parents weren't culturally inappropriate or some such. All 3 were under 6, one had been with the foster parents since birth.
That was an awful story. To uplift children at a moment's notice when they had bonded to their "forever" family. By all means introduce them to their birth family so they know where they come from, but to do it like that shows what a bunch of little Hitlers run the outfit.
Then to put on their jackboots and kick the journos in the teeth for telling the story… the sooner they get their marching orders the better.
This is about welfare and stability for little ones who had never known love and care before. It matters not the colour of their skins nor that of their loving care-givers.
Unless you believe this was the first time the child was beaten (I don't) then obviously society *has failed this child, family and community. It failed to prevent the abuse. Abuse doesn't happen in a vacuum, and treating it as solely the responsibility of the abuser is why we end up with ambulance systems instead of ones that build wellbeing.
"I don't see that speaking Samoan was going to change that."
Well for a start, the social worker would have been able to understand the threats being made to the child in her presence. In terms of the abuse dynamics explained in the article, that is huge for the wellbeing of the child.
"Well maybe a Samoan speaking social worker, but that may be ill advised given the community networks in the Samoan community. Leave the s/w open to bias or pressure and back lash from the community."
Are you suggesting that Samoan social workers are more susceptible to bias? Because I haven't seen you suggest that Pākehā social workers shouldn't have Pākehā clients.
There is a such a wide gap between the framing you are using, and the framing that is available via cultural approaches that all I can say is that I think you are missing a *very large part of the picture. Until you understand those issues and dynamcis I can see why you would end up with the position you have currently.
It's not even my area but I can see the many, many things that failed before the first visit to the doctor, and I can see why they failed. Until you are able to recognise those things, or even acknowledge that you don't know what they are (no shame there, many don't) the conversation will remain centred on the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, which means that the kids have already been pushed off. I'm saying we can stand at the top of the cliff and start walking away from it. We can keep the ambulances in place of course, and in time we will need less of them there.
also wanted to add, that in the context of Māori and stories of 'uplifting' children and OT, those are very different stories than the one you presented here. So let's also acknowledge that OT deal with a range of situations, some of which they get right, some they get wrong, and lots in between.
Weka, I don't believe that this was the first time the child was beaten and the article indicated that.
I may be missing a part of the picture. I am speaking more up close and personal, although I cannot reveal how (except to say I have never worked for OT).
I also have a very close circumstance where a Maori baby was removed and adopted by a very close friend of mine. The abuse this child suffered was horrific unthinkable. This little girl is now an adult and at least had the benefit of a loving kind family. We were told to understand that whanau had no interest in this child and it seemed very much the case when over the years big efforts were made to connect the girl to the family.
I also know from the Dunedin study that violence in adults is due to a combo of genes and environment.
What are the many things that failed before the first visit to the Dr?
I must say that I am writing this with quite a bit of emotion as I see OT getting trashed and trashed over and over again and having known a number of their social workers well it makes me cross. The best people who really care about the children are compassionate towards the caregivers and try very hard to do their best. I hate seeing the pile on that is going on now.
I have to say I put the father in the article in the same category as the guy who killed Grace Millane, Talleys who exploit their workers so badly (although he is a psychopath I am sure).
Yes of course racism and homelessness are major social stresses that add to people being violent. My understanding certainly from the literature of violence towards female partners is that there is situational violence (joblessness, financial stress etc that lead to violence) and then characterlogical violence, ie. people with narcissistic, anti social etc personality disorders. And then of course there is the role of alcohol and drugs. These are complex issues. My heart goes out to the children, but the perpertraters, not so much.
The lastest article by Melanie Read shows that abuse of the children was NOT the reason they were removed from the couple, though OT did manufacture a story that convinced the court to allow for the kids to be removed.
Family violence is also linked to the housing crisis. Some partners would leave with the children if they had some where to go other than a refuge. Maybe the way refuges are run need to change. People need their privacy and shared services are not ideal. Units like in a motel with a support worker and security.
I also feel that legal aid needs to be made available so a person does not need to battle with an agency/service on their own when it comes to family violence and the removal of children.
We would get emails misspelling the children's names, incredible for an organisation that claims its current actions are all about preserving identity. OT did not treat the children we cared for as people and their needs were at the bottom of the pecking order.
Brigid I didn't see the story. What was the basis for these children being removed from their parents? Am keen to know.
Accept people will disagree with my point of view vehemently as is their right to do.
I don't think it is a cop out to say I don't expect them to always get things right. The reality is they are dealing with very emotional extreme situations and all the time they are having to make their best judgements, knowing if it goes wrong, their head is on the block.
Little New Zealand — perhaps the only place in the world that has suffered isolation and the tyranny of distance more than Australia — has repeatedly jumped out of its comfort zone and changed direction harder, faster and for longer than Australia has done in the past half-century.
Long before Australians noticed Ardern, its leaders were deregulating the economy more radically, cutting tax rates further, standing their ground for a more independent foreign policy against the United States and against the French over their nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The way New Zealanders run their politics is different too.
Yes, my partner brought it to my attention. She found the video on the Christchurch boys haka especially moving. Even made her a little homesick she said
I'm used to framing us pretty negatively and with reason,
That reminds me of a story from my teenage years. Dad worked for a company headquartered in Melbourne and made a trip over once for a big meeting. (This was back when that kind of business travel was rare.)
Anyhow he gets back home and at dinner that evening Mum asked him about the trip and mostly it went quite well he said, "but those bloody Australians, they treat us New Zealanders like we, … we treat the Cook Islanders!"
Australia has worse social problems in every area imo.
Their racism is awful. I like Australia but Aussies ??? Compared to the Right Wing in Australia, ours is mannerly lol.
Mind you neither set of ‘pollies’ stoop to throwing entrails along with insults.
Any situation involving high emotion is difficult. There are no absolutes.
Really? Australians are less inclined to be polite for it’s own sake, which kiwis can find a bit jarring, but on the whole I find the differences in race relations have more to do with intractable historic causes than any innate kiwi moral superiority.
Opinion piece on the wage subsidy and outcomes. Apart from wondering how Ryman healthcare qualified (I wouldn't have thought their sales would be down) a number of high profile paybacks have been made but there must be others who haven't bothered and who have had rebound sales trading etc so that the lockdown period was in the long run barely a blip.
The article suggests a one off levy – and this is money that the state has to repay – so perhaps Grant Robertson now needs to put some rules around his "high trust" model with the end of the 2021 financial year in sight. Perhaps some year on year sales and wages comparisons to determine who has actually suffered and needs the money and who has not. And maybe a subsidy threshold so under that mark only fraudulent claims are persued?
I've got no issue with Ryman claiming the subsidy. On 23/3/20 they would have been shitting, if covid had gone though their business like it was going through some age care in Europe and US they would have had a lot of customers gone and maybe a lot of facilities shut down, both would knock their cashflow.
Edmunds makes the point that the wage subsidy was to save jobs, but really it was to remove the financial imperative to go to work so the lockdown could be effective. So more about saving lives than jobs, at which it was very effective.
As for the businesses, and a few individuals I know of, that have in hindsight not needed the subsidy I think the court of public opinion will bring them to their senses. Briscoes paid it back pretty quickly once they saw where opinion was headed. I expect Ryman to follow. The pressure of public opinion will be much more effective than any moves Government may make.
I still don't see that Ryman would have had sufficient sales downturn. AFAIK they are elderly long term residential care so unless they had a massive death rate (not happened) and were unable to refill the spaces vacant then the only other loss would be some delayed sales on brand new builds. But the cost of the sales delay for them is some interest on a temporarily lowered cash flow. Yes they could have had the high death outcome of overseas but they didn't and indeed NZ has not had the usual end of winter death spike among the elderly so customer life generally has been extended. Yes I know it was sensible to take it and see how things panned out. But have they had the upside and it doesn't look like the funds are coming back.
The selfish from Ryman and Sommerset actually doesn't look too far behind. Guess it is probably time to identify any pension fund and ACC super fund type investors and get them to exert a bit of pressure. A nice hack at the upper level wages should generate enough for repayment. Time to buy a few shares and pass some motions at the AGM
Personally I am just hanging out till January, so that everyone hopefully stops going on and on and on about Trump, and have to think of another topic to turn every thread into.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Aaron Maté: Why Even Under Biden Russiagate Will NEVER Die
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBHX-Htccds
Of course this extends to New Zealand main stream media lead by RNZ, who have taken to parroting any old shit that comes their way with gusto….never ever once correcting or following up with new updates which spoil their narrative ( propaganda).
Just witness the shameful silence from all NZ media on the public destruction of Assange to really understand exactly how deeply embedded and complete manufacturing consent has entrenched itself into our media…..not even RNZ's Media Watch will even mention this one, so who's left to keep citizens informed?… .
Fake news and/or withheld news ( both as dangerous as each other) is real alright, but it originates from MSM just as much as it does from social and fringe media…but then I guess at the end of the day, everyone has their own ideology they are pushing, RNZ just as much as the next guy…still it’s sad to see it being so blatant.
Dead right adrian RNZ news is Pathetic and nine times out of ten sourced either from CNN or BBC which kinda explaines why no news about Assange !!.I think they do have reporters but perhaps no computers ?Personally i hate their whole business model with a few exceptions theyre supposed to be free to air but the station is run like any standard commercial one with every second accounted for WTF ??.Aarron Mate is a god send to cynical bastards like me and id reccomend anyone not familier with his work to check out his interview with his old man whos pretty cool in his own right also as a starter.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/another-cannabis-referendum-vote-proposed-on-decriminalisation/Q6YZC5DRLAUMRE2PVMAPERH5BQ/
Confess I haven't actually read the link you posted, as I don't really care either way, wold probably vote yes to that.
But
This is what the original referendum should have been imo. Would have breezed through. And then they could have opened up a bit after.
One of those cases of trying for too much, too soon for the public at the election and getting your arse kicked.
Should have been a range of options, to be ranked STV, style.
And Labour should have front footed the reasons and evidence behind the options.
Instead of leaving the hard work to the Greens.
Leaving media propagandists to explain it, , as the remaining journalists in NZ media can be counted on one hand, was a failure of commitment.
I assume you mean failure of commitment from Labour, yes?
Making it a referendum in the first place was a lack of commitment. Thanks, Winnie.
I don't really care either way as I'm not in to cannabis myself. We had the vote, and > 50% said "No" so IMO, we accept democracy and move on, even though it was close and it didn't have the outcome we wanted / expected.
it's a different question.
Indeed. The one that should have been asked in the first case.
+1
+2
Do you know the reasons why the other option was chosen? There are compelling reasons.
Presumably they thought it would pass.
Which I would have thought would have been the starting point.
You don't think that creating good law should be the starting point for Members of Parliament?
Yes I do. Which is what happened with right to die, with well thought out law coming out of it, which was passed, depending on the referendum.
But in this case we are talking about a non binding referendum question and not a law.
The Greens pushed to do it that way. Instead we had a draft bill. But that is really beside the point.
But a draft bill doesn't mean much at all as it can change significantly going through the parliamentary process.
Seymour had the right process, take the proposal through Parliament, have it submitted on debated so it gets well publicised, and then take it to referendum if parliament hasn't got the fortitude to pass it outright.
It would have been interesting to see the outcome if both proposals had gone through the same process, either way. I suspect that Seymour's initial bill would have failed had it been put to referendum before it went through parliament too.
afaik the rationale for legalisation rather than decriminalisation for personal possession was because legalisation allowed for legal control over production, access to cannabis for disabled and unwell people who couldn't otherwise access it, way better health care and health promotion, and would drop the conviction rate for Māori who are over represented in charges due to systemic racism (lives destroyed).
There really is a big difference between legalisation and decriminalisation.
The yes and undecided vote was strong enough to warrant going for the full thing. It was always going to require education. I completely agree that covid has been a factor, negatively impacting on the Yes campaign's ability to do that educating.
The article says "He (Bouma) has not yet discussed the proposed referendum with Green Party drug reform spokesperson Chloe Swarbrick or any other MP."
I wonder if Swarbrick will tell him, "OK, Bouma!"
The decriminalisation option was presented to Cabinet along with the chosen option.
It was immediately discounted on the ground there would remain an illicit supply.
The chosen option made it a choice option with a guaranteed legal supply rather than an addiction reduction health issue that had been the previous focus of the Greens and Drug Foundation.
Too late now.
As I say.
The actual one asked was obviously too much.
If cabinet "immediately discounted" the decriminalise option, they might want to have a rethink about priorities.
Yes you've said that three times now so you can stop bleating. If it hadn't been for covid disrupting campaigning the thing probably would have passed.
a) I don't have to stop "bleating" about anything, especially when it is so obvious.
b) Blaming Covid for a dumb question is a cop out.
[When you repeat your own words often enough and start to be believe them it’s called ‘smoking your own dope’ and when you demonstrate that repeatedly in your comments it’s called ‘bleating’. None of your bleats addresses the points made by NOEL @ 3 and solkta @ 3.1.1. and it is just another of your reading fails here, which is becoming an issue. This is your warning – Incognito]
+1
lol
Given how close the result was it wasn't obvious at all. What is obvious is your bleating.
I think you are confusing not being obvious to you personally, while everyone else who was actually looking at polls before the actual question was published noticed it wouldn't win, if they went full legal.
[Really? What does the term “full legal” actually mean in this context? Sounds like a red herring to me. And what polls are you referring to? For your convenience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_New_Zealand_cannabis_referendum#Polling. Should they have pulled the referendum when ‘the polls’ showed that it was “so obvious” that “it wouldn’t win”? Sounds like a thing Trump would do/say: stop the counting, I’ve won! Your comments are becoming more and more like tedious trolling – Incognito]
Polls were all over the place. "Full legal" would be available to all ages next to broccoli in the supermarket. There were many models to choose from. Decriminalisation can also mean any number of things. Until the question was formulated it could not be asked.
Which is nowhere close to what was proposed.
See my Moderation note @ 12:03 PM.
See my Moderation note @ 10:28 AM.
Forgive me for having a personal opinion on the daily open mike thread.
You have a history of being pretty much the only mod on here with a personal thing against my opinions, even on open mike, which I thought was a bit more open.
As you are the only one that seems to feel the need to give me warnings or bin me for a few comments you disagree with.
All good. It is your prerogative.
I apologise if anything I have said about weed offended you, while adding, I have not been offensive to anyone, said bad words, or even tried to be argumentative, besides saying my point of view. on what is supposed to be the open mike section.
If it helps I wont post anything to do with the topic after this.
.
Briefly, it is not personal, it is not about disagreeing with you, it is not about me being offended by you, and it is not about weed. All red herrings. If you cannot or won’t back your opinions with evidence and robust argument, for example and particularly when you assert “especially when it is so obvious”, you’re straying in moderation territory. You’ve been around here long enough to know how it works and your ‘response’ frankly is pathetic.
Other commenters disagree with you and you refuse to engage with them in good faith. Instead, you bleat.
You have not addressed even one point I made in my Moderation note just as you don’t address issues raised by other commenters unless it suits you. Maybe it is a reading/comprehension problem maybe it is that you don’t want to but these are hallmarks of a wannabe-troll.
You’re wasting Moderator time now and apologising for things that don’t matter is meaningless and irrelevant and even though it possibly shows that your intentions are not those of a wannabbe-troll, the impact is the same 🙁
I hope the answer to your question is self-evident.
" If it hadn't been for covid disrupting campaigning the thing probably would have passed."
Can I use your logic to have the General Election re-run in a few months?
After all " If it hadn't been for covid disrupting campaigning" the National Party would probably have got more than 50% of the seats.
Makes just as much sense as your proposal doesn't it?
If National + Act had had scored 49% of the vote then yes that statement would be sensible too.
No
Agree Alwyn. I am not sure what Covid had/s to do with the poll on Cannabis. Are we going to blame Covid on all sorts of unrelated issues?
The issue is a dead duck now.
The Govt has far more important issues to deal with than what is basically a lifestyle/leisure choice. You know things such as poverty, housing, energy costs undoing vestiges of neoliberalism such as employment contracts.
Policing has for many years(since the mid 80s to my knowledge) not concentrated on possession per se. It becomes an issue for Police when put together with issues such as burglary, growing for supply etc.
As long as medicinal cannabis is allowed to be grown, marketed and used more than is currently the case (price & supply) then I am happy to leave another vote for leisure activities for another day.
There was a national road trip campaign that was cancelled at time of the first lockdown that never went ahead. Effective campaigning on a complex issue requires complex discussions with voters, and these happen best face to face. Right wing groups opposed however just needed to break out all the old slogans and misinformation. Groups in favour had less money and the types of campaigning available suited those who had money.
"There was a national road trip campaign that was cancelled".
So? After all there was a National Party campaign launch that had to be cancelled because the Labour Government brought in a second lock-down that started just before the date of the launch.
The Labour Party had already had their launch when the lock-down was put in place.
Your knowledge needs refreshing.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/mv07b9-Cannabis-offences-jun2020-v1.0.xlsx
https://www.justice.govt.nz/justice-sector-policy/research-data/justice-statistics/data-tables/
Those are actually quite interesting stats.
Everybody who voted in the Referendum should have informed himself or herself about what they were voting on. There is/was plenty of good data and information out there for those who looked for it. There is/was also plenty of mis- and dis-information out there for those who wanted it, for whatever reason or agenda.
I cannot open many of these files. In any case I have obviously not explained myself. I am talking about an earlier stage than the decision to charge with an offence. Unless you have tables on the use of Police discretion then the tables will not show the concept I am talking about.
I am not saying there were no charges of possession. I am saying police often exercise a discretion on whether or not to charge and one of these involves possession of small amounts of cannabis for own use where this is the only thing the person could be charged with. If this were not the case then the Police could be knocking on the doors of many households on Saturday night to check dinner party guests or hosts.
Possession charges coming to Police notice often go hand in hand with other charges as disorderly conduct (ie smart alec comments, unruly gatherings etc) or driving offences. They might find that a search of a vehicle after someone has come to their attention with unruly conduct/possession of a stash on cannabis on their person that in fact they have cannabis for supply, holding instruments of burglary. So the suspicion of possession is not followed up but the more serious crimes are. Or possession is bundled up along with the more serious crimes.
So it also falls into the category usually of a ‘public’ crime and the usual stereotypes about policing people who spend large amounts of time in public as opposed to the dinner party example above.
In high number crime scenes ie where there is rioting or other militancy that could go either way violently it would be lacking in nous/discretion for Police to suddenly wade in to arrest people for possession, even though it may be evident that this is happening.
There is a police term called 'cuffing' that describes this to an extent. Though perhaps better described as 'potential' crimes than as 'reported' crimes as this happens after the crimes are committed but before someone is charged.
Cuffing: The under-recording of reported crimes, the term being derived from the magician’s art of making objects disappear up the sleeve or cuff (Young 1991) (wiki)
Police often will work against giving a discretion as in the much vaunted broken windows campaigns.
'The broken windows theory (wiki) is a criminological theory that states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behaviour, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes.'
So in cases where people committing minor street crime might have been given a warning or a caution or nothing are followed up with the full weight of the law behind them.
I have academic quals in the field and have no reason to doubt the research/knowledge about the use of Police discretion generally, to go for the most serious crime/s in preference to more minor ones.
There is one sheet which shows imprisonment just for the charge of possession without and with other charges, which is interesting how much the former is going down.
Imprisonment just on possession of weed and no other crimes
2010 – 176
2020 – 16
Added it to their other charges
2010 – 717
2020 – 457
Think it is safe to say the cops are using discretion unless you have other violent charges to go with it
Thanks for these figures. Not sure why I could not open them. Doesn't have to be violent charges though…just more serious in the scheme of things.
Fair call about the violent. Just assumed. Which is admittedly dumb, on my part.
Excellent, that makes you the most qualified of us to provide those “tables on the use of Police discretion” that you asked for in the first paragraph of your comment.
What Police concentrate on and how they use discretion are not quite the same thing, are they? As someone with academic qualifications you’d know to avoid ambiguity, don’t you?
Unfortunately, it becomes rather pointless to discuss this further with you, as you cannot seem to open a basic webpage of the Ministry of Justice nor an Excel file with very useful data!?
Perhaps you can elaborate on the broken window theory in the context of the disproportional charging and convicting of Māori and Pacific Peoples? There wouldn’t be systematic and institutional bias here, do you think? It was one of the arguments in favour of the failed Referendum, IIRC.
I couldn't open the spreadsheets in Open Office. I assume this is because they are XL documents and Microsoft deliberately make these only openable in the recent versions of their program. It really fucks me off when Crown agencies supply stuff in file formats that are not universal. They could simply save them as a CSV file to be universal.
My bad, I assumed, wrongly, it seems, that most people with a device can open these files.
The Excel file is a *.xlsx file.
There are ways to open such files without having Microsoft Office installed but I agree that another file format would make things easier. One size does not fit all.
csv files don't have the functionality of .xlsx files. In particular, I think multiple tabs might be an issue.
Open office should be able to import .xlsx files, simply because like it or not excel is still ubiquitous and having an amazing programme that nobody else can talk to is useless. It might be more complex than simply trying to open them though.
At home, I use Libreoffice (which was basically open office but there were some corporate/IP shenanigans so many of the open source crowd upped stakes and made a new program).
Yes they are different. I was using the broken windows campaign as an example where a previous discretion by Police had changed to enforcement.
You can get an idea of police use of discretion by looking at the figure that Chris T provided. These show an exercise of Police discretion in single offences relating to possession of cannabis. I am not sure you would ever get tables on police discretion, rating as it does up with intuition and 'feelings' about a situation. (My comment was a bit tongue in cheek) And I am certain that a person who has had the police discretion in their favour (say on close orange/red light offence) is not going to say 'pick me, pick me and record all about me.' Warnings that are given and noted are a step up.
Well the broken windows theory is not so much relevant. This is to illustrate that concentrating on lesser offences rather than using a discretion not to charge, may stop more serious offences occurring later.
The concept that is relevant to the disproportionate charging of Maori and Pacific Peoples is the concept of public offences.
Offences committed by people in public are much easier to police than offences committed in private. People who by circumstance are forced to live their lives in the public eye are more likely to be seen, charged etc with offences. Public order/disorder offences such as fighting, urinating in public. drinking in public, frequenting public places for partying etc, right down to the wholesale littering by the visiting Gypsy family that raised hackles.
People who have access to large emptyish houses or sections in which to party, including to commit cannabis offences, are much less likely to come to the attention of the Police than people who have no places to meet as young people so they meet in parks etc.
These public activities, particularly those where people are unruly are more likely to result in attention from the Police. If there are multiple other offences taking place then the Police may overlook (use discretion) single possession of cannabis offences but then equally include them on a charge sheet if there are multiple other offences being committed.
There were concerns from time to time about the Police lack of focus on white collar crime and on domestic violence (not traditionally public offences) – behind closed doors. Both took public campaigns before they were concentrated on and before the discretion that Police sometimes exercised not to charge the people involved in domestic violence offences were dispensed with. Police now charge even though in older times if the people showed a level of contrition they were not.
Apart from the concept of public or private offences, the whole question of Maori/Pacific peoples offending is similar to why the
health stats
education stats
employment/unemployment stats
for these of our citizens also of concern.
Public offences also spill over into offences against uninvolved others such as unprovoked assaults against passersby, damage to the property of others.
I am not convinced that a successful Cannabis referendum result and follow-up per se would have lessened the offences that people are charged with, bearing in mind that possession is picked up and added or used as a gateway to investigate other more serious offences.
Public order/disorder offences without cannabis would still catch people. Carrying more than enough for personal use would still trigger investigations into possible more serious crimes. Public order/disorder offences are public, are seen and there are economic, health, education reasons why people are living their social lives in public.
"If it hadn't been for voters seeing National's, and Labours, true colours during covid, without the usual right wing PR spin/lies, National would have won".
Fixed it for you.
National lost many of their normal votes because Conservatives like to feel safe. National promising to open the borders to thousands of students, cheap workers and tourists, with private isolation, made them feel, rightly, unsafe!
"Fixed it for you."? What on earth do you mean. You changed it to say something else but you didn't "fix" anything.
It meant they kindly fixed your comment; they cannot fix you 😉
We'll have another election in a few years.
When is cannabis law reform schduled for popular review again? Oh, it's not? Might as well do it whenever people want, then.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/123491058/somebodys-lying-anatomy-of-an-oranga-tamariki-uplift
finally an insight into the work of OT and how complex it is. So sick of everyone barking about the agency as if they are the problem rather than the appalling rates of child abuse that’s happening.
it really pisses me off to hear the media beat up about what’s going on. I have no idea about their ceo and how competent she is or otherwise. What I can say about the many social workers I have met who work there is they are passionate about the children, compassionate towards the families, some of whom are perpetrators and committed to their jobs. Do they always get things right? Hell no! This article illustrates the complexities of what they are dealing with, the knife edge of the judgment calls they have to make. They also run the risks of being targeted by dysfunctional family members on online forums, including receiving death threats.
maybe Maori would do better running the agency, but there is no evidence to support this. Sometimes people think there are really simple answers to very serious complex issues.
I realise many will disagree with my perspective and want to blame the problems on racism or a non NZder ceo of OT.
anyway rant over for today
fina
Reading through, here are the questions that come up for me:
(that btw Anker is institutional racism. If the situation was in Samoa, that problem wouldn’t exist. Can you see how the dominant culture is failing this child, family and community from a non-Pākehā culture?)
what is the background here? Why is there no emergency foster care set up *before the first visit? I'm also raising my eyebrows that the medical people didn't pick up the extent of the bruising, but it's not clear if the other bruising happened after the A & E visit. These are systemic issues. I don't blame Oranga Tamariki here particularly, I do hold successive govts to account, as well as the NZ public who vote in govts that run these systems so badly and that insist on putting money ahead of child welfare. Again, systemic racism.
Really?
Do you have any idea about just how fucking resource stretched these organisations are?
Or the hoops folk are required to jump through to be even considered for any caring role?
Or how many would-be carers are manifestly unfit to be even left alone with a child?
Or how many children are re-traumatised by their foster care experiences?
/
Agree 100% Joe90 re foster care.
The family that take the kids in, an aunty, are offered financial support via OT and WINZ. I don't know what OT are like in that regard, but WINZ is often a nightmare, logistically and culturally (WINZ culture). They're the last organisation I would suggest a stressed family should have to engage with.
The father will be visited by the police, probably charged and convicted. Will he lose his job? Go to prison? There needs to be a holding to account of him and the mother, as well as prevention and roads to redemption, but this is truly ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff with the potential to damage many lives long term. If we had culturally appropriate systems, then I do believe that we would have far better ways of dealing with situations like. Not perfect, but better, because Māori and Pacifika place people at the centre of the ways they organise their societies.
It's also obvious here about the interconnected nature of the issues, and ambulances at the bottom of the cliff may or may not be doing their best but they're just not equipped to deal with whole systems in a good way.
I don't actually care about the blaming so much as I care that our critiques make us look long and hard at what kind of society we want. Mostly I see Pākehā relatively ok with the state of things and that makes me incredibly sad.
This child could have ended up dead. He was hit (assaulted in anger).
There are consequences for having a child removed and the abuser could blame the child for the loss of a home, income or a criminal conviction. A child is never to blame for this. This is why children may never be returned to live with the abuser/s.
OT has clearly not been working for Maori for the last 70 years. 3 generations of being marginalised by a government agency.
The Royal Commission into the Abuse in Care is going to show the damage done to children due to organisational failure.
"Not perfect, but better, because Māori and Pacifika place people at the centre of the ways they organise their societies."
This gets said as if it is a truism. I'd suggest there is as much variety in the raising of children in both Maori and Pacifika communities as there is in European.
The tolerance and normalisation of violence (and other forms of abuse) is just part of that. Greed. violence, abuse, depravity are all traits that all humans share. Genetically we are all pretty much the same and all have the potential to behave in the same ways (accepting that there are genetic traits that increase propensity).
Every culture has/had it's notion of just violence – Maori and Pacifika included. The real question is whether non-violence is part of the desired modern culture. In those traditional ways, lore vs law, like in any culture there was both good and bad. Those aspects of traditional culture that were violent – do we accept them or reject them or are we simply pretending that they never existed?
Capitalism (and by virtue of capitalism colonialism) has deliberately and consciously broken down traditional structures and thought patterns and identity, has caused economic deprivation and hardship and loss of land.
This story reflects some of that – the expectation and normalisation of violence, the need to be tough and hard to be a real man, the expectation that as a matai he should be allowed to do whatever he wants, that because he belonged to a church it couldn't possibly be him doing this.
These aspects aren't that uncommon across all cultures in NZ, while also not common. Most families don't inflict this abuse on children regardless of culture.
Institutions, foster care, intervention – these things often failed anyone who was put in them. I had enough family through them to know that.
Mostly, because Pākehā see this as a non-Pākehā problem, which is not surprising.
https://orangatamariki.govt.nz/about-us/reports-and-releases/quarterly-report/care-and-protection-statistics/
Unfortunately, the penny doesn’t drop far enough [apologies for the bad pun] to realise and accept that contextual problems such as these need comprehensive contextual approaches to try improve matters.
Ok. Well maybe a Samoan speaking social worker, but that may be ill advised given the community networks in the Samoan community. Leave the s/w open to bias or pressure and back lash from the community. You are surely not suggesting all social worker speak Samoan? I am unclear what difference speaking to this father in Samoan would have made. He was violently abusing his son with a blunt instrument and lying about it, claiming it was racism from the s/w. I don't see that speaking Samoan was going to change that. Afterall this man is a criminal. Of the worse sort. Beating children. Sorry whatever you plight, no excuses. So many others face racism in NZ and are good parents and don't beat their kids or the wives for that matter. I guess you are not thinking that if the social workers had of spoken Samoan this guy would have fessed up and apologized.
My understanding is violence towards children was culturally sanctioned in Samoan families. I am not sure if that is changing.
I don't agree that the dominant culture is failing this child at all. School picked it up, so have done so sooner, but they got there, first dr missed it, likely working 12 hour shift in ED with dozens more patients to see, not good, but initially child was seen and assessed. Social workers, Pakeha by the looks made some very tough decisions, organised family conference, which shows good cultural inclusion. No I don't see that this is about the dominant culture failing this child. There were some mis steps which need looking into i.e first dr, first teacher, but other than that, the services did their job.
I hope the guy is getting some sort of treatment. He could have taken responsibility and got some for himself when he started beating his kids but he didn't. Unfortunately treatment for these offenders doesn't help everyone.
The on thing we do agree on is that it is very sad for the kids. I would say its disastrous for these kids.
Yup. We have a very close friend here in Australia who is a veteran in the social work arena. Very tough business for all concerned.
And the media should tread a lot more carefully on this. Beaten kids don't care much for adult ideologues.
Agree Red Logix.
Someone with some qualifications could do a post on the topic:
"Will The Ardern Era Make New Zealand Less Racist?"
Thankfully I don’t have those qualifications.
On the current trajectory, my unqualified opinion is “Yes” 🙁
Edit: aaarggghhh!! How could I get that wrong, FFS? I meant “No”.
For the duration of Covid perhaps.
The racist hiring policies of big Hort & big Ag are for the moment being postponed.
Folk with 20+ years of experience don’t end up mowing lawns if the game is being played straight.
I would say it is disastrous for these kids.
It is due to the limited life experience that children have and the power which adults have over them; and not just the caregivers.
I would like to see more research done on children who are now adults who were removed from their parent/s.
Also research done on the parent/s who had children removed.
First person accounts are very important in understanding how to cause the least harm.
Brigid I didn't see the story. What was the basis for these children being removed from their parents? Am keen to know.
Accept people will disagree with my point of view vehemently as is their right to do.
I don't think it is a cop out to say I don't expect them to always get things right. The reality is they are dealing with very emotional extreme situations and all the time they are having to make their best judgements, knowing if it goes wrong, their head is on the block.
It was an article at Newsroom but "These stories have been temporarily removed after the High Court granted an interim injunction restraining Newsroom from publishing them."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/oranga-tamariki-investigation
The children, all of Maori decent were put with an English foster couple over two years ago. There was no family available to take them. The arrangement was termed a 'forever home'. Oranga Tamariki, in their wisdom decided to up lift the kids after two years because they claimed the foster parents weren't culturally inappropriate or some such. All 3 were under 6, one had been with the foster parents since birth.
That was an awful story. To uplift children at a moment's notice when they had bonded to their "forever" family. By all means introduce them to their birth family so they know where they come from, but to do it like that shows what a bunch of little Hitlers run the outfit.
Then to put on their jackboots and kick the journos in the teeth for telling the story… the sooner they get their marching orders the better.
This is about welfare and stability for little ones who had never known love and care before. It matters not the colour of their skins nor that of their loving care-givers.
Unless you believe this was the first time the child was beaten (I don't) then obviously society *has failed this child, family and community. It failed to prevent the abuse. Abuse doesn't happen in a vacuum, and treating it as solely the responsibility of the abuser is why we end up with ambulance systems instead of ones that build wellbeing.
"I don't see that speaking Samoan was going to change that."
Well for a start, the social worker would have been able to understand the threats being made to the child in her presence. In terms of the abuse dynamics explained in the article, that is huge for the wellbeing of the child.
"Well maybe a Samoan speaking social worker, but that may be ill advised given the community networks in the Samoan community. Leave the s/w open to bias or pressure and back lash from the community."
Are you suggesting that Samoan social workers are more susceptible to bias? Because I haven't seen you suggest that Pākehā social workers shouldn't have Pākehā clients.
There is a such a wide gap between the framing you are using, and the framing that is available via cultural approaches that all I can say is that I think you are missing a *very large part of the picture. Until you understand those issues and dynamcis I can see why you would end up with the position you have currently.
It's not even my area but I can see the many, many things that failed before the first visit to the doctor, and I can see why they failed. Until you are able to recognise those things, or even acknowledge that you don't know what they are (no shame there, many don't) the conversation will remain centred on the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, which means that the kids have already been pushed off. I'm saying we can stand at the top of the cliff and start walking away from it. We can keep the ambulances in place of course, and in time we will need less of them there.
also wanted to add, that in the context of Māori and stories of 'uplifting' children and OT, those are very different stories than the one you presented here. So let's also acknowledge that OT deal with a range of situations, some of which they get right, some they get wrong, and lots in between.
Weka, I don't believe that this was the first time the child was beaten and the article indicated that.
I may be missing a part of the picture. I am speaking more up close and personal, although I cannot reveal how (except to say I have never worked for OT).
I also have a very close circumstance where a Maori baby was removed and adopted by a very close friend of mine. The abuse this child suffered was horrific unthinkable. This little girl is now an adult and at least had the benefit of a loving kind family. We were told to understand that whanau had no interest in this child and it seemed very much the case when over the years big efforts were made to connect the girl to the family.
I also know from the Dunedin study that violence in adults is due to a combo of genes and environment.
What are the many things that failed before the first visit to the Dr?
I must say that I am writing this with quite a bit of emotion as I see OT getting trashed and trashed over and over again and having known a number of their social workers well it makes me cross. The best people who really care about the children are compassionate towards the caregivers and try very hard to do their best. I hate seeing the pile on that is going on now.
I have to say I put the father in the article in the same category as the guy who killed Grace Millane, Talleys who exploit their workers so badly (although he is a psychopath I am sure).
Yes of course racism and homelessness are major social stresses that add to people being violent. My understanding certainly from the literature of violence towards female partners is that there is situational violence (joblessness, financial stress etc that lead to violence) and then characterlogical violence, ie. people with narcissistic, anti social etc personality disorders. And then of course there is the role of alcohol and drugs. These are complex issues. My heart goes out to the children, but the perpertraters, not so much.
"Do they always get things right? Hell no! "
The cop out that's always trotted out.
The lastest article by Melanie Read shows that abuse of the children was NOT the reason they were removed from the couple, though OT did manufacture a story that convinced the court to allow for the kids to be removed.
I disagree with your take vehemently.
Where is the Reed article found.
Family violence is also linked to the housing crisis. Some partners would leave with the children if they had some where to go other than a refuge. Maybe the way refuges are run need to change. People need their privacy and shared services are not ideal. Units like in a motel with a support worker and security.
I also feel that legal aid needs to be made available so a person does not need to battle with an agency/service on their own when it comes to family violence and the removal of children.
Funny you should ask: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/crown-asks-court-to-remove-newsroom-video
It is Melanie Reid, not Read or Reed.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/about
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/its-all-about-agendas
Brigid I didn't see the story. What was the basis for these children being removed from their parents? Am keen to know.
Accept people will disagree with my point of view vehemently as is their right to do.
I don't think it is a cop out to say I don't expect them to always get things right. The reality is they are dealing with very emotional extreme situations and all the time they are having to make their best judgements, knowing if it goes wrong, their head is on the block.
A more thoughtful read from the Australian perspective than usual:
Nothing on the SCV inequality. No surprise there.
As a SCV444 myself, if I can look past that to the points the article does make, then maybe you could too.
OK but for a "chief political correspondent" she may have identified the obvious political differences.
No two Houses and no States to complicate matters.
Cheers Red that was good.
I'm used to framing us pretty negatively and with reason, but it's still good to see us observed from Australia with more patience than usual.
Yes, my partner brought it to my attention. She found the video on the Christchurch boys haka especially moving. Even made her a little homesick she said
I'm used to framing us pretty negatively and with reason,
That reminds me of a story from my teenage years. Dad worked for a company headquartered in Melbourne and made a trip over once for a big meeting. (This was back when that kind of business travel was rare.)
Anyhow he gets back home and at dinner that evening Mum asked him about the trip and mostly it went quite well he said, "but those bloody Australians, they treat us New Zealanders like we, … we treat the Cook Islanders!"
Australia has worse social problems in every area imo.
Their racism is awful. I like Australia but Aussies ??? Compared to the Right Wing in Australia, ours is mannerly lol.
Mind you neither set of ‘pollies’ stoop to throwing entrails along with insults.
Any situation involving high emotion is difficult. There are no absolutes.
Their racism is awful.
Really? Australians are less inclined to be polite for it’s own sake, which kiwis can find a bit jarring, but on the whole I find the differences in race relations have more to do with intractable historic causes than any innate kiwi moral superiority.
What are you thinking of (I'm figuring it must be more than the English colonialism our nations share)?
Opinion piece on the wage subsidy and outcomes. Apart from wondering how Ryman healthcare qualified (I wouldn't have thought their sales would be down) a number of high profile paybacks have been made but there must be others who haven't bothered and who have had rebound sales trading etc so that the lockdown period was in the long run barely a blip.
The article suggests a one off levy – and this is money that the state has to repay – so perhaps Grant Robertson now needs to put some rules around his "high trust" model with the end of the 2021 financial year in sight. Perhaps some year on year sales and wages comparisons to determine who has actually suffered and needs the money and who has not. And maybe a subsidy threshold so under that mark only fraudulent claims are persued?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300168847/wage-subsidy-was-never-meant-to-line-rich-pockets
I've got no issue with Ryman claiming the subsidy. On 23/3/20 they would have been shitting, if covid had gone though their business like it was going through some age care in Europe and US they would have had a lot of customers gone and maybe a lot of facilities shut down, both would knock their cashflow.
Edmunds makes the point that the wage subsidy was to save jobs, but really it was to remove the financial imperative to go to work so the lockdown could be effective. So more about saving lives than jobs, at which it was very effective.
As for the businesses, and a few individuals I know of, that have in hindsight not needed the subsidy I think the court of public opinion will bring them to their senses. Briscoes paid it back pretty quickly once they saw where opinion was headed. I expect Ryman to follow. The pressure of public opinion will be much more effective than any moves Government may make.
I still don't see that Ryman would have had sufficient sales downturn. AFAIK they are elderly long term residential care so unless they had a massive death rate (not happened) and were unable to refill the spaces vacant then the only other loss would be some delayed sales on brand new builds. But the cost of the sales delay for them is some interest on a temporarily lowered cash flow. Yes they could have had the high death outcome of overseas but they didn't and indeed NZ has not had the usual end of winter death spike among the elderly so customer life generally has been extended. Yes I know it was sensible to take it and see how things panned out. But have they had the upside and it doesn't look like the funds are coming back.
Ryman trousered $14.2 million in wage subsidies and kept it despite paying out $44m in dividends from 'underlying profit'. Here are the people who thought that was OK: https://www.rymanhealthcare.co.nz/about-us/investors/governance
Comparison with other local operators:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123488989/critics-urge-ryman-healthcare-to-repay-the-142m-wage-subsidy
The selfish from Ryman and Sommerset actually doesn't look too far behind. Guess it is probably time to identify any pension fund and ACC super fund type investors and get them to exert a bit of pressure. A nice hack at the upper level wages should generate enough for repayment. Time to buy a few shares and pass some motions at the AGM
heh
https://djtrumplibrary.com/
Great!
Personally I am just hanging out till January, so that everyone hopefully stops going on and on and on about Trump, and have to think of another topic to turn every thread into.