The Herald front page screams ‘Russian serial killer.’
Any excuse to recreate the fear and hatred of the Cold War.
Shameful.
Just another reminder that a real people’s government should seize control of the narrative from the plutocrats.
This tinkering crew will do too little for fear of offending the capitalists.
And no, I did not buy it and did not click on it.
Saw the headline on a paper lyiing ona table in a cafe.
Russian authorities hunting a serial killer asked New Zealand police to search their DNA database in a bid to catch the dangerous and wanted murderer.
Y’know, yes, there’s a whole lot of simplistic “black and white”, and “with us or agin us” bullshit going on in the world today.
But jumping up on a chair and getting all arm wavy on the flimsiest of contexts or (in this case) a completely bogus context is just …why fcking do that?
That the NZH wants to recreate the fear and hatred of the Cold War? Nope, I think that’s just more addled gobshite. That the NZLP won’t do the things he wants? Maybe so, but since the things he wants are motivated by addled gobshite, that’s hardly surprising.
If you think my views on inequality, taxes, obesity, housing, transport, health and education are ‘gobshite’, or ‘steaming drivel’, then you clearly are not left wing.
When a Blairite insults me, I wear it as a badge of honour.
Probably most relevant Russian story today is not Ed’s little piece but that another anti Putin journalist and former Russian parliamentary candidate Oles Bunyan has been murdered in Kiev Probably nothing to do with russua though, suggest it was the British ( sarc)
While the meth cirus reigns on TV today; – look what the Government is pushing forward at the same time as they threw the ‘distraction’ of meth at us!!!!
Did they think we would not see them shifting to ‘a thumbs up to CPTPP???????
We are being played big time now folks sadly.
Our verbal submission was 10 minutes last week and we are bitterly disapointed they did not even add any protectins we advocated for.
When will Labour/National /NZF appologise to NZ, after the new cases of other disease comes here after their final rush to pass the final report to Parliament simnce the phoney “select Committee to review the TPTPP” was hoisted on us all as a “diversion” while their intent was to pass this toxic trade agreement as it already was???
Chair Simon O’Connor (National MP) said he believed the CPTPP is o/k; – as is????
Even though us and a lot of other submitters warned him and his committee that they will be setting us up for more “micro-plasma bovis” events.
The submitters said they should include a clause be added to the ISDS agreement to allow in all cases Government contracts or with other parties allowing local/state governments and other parties to encourage Government to pass regulations to protect NZ citizens and the environment against foreign activities in NZ that may damage their future economic, environmental, health, and well-being after the trade agreement will be enacted in 2019.
‘Editored’ section involving environmental protection and no change from draft report originally proposed in march 2018.
(Chair Simon O’Connor said he believed the CPTPP is o/k; – as is????)
COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP)
Page; 5
Summary of issues discussed with submitters
Many submitters, notably those opposed to the CPTPP, believe that the changes from the
TPP do not substantively address their concerns. They consider that the CPTPP is
effectively the same as the TPP.
Investor-State dispute settlement and sovereignty
We discussed some submitters’ concerns about the effect the CPTPP would have on the
sovereign rights of New Zealanders to determine their own future through an elected
Parliament. In particular, these submitters consider that the ISDS provisions unnecessarily
empower and protect international investors.
Some submitters believe that the threat of substantial awards against governments is a
strong disincentive for the New Zealand Government to act in the interests of New
Zealanders when those interests conflict with those of CPTPP investors. Submitters consider
that this could have a chilling effect on the Government’s ability to make policy and regulate
in areas including labour law and the mitigation of climate change.
We also discussed the CPTPP’s relationship with New Zealand’s many international
obligations, including the Paris Agreement to address climate change, and the United
Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. We understand that this is problematic because
many of these obligations are not enforceable, but the CPTPP contains enforcement
mechanisms.
Two dispute settlement mechanisms in CPTPP
We understand that the CPTPP provides for two dispute settlement mechanisms: a
government-to-government system to resolve disputes in the agreement, and ISDS. The
ISDS mechanism provides for the settlement of disputes between foreign investors and the
Government of the country in which the investment is made.
Application of ISDS in CPTPP
In the CPTPP, ISDS only applies to the Investment chapter and limited investment-related
elements of the Financial Services chapter. The scope of the ISDS mechanism is narrower
that it was in the TPP. Claims are no longer permitted in relation to investment contracts and
COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP)
6
approval. This means that private companies which enter into an investment contract with
the Government would not be able to use ISDS if there were a dispute about that contract.
Decisions made under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 are also not subject to ISDS.
Suspensions around the minimum standard of treatment concerning financial services
further reduce the risk of successful claims under the CPTPP being taken against New
Zealand. The minimum standard of treatment is an obligation that forms part of the body of
customary international law, to accord fair and equitable treatment to covered investments,
and not to deny justice.
Once a treaty is entered into, it cannot be changed by any one state. So any submission to the New Zealand Parliament asking for that will necessarily fail.
It is basically an up and down vote. And there is zero chance (given the make up of the committee) that the select committee would recommend a down vote.
But I presume you knew all of this already, and your submission was merely another way of showing your opposition, rather than an expectation it would have actual effect.
However, presumably the Greens will put in a minority report covering your points.
“Once a treaty is entered into, it cannot be changed by any one state. So any submission to the New Zealand Parliament asking for that will necessarily fail.”
Different situation as the US, Canada and Mexico are in the middle of formal negotiations called to renegotiate NAFTA; whereas the CP TPP is now post the end of formal negotiations and sign off by all parties (countries) to the agreement and in the ratification stage where individual states are processing the agreement through their national legislative requirements for ratification.
Therefore, are we about to make the same costly mistake all over again?
As for the initial mistake (the low level adopted) should and will there be compensation for homeowners and others affected? Moreover, will heads roll?
“I lose count of the number of times that I questioned [Housing New Zealand] about it. To the point that I was told as a minister that I was on the edge of getting involved of day to day running of the technical issues of a crown entity,” Bennett said.
Seems Bennett is pointing the finger at HNZ, Robert.
In response to the recommendations, Housing Minister Phil Twyford has announced new standards and less stringent standards will be set for houses within the next year – with Housing NZ immediately changing its policy.
It appears ms Bennett wasn’t smart enough to translate her concerns into action as mr Twyford did. Mr Twyford needs to be congratulated on such a positive result.
Could be. Or it could be she lacked compelling evidence to back action being taken. Then again, she may of had the evidence and failed to act, therefore she would also be culpable.
Chairman, I also think you are a fake leftie, and it is your normal haughty, super-correct tone that prompts me to write this.
‘may of had’????
If Maori have the right to protect and promote their language ( as I believe they have) then you should try to avoid barbaric solecisms, and those who value our language should help you.
You may write either “may have” or “may’ve’ – but “may of” simply reflects badly upon all else that you write.
If you consistently strike a haughty, super-correct tone, please live up to it in your use of English.
However, in several news stories at the time Bennett and English said they approved of the Housing NZ regime.
English said the agency was “rightly taking a firm stance on the health risks posed by meth, and will continue to do so for as long as it is detected in its properties” in 2016.
And Bennett told Newshub in 2016 there was “no evidence” Housing NZ had evicted tenants unfairly.
Bennett, Chairman, was unable to effect the necessary change to an unjust situation affecting many New Zealanders? What was she there for???
Labour’s only been in a short while, yet the job is done! Tells the story…
Full kudos to them for commissioning this report and acting to make improvements.
However, the concern here is the rather conservative level HNZ has now adopted. We now risk repeating the same mistake again, unless the Government swiftly acts to correct this.
Additionally, a decent Government would see the injustice caused, therefore would willingly offer compensation to all those unfairly impacted. We are not seeing this from this Government.
Never satisfied, you. “Full kudos to them”, you say, then go on to qualify your praise, as you inevitably do, “good job, but …
Compensating for National’s fubar? Galling. Let’s wait till they own their actions then talk of compensation.
Satisfied risking repeating the same mistake all over again? Of course I’m not and nor should you be.
National aren’t going to own this, evident by their pointing the finger at HNZ.
We now have compelling evidence, therefore we know people have been unfairly treated. Hence, the current Government should be acknowledging this and offering compensation. At the least, announcing they are looking into it.
They are, of course, “looking into it”. Your attempts to read between the lines in order to find failure is … tiresome and your glossing-over/dismissal of National’s culpability is … expected.
paula bennet is so full of it and just covering her arse.
“However, in several news stories at the time Bennett and English said they approved of the Housing NZ regime.
English said the agency was “rightly taking a firm stance on the health risks posed by meth, and will continue to do so for as long as it is detected in its properties” in 2016.
And Bennett told Newshub in 2016 there was “no evidence” Housing NZ had evicted tenants unfairly.”
Bennett was on RNZ tonight saying she had real concerns about the meth testing and eviction of state house tenants,but even though she expressed concern to HNZ and other agencies,she was powerless to act.
From what I’ve seen it’s all about liability, we’re paying for the steady erosion of the ‘no fault’ ethos behind ACC.
The bureacrats and interested parties really don’t have a lot of choice in these matters. If something is said to be a risk then ignoring the risk leaves people open to future claims for damages. That looming liability threat pushes people to take extremely conservative measures. No-one goes to work to be sued or face criminal charges so people do everything they can to eliminate the risk of that happening.
As it transpired the meth threat was a bust but no-one was to know that for sure until it did transpire. People acted on the information available at the time and who can blame them for that. Sure, common sense said it was a gross overreaction but the law doesn’t give a rats arse about common sense does it.
To my mind the only culpable party is the Government of the day and, sadly, they can’t be sued or charged for their refusal to establish reasonable and proper meth testing standards.
The potential liability threat of taking an extremely conservative approach should have also been given far more consideration considering the massive costs and unnecessary stress it has caused.
Therefore, risk should be correctly established before levels are set and lives are thrown into disarray.
And while the Government of the day could well be culpable, just because they can’t be sued or charged doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get to the bottom of this.
Surely we’ll want to prevent similar from occurring again, thus we need to establish who was culpable and what went wrong.
You missed the point by some margin there. The risk to landlords was being sued or charged for any harm that might befall their tenants.
You can’t contract out of the law so creating your own testing standards would have been a foolish move, there’s no guarantees ‘the law’ would accept it. It was always for the Govt to set the standards. This Govt has shown how easy it was and one is left to wonder at the motives of the last Govt in refusing to do so.
What about the tenants who were evicted and more than likely incorrectly labelled by their communities or neighbours as P addicts? Don’t know about you, but if that happened to me I’d be devastated for myself and my children especially if one lived in a small community.
How many children have suffered as a result, did one parent find out that another parent had been evicted and then try and take their kids away from them as a result? That’s a very likely scenario.
Indeed, others were also impacted. As I have mentioned further up. And at this stage the Government hasn’t ruled out compensating them. But there has been no mention that I’ve heard of in regards to compensating homeowners that were also impacted.
I’m thinking we may now see class action suits similar to the leaky homes debacle.
Just as well there are some NZs now keeping an eye on housing and the government. Everyone in Britain in the Great Depression got worn out by the amount of deprivation. And it would be echoed here if we aren’t careful as we have brought the British callousness over with us as colonials and it has persisted over nearly two centuries.
This is a bit from George Orwell’s look at the homeless in Britain as in his book The Road to Wigan Pier from 1937.
[The wagon/caravan will contain] such furniture as can be crammed in – sometimes two beds, more usually one, into which the whole family have to huddle as best they can. It is almost impossible to sleep on the floor, because the damp soaks up from below. I was shown mattresses which were still wringing wet at eleven in the morning. In winter it is so cold that the kitcheners have to be kept burning day and night, and the windows, needless to say, are never opened.
Water is got from a hydrant common to the whole colony, some of the caravan-dwellers having to walk 150 or 200 yards for every bucket of water. There are no sanitary arrangements at all. Most of the people construct a little hut to serve as a lavatory on the tiny patch of ground….All the people I saw…especially the children, were unspeakably dirty…The thought that haunted me….was, What can happen in those cramped interiors when anybody dies? But that, of course, is the kind of question you hardly care to ask.
Some of the people have been in their caravans for many years. Theoretically the Corporation are…getting the inhabitants out into houses; but as the houses don’t get built, the caravans remain standing….one woman with a worn skull-like face… struggling to keep her large brood of children clean,…[must have felt as if] coated all over with dung.
One must remember that these people are not gypsies; they are decent English people who have all,,,had homes in their day.,,their caravans are,,,inferior to those of gypsies and they have not the…advantage of being on the move.
“On the contrary. They have shown that despite the info that has come to light, it’s still going to take the Government up to a year to set new levels.”
Be realistic. It’s a bit like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.
I believe the relevant Standard that HNZ and others have used as a reference is NZS 8510:2017. I’m not going to buy a copy just to have a look at it so I can’t comment on its content.
IIRC Standards are not of themselves statutory laws but one would be rather foolish to ignore them in pursuant of your own standards.
Those standards are developed with input from different parties, some with their own self-interests. I believe the science-oriented input to NZS 8510:2017 was somewhate looser than the end result.
Gosman, WTF has the politics of the reporter, as you imagine them, got to do with the demolition job that reporter did on the daft ideas of the ACT candidate?
Except of course, to deflect from the actual arguments raised by the reporter.
And to deflect from the daffiness of the ACT candidates ideas.
Play the ball, Gosman, not the man.
I note that NZ First had the wisdom to let go the candidate who was 38th on their list and who is now standing in Northcote for a Right-Wing Hansen style party. By-elections certainly bring out the dillies, the daffies and the daft.
There was no demolition job here. This is merely an opinion piece by a well known left leaning journalist. As such his political leanings are entirely valid when determining if his piece has any validity. It does not.
Gosman, if your sole or main determinant as to whether argument is correct is the political views of the writer, then what are you doing here on a left-wing blog?
I say there is a demolition job. I read the article.
The proposals of the ACT candidate in resurrecting 1972 proposals to advocate for a 6 lane highway through the myriad green spaces in Auckland were rightly ridiculed.
At the end, the writer said that a vote for this candidate is similar to voting for the anti-fluoride homeopathic candidate whose name appears next to the ACT candidate’s.
I note that the writer’s left wing views are the sole determinant for your dismissal of his arguments. You have not attempted to justify your belief that his views have no validity, have you?
If you want to have arguments why his opinion has no validity beyond his political bias (as well as showing why he has political bias) then look no further than his argument that the proposal is an old one. So what? Transmission Gully was first proposed back in the 1940’s or even earlier. It was still a good idea and one that the last National government took up in the past 5 years. The Rail loop in Auckland is also an old idea which seems to have merit. Trying to dismiss ideas because they are not original highlights the fact the author is scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of objections.
It looks like it goes directly through the Birkenhead Shopping Centre. That’s it folks. Your shops and mall will be gone. Never mind, you can drive to Glenfield or even Albany for your daily shopping commutes. 😡
And where are the shops and the mall going to go while it is being built? Whenever a tunnel is being built the topical landscape gets smashed to pieces and a small fortune is spent on rebuilding it at a much later date.
What Gluckman said was that there was no danger from houses where there has only been smoking/taking P. But Labs can leave far more dangerous chemicals. So what they have done is raise the level to where smoking/taking P will be eliminated. Only a lab is likely to leave more than the new limit. And in that case there could be more dangerous chemicals there.
My source, before you ask, Chairman, is my own fertile imagination working in conjunction with my amazing alcohol-enhanced powers of logic.
And if I turn out to be right, you will have wasted considerable time once again trying to sow doubt and dissension, won’t you, Chairman?
The report clearly states the most commonly used methods no longer use solvents. Therefore, the primary contaminant associated with manufacturing is methamphetamine itself.
So testing for methamphetamine alone would give no indication that other potentially harmful chemicals are present. Therefore, we risk creating unnecessary costs and harm all over again, albeit with a higher but still conservative standard.
Recently the Italian president vetoed the formation of an Italian government. This was because the proposed finance minister had previously looked at a proposal to exit the Euro, if needed. Its not the first time that the needs of the currency have overruled a democratic decision.
Now we need to look into the earthquake standards.
I’m not too sure about anyone else, but I’m not too comfortable with the idea of emptying buildings and letting them stand empty for years on end, and this practice needs looking into.
If our old state housing stock was largely multi-storey apartments built on reclaimed land, with unreinforced masonry and dodgy steel connections holding up heavy floors you might have a point. However I very much doubt it.
To clarify, the USA is happy to smash any country that doesn’t bow to the demands of its corporations, or attempts to defy the stranglehold of the petrodollar.
I am interested to see if your views on Venezuela gather much support amongst lefties here. I suspect not as Venezuela is now becoming a pariah nation and one to avoid mention at all costs for most mainstream leftists. It is only hard core ones like you that will be banging this particular drum.
Speak for yourself I always thought Venezuela was an economic nutcase country sustained largely by resource extraction.
I also could never quite understand the nutcase right wing droning on and on about it as being the epitome of what the ‘left’ thought as their fandom economy. My opinion was that was largely the right nutbars grabbing their crotch with excitement to build a meme about how the left ‘thinks’. Which appears to be what you are doing?
As you are aware, there is no monolithic left and never has been.
BTW: exactly the same economic issue or over indulgence in resource extraction is what I think is the same fundamental weakness in the NZ (and the aussie) economies as well as Venezuela .
However here the idiotic economic numb skulls who indulge in it appear to be largely from the right. They mine the soils, water and and different mineral resource rather than oil and put the benefits to their beneficiaries among the affluent rather than the poor. But it is exactly the same thing. Unsustainable stupidity indulged in for political reasons to benefit a group voting for selfish reasons. In our case by the National party.
Interesting view that I suspect will not be shared by the more extreme leftist on this site. As already evidenced by some the cause of the problems in Venezuela is not the narrow resource based extractive nature of it’s economy but the actions of the US taken against the Socialist government.
The opposition candidate Falcon issued a statement calling for a new election citing a low voter turnout as the reason. Only 48% of those eligible cast their vote but he forgot to mention that the opposition had called its supporters to boycott the elections and not to vote.
I haven’t seen anything of socialism in either Russia or China.
Venezuela was definitely getting worse under capitalism and the people now keep voting for socialism despite the capitalist attacks upon it from other countries so things must be better than before.
Russia was a socialist state. The author of this piece refers to communism, but try not to be confused:
“Gorbachev understood that the shabby socialist economy was incapable of sustaining a world power. Perestroika was introduced, and with it glasnost, a limited opening up of channels of criticism. Glasnost proved suicidal. The surrealism of Soviet society could not survive the light of criticism. Inevitably, the ideological house of cards erected by the Party propagandists and disseminated by foreign fellow-travelers over seven decades collapsed.” https://fee.org/articles/the-soviet-tragedy-a-history-of-socialism-in-russia-1917-1991-and-russia-under-the-bolshevik-regime/
“Venezuela was definitely getting worse under capitalism…”
I think not. But it can’t possibly have been any worse than it is now.
“adoption of an economic system that fails everywhere it is tried. It’s called socialism.”
Yeah, But I think the beneficiary Dairy Farmers including that dick who had the notice about Ardern are thankful at the “adoption” of a good old bit of Socialism
at the moment.
Interesting, So I take it then that as they were so grateful and are so “internationally competitive.” they will not take or need the generous benefit these pack of beneficiaries are getting from the government.
“They will be more thankful to the economic reforms of the 80’s and 90’s that made them internationally competitive.”
Also, that is bullshit as if I remember correctly there was nothing but winging how were they going to survive now all the export incentives were being stopped and the suspensory loans and tax avoidance schemes like having a swimming pool c/w Barbecue area “just in case of fire”
“So I take it then that as they were so grateful and are so “internationally competitive.” they will not take or need the generous benefit these pack of beneficiaries are getting from the government.”
That’s up to them. They have been the victims of a natural disaster beyond their control, a bit like the citizens of Christchurch. But then many businesses experience that and don’t get government aid.
“…as if I remember correctly there was nothing but winging how were they going to survive now all the export incentives were being stopped…”
Absolutely there was, and yet 35 years later we lead the world, and are selling our expertise to the world. Isn’t the market a wonderful thing.
Since the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis, the authorities have repeatedly told us there is no risk to human health from eating meat or milk from infected animals. They would say that wouldn’t they – got to keep the ‘confidence of the market’.
Now, a Massey University professor of food safety describes the disease as a *low* risk to humans. In time, I expect the risk deniers will obfuscate as scientific evidence mounts, in much the same way as the concerns over the A1/A2 milk proteins.
“Amateurs Talk Strategy, Professionals Talk Logistics”
Perhaps it is time for the government to evolve their policies with a mind open to the above quote.
Good morning The AM Show there is a good reasoning for ECO MAORI pushing for equality for the ladies it’s the fair thing to do ladies are more intelligent than men and humane it’s good to have Amanda on the show this raises the humanity and intelligence of the show.
You cannot see the flaws in locking people up for years 5000 Maori young men most who just need a bit of guidance who come from broken family created by this system no father to gide them set boundaries for them wake up you know they wanted to privatise Hospitals Prison school so what did national do the ran these to the ground and say the system in not working let’s privatise every thing like America . Duncan its is the justice system that failed to do there job of keeping the people who killed while on bail not the 5000 Maori men it’s not hard to observe people look at there history and identify the risky people and keep them in jail 1 persent of the 5000 50 mistake the justice system has made that’s a fact that’s what these civil servents get paid to do this is a logical way of thinking about this problem
Its is best to try the eradication route for this bovine virus this virus will effect beef farmers as well as dairy farmers. Culling of these cows should have started on the 1/1/2017 No then it would not have blown out to what we have now Ana to kai Ka kite ano
The AM Show there you go Simon Bridge using crime and scare tactics to try and raise his polling rates the same phenomenon that made the bovine virus blow out to this mess. If he really cared about Aotearoa he would work with labour greens to come to a intelligent humane solutions to OUR Prison population look at our scandernavion cousins empty prison.
Ka kite ano
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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 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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The Herald front page screams ‘Russian serial killer.’
Any excuse to recreate the fear and hatred of the Cold War.
Shameful.
Just another reminder that a real people’s government should seize control of the narrative from the plutocrats.
This tinkering crew will do too little for fear of offending the capitalists.
And no, I did not buy it and did not click on it.
Saw the headline on a paper lyiing ona table in a cafe.
Ed? pfft.
Y’know, yes, there’s a whole lot of simplistic “black and white”, and “with us or agin us” bullshit going on in the world today.
But jumping up on a chair and getting all arm wavy on the flimsiest of contexts or (in this case) a completely bogus context is just …why fcking do that?
Didn’t read the story. Has no idea what the story says. Indulges monomania anyway 🙄
He’s still got a point, though.
Has he? I think he writes a load of steaming drivel on almost any subject you care to name.
Granted. He’s still got a point here, though.
That the NZH wants to recreate the fear and hatred of the Cold War? Nope, I think that’s just more addled gobshite. That the NZLP won’t do the things he wants? Maybe so, but since the things he wants are motivated by addled gobshite, that’s hardly surprising.
If you think my views on inequality, taxes, obesity, housing, transport, health and education are ‘gobshite’, or ‘steaming drivel’, then you clearly are not left wing.
When a Blairite insults me, I wear it as a badge of honour.
However, when someone who isn’t a Blairite calls out your drivel, you attack the messenger because you can’t handle the criticism.
“Real left wing thinking” ≠ regurgitating kleptocrat propaganda whilst seeing conspiracies everywhere.
Plus what Bill said.
Many on this site are sick of your bully boy tactics.
Just because you don’t agree with my views does not give you the right in verbal abuse.
My views are left of the NZ Labour Party.
Conspiracies everywhere?
No.
Do they exist?
Yes
Skripal
Yes – a conspiracy.
Syrian chemical attack
Yes – a conspiracy
The plan to attack Iraq in 2003.
Yes – a conspiracy.
The plan to attack the U.S in 2001
Yes – a conspiracy.
😆
Calls me a Blairite, bleats about verbal abuse.
Nice riposte Ed, you are part of the true left imo. Thanks for trying to mend the bridge with armed offenders bloke.
Probably most relevant Russian story today is not Ed’s little piece but that another anti Putin journalist and former Russian parliamentary candidate Oles Bunyan has been murdered in Kiev Probably nothing to do with russua though, suggest it was the British ( sarc)
OAB
Don’t be so quick to diss Ed. A bowl of steaming drivel might be all a poor person has on a winter morning to keep them going!
I would argue most real left wing thinking is closely aligned to what I say on this site.
Like a “True Scotsman”, I suspect the definition of “real left wing thinking” is in the eye of the proclaimer.
scroll past.
While the meth cirus reigns on TV today; – look what the Government is pushing forward at the same time as they threw the ‘distraction’ of meth at us!!!!
Did they think we would not see them shifting to ‘a thumbs up to CPTPP???????
We are being played big time now folks sadly.
Our verbal submission was 10 minutes last week and we are bitterly disapointed they did not even add any protectins we advocated for.
When will Labour/National /NZF appologise to NZ, after the new cases of other disease comes here after their final rush to pass the final report to Parliament simnce the phoney “select Committee to review the TPTPP” was hoisted on us all as a “diversion” while their intent was to pass this toxic trade agreement as it already was???
Chair Simon O’Connor (National MP) said he believed the CPTPP is o/k; – as is????
Even though us and a lot of other submitters warned him and his committee that they will be setting us up for more “micro-plasma bovis” events.
The submitters said they should include a clause be added to the ISDS agreement to allow in all cases Government contracts or with other parties allowing local/state governments and other parties to encourage Government to pass regulations to protect NZ citizens and the environment against foreign activities in NZ that may damage their future economic, environmental, health, and well-being after the trade agreement will be enacted in 2019.
‘Editored’ section involving environmental protection and no change from draft report originally proposed in march 2018.
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/SCR_78363/a1acbf19b29fdfcfb0f773ee52bffd2dfd522be3
(Chair Simon O’Connor said he believed the CPTPP is o/k; – as is????)
COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP)
Page; 5
Summary of issues discussed with submitters
Many submitters, notably those opposed to the CPTPP, believe that the changes from the
TPP do not substantively address their concerns. They consider that the CPTPP is
effectively the same as the TPP.
Investor-State dispute settlement and sovereignty
We discussed some submitters’ concerns about the effect the CPTPP would have on the
sovereign rights of New Zealanders to determine their own future through an elected
Parliament. In particular, these submitters consider that the ISDS provisions unnecessarily
empower and protect international investors.
Some submitters believe that the threat of substantial awards against governments is a
strong disincentive for the New Zealand Government to act in the interests of New
Zealanders when those interests conflict with those of CPTPP investors. Submitters consider
that this could have a chilling effect on the Government’s ability to make policy and regulate
in areas including labour law and the mitigation of climate change.
We also discussed the CPTPP’s relationship with New Zealand’s many international
obligations, including the Paris Agreement to address climate change, and the United
Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. We understand that this is problematic because
many of these obligations are not enforceable, but the CPTPP contains enforcement
mechanisms.
Two dispute settlement mechanisms in CPTPP
We understand that the CPTPP provides for two dispute settlement mechanisms: a
government-to-government system to resolve disputes in the agreement, and ISDS. The
ISDS mechanism provides for the settlement of disputes between foreign investors and the
Government of the country in which the investment is made.
Application of ISDS in CPTPP
In the CPTPP, ISDS only applies to the Investment chapter and limited investment-related
elements of the Financial Services chapter. The scope of the ISDS mechanism is narrower
that it was in the TPP. Claims are no longer permitted in relation to investment contracts and
COMPREHENSIVE AND PROGRESSIVE AGREEMENT FOR TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP)
6
approval. This means that private companies which enter into an investment contract with
the Government would not be able to use ISDS if there were a dispute about that contract.
Decisions made under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 are also not subject to ISDS.
Suspensions around the minimum standard of treatment concerning financial services
further reduce the risk of successful claims under the CPTPP being taken against New
Zealand. The minimum standard of treatment is an obligation that forms part of the body of
customary international law, to accord fair and equitable treatment to covered investments,
and not to deny justice.
Once a treaty is entered into, it cannot be changed by any one state. So any submission to the New Zealand Parliament asking for that will necessarily fail.
It is basically an up and down vote. And there is zero chance (given the make up of the committee) that the select committee would recommend a down vote.
But I presume you knew all of this already, and your submission was merely another way of showing your opposition, rather than an expectation it would have actual effect.
However, presumably the Greens will put in a minority report covering your points.
“Once a treaty is entered into, it cannot be changed by any one state. So any submission to the New Zealand Parliament asking for that will necessarily fail.”
What wayne means is BOKYAG.
Cant be changed ?
tell that to Trump as hes doing just that with NAFTA
Different situation as the US, Canada and Mexico are in the middle of formal negotiations called to renegotiate NAFTA; whereas the CP TPP is now post the end of formal negotiations and sign off by all parties (countries) to the agreement and in the ratification stage where individual states are processing the agreement through their national legislative requirements for ratification.
Trump is an example no sane politician would wish to follow.
With the Chief Science Advisor to the Government, Peter Gluckman, stating he wouldn’t be worried about “toddlers crawling around on the floor” until the meth residue reached the level of several hundred micrograms per 100cm2, why is the new testing standard level (at 15mcg per 100cm2) recommended so low?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104287037/the-meth-house-is-a-myth-theres-no-risk-from-drug-smoking-residue-govt-report-finds
In fact, the country’s top scientists are recommending people not test their homes unless the police specifically indicate it was a meth lab.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/358454/meth-house-contamination-debunked-by-pm-s-science-advisor
Therefore, are we about to make the same costly mistake all over again?
As for the initial mistake (the low level adopted) should and will there be compensation for homeowners and others affected? Moreover, will heads roll?
The head’s of Key, English et al, rolling…
“I lose count of the number of times that I questioned [Housing New Zealand] about it. To the point that I was told as a minister that I was on the edge of getting involved of day to day running of the technical issues of a crown entity,” Bennett said.
Seems Bennett is pointing the finger at HNZ, Robert.
You often ask for evidence of you being a fake leftie. Defending Bennett’s I-know-nothing approach and the blaming of officials is one example.
Highlighting what has been reported isn’t defending Bennett.
Nevertheless, are you prepared to let your dislike for Bennett get in the way of getting to the truth?
She could actually be telling the truth, do you have any evidence to the contrary?
And yet Twyford reversed the Meth test policy on becoming Govt.
So twas possible.
Twyford?
Wasn’t that done on their (HNZ) own initiative? Rather than it being a Government directive?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104287037/the-meth-house-is-a-myth-theres-no-risk-from-drug-smoking-residue-govt-report-finds
“Less stringent standards will be set for houses within the next year”
So despite what has come to light, seems it will still take Twyford sometime before he can set new standards.
If Bennett had info that she could have used to push through changes, but failed too, then she could also be held to account.
In the meantime, HNZ has announced it’s own changes. So they can call their own shots, therefore can also be held to account on their decisions taken.
It appears ms Bennett wasn’t smart enough to translate her concerns into action as mr Twyford did. Mr Twyford needs to be congratulated on such a positive result.
Could be. Or it could be she lacked compelling evidence to back action being taken. Then again, she may of had the evidence and failed to act, therefore she would also be culpable.
Chairman, I also think you are a fake leftie, and it is your normal haughty, super-correct tone that prompts me to write this.
‘may of had’????
If Maori have the right to protect and promote their language ( as I believe they have) then you should try to avoid barbaric solecisms, and those who value our language should help you.
You may write either “may have” or “may’ve’ – but “may of” simply reflects badly upon all else that you write.
If you consistently strike a haughty, super-correct tone, please live up to it in your use of English.
Yeah, he is.
Indications are that Bennett is lying:
Bennett, Chairman, was unable to effect the necessary change to an unjust situation affecting many New Zealanders? What was she there for???
Labour’s only been in a short while, yet the job is done! Tells the story…
Labour haven’t got the job done yet, Robert. See my post above.
Okay, “being done”. Good enough for me. Better than “not being done”(National).
Full kudos to them for commissioning this report and acting to make improvements.
However, the concern here is the rather conservative level HNZ has now adopted. We now risk repeating the same mistake again, unless the Government swiftly acts to correct this.
Additionally, a decent Government would see the injustice caused, therefore would willingly offer compensation to all those unfairly impacted. We are not seeing this from this Government.
Does that sit right with you, Robert?
Never satisfied, you. “Full kudos to them”, you say, then go on to qualify your praise, as you inevitably do, “good job, but …
Compensating for National’s fubar? Galling. Let’s wait till they own their actions then talk of compensation.
Satisfied risking repeating the same mistake all over again? Of course I’m not and nor should you be.
National aren’t going to own this, evident by their pointing the finger at HNZ.
We now have compelling evidence, therefore we know people have been unfairly treated. Hence, the current Government should be acknowledging this and offering compensation. At the least, announcing they are looking into it.
They are, of course, “looking into it”. Your attempts to read between the lines in order to find failure is … tiresome and your glossing-over/dismissal of National’s culpability is … expected.
“They are, of course, ‘looking into it’”.
More rubbish from you as usual, Robert.
“I haven’t given any thought to compensation and I don’t intend to.” – Phil Twyford.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/05/landlords-won-t-get-compensation-for-following-incorrect-meth-standards.html
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018647263/no-compensation-for-meth-evictions-housing-nz
paula bennet is so full of it and just covering her arse.
“However, in several news stories at the time Bennett and English said they approved of the Housing NZ regime.
English said the agency was “rightly taking a firm stance on the health risks posed by meth, and will continue to do so for as long as it is detected in its properties” in 2016.
And Bennett told Newshub in 2016 there was “no evidence” Housing NZ had evicted tenants unfairly.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104287037/the-meth-house-is-a-myth-theres-no-risk-from-drug-smoking-residue-govt-report-finds
“And Bennett told Newshub in 2016 there was ‘no evidence’ Housing NZ had evicted tenants unfairly.”
Yes, I know. Do you have the evidence to prove otherwise – i.e. that Bennett had the evidence?
TC, am on a quest to find out and when I do, you’ll be the first to know.
Off hand, there was questioning by some in the scientific community in regards to the low level set. So there may be something to find.
The chairman ms Bennett never got off her back side to find the information unlike mr Twyford
You could well be right, Ankerrawshark. Off hand, around 2000 scientist made submissions in 2017 with many of them stating testing was unnecessary.
Moreover, as Draco highlighted below, there was concern raised by the Ministry of Health in 2016 (hat tip to mickysavage).
Bennett was on RNZ tonight saying she had real concerns about the meth testing and eviction of state house tenants,but even though she expressed concern to HNZ and other agencies,she was powerless to act.
From what I’ve seen it’s all about liability, we’re paying for the steady erosion of the ‘no fault’ ethos behind ACC.
The bureacrats and interested parties really don’t have a lot of choice in these matters. If something is said to be a risk then ignoring the risk leaves people open to future claims for damages. That looming liability threat pushes people to take extremely conservative measures. No-one goes to work to be sued or face criminal charges so people do everything they can to eliminate the risk of that happening.
As it transpired the meth threat was a bust but no-one was to know that for sure until it did transpire. People acted on the information available at the time and who can blame them for that. Sure, common sense said it was a gross overreaction but the law doesn’t give a rats arse about common sense does it.
To my mind the only culpable party is the Government of the day and, sadly, they can’t be sued or charged for their refusal to establish reasonable and proper meth testing standards.
The potential liability threat of taking an extremely conservative approach should have also been given far more consideration considering the massive costs and unnecessary stress it has caused.
Therefore, risk should be correctly established before levels are set and lives are thrown into disarray.
And while the Government of the day could well be culpable, just because they can’t be sued or charged doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get to the bottom of this.
Surely we’ll want to prevent similar from occurring again, thus we need to establish who was culpable and what went wrong.
You missed the point by some margin there. The risk to landlords was being sued or charged for any harm that might befall their tenants.
You can’t contract out of the law so creating your own testing standards would have been a foolish move, there’s no guarantees ‘the law’ would accept it. It was always for the Govt to set the standards. This Govt has shown how easy it was and one is left to wonder at the motives of the last Govt in refusing to do so.
“This Govt has shown how easy it was”
On the contrary. They have shown that despite the info that has come to light, it’s still going to take the Government up to a year to set new levels.
The risk to landlords being sued wasn’t the only risk. What about homeowners that were impacted, they may now look at suing the Government.
What about the tenants who were evicted and more than likely incorrectly labelled by their communities or neighbours as P addicts? Don’t know about you, but if that happened to me I’d be devastated for myself and my children especially if one lived in a small community.
How many children have suffered as a result, did one parent find out that another parent had been evicted and then try and take their kids away from them as a result? That’s a very likely scenario.
Indeed, others were also impacted. As I have mentioned further up. And at this stage the Government hasn’t ruled out compensating them. But there has been no mention that I’ve heard of in regards to compensating homeowners that were also impacted.
I’m thinking we may now see class action suits similar to the leaky homes debacle.
Just as well there are some NZs now keeping an eye on housing and the government. Everyone in Britain in the Great Depression got worn out by the amount of deprivation. And it would be echoed here if we aren’t careful as we have brought the British callousness over with us as colonials and it has persisted over nearly two centuries.
This is a bit from George Orwell’s look at the homeless in Britain as in his book The Road to Wigan Pier from 1937.
[The wagon/caravan will contain] such furniture as can be crammed in – sometimes two beds, more usually one, into which the whole family have to huddle as best they can. It is almost impossible to sleep on the floor, because the damp soaks up from below. I was shown mattresses which were still wringing wet at eleven in the morning. In winter it is so cold that the kitcheners have to be kept burning day and night, and the windows, needless to say, are never opened.
Water is got from a hydrant common to the whole colony, some of the caravan-dwellers having to walk 150 or 200 yards for every bucket of water. There are no sanitary arrangements at all. Most of the people construct a little hut to serve as a lavatory on the tiny patch of ground….All the people I saw…especially the children, were unspeakably dirty…The thought that haunted me….was, What can happen in those cramped interiors when anybody dies? But that, of course, is the kind of question you hardly care to ask.
Some of the people have been in their caravans for many years. Theoretically the Corporation are…getting the inhabitants out into houses; but as the houses don’t get built, the caravans remain standing….one woman with a worn skull-like face… struggling to keep her large brood of children clean,…[must have felt as if] coated all over with dung.
One must remember that these people are not gypsies; they are decent English people who have all,,,had homes in their day.,,their caravans are,,,inferior to those of gypsies and they have not the…advantage of being on the move.
Recapping The Road to Wigan Pier in the 2000s.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/20/orwell-wigan-pier-75-years
“On the contrary. They have shown that despite the info that has come to light, it’s still going to take the Government up to a year to set new levels.”
Huh? How long was National in power for?
When did compelling info to the contrary first come to light is what you need to ask.
Compelling to whom?
To everyone concerned to force through change.
Be realistic. It’s a bit like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.
I believe the relevant Standard that HNZ and others have used as a reference is NZS 8510:2017. I’m not going to buy a copy just to have a look at it so I can’t comment on its content.
IIRC Standards are not of themselves statutory laws but one would be rather foolish to ignore them in pursuant of your own standards.
Those standards are developed with input from different parties, some with their own self-interests. I believe the science-oriented input to NZS 8510:2017 was somewhate looser than the end result.
I believe it can be downloaded for free here:
https://www.standards.govt.nz/sponsored-standards/testing-and-decontamination-of-methamphetamine-contaminated-properties/
Thanks, wonders will never cease I haven’t come across a free AUS/NZS Standard before.
It looks to pretty much explain how this all came about, except perhaps for an explanation as to how meth use became conflated with meth labs.
“Be realistic. It’s a bit like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.”
The reality is we now have compelling evidence, thus change is being made.
The standard that HNZ and others have used was flawed and the Government of the day seem to have failed in their oversight of that.
Longer than two years ago.
Headline of the week:
Act candidate Stephen Barry has a dream for the North Shore . It’s very stupid .
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/104310522/act-candidate-north-shore-motorway-is-breathtakingly-stupid
Headline:
‘Shocker ! – Left wing reporter disagrees with plan of right wing candidate’
You are in favour of a plan to destroy public green spaces with a road which duplicates the Northern motorway?
You can’t be serious.
I am neither in favour or not in favour. I leave that up to the good citizens of Auckland to decide.
I was in favour of Transmission Gully which many here disagreed with but which thankfully the last Government fast tracked.
Stephen Berry, no relation to Maggie. Nepotism is not yet rife.
Gosman, WTF has the politics of the reporter, as you imagine them, got to do with the demolition job that reporter did on the daft ideas of the ACT candidate?
Except of course, to deflect from the actual arguments raised by the reporter.
And to deflect from the daffiness of the ACT candidates ideas.
Play the ball, Gosman, not the man.
I note that NZ First had the wisdom to let go the candidate who was 38th on their list and who is now standing in Northcote for a Right-Wing Hansen style party. By-elections certainly bring out the dillies, the daffies and the daft.
There was no demolition job here. This is merely an opinion piece by a well known left leaning journalist. As such his political leanings are entirely valid when determining if his piece has any validity. It does not.
Gosman, if your sole or main determinant as to whether argument is correct is the political views of the writer, then what are you doing here on a left-wing blog?
I say there is a demolition job. I read the article.
The proposals of the ACT candidate in resurrecting 1972 proposals to advocate for a 6 lane highway through the myriad green spaces in Auckland were rightly ridiculed.
At the end, the writer said that a vote for this candidate is similar to voting for the anti-fluoride homeopathic candidate whose name appears next to the ACT candidate’s.
I note that the writer’s left wing views are the sole determinant for your dismissal of his arguments. You have not attempted to justify your belief that his views have no validity, have you?
If you want to have arguments why his opinion has no validity beyond his political bias (as well as showing why he has political bias) then look no further than his argument that the proposal is an old one. So what? Transmission Gully was first proposed back in the 1940’s or even earlier. It was still a good idea and one that the last National government took up in the past 5 years. The Rail loop in Auckland is also an old idea which seems to have merit. Trying to dismiss ideas because they are not original highlights the fact the author is scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of objections.
You’ve changed again Gosman…
Gosman, I suggest you look further.
There is more out there.
Out beyond the familiar, the known, the safe………
Other argument, other views, other perceptions.
Welcome to the Left Wing!
That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?
It looks like it goes directly through the Birkenhead Shopping Centre. That’s it folks. Your shops and mall will be gone. Never mind, you can drive to Glenfield or even Albany for your daily shopping commutes. 😡
I believe the plan involves tunnels.
And where are the shops and the mall going to go while it is being built? Whenever a tunnel is being built the topical landscape gets smashed to pieces and a small fortune is spent on rebuilding it at a much later date.
I like your new handle, Go smell.
As i understand it the 15mcg level(previously 5) is the level to which a known lab should be cleaned before further use.
Its set very low because there are other harmful by products produced during meth manufacture which are difficult to detect or verify cleanup of.
15 is higher and should have fewer false positives but its still use of a cleaning standard for a detection standard.
“As i understand it the 15mcg level (previously 5) is the level to which a known lab should be cleaned before further use.”
It’s still miles away from the several hundred micrograms Peter Gluckman is concerned about.
And while 15mcg is higher, is it really high enough to be concerned about? According to Gluckman it’s not.
Therefore, it potentially leads to us repeating the same mistake. Only this time, with a slightly higher but still conservative level being set.
I’m wondering if Gluckman is confusing 100cm2 to 1m2. Hundreds per 1m2 would be fine I suspect but not hundreds per 100cm2.
I don’t believe so as it aligns with other info I’ve heard.
What Gluckman said was that there was no danger from houses where there has only been smoking/taking P. But Labs can leave far more dangerous chemicals. So what they have done is raise the level to where smoking/taking P will be eliminated. Only a lab is likely to leave more than the new limit. And in that case there could be more dangerous chemicals there.
My source, before you ask, Chairman, is my own fertile imagination working in conjunction with my amazing alcohol-enhanced powers of logic.
And if I turn out to be right, you will have wasted considerable time once again trying to sow doubt and dissension, won’t you, Chairman?
The report clearly states the most commonly used methods no longer use solvents. Therefore, the primary contaminant associated with manufacturing is methamphetamine itself.
So testing for methamphetamine alone would give no indication that other potentially harmful chemicals are present. Therefore, we risk creating unnecessary costs and harm all over again, albeit with a higher but still conservative standard.
“my own fertile imagination working in conjunction with my amazing alcohol-enhanced powers of logic”
Thinking at it’s best! In vino veritas!
Recently the Italian president vetoed the formation of an Italian government. This was because the proposed finance minister had previously looked at a proposal to exit the Euro, if needed. Its not the first time that the needs of the currency have overruled a democratic decision.
https://rwer.wordpress.com/2018/05/28/president-mattarella-of-italy-from-moral-drift-to-tactical-blunder/#more-32724
Its really a ‘soft coup’.
Its to be expected of course, and the new government is disposed of and a toady moves in.
Now we need to look into the earthquake standards.
I’m not too sure about anyone else, but I’m not too comfortable with the idea of emptying buildings and letting them stand empty for years on end, and this practice needs looking into.
Would you be comfortable if there was an earthquake and 00’s of people died if you were wrong ?
Building codes and regs are a little bit more evidenced based with global acceptance than meph standards Likewise established over many years
If our old state housing stock was largely multi-storey apartments built on reclaimed land, with unreinforced masonry and dodgy steel connections holding up heavy floors you might have a point. However I very much doubt it.
Nice story about Venezuelan democracy on TDB today.
Remember their economic problems are caused by capitalist thievery and the US led economic blockade
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2018/05/28/guest-blog-vinnie-molina-the-bolivarian-revolution-in-venezuela-shall-overcome/
“Remember their economic problems are caused by capitalist thievery and the US led economic blockade”
LOL!
I love how the failures of socialism is always blamed on other things and never on the stupid policies themselves.
Also how come the US has this amazing ability to collapse socialist economies but less power over other Capitalist ones?
Sounds like that’s where we should be importing builders from doesn’t it gosmerp.
> Also how come the US has this amazing ability to collapse socialist economies but less power over other Capitalist ones?
because corporate profits are at stake
How are corporate profits at stake in Venezuela? The main industry in the country is State controlled .
Which means less profits for the bludging capitalists.
To clarify, the USA is happy to smash any country that doesn’t bow to the demands of its corporations, or attempts to defy the stranglehold of the petrodollar.
Witness US smear jobs on NZ now that we have a slightly left leaning government
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2018/05/cherry-picking-chinese-influence/
The financial blockade isn’t a result of socialist policies but the result of capitalist ones.
How is this supposed financial blockade impacting Venezuela exactly?
It’s listed in the article. It’s one of the problems of ‘free-trade’.
The reason are not listed at all. It is merely posted as if it was a fact (which it is not).
So, you’re saying that the US sanctions are having no effect at all?
So, what would be the point of the US’s financial war upon Venezuela?
Loving not one piece of evidence of counter argument. Do we need to bring up Argentina again Gosman to prove how much of a plonker you are?
Any country / cult run on pure ideology no matter what is rooted It usually comes down it will be better this time because I will be in charge
I am interested to see if your views on Venezuela gather much support amongst lefties here. I suspect not as Venezuela is now becoming a pariah nation and one to avoid mention at all costs for most mainstream leftists. It is only hard core ones like you that will be banging this particular drum.
Speak for yourself I always thought Venezuela was an economic nutcase country sustained largely by resource extraction.
I also could never quite understand the nutcase right wing droning on and on about it as being the epitome of what the ‘left’ thought as their fandom economy. My opinion was that was largely the right nutbars grabbing their crotch with excitement to build a meme about how the left ‘thinks’. Which appears to be what you are doing?
As you are aware, there is no monolithic left and never has been.
BTW: exactly the same economic issue or over indulgence in resource extraction is what I think is the same fundamental weakness in the NZ (and the aussie) economies as well as Venezuela .
However here the idiotic economic numb skulls who indulge in it appear to be largely from the right. They mine the soils, water and and different mineral resource rather than oil and put the benefits to their beneficiaries among the affluent rather than the poor. But it is exactly the same thing. Unsustainable stupidity indulged in for political reasons to benefit a group voting for selfish reasons. In our case by the National party.
Interesting view that I suspect will not be shared by the more extreme leftist on this site. As already evidenced by some the cause of the problems in Venezuela is not the narrow resource based extractive nature of it’s economy but the actions of the US taken against the Socialist government.
What is an extreme leftist, as described by Gosman, whose politics lie to the right of Attila the Hun?
My politics are mainstream. People like Draco support policies that are fringe
To be consistent he must also be demanding new elections in the US where turnout isn’t much better.
No, Venezuela’s economic problems are caused by the adoption of an economic system that fails everywhere it is tried. It’s called socialism.
Bit like capitalism then?
Ah, no.
https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/12/19/its-not-capitalism-that-causes-poverty-its-the-lack-of-it/&refURL=https://www.bing.com/&referrer=https://www.bing.com/
Strange that, throughout history, it’s always been socialism that’;s saved capitalism. Without it capitalism destroys the society that it arises in.
That’s 5000 years of recorded history for you.
Proof that capitalism is a failure because of the greed of the rich.
Yeah like Socialism is saving capitalism in Venezuela. And Russia. And China.
I haven’t seen anything of socialism in either Russia or China.
Venezuela was definitely getting worse under capitalism and the people now keep voting for socialism despite the capitalist attacks upon it from other countries so things must be better than before.
The people who can be bothered to vote in a rigged political system keep voting for Socialism.
Fixed it for you Draco 😉
Russia was a socialist state. The author of this piece refers to communism, but try not to be confused:
“Gorbachev understood that the shabby socialist economy was incapable of sustaining a world power. Perestroika was introduced, and with it glasnost, a limited opening up of channels of criticism. Glasnost proved suicidal. The surrealism of Soviet society could not survive the light of criticism. Inevitably, the ideological house of cards erected by the Party propagandists and disseminated by foreign fellow-travelers over seven decades collapsed.”
https://fee.org/articles/the-soviet-tragedy-a-history-of-socialism-in-russia-1917-1991-and-russia-under-the-bolshevik-regime/
“Venezuela was definitely getting worse under capitalism…”
I think not. But it can’t possibly have been any worse than it is now.
“adoption of an economic system that fails everywhere it is tried. It’s called socialism.”
Yeah, But I think the beneficiary Dairy Farmers including that dick who had the notice about Ardern are thankful at the “adoption” of a good old bit of Socialism
at the moment.
They will be more thankful to the economic reforms of the 80’s and 90’s that made them internationally competitive.
Interesting, So I take it then that as they were so grateful and are so “internationally competitive.” they will not take or need the generous benefit these pack of beneficiaries are getting from the government.
“They will be more thankful to the economic reforms of the 80’s and 90’s that made them internationally competitive.”
Also, that is bullshit as if I remember correctly there was nothing but winging how were they going to survive now all the export incentives were being stopped and the suspensory loans and tax avoidance schemes like having a swimming pool c/w Barbecue area “just in case of fire”
“So I take it then that as they were so grateful and are so “internationally competitive.” they will not take or need the generous benefit these pack of beneficiaries are getting from the government.”
That’s up to them. They have been the victims of a natural disaster beyond their control, a bit like the citizens of Christchurch. But then many businesses experience that and don’t get government aid.
“…as if I remember correctly there was nothing but winging how were they going to survive now all the export incentives were being stopped…”
Absolutely there was, and yet 35 years later we lead the world, and are selling our expertise to the world. Isn’t the market a wonderful thing.
Since the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis, the authorities have repeatedly told us there is no risk to human health from eating meat or milk from infected animals. They would say that wouldn’t they – got to keep the ‘confidence of the market’.
Now, a Massey University professor of food safety describes the disease as a *low* risk to humans. In time, I expect the risk deniers will obfuscate as scientific evidence mounts, in much the same way as the concerns over the A1/A2 milk proteins.
“Amateurs Talk Strategy, Professionals Talk Logistics”
Perhaps it is time for the government to evolve their policies with a mind open to the above quote.
Don Franks on Jim Rose’s attempt to justify a racist judicial and prison system:
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/a-response-to-jim-rose-on-maori-prison-population/
Norman Finkelstein on the “quite unimpressive” Alan Dershowitz.
Highly Recommended!
“I told him his book was a tissue of lies, a complete fabrication…”
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/05/28/10-the-book-you-claim-to-have-written/
Good morning The AM Show there is a good reasoning for ECO MAORI pushing for equality for the ladies it’s the fair thing to do ladies are more intelligent than men and humane it’s good to have Amanda on the show this raises the humanity and intelligence of the show.
You cannot see the flaws in locking people up for years 5000 Maori young men most who just need a bit of guidance who come from broken family created by this system no father to gide them set boundaries for them wake up you know they wanted to privatise Hospitals Prison school so what did national do the ran these to the ground and say the system in not working let’s privatise every thing like America . Duncan its is the justice system that failed to do there job of keeping the people who killed while on bail not the 5000 Maori men it’s not hard to observe people look at there history and identify the risky people and keep them in jail 1 persent of the 5000 50 mistake the justice system has made that’s a fact that’s what these civil servents get paid to do this is a logical way of thinking about this problem
Its is best to try the eradication route for this bovine virus this virus will effect beef farmers as well as dairy farmers. Culling of these cows should have started on the 1/1/2017 No then it would not have blown out to what we have now Ana to kai Ka kite ano
The AM Show there you go Simon Bridge using crime and scare tactics to try and raise his polling rates the same phenomenon that made the bovine virus blow out to this mess. If he really cared about Aotearoa he would work with labour greens to come to a intelligent humane solutions to OUR Prison population look at our scandernavion cousins empty prison.
Ka kite ano
Here’s someone crying in his coffee link below
Male, pale, but not stale
OPINION: I can’t help that I’m white and ageing. But it feels like society’s kicking me.
Ka kite ano