tl;dr Biden is polling ahead of The $750 Man by more than 4% on average in states that add up to about 278 EC votes. That's the states Hillary won plus Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Polls showing Biden behind in these states are very few and far between, and only come from the most Repug-optimistic pollsters.
Biden is ahead by around 2%ish in Ohio (18 EC votes) and Arizona (11 EC votes). Most polls show Biden ahead, but Repug-optimistic pollsters mostly show Shartacus ahead, along with occasional polls from more middle of the road pollsters.
Florida (29) and North Carolina (15) average out either way depending on which polls the poll aggregator uses, but most aggregators put Biden ahead around 1%ish in these states.
On straight current polling average (no toss-ups), it's about 353 Biden – 185 Palputin, again depending on which polling aggregator you're looking at.
Well, yeah. There's a whole party dedicated to creating and protecting those $750 Men. And there's the other party that mostly wants to put a leash on them, however imperfectly.
But sadly, there’s a sector of the voting public that professes to be against the $750 Men, but spend all their energies whining about those imperfections.
How to stop it is a long slow painful process of being involved, and swallowing a lot of compromise and disappointment. It starts with getting involved at the party level, and supporting the candidate that is likeliest to move things in the direction you want, that actually has a chance of winning in a general election.
Then when it comes to the general election, again it's a matter of swallowing a dead rat and supporting the candidate most likely to move things in a direction you want that actually has a chance of winning. Which may even be someone inclined to move things a bit in a direction you don't want, in preference to someone inclined to move things hard and fast in a direction you really don't want.
What definitely doesn't work, but definitely helps the bastards win, is flouncing around whining about the flaws in who is actually your best available choice, which just helps your worst choice actually sneak through and get to do the damage that then has to be repaired next your preferred people get in, before even thinking about moving on to doing useful stuff.
From a polling view, yeah, it's stable and clear. But there's still the open question of how good the pollsters' turnout models are. And whether they've maybe even over-corrected the errors from 2016, which would put Iowa (6), Georgia (16), maybe even Texas (29) and Alaska (3) into play. For over 400 EC votes to Biden.
It might be New York State that puts him in jail first. They seem to be further along in their investigations. Presidolt Con's current audit problems with the IRS look to be resolvable by just coughing up $100million. But the IRS can always open new investigations, there's no statute of limitations for tax crimes AFAIK.
Of course, the Fifth Avenue Fraud is very likely to get off completely scot-free for what he most deserves jail for: his complete betrayal of country, oath of office, and the people he is supposed to be governing for. Of whom over 200,000 are now prematurely dead from his complete disinterest in doing his job, among many other criminally negligent failures.
Real Clear Politics seems to include a smallish range of pollsters that are a bit Repug-leaning on average. If you prefer to be a bit pessimistic so surprises are a bit more likely to be positive surprises, then yeah, focusing on RCP works.
To be clear first up, I don't think there's bias in the sense of deliberately putting a thumb on the scales. There's a lot of room for reasonable minds to differ in constructing turnout models, framing polling questions etc.
But then some pollsters makes decisions outside of what is generally considered good practice, such as Trafalgar Group explicitly operating a shy-Drumpf-voter hypothesis (although I've never seen what that means in actual practical terms), or Rasmussen Reports explicitly weighting by party identification (which changes at voter whim, unlike age, sex, education, ethnicity etc).
RCP includes Trafalgar Group and Rasmussen, but there have been times I've noticed some particularly Dem-positive polls from apparently well-regarded pollsters show up in Five ThirtyEight that haven't showed up in RCP (sorry can't immediately bring to mind which ones).
In general, it appears poll averages from 538, 270 to Win, CNN etc are a little bit Dem-positive compared to RCP. That's not to say RCP is worse and the others are better, it may indeed be that RCP has made a better choice of which pollsters to include in their average.
Voter suppression in the form of prior electoral roll purging by Republican-run state governments and the removal of physical voting booths in Democratic voting areas
Trump goons intimidating voters at booths
Delays in counting mail-in votes inflaming a narrative that the election is being 'stolen' and calls, or direct action, on stopping that count.
The Supreme Court's preparedness to tip the scales in Trumps favour if given the chance,e.g by stopping the count of mail-in votes, or allowing the dumping of special votes by people turning up to find themselves purged from the roll.
It has the potential to make the supposed, and sometimes invented, irregularities in Latin American elections that gets the USA so outraged, look like amateur hour.
Well, yeah, there is the assumption that bad faith actions won't be much worse than anything previously seen in, oh, the last hundred years or so. Which is looking like a really iffy assumption, so the question is whether a Biden win would be sufficiently clear and conclusive to overcome all the expected fuckery.
Each state gets one Electoral College vote per member of Congress. So low population states like Wyoming or Alaska get 3 EC votes, one for their sole House Representative, and two for their two Senators. (Washington DC also gets 3 EC votes by special provision, even though it doesn't get voting members of Congress). That's one EC vote per 200,000ish population.
At the other end of the population range, Californai gets 55 EC votes for its 40 million population, 53 for its 53 House Reps, and two for its two Senators. Which is around 1 EC vote per 700,000ish population.
There's a good chart if you scroll down the wikipedia article – for some reason embedding the image doesn't seem to work.
edit: and the three million American citizens living in Puerto Rico don’t get to vote for prez or be represented in Congress. Cos PR is a territory, not a state
Judith Collins, who takes malicious delight in attacking others, is upset Jacinda referenced her history with the SFO (poor wee thing). I was delighted to see Jacinda's 'forthright' comment on the news reminding people of this.
Like all bullies, Collins is happy to dish it out though. Perhaps if she can't take the heat in the kitchen she shouldn't be there, to quote Collins' words on Jacinda.
If anyone has dealt with the heat in the kitchen in the last three years, it is our PM – terrorist shootings, a volcanic eruption, months of Covid worries. And becoming a new mum while being PM is no small feat.
It seems it was hard for Collins to get under Jacindas skin on the last debate. It would not be hard to get under Collins skin as seen by her response to Jacindas comment.
2:15 mins – another vicious attack on Nicky Hager.
8:30 mins – claims Labour has no fiscal plans and don’t intend to put one out. So, what has Robertson and Co. been doing and saying for the past 3 years? Nothing? What about the plethora of policy they’ve been dishing out in recent times? That doesn’t constitute a plan?
She even had the gall to try and infer this government is to blame for the current state of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
She’s well and truly heading for lala land based on today’s rhetoric thus far.
She kept saying: "That's what Christians believe… I'm a Christian… That's what Christians believe…"
Does anyone else get the impression this desperate woman is fishing desperately for the loons in the Billy T.K. Party to "come on board" her sinking boat?
To put the above in context, Collins is so slippery, it started off with her saying that Nicky Hager was a terrible man and making herself out to be an innocent victim, and then saying that one day he'll meet his Maker.
When questioned on that she went round and round like dirty water down a plughole, saying that everyone will meet their Maker one day, she is sure on that point. Then being questioned as to the reference sounding rather threatening, she just fudged again and made it into a Christian POV that everyone will die and meet their Maker.
I'm uneasy that religion is popping up in the discourse from National. It seems that the Right are finding that references like this reinforce their probity in the minds of dull, unthinking constituents of which there are many.
There is a post now by Micky devoted to this discussion over at – Judith Collins, Nicky Hager and Dirty Politics.
dont think the natz pollsters are earning their $$$ if they think appealing to religios is the way to redemption. a secular country going even more secular is going to turn even further away from the natz towards their one time poodle. for all of acts faults(page not big enough to list) they are NOT religious(only the religion of self interest) with the nats, advance, and new cons all claiming gods on their side, good luck with that..!oops, forgot bishop brian, phuck, god will be busy..
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You might think that is the rational way that citizens will behave woodart, that is for you to say. They might regard religion as meaning traditional sects. But don't forget Glorioushome or what it's called. People are being pulled to churches all over the place, if they aren't drowning themselves in beer or drugs, or using sport to control their random thoughts. Every second child is called Elijah or Rebecca or similar.
Natz may be very happy to go to a church with bells and whistles and incense and a huge choir. All the people who can’t manage to achieve their eminence will be put on charity, the government doesn’t want to bother with losers. They will hand out potato peelings for soup and feel satisfied and good to their marrow. That’s how it used to be and once you accept that people are either good or part of the poor that will always be with us, then you can stop trying to force people up beyond their actual capacities that establish them as lower class. This is how some will already be talking – the real estate class who think themselves terribly clever at being able to sell secure assets to people prepared to dispossess most of the world’s population.
The worse things get the more people will be drawn to something. Possibly the Conspiracy Theory party. In the USA they are touting that there will be Trump Goons at the polls etc. Shades of 1930's Germany when people's minds were played with. People aren't happy – alt right, Billy K whatever can fill up empty minds. Take away television for a night and people will be running to the Children of Light or such – Scientology is building a new place here I think.
And why do you need proof? Do you belong to some sort of religious terrorist group which will go and round them all up and kneel for hours on hard boards while they sing rousing songs? Shame on you.
That is really stupid DTB. You are getting fixated on your opinions and arguments as you have got older. People can know things from their memory and not be able to give details of why and when. People can also know things generally and widely that commonly apply, just not to everybody. And you can just calm down and try and remain rational.
He has told people a story about how his helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade when covering the war in Iraq. However, the fact is that the helicopter he was in was not the one got hit. Also, when the strike happened, his helicopter was an hour away from the strike location. His experience shows a part of the unreliability of human memory.
Elizabeth Loftus, a professor the at the University of California who experted in human memory, calls William’s story a “teaching mement,” which is a typical example of false memory. According to her, false memory happens when a person “remembers” something happened that actually did not.
People can also know things generally and widely that commonly apply, just not to everybody.
No, they can't. That would require you to know stuff that you haven't been taught or researched.
And you can just calm down and try and remain rational.
I'm perfectly rational in calling you a liar because you're lying. You have absolutely no idea how people spend their time as a result of them not being religious.
"You have absolutely no idea how people spend their time as a result of them not being religious."
DtB, couldn't your strong assertion (above) also be considered a lie? After all, presumably greywarshark has some idea of how some non-religious people spend some of their time. Heck, I know hardly anyone, and yet your statement would still be a lie if I was its target
greywarshark's assertion is on the same level as calling all Māori slackers because some do drugs and don't work on Saturdays.
And, here's a thing, I know plenty of religious people who act exactly as greywarshark says non-religious people act. Get a heap of drugs and watch sport on TV.
There's an argument the satsuma shitgibbon really is a genius – at suckering a significant number of people into believing the hype he creates about himself.
Consider, for at least the last three decades, the only ventures that have apparently created positive cash-flow for him are those where someone else has paid him for use of that self-hype. The Apprentice, various licensing deals. Everything else he touched apparently turned to shit, from which he sometimes salvaged a bit by fleecing suckers hoping to cash in on the hype as they disappear down the gurgler – eg his casinos, and now, running the country.
He is certainly good at getting plenty of attention and column inches devoted to his every action/inaction.
That kinda happens when someone is the leader leader of a big powerful country and devotes himself, well, what little effort isn't spent on serving himself, to actively destroying much of what a majority of that country and indeed the rest of the world holds dear. After he's surrounded himself with enablers that share his destructive goals.
And no, ignoring it won't make it go away or even make it a teeny-tiny bit better. Nor will deluding oneself that his opponents are somehow equivalent.
I hope that the attitude of government after Treaty settlements is not that Maori people generally are not going to be considered much by government, and they should look to their own iwi for support. The Treaty settlements were to recompense, to a small extent, for the land and resources taken from Maori which the NZ state was built on.
So I hope that there is $10 million or more going to Maori initiatives in the region, not necessarily for the built infrastructure, but in training, skills learning. And I would like to see it being family oriented so that older members could join as students if they wished, so all would learn as a cohesive group. Because I think that there is a family way of looking at life planning, and parents are more likely to support their teenagers into skill learning if they themselves have background in post-school education.
And just a thought – they looked really good, well muscled and fit and better than the body-builders, who carry so much muscle that they might find it difficult to walk without chafing of their legs, and work where their arm muscles rub against their sides.
Yet another reason the US supreme Court badly needs reform because of how unrepresentative it is: after Barrett is rammed through, it will be 2/3 Roman Catholic.
That recalls to mind a Sharon Murdoch cartoon (stuff Sep.25/19) about NZ religion with wise old Yoda saying 'Religious we are not'. 50% of NZ stated No Religion in a survey. The Catholics get and hold their congregations by hook or by crook – of The Good Shepherd I mean.
The irreligious may not fill the gap with any value-based morality, rather spending Sundays at sport, drinking beer, driving 4-wheel drives through mud pugs, up rivers – very physically oriented with no exercise of intellectual or philosophical function. So other details from the NZ study:
20,409 said they were Jedi
4248 were in The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
The irreligious may not fill the gap with any value-based morality, rather spending Sundays at sport, drinking beer, driving 4-wheel drives through mud pugs, up rivers – very physically oriented with no exercise of intellectual or philosophical function.
Citation needed
Haven't come across a religion yet that's values based – except possibly wicca with its an it harm none, do as thou wilt.
The author dug deep & zealously into the background of history, so you encounter a stream of surprising facts unlikely to impress casual readers. Only works for those with a deep grasp of history – if it fits into that context. As someone who has read history in-depth for around 65 years, I was pleasantly surprised at how well-justified his compilation of evidence turned out to be.
Note the amusing verdict of Publisher's Weekly – obviously written by a catholic! Too lazy to read history, uses normalcy as a security blanket due to being at the toddler stage of emotional maturity…
That said, I can always tell when a belief is warping a writer's judgment, and Saussy skates on thin ice at times. But he does seem diligent at dispassionate appraisal.
Winning the presidency for JFK was the culmination of a centuries-old agenda, in which a global power began in new terrain from a position of uncharacteristic powerlessness and extreme adversity. The account of methods used to overturn that historical reality is compelling. The current Supreme Court situation fits the thesis like a glove.
So i am not wasting your time, you are wasting it all on your own, as you could easily have simply scrolled by my comment, which is on topic, without insults to anyone, and not deragotry by any means. But feel free to ban me for not promoting some fancyful ideas of the Green that i find to be half baked.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[No Sabine, as a moderator I can’t simply scroll by. If mods did that on every problematic comment, the site would stop functioning.
As well as wasting my time, you’re also now posting bullshit about moderation and my motivations. I want critique of GP policy, because it makes it and democracy stronger. I wish more people would give us useful critique. What you posted was sloppy and misleading. I can’t stop people being sloppy, but there is a bottom line around not misleading. You’re not being modded for your opinions about the Greens’ policy, you’re being modded for posting misleading comments about the policy during an election campaign. Had you backed up your comment, we’d be having a different conversation, but you won’t even do us the respect of that.
You either have a comprehension problem, or you are basically saying fuck you to the site and moderation and thinking you can do what you want.
You have a choice now. Either do what most people do and get on board with the way commenting works here, including moderation, or you can expect to be treated as a special case. If you want to be a special case, my next move will most likely be to ban you until after the election, because I’m not willing to spend my time going over and over this, I’d rather be writing posts.
“Listen, if I pick up a bag of $1,000 cash in the South Island and I deposit that into a private bank account and wire the money to another private bank account in the North Island, and then someone else withdraws that $1,000 from a relatively unfrequented ATM at 2am in the morning, is that money the same money? How did it magically teleport from island to island? The answer is it didn’t, because it isn’t the same money. It’s separate.”
Hmmm, the only info I can find about this comes from Mate. Nothing from anybody with a shred of credibility.
It's apparently an Arria-formula meeting. Any member of the Security Council can call one for whatever reason they feel like. It has zero actual significance within the UN that I can tell. I wonder which Security Council member called it? It would be unkind of me to speculate based on who is "testifying" at it.
Looks to me like it's another bullshit stunt similar to the one Eva Bartlett pulled to generate clickbait misinformation falsely trying to give themselves the credibility of the UN, that gullible convergence moonbats will then amplify and spread.
And you're having a go at Eva Bartlett too, I note. Do you think anyone other than you thinks your "convergence moonbat" concoction has ever impressed anyone other than the sad fellows who spend all day dreaming up orange-themed and gibbon-themed labels to fling at President Drumpf?
Your tactical decision to go all the way with those brilliant strategists of the DNC is leading you into wholesale abuse of journalists. I'm sure that in your more reflective moments, i.e. away from the adrenaline-filled arena of social media squabbling, you realize you are making some foolish and indefensible choices. Heaping abuse on journalists—and Eva Bartlett and Aaron Maté are, like Nicky Hager, renowned for their integrity and independence—is a foolish and indefensible choice if ever there was one.
Still, going all the way with the democracy-hating Democratic Party—the Obama/Biden regime prosecuted, imprisoned and persecuted whistleblowers and journalists even more than the Bush/Cheney regime, and leading Democrats are as bloodthirsty in their rhetoric against Julian Assange as any Repug. is—is a choice you have made. We at this mostly excellent forum have had to put up with the evidence of that almost every day for the last four years.
You got any argument for why this thing from Aaron Mate should be viewed as anything more than an attempted deceptive misinformation stunt?
BTW, that looks to me like quite a smear on Nicky Hager. I'd be curious to hear how Hager himself feels about being being lumped in with Bartlett and Mate.
So Aaron Maté does not have a "shred of credibility"? Well, of course you would say that, wouldn't you. You sound just like Mrs Collins denigrating another journalist this morning. https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018766202
“Two of the country's biggest companies will use Aotearoa in their names rather than New Zealand.”
Both companies Vodafone and DDB, are branches of big international companies.
DDB is part of DDB Worldwide, an Omnicom company a highly ranked, worldwide advertising agency. Includes company information and philosophy, clients, and global contact information.
If our country is up for renaming then it is for New Zealanders to instigate and decide not for international companies to stick their oar into and stir up discontent in our nation.
The committee also noted that there are references throughout legislation to both “Aotearoa” and “New Zealand” and that while not legislated, the use of bilingual titles throughout Parliament and government agencies is common.
"However, at present we do not consider that a legal name change, or a referendum on the same change, is needed", the committee said.
Still, I'm amazed that Māori aren't up in arms about its misuse as, traditionally, it didn't refer to all of NZ:
Before the period of contact with Europeans, Māori did not have a commonly-used name for the entire New Zealand archipelago. As late as the 1890s the name was used in reference to the North Island only; an example of this usage appeared in the first issue of Huia Tangata Kotahi, a Māori-language newspaper published on February 8, 1893. It contained the dedication on the front page, "He perehi tenei mo nga iwi Maori, katoa, o Aotearoa, mete Waipounamu",[9] meaning "This is a publication for the Māori tribes of the North Island and the South Island".
Good point Janet. I consider that for business New Zealand is a brand name and the official one we want to be known by.
I don't know what is going on in the minds of these large corps but they might be trying some diviseness, perhaps making deals that suit Maori and don't fit in with the official country laws, and playing one off against the other. There will be money in it, it's just playing for advantage to them.
Legal eagles, can we stop this use of Aotearoa as alternative name for New Zealand being done by force majeure?
I don't like this business of using Maori names for everything, it confuses. It should be noted that English is the main business and computer language, and while I think we should be talking te reo frequently I see disadvantages for the country in naming basic agencies and methods in Maori. It is confusing to hear the Transport Authority called something else starting with Ko… What? is the reaction. Then one wonders, is it the same as the TA? Has it changed in the way it performs its role? Can important matters fall through the cracks when a Maori word is inserted in dialogue? Does it mean a number of things and the effect of it is misunderstood?
Think of Oranga Tamariki – what does that convey to most? If it was called the Baby Health and Safety Removal Agency that would result in clarity of purpose, no confusion. But the Maori name implies that culturally appropriate, kind and acceptable methods will be used.
Actually I really like the use of dual names – then we can get to pick the one that suits Mt Taranaki or Mt Egmont. It also cuts off a lot of divisive baiting along the lines of Brash and his Hobson pledge framing and straight out arguments over which name to use. Although I notice over time the european name tends to fall into disuse.
And at some level why were local place names over ridden by the names of dodgy british aristocrats – its a bit urrgh. I mean if they were being named today how keen would anyone be on Boristown or Dodgy Dave Cameron Street?
So I think its good that overseas companies acknowledge this – even if the motivation is commercial.
Our passports use both names and frankly I think they are an absolute work of art. Don't know who thought of it or did it but all credit they are wonderful. I have even had it admired by overseas passport officers.
There was a thought that religion might be raising its head in our politics in a way that isn't positive. I think, with a shiver from looking at Trump's latest conservative Catholic to the Supreme Court, and the doings of some male-dominant states turning women's rights to women's wrongs.
I put up a Wikipedia piece on European wars that had religion firmly mixed in them on Daily Review 29/9. This is a second para to that. I found it fascinating and alarming.
The conflicts began with the minor Knights' Revolt (1522), followed by the larger German Peasants' War (1524–1525) in the Holy Roman Empire. Warfare intensified after the Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation in 1545 against the growth of Protestantism. The conflicts culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated Germany and killed one-third of its population, a mortality rate twice that of World War I. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) broadly resolved the conflicts by recognising three separate Christian traditions in the Holy Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
Although many European leaders were "sickened" by the bloodshed by 1648, smaller religious wars continued to be waged in the post-Westphalian period until the 1710s, including the Wars of the ThreeKingdoms (1639–1651) on the British Isles, the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), and the Toggenburg War (1712) in the Western Alps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
It is not surprising that the Catholic Church was so involved in all of this history as it generally did all of those services that governments do today from census to education and health and science research and oversaw a lot of legal stoushes as well as diplomacy and defence and pretty much anything else you can think of.
In most places it was the government as rulers were pretty inept.
Mmm well we are still with inept government despite training in Hogwarts academy etc. Religion has learned a thing or two also but tends to be dogmatic more than government, putting pressure on govt from outside. Church government would be hell, it would take just a short time to get there. In the USA it and money and power are interwoven – best to control it and sit the dog outside the door – keep it as part of an ethics committee.
The Terminally Bewildered versus the Unspeakably Disgusting. As Jacinda Ardern so memorably said about the hastily put together Collins-Brownlee posters: "It doesn't exactly scream Dynamic Duo."
Didn't watch any of it. Actually, I doubt I'd have the fortitude to watch it even on pain of getting cattle-prodded if my attention wavered.
But from the commentary, it sounds like it went as everyone expected going into it. The mandarin manutang made a lot of nonsensical contradictory noise unrelated to the actual question in his Asshole-in-Chief routine, and Biden mostly let him do his thing in a low-key way.
Nobody has mentioned anything that even vaguely resembles a debate moment that people will refer in the future – no "there you go again" or anyone looking at their watch, or looking pasty and sweaty with a 5 o'clock shadow. So all-in-all, kind of a pointless waste of everyone's time.
Unless maybe both Biden and Chris Wallace literally telling the orange anusmouth mouth to shut up might get used as a symbol to illustrate just how unrestrained Dolt45 actually was.
No clanger, and fortunately for Biden and non Trump supporters, he got the best jabs in on the night.
Not coming over as king prick and making it clear to the unswayed voters you're okay and worth the benefit of the doubt over your opponent, is the real purpose behind these debates. Getting it through how he is the Democratic party, that any green deal will be his plan, will probably help win a few more votes… Unless they were the kind that were never going to vote for him anyway and just looking for an excuse, like happens on here from the usual suspects, most of the time come every election.
Generally in a debate if you're on the defensive and forced into discussing your opponent's talking points, then its not a great sign… The clip above was fairly typical of the debate, Trump was literally running rings around Biden. "Weekend at Bidens" has literally nothing going for him to attract swing voters, especially in a live performance where his opponent has all the energy.
For the second time tonight, that wasn't the debate I watched, but more importantly, not the one the media or general public saw – Going by the general reaction and collective Trump bashing.
By the way, not seen your Biden's new green deal clanger mentioned, which somewhat sort of hacks away the patellas of your point.
Neo lib has come along like a new religion – belief and promises of a smooth running business heaven are mingled. Neolib doesn't mind if it turns freemen into serfs and at the same time telling them that they are not disregarded objects of charity like those on benefits. So workers getting sacked from their old jobs become contractors, standing tall, alone and proud not like the welfare whiners they think.
But neolib is a business and money-gouging conception. The Press has a sorry tale about the contractors to a small lone builder who has absorbed the More business virus and is erecting legal entities, building, using his subbies as credit providers they claim, not paying them, dismantling the legal entity and starting off again the same, though it is supposed to be against the explicit law. Also the builder quotes Master Builders membership though he has been struck off, and a recommendation by a well-known name. Looks good, smells very bad for the No Regulations Friendly Country. Blah……..
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20200929/281479278859135 Debt-ridden builder has new outfit – Sep.29/20 …The Companies Act says a director cannot run what is known as a phoenix company – one trading in the same business using the same or a similar name as their failed one – before or within five years after the liquidation…
May Moncur, an Auckland law employment advocate, believed too many businesses were using liquidation as a way of avoiding their liabilities. They keep the business running by starting up another company, and continue as normal.
‘‘In New Zealand, putting a company into liquidation is so easy and not expensive. There is a loophole in the law.’’
There are some rules around owner distributions that can be clawed back but there is a cost to the civil action so it often doesn't get actioned.
But I would expect the IRD in the current climate to oppose the liquidation and strike off of companies that have received any of the wage subsidies or loans to prevent the owners taking the money and then collapsing the entity until they have confirmed that it is all valid. And the IRD should make that public.
On the upside the physical fleeing of jurisdiction is not quite as easy as before.
There are some rules around owner distributions that can be clawed back but there is a cost to the civil action so it often doesn't get actioned.
Yes, a civil action that the workers, who can't afford legal council, have to do and there ends justice.
But I would expect the IRD in the current climate
I think the IRD need to be doing that as a matter of course every time that a liquidation occurs. If they don't then we end up with the above which pretty much is state sanctioned theft.
The civil action can be any creditors but yes waged employees can lose a lot of money in some of these situations as even their preferred status frequently doesn't cover them off.
I have always wondered why the law and unions don't ask for wages to be transferred out of companies at the gross amounts owed. For a really simple example net wages are paid, taxes go to the IRD and then a further amount to cover any holiday pay, long service leave, redundancies etc gets paid off to a "trust account" managed by a third party which could be say the IRD. Then if everything goes to custard the amounts in trust cover the employee entitlements. Businesses would then get a heads up earlier that they are not making money and they would not be relying on the employee based free funding that can be pretty substantial.
The government and its agencies might be being hoist on their own petard. How soon can we undermine this cumbersome inadequate agency that we thought we paid taxes to to keep things going reasonably sweetly? They have reduced regulations, and everything else, but the MPs show signs of being Mr Creosote's family. Give ya a technicolour chunder as Barry McKenzie used to say.
My partner and I are voting in the NZ GE today – Kiwis in Oz are the first in the world to vote, although they said on ABC radio this morning that only 40,000 kiwis out of the 600,000 here are enrolled. The voting process is a bit of a mission. Forms have to be downloaded, then filled in, and then scanned and uploaded back on to the NZ Elections site. I wonder what the percentage of voters would be if everyone had to do that? (there are a few polling stations open in Oz, but nowhere near us)
No. They have to be printed, then signed in front of a witness! The odd thing is that the witness can be anyone in your family. Remember doing it before in 2017 – from Fiji. The other odd thing is that when you upload the forms your name and ref number is sent with your referendum, electorate and party votes. It doesn't seem very secret.
The other odd thing is that when you upload the forms your name and ref number is sent with your referendum, electorate and party votes. It doesn't seem very secret.
It's never been secret except possibly in the dark days of the 19th and early 20th century. Need to be able to check off the voter according to the voter registration so as to prevent people voting twice, people voting who shouldn't be etcetera.
On a completely different topic "kindness". I have seen a number of peeps saying something along the lines of "NZ is not being kind" usually when they have been told "no" to something they want which is well outside the rules. Mostly I see this as just complaining when they don't get their own way.
I see "kindness" as something that is "given freely" not some thing that anyone should expect to receive (nice though it is when it happens) and be entitled to complain about if they don't .
It's an interpretation thing, Red Baron CV. And it is sometimes misinterpreted.
To clarify things for you from my perspective:
Often, when I don't get my own way I act in a kindly way to myself by both being pissed off about not getting my own way and sometimes expressing to others that I am pissed off also.
They, in turn, then start being kind to themselves by telling me to shut up and to stop complaining.
It could be that you choose to ameliorate a siuation when you could have been punitive or dismissive.
But people who have been brought up to expect a positive response to everything they want are suffering from the indulgent decades, those reflecting Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness.
Or: Imagine a world where leaders are able to pass power directly to their children. These children are plucked from their nurseries and sent to beautiful compounds far away from all the other children. They are given the best teachers, the best facilities, the best doctors and the best food. Each day the children are told that the reason they're here is because they are the brightest and most important children in the world.
good post redbaron. no, its not just you. we live in a "give them an inch, and they want the whole quarter acre" society nowdays. and the media make headlines out of moaners. what was it last week, "quarantine food so horrible they had to eat their own shoes" or some such bullshit. I would say NZ is being exceptionally kind , and having a close friend who is working nights for immigration, talking to, and finding solutions for kiwis, from countries you havent heard of, needing all sorts of things that are well outside the box , has certainly opened my mind.
I did see one food post where it looked like the budget company employed had done a dreadful job. Plus it had supplied coke and lemonade as lunchtime drinks. I'd have been pretty annoyed with that if I had had kids. Sugar highs in hotels rooms. I do suspect the food reflects the underlying grade of the hotel and the prfits they are trying to wrench off the contracts.
Well according to those I follow on Twitter I didn’t miss much on the 2 grumpy old muppets of Bernie and Waldorf from the US Presidential Debate this morning. Thank god & for its various faults that we have the Westminster System in NZ & in Oz unless someone corrects me.
Just referring to Woodart's post and the misreporting he mentioned regarding people in quarantine said to have been eating their shoes.
All I can say is that if they did have to eat their shoes, they don't know how lucky were!
I was imprisoned by WINZ for an extended period of time, and then forced to eat my hat after I had previously told people that I would eat the damn thing if I ever found welfare dependency to be harsher than being gainfully employed or in business.
Well, it was harsher and I have had indigestion ever since.
Which brings me to a linked subject which is Covid-19 handouts.
My view is that if New Zealanders find themselves with their heads above the sour milk and bitter honey welfare dependency mammary gland feed, they should take whatever handouts are available to keep them to get them through, whether employed or in business, whilst the handout money is still flowing. They should take the money with no feelings of guilt whatsoever.
The choice of walking from a failing business or a job with fewer fringe benefits might actually lead to permanent subsistence welfare dependency even after reaching superannuation eligibility age, unless people have a guaranteed accommodation arrangement already in place and already paid for.
Don't walk away to the dole queue unless you have no other choice. In the long run, it just ain't worth it.
Look. Even if you have to bend (not break) government rules and ignore certain societal fostered assertions in relation to start up enterprise or self reliance, if you can do it with a chance of success, then give it a try.
Given that my current financial disposition appears precarious, I may now withdraw from these read and post sessions (as enlightening and entertaining as they have been) and seek to find some way I can use my spare time to an obtain extra, and hopefully a more reliable, income source.
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. 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 ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
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:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
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. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
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 ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
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. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
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While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
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Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
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A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
A good comprehensive look at where things are at state-by-state for getting to 270 Electoral College votes.
https://www.vox.com/21428915/electoral-college-trump-biden-2020
tl;dr Biden is polling ahead of The $750 Man by more than 4% on average in states that add up to about 278 EC votes. That's the states Hillary won plus Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Polls showing Biden behind in these states are very few and far between, and only come from the most Repug-optimistic pollsters.
Biden is ahead by around 2%ish in Ohio (18 EC votes) and Arizona (11 EC votes). Most polls show Biden ahead, but Repug-optimistic pollsters mostly show Shartacus ahead, along with occasional polls from more middle of the road pollsters.
Florida (29) and North Carolina (15) average out either way depending on which polls the poll aggregator uses, but most aggregators put Biden ahead around 1%ish in these states.
On straight current polling average (no toss-ups), it's about 353 Biden – 185 Palputin, again depending on which polling aggregator you're looking at.
About 1% Undecided, and a pretty stable margin, shows that there won't be much more movement.
I'd like to see IRS take Trump out after the election. And die in jail.
I wouldn't waste my time on Trump. I would put my time into stopping this from happening in the future as there are a lot of $750 Trump's in America.
Well, yeah. There's a whole party dedicated to creating and protecting those $750 Men. And there's the other party that mostly wants to put a leash on them, however imperfectly.
But sadly, there’s a sector of the voting public that professes to be against the $750 Men, but spend all their energies whining about those imperfections.
How long have the $750 club been getting away with it?
I don't like it and how to stop it is the problem?
How to stop it is a long slow painful process of being involved, and swallowing a lot of compromise and disappointment. It starts with getting involved at the party level, and supporting the candidate that is likeliest to move things in the direction you want, that actually has a chance of winning in a general election.
Then when it comes to the general election, again it's a matter of swallowing a dead rat and supporting the candidate most likely to move things in a direction you want that actually has a chance of winning. Which may even be someone inclined to move things a bit in a direction you don't want, in preference to someone inclined to move things hard and fast in a direction you really don't want.
What definitely doesn't work, but definitely helps the bastards win, is flouncing around whining about the flaws in who is actually your best available choice, which just helps your worst choice actually sneak through and get to do the damage that then has to be repaired next your preferred people get in, before even thinking about moving on to doing useful stuff.
😂
Could it be that they aspire to join the club?
After all 'aspirational' is abundant in the contemporary political lexicon.
From a polling view, yeah, it's stable and clear. But there's still the open question of how good the pollsters' turnout models are. And whether they've maybe even over-corrected the errors from 2016, which would put Iowa (6), Georgia (16), maybe even Texas (29) and Alaska (3) into play. For over 400 EC votes to Biden.
It might be New York State that puts him in jail first. They seem to be further along in their investigations. Presidolt Con's current audit problems with the IRS look to be resolvable by just coughing up $100million. But the IRS can always open new investigations, there's no statute of limitations for tax crimes AFAIK.
Of course, the Fifth Avenue Fraud is very likely to get off completely scot-free for what he most deserves jail for: his complete betrayal of country, oath of office, and the people he is supposed to be governing for. Of whom over 200,000 are now prematurely dead from his complete disinterest in doing his job, among many other criminally negligent failures.
I find Realclearpolitics the best and easiest predictor of what will happen.
President
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/2020_elections_electoral_college_map.html
Senate (crucial)
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/2020_elections_senate_map.html
House
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/house/2020_elections_house_map.html
Real Clear Politics seems to include a smallish range of pollsters that are a bit Repug-leaning on average. If you prefer to be a bit pessimistic so surprises are a bit more likely to be positive surprises, then yeah, focusing on RCP works.
Ak ok Andre….in that case it may not be the best indicator.
Do you have evidence of the Republican bias?
To be clear first up, I don't think there's bias in the sense of deliberately putting a thumb on the scales. There's a lot of room for reasonable minds to differ in constructing turnout models, framing polling questions etc.
But then some pollsters makes decisions outside of what is generally considered good practice, such as Trafalgar Group explicitly operating a shy-Drumpf-voter hypothesis (although I've never seen what that means in actual practical terms), or Rasmussen Reports explicitly weighting by party identification (which changes at voter whim, unlike age, sex, education, ethnicity etc).
RCP includes Trafalgar Group and Rasmussen, but there have been times I've noticed some particularly Dem-positive polls from apparently well-regarded pollsters show up in Five ThirtyEight that haven't showed up in RCP (sorry can't immediately bring to mind which ones).
In general, it appears poll averages from 538, 270 to Win, CNN etc are a little bit Dem-positive compared to RCP. That's not to say RCP is worse and the others are better, it may indeed be that RCP has made a better choice of which pollsters to include in their average.
Among the unknowns then are:
It has the potential to make the supposed, and sometimes invented, irregularities in Latin American elections that gets the USA so outraged, look like amateur hour.
Well, yeah, there is the assumption that bad faith actions won't be much worse than anything previously seen in, oh, the last hundred years or so. Which is looking like a really iffy assumption, so the question is whether a Biden win would be sufficiently clear and conclusive to overcome all the expected fuckery.
Do you know if the EC votes are not equally distributed among the states when it comes to population?
I think I heard this.
Each state gets one Electoral College vote per member of Congress. So low population states like Wyoming or Alaska get 3 EC votes, one for their sole House Representative, and two for their two Senators. (Washington DC also gets 3 EC votes by special provision, even though it doesn't get voting members of Congress). That's one EC vote per 200,000ish population.
At the other end of the population range, Californai gets 55 EC votes for its 40 million population, 53 for its 53 House Reps, and two for its two Senators. Which is around 1 EC vote per 700,000ish population.
There's a good chart if you scroll down the wikipedia article – for some reason embedding the image doesn't seem to work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College
edit: and the three million American citizens living in Puerto Rico don’t get to vote for prez or be represented in Congress. Cos PR is a territory, not a state
Thanks for that.
Thanks for that info.
"The $750 Man" : )
Judith Collins, who takes malicious delight in attacking others, is upset Jacinda referenced her history with the SFO (poor wee thing). I was delighted to see Jacinda's 'forthright' comment on the news reminding people of this.
Like all bullies, Collins is happy to dish it out though. Perhaps if she can't take the heat in the kitchen she shouldn't be there, to quote Collins' words on Jacinda.
If anyone has dealt with the heat in the kitchen in the last three years, it is our PM – terrorist shootings, a volcanic eruption, months of Covid worries. And becoming a new mum while being PM is no small feat.
It seems it was hard for Collins to get under Jacindas skin on the last debate. It would not be hard to get under Collins skin as seen by her response to Jacindas comment.
I hope Gower asks Collins if she thinks she's a psychopath.
Talking of bullies: read this number from the Herald:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12369031
And this from RNZ Morning report:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018766202
2:15 mins – another vicious attack on Nicky Hager.
8:30 mins – claims Labour has no fiscal plans and don’t intend to put one out. So, what has Robertson and Co. been doing and saying for the past 3 years? Nothing? What about the plethora of policy they’ve been dishing out in recent times? That doesn’t constitute a plan?
She even had the gall to try and infer this government is to blame for the current state of the Auckland Harbour Bridge.
She’s well and truly heading for lala land based on today’s rhetoric thus far.
She kept saying: "That's what Christians believe… I'm a Christian… That's what Christians believe…"
Does anyone else get the impression this desperate woman is fishing desperately for the loons in the Billy T.K. Party to "come on board" her sinking boat?
To put the above in context, Collins is so slippery, it started off with her saying that Nicky Hager was a terrible man and making herself out to be an innocent victim, and then saying that one day he'll meet his Maker.
When questioned on that she went round and round like dirty water down a plughole, saying that everyone will meet their Maker one day, she is sure on that point. Then being questioned as to the reference sounding rather threatening, she just fudged again and made it into a Christian POV that everyone will die and meet their Maker.
I'm uneasy that religion is popping up in the discourse from National. It seems that the Right are finding that references like this reinforce their probity in the minds of dull, unthinking constituents of which there are many.
There is a post now by Micky devoted to this discussion over at – Judith Collins, Nicky Hager and Dirty Politics.
dont think the natz pollsters are earning their $$$ if they think appealing to religios is the way to redemption. a secular country going even more secular is going to turn even further away from the natz towards their one time poodle. for all of acts faults(page not big enough to list) they are NOT religious(only the religion of self interest) with the nats, advance, and new cons all claiming gods on their side, good luck with that..!oops, forgot bishop brian, phuck, god will be busy..
edit
You might think that is the rational way that citizens will behave woodart, that is for you to say. They might regard religion as meaning traditional sects. But don't forget Glorioushome or what it's called. People are being pulled to churches all over the place, if they aren't drowning themselves in beer or drugs, or using sport to control their random thoughts. Every second child is called Elijah or Rebecca or similar.
Natz may be very happy to go to a church with bells and whistles and incense and a huge choir. All the people who can’t manage to achieve their eminence will be put on charity, the government doesn’t want to bother with losers. They will hand out potato peelings for soup and feel satisfied and good to their marrow. That’s how it used to be and once you accept that people are either good or part of the poor that will always be with us, then you can stop trying to force people up beyond their actual capacities that establish them as lower class. This is how some will already be talking – the real estate class who think themselves terribly clever at being able to sell secure assets to people prepared to dispossess most of the world’s population.
The worse things get the more people will be drawn to something. Possibly the Conspiracy Theory party. In the USA they are touting that there will be Trump Goons at the polls etc. Shades of 1930's Germany when people's minds were played with. People aren't happy – alt right, Billy K whatever can fill up empty minds. Take away television for a night and people will be running to the Children of Light or such – Scientology is building a new place here I think.
And that's the second time that you've said that the non-religious are drug and sports addicts without any proof.
yes, around my way, most seem addicted to lawn mowing on sundays.
And why do you need proof? Do you belong to some sort of religious terrorist group which will go and round them all up and kneel for hours on hard boards while they sing rousing songs? Shame on you.
Because otherwise its a fucken lie and you are simply lying.
That is really stupid DTB. You are getting fixated on your opinions and arguments as you have got older. People can know things from their memory and not be able to give details of why and when. People can also know things generally and widely that commonly apply, just not to everybody. And you can just calm down and try and remain rational.
No, they really can't. People's memories simply aren't up to the job:
Unreliable Memory: It Makes Things Up
No, they can't. That would require you to know stuff that you haven't been taught or researched.
I'm perfectly rational in calling you a liar because you're lying. You have absolutely no idea how people spend their time as a result of them not being religious.
DtB, couldn't your strong assertion (above) also be considered a lie? After all, presumably greywarshark has some idea of how some non-religious people spend some of their time. Heck, I know hardly anyone, and yet your statement would still be a lie if I was its target
greywarshark's assertion is on the same level as calling all Māori slackers because some do drugs and don't work on Saturdays.
And, here's a thing, I know plenty of religious people who act exactly as greywarshark says non-religious people act. Get a heap of drugs and watch sport on TV.
OMG, she's even beginning to sound like Muldoon as I remember him on the RNZ interview. Scary!
Judith Collins and the Eyebrows and Kate Hawkesby (could be called The Palomino Pony) on NZ Herald link above.
There's an argument the satsuma shitgibbon really is a genius – at suckering a significant number of people into believing the hype he creates about himself.
Consider, for at least the last three decades, the only ventures that have apparently created positive cash-flow for him are those where someone else has paid him for use of that self-hype. The Apprentice, various licensing deals. Everything else he touched apparently turned to shit, from which he sometimes salvaged a bit by fleecing suckers hoping to cash in on the hype as they disappear down the gurgler – eg his casinos, and now, running the country.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/09/29/the-new-york-times-confirms-trump-is-a-genius-422837
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/09/why-is-donald-trump-deliberately-losing-money/
He is certainly good at getting plenty of attention and column inches devoted to his every action/inaction.
He has folks wrapped around his little finger.
Whatever we give our attention to gets stronger.
On a related note, Beau here links Hunter Thompson and post election activities.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=abqyq6cs0eo
He is certainly good at getting plenty of attention and column inches devoted to his every action/inaction.
That kinda happens when someone is the leader leader of a big powerful country and devotes himself, well, what little effort isn't spent on serving himself, to actively destroying much of what a majority of that country and indeed the rest of the world holds dear. After he's surrounded himself with enablers that share his destructive goals.
And no, ignoring it won't make it go away or even make it a teeny-tiny bit better. Nor will deluding oneself that his opponents are somehow equivalent.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/427208/regional-pasifika-churches-receive-10m-from-pgf
I hope that the attitude of government after Treaty settlements is not that Maori people generally are not going to be considered much by government, and they should look to their own iwi for support. The Treaty settlements were to recompense, to a small extent, for the land and resources taken from Maori which the NZ state was built on.
So I hope that there is $10 million or more going to Maori initiatives in the region, not necessarily for the built infrastructure, but in training, skills learning. And I would like to see it being family oriented so that older members could join as students if they wished, so all would learn as a cohesive group. Because I think that there is a family way of looking at life planning, and parents are more likely to support their teenagers into skill learning if they themselves have background in post-school education.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018765675/rise-of-nz-mma-reaches-new-high-at-ufc-253
What is MMA? Increasing use of code letters for actual words, prevents effective communication. No explanation in the script.
Mixed Martial Arts?
Aha thanks. https://thestandard.org.nz/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?_wpnonce=81303fba7a&cid=1754934&pid=3343482
And just a thought – they looked really good, well muscled and fit and better than the body-builders, who carry so much muscle that they might find it difficult to walk without chafing of their legs, and work where their arm muscles rub against their sides.
Yet another reason the US supreme Court badly needs reform because of how unrepresentative it is: after Barrett is rammed through, it will be 2/3 Roman Catholic.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/9/29/1981656/-A-Curious-Demographic-Fact-About-the-SCOTUS-It-is-Dominated-by-a-Single-Religion
That recalls to mind a Sharon Murdoch cartoon (stuff Sep.25/19) about NZ religion with wise old Yoda saying 'Religious we are not'. 50% of NZ stated No Religion in a survey. The Catholics get and hold their congregations by hook or by crook – of The Good Shepherd I mean.
The irreligious may not fill the gap with any value-based morality, rather spending Sundays at sport, drinking beer, driving 4-wheel drives through mud pugs, up rivers – very physically oriented with no exercise of intellectual or philosophical function. So other details from the NZ study:
20,409 said they were Jedi
4248 were in The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
The latest Scrotus nominee is just another shade of Mammonite by the sound of t.
Design or accident? There's a little-known conspiracy theory around this. It has been provided with considerable historical documentation.
My view of the catholic church was always that it was a sick joke discredited by history, until I eventually read my copy of this book: https://www.amazon.com/Rulers-Evil-Useful-Knowledge-Governing/dp/0066210836
The author dug deep & zealously into the background of history, so you encounter a stream of surprising facts unlikely to impress casual readers. Only works for those with a deep grasp of history – if it fits into that context. As someone who has read history in-depth for around 65 years, I was pleasantly surprised at how well-justified his compilation of evidence turned out to be.
Note the amusing verdict of Publisher's Weekly – obviously written by a catholic! Too lazy to read history, uses normalcy as a security blanket due to being at the toddler stage of emotional maturity…
That said, I can always tell when a belief is warping a writer's judgment, and Saussy skates on thin ice at times. But he does seem diligent at dispassionate appraisal.
Winning the presidency for JFK was the culmination of a centuries-old agenda, in which a global power began in new terrain from a position of uncharacteristic powerlessness and extreme adversity. The account of methods used to overturn that historical reality is compelling. The current Supreme Court situation fits the thesis like a glove.
So i am not wasting your time, you are wasting it all on your own, as you could easily have simply scrolled by my comment, which is on topic, without insults to anyone, and not deragotry by any means. But feel free to ban me for not promoting some fancyful ideas of the Green that i find to be half baked.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[No Sabine, as a moderator I can’t simply scroll by. If mods did that on every problematic comment, the site would stop functioning.
As well as wasting my time, you’re also now posting bullshit about moderation and my motivations. I want critique of GP policy, because it makes it and democracy stronger. I wish more people would give us useful critique. What you posted was sloppy and misleading. I can’t stop people being sloppy, but there is a bottom line around not misleading. You’re not being modded for your opinions about the Greens’ policy, you’re being modded for posting misleading comments about the policy during an election campaign. Had you backed up your comment, we’d be having a different conversation, but you won’t even do us the respect of that.
You either have a comprehension problem, or you are basically saying fuck you to the site and moderation and thinking you can do what you want.
You have a choice now. Either do what most people do and get on board with the way commenting works here, including moderation, or you can expect to be treated as a special case. If you want to be a special case, my next move will most likely be to ban you until after the election, because I’m not willing to spend my time going over and over this, I’d rather be writing posts.
Banned until Monday – weka].
mod note.
Back link: https://thestandard.org.nz/no-right-turn-the-transport-policy-we-need/#comment-1754911
read, and left you an aswer. cheers.
and i would have preferred to leave my comments so that i can provide back up. I am usually good with links.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
you were asked to back up this sentence, which is still visible.
"so if you are over 18 or say 18 and a day – money or not – no more free public transport."
You chose not to. Hence the further moderation.
Collins tries to brush off the meet your maker comment by adding a different line to her original threat .
Still trying to put down Nicky Hager for exposing Dirty Politics.
Brilliant piece at The Civilian this morning
“Listen, if I pick up a bag of $1,000 cash in the South Island and I deposit that into a private bank account and wire the money to another private bank account in the North Island, and then someone else withdraws that $1,000 from a relatively unfrequented ATM at 2am in the morning, is that money the same money? How did it magically teleport from island to island? The answer is it didn’t, because it isn’t the same money. It’s separate.”
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/two-people-in-serious-condition-after-incident-involving-nz-first-bus/
remember to look both ways when crossing bus lanes.
Especially as they seem to be filled with independent buses.
Aaron Maté testifies at UN on OPCW Syria cover-up
Sept. 29, 2020
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
[deleted]
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/09/29/grayzones-aaron-mate-testifies-at-un-on-opcw-syria-cover-up/
[too long Morrissey. If you do your own editing next time it will work out better – weka]
Hmmm, the only info I can find about this comes from Mate. Nothing from anybody with a shred of credibility.
It's apparently an Arria-formula meeting. Any member of the Security Council can call one for whatever reason they feel like. It has zero actual significance within the UN that I can tell. I wonder which Security Council member called it? It would be unkind of me to speculate based on who is "testifying" at it.
Looks to me like it's another bullshit stunt similar to the one Eva Bartlett pulled to generate clickbait misinformation falsely trying to give themselves the credibility of the UN, that gullible convergence moonbats will then amplify and spread.
And you're having a go at Eva Bartlett too, I note. Do you think anyone other than you thinks your "convergence moonbat" concoction has ever impressed anyone other than the sad fellows who spend all day dreaming up orange-themed and gibbon-themed labels to fling at President Drumpf?
Your tactical decision to go all the way with those brilliant strategists of the DNC is leading you into wholesale abuse of journalists. I'm sure that in your more reflective moments, i.e. away from the adrenaline-filled arena of social media squabbling, you realize you are making some foolish and indefensible choices. Heaping abuse on journalists—and Eva Bartlett and Aaron Maté are, like Nicky Hager, renowned for their integrity and independence—is a foolish and indefensible choice if ever there was one.
Still, going all the way with the democracy-hating Democratic Party—the Obama/Biden regime prosecuted, imprisoned and persecuted whistleblowers and journalists even more than the Bush/Cheney regime, and leading Democrats are as bloodthirsty in their rhetoric against Julian Assange as any Repug. is—is a choice you have made. We at this mostly excellent forum have had to put up with the evidence of that almost every day for the last four years.
You got any argument for why this thing from Aaron Mate should be viewed as anything more than an attempted deceptive misinformation stunt?
BTW, that looks to me like quite a smear on Nicky Hager. I'd be curious to hear how Hager himself feels about being being lumped in with Bartlett and Mate.
Sorry about that. I did edit it, but not enough, clearly.
So Aaron Maté does not have a "shred of credibility"? Well, of course you would say that, wouldn't you. You sound just like Mrs Collins denigrating another journalist this morning.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018766202
Okay, you can get back to your MSNBC feed now.
stop flaming, you both were warned yesterday. Next time I'll just ban.
In the Herald this morning :
“Two of the country's biggest companies will use Aotearoa in their names rather than New Zealand.”
Both companies Vodafone and DDB, are branches of big international companies.
DDB is part of DDB Worldwide, an Omnicom company a highly ranked, worldwide advertising agency. Includes company information and philosophy, clients, and global contact information.
If our country is up for renaming then it is for New Zealanders to instigate and decide not for international companies to stick their oar into and stir up discontent in our nation.
Seems that the government agrees with you:
Still, I'm amazed that Māori aren't up in arms about its misuse as, traditionally, it didn't refer to all of NZ:
Good point Janet. I consider that for business New Zealand is a brand name and the official one we want to be known by.
I don't know what is going on in the minds of these large corps but they might be trying some diviseness, perhaps making deals that suit Maori and don't fit in with the official country laws, and playing one off against the other. There will be money in it, it's just playing for advantage to them.
Legal eagles, can we stop this use of Aotearoa as alternative name for New Zealand being done by force majeure?
I don't like this business of using Maori names for everything, it confuses. It should be noted that English is the main business and computer language, and while I think we should be talking te reo frequently I see disadvantages for the country in naming basic agencies and methods in Maori. It is confusing to hear the Transport Authority called something else starting with Ko… What? is the reaction. Then one wonders, is it the same as the TA? Has it changed in the way it performs its role? Can important matters fall through the cracks when a Maori word is inserted in dialogue? Does it mean a number of things and the effect of it is misunderstood?
Think of Oranga Tamariki – what does that convey to most? If it was called the Baby Health and Safety Removal Agency that would result in clarity of purpose, no confusion. But the Maori name implies that culturally appropriate, kind and acceptable methods will be used.
Actually I really like the use of dual names – then we can get to pick the one that suits Mt Taranaki or Mt Egmont. It also cuts off a lot of divisive baiting along the lines of Brash and his Hobson pledge framing and straight out arguments over which name to use. Although I notice over time the european name tends to fall into disuse.
And at some level why were local place names over ridden by the names of dodgy british aristocrats – its a bit urrgh. I mean if they were being named today how keen would anyone be on Boristown or Dodgy Dave Cameron Street?
So I think its good that overseas companies acknowledge this – even if the motivation is commercial.
Our passports use both names and frankly I think they are an absolute work of art. Don't know who thought of it or did it but all credit they are wonderful. I have even had it admired by overseas passport officers.
There was a thought that religion might be raising its head in our politics in a way that isn't positive. I think, with a shiver from looking at Trump's latest conservative Catholic to the Supreme Court, and the doings of some male-dominant states turning women's rights to women's wrongs.
I put up a Wikipedia piece on European wars that had religion firmly mixed in them on Daily Review 29/9. This is a second para to that. I found it fascinating and alarming.
The conflicts began with the minor Knights' Revolt (1522), followed by the larger German Peasants' War (1524–1525) in the Holy Roman Empire. Warfare intensified after the Catholic Church began the Counter-Reformation in 1545 against the growth of Protestantism. The conflicts culminated in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), which devastated Germany and killed one-third of its population, a mortality rate twice that of World War I. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) broadly resolved the conflicts by recognising three separate Christian traditions in the Holy Roman Empire: Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
Although many European leaders were "sickened" by the bloodshed by 1648, smaller religious wars continued to be waged in the post-Westphalian period until the 1710s, including the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651) on the British Isles, the Savoyard–Waldensian wars (1655–1690), and the Toggenburg War (1712) in the Western Alps.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_wars_of_religion
It is not surprising that the Catholic Church was so involved in all of this history as it generally did all of those services that governments do today from census to education and health and science research and oversaw a lot of legal stoushes as well as diplomacy and defence and pretty much anything else you can think of.
In most places it was the government as rulers were pretty inept.
Mmm well we are still with inept government despite training in Hogwarts academy etc. Religion has learned a thing or two also but tends to be dogmatic more than government, putting pressure on govt from outside. Church government would be hell, it would take just a short time to get there. In the USA it and money and power are interwoven – best to control it and sit the dog outside the door – keep it as part of an ethics committee.
King of Nothing nominates Sleepy Joe for a… (wait for it!!!!)… Peace Prize
When you belong to Tony Blair's party, then you will quite likely have a predilection for war criminals…
https://www.rt.com/usa/501987-biden-nobel-peace-nomination/
If anyone wants to watch the first US Presidential Debate online, it will be live on C-Span's YouTube channel at 2pm NZT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?ab_channel=C-SPAN&v=wW1lY5jFNcQ
The Terminally Bewildered versus the Unspeakably Disgusting. As Jacinda Ardern so memorably said about the hastily put together Collins-Brownlee posters: "It doesn't exactly scream Dynamic Duo."
Thank goodness the left chose sleepy Joe.. to take on Trump. Such energy, strength, communication skills, and lack of political baggage!
Anyone watching it here?
My partner was, but she muttered something about "unwatchable", "can't stop talking", and "I wonder what his base makes of this"… and stopped.
By which I gather that Trump is making his usual pillock performance being a ignorant fuckwit full of himself…
Didn't watch any of it. Actually, I doubt I'd have the fortitude to watch it even on pain of getting cattle-prodded if my attention wavered.
But from the commentary, it sounds like it went as everyone expected going into it. The mandarin manutang made a lot of nonsensical contradictory noise unrelated to the actual question in his Asshole-in-Chief routine, and Biden mostly let him do his thing in a low-key way.
Nobody has mentioned anything that even vaguely resembles a debate moment that people will refer in the future – no "there you go again" or anyone looking at their watch, or looking pasty and sweaty with a 5 o'clock shadow. So all-in-all, kind of a pointless waste of everyone's time.
Unless maybe both Biden and Chris Wallace literally telling the orange anusmouth mouth to shut up might get used as a symbol to illustrate just how unrestrained Dolt45 actually was.
Well there was this clanger
https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1311132450697945088
No clanger, and fortunately for Biden and non Trump supporters, he got the best jabs in on the night.
Not coming over as king prick and making it clear to the unswayed voters you're okay and worth the benefit of the doubt over your opponent, is the real purpose behind these debates. Getting it through how he is the Democratic party, that any green deal will be his plan, will probably help win a few more votes… Unless they were the kind that were never going to vote for him anyway and just looking for an excuse, like happens on here from the usual suspects, most of the time come every election.
Generally in a debate if you're on the defensive and forced into discussing your opponent's talking points, then its not a great sign… The clip above was fairly typical of the debate, Trump was literally running rings around Biden. "Weekend at Bidens" has literally nothing going for him to attract swing voters, especially in a live performance where his opponent has all the energy.
For the second time tonight, that wasn't the debate I watched, but more importantly, not the one the media or general public saw – Going by the general reaction and collective Trump bashing.
By the way, not seen your Biden's new green deal clanger mentioned, which somewhat sort of hacks away the patellas of your point.
I saw about half of it. Trump has a real skill. He is able to insert a distinct and separate lie into every sentence that he utters.
Just one lie in every sentence? Low energy, he's fading. He's been as high as four lies in one sentence.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/14/politics/fact-check-trump-mccabe-clinton-mcauliffe/index.html
Neo lib has come along like a new religion – belief and promises of a smooth running business heaven are mingled. Neolib doesn't mind if it turns freemen into serfs and at the same time telling them that they are not disregarded objects of charity like those on benefits. So workers getting sacked from their old jobs become contractors, standing tall, alone and proud not like the welfare whiners they think.
But neolib is a business and money-gouging conception. The Press has a sorry tale about the contractors to a small lone builder who has absorbed the More business virus and is erecting legal entities, building, using his subbies as credit providers they claim, not paying them, dismantling the legal entity and starting off again the same, though it is supposed to be against the explicit law. Also the builder quotes Master Builders membership though he has been struck off, and a recommendation by a well-known name. Looks good, smells very bad for the No Regulations Friendly Country. Blah……..
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-press/20200929/281479278859135
Debt-ridden builder has new outfit – Sep.29/20
…The Companies Act says a director cannot run what is known as a phoenix company – one trading in the same business using the same or a similar name as their failed one – before or within five years after the liquidation…
May Moncur, an Auckland law employment advocate, believed too many businesses were using liquidation as a way of avoiding their liabilities. They keep the business running by starting up another company, and continue as normal.
‘‘In New Zealand, putting a company into liquidation is so easy and not expensive. There is a loophole in the law.’’
.
A year old Australian story which has a lot of fibre in it!
https://www.smh.com.au/national/debt-ridden-builder-s-anti-semitic-texts-over-pratt-raheen-project-20190331-p519e7.html
Liquidation of a business should result in the owners of that business:
Then we may get rid of these thieves.
Agree draco
There are some rules around owner distributions that can be clawed back but there is a cost to the civil action so it often doesn't get actioned.
But I would expect the IRD in the current climate to oppose the liquidation and strike off of companies that have received any of the wage subsidies or loans to prevent the owners taking the money and then collapsing the entity until they have confirmed that it is all valid. And the IRD should make that public.
On the upside the physical fleeing of jurisdiction is not quite as easy as before.
Yes, a civil action that the workers, who can't afford legal council, have to do and there ends justice.
I think the IRD need to be doing that as a matter of course every time that a liquidation occurs. If they don't then we end up with the above which pretty much is state sanctioned theft.
The civil action can be any creditors but yes waged employees can lose a lot of money in some of these situations as even their preferred status frequently doesn't cover them off.
I have always wondered why the law and unions don't ask for wages to be transferred out of companies at the gross amounts owed. For a really simple example net wages are paid, taxes go to the IRD and then a further amount to cover any holiday pay, long service leave, redundancies etc gets paid off to a "trust account" managed by a third party which could be say the IRD. Then if everything goes to custard the amounts in trust cover the employee entitlements. Businesses would then get a heads up earlier that they are not making money and they would not be relying on the employee based free funding that can be pretty substantial.
I had a quick look and the old company appears to have collected the wage subsidy and it's extension.
The government and its agencies might be being hoist on their own petard. How soon can we undermine this cumbersome inadequate agency that we thought we paid taxes to to keep things going reasonably sweetly? They have reduced regulations, and everything else, but the MPs show signs of being Mr Creosote's family. Give ya a technicolour chunder as Barry McKenzie used to say.
My partner and I are voting in the NZ GE today – Kiwis in Oz are the first in the world to vote, although they said on ABC radio this morning that only 40,000 kiwis out of the 600,000 here are enrolled. The voting process is a bit of a mission. Forms have to be downloaded, then filled in, and then scanned and uploaded back on to the NZ Elections site. I wonder what the percentage of voters would be if everyone had to do that? (there are a few polling stations open in Oz, but nowhere near us)
If it's a PDF ask them if you can edit it directly then send it back. Save having to print it out, scan it and then send it.
No. They have to be printed, then signed in front of a witness! The odd thing is that the witness can be anyone in your family. Remember doing it before in 2017 – from Fiji. The other odd thing is that when you upload the forms your name and ref number is sent with your referendum, electorate and party votes. It doesn't seem very secret.
It's never been secret except possibly in the dark days of the 19th and early 20th century. Need to be able to check off the voter according to the voter registration so as to prevent people voting twice, people voting who shouldn't be etcetera.
On a completely different topic "kindness". I have seen a number of peeps saying something along the lines of "NZ is not being kind" usually when they have been told "no" to something they want which is well outside the rules. Mostly I see this as just complaining when they don't get their own way.
I see "kindness" as something that is "given freely" not some thing that anyone should expect to receive (nice though it is when it happens) and be entitled to complain about if they don't .
But is this just me ??
It's an interpretation thing, Red Baron CV. And it is sometimes misinterpreted.
To clarify things for you from my perspective:
Often, when I don't get my own way I act in a kindly way to myself by both being pissed off about not getting my own way and sometimes expressing to others that I am pissed off also.
They, in turn, then start being kind to themselves by telling me to shut up and to stop complaining.
It’s called the kindness cycle.
Lol
Aha I missed the cycle
It could be that you choose to ameliorate a siuation when you could have been punitive or dismissive.
But people who have been brought up to expect a positive response to everything they want are suffering from the indulgent decades, those reflecting Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness.
Or: Imagine a world where leaders are able to pass power directly to their children. These children are plucked from their nurseries and sent to beautiful compounds far away from all the other children. They are given the best teachers, the best facilities, the best doctors and the best food. Each day the children are told that the reason they're here is because they are the brightest and most important children in the world.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/posh-boys-9781786073839/
good post redbaron. no, its not just you. we live in a "give them an inch, and they want the whole quarter acre" society nowdays. and the media make headlines out of moaners. what was it last week, "quarantine food so horrible they had to eat their own shoes" or some such bullshit. I would say NZ is being exceptionally kind , and having a close friend who is working nights for immigration, talking to, and finding solutions for kiwis, from countries you havent heard of, needing all sorts of things that are well outside the box , has certainly opened my mind.
I did see one food post where it looked like the budget company employed had done a dreadful job. Plus it had supplied coke and lemonade as lunchtime drinks. I'd have been pretty annoyed with that if I had had kids. Sugar highs in hotels rooms. I do suspect the food reflects the underlying grade of the hotel and the prfits they are trying to wrench off the contracts.
Well according to those I follow on Twitter I didn’t miss much on the 2 grumpy old muppets of Bernie and Waldorf from the US Presidential Debate this morning. Thank god & for its various faults that we have the Westminster System in NZ & in Oz unless someone corrects me.
Watched some of it on Al Jazerra. Trump won the interruptions.
Good god that debate was painful
The Kazahkstanis loved it.
https://twitter.com/KazakhstanGovt/status/1311096859142664193
Just referring to Woodart's post and the misreporting he mentioned regarding people in quarantine said to have been eating their shoes.
All I can say is that if they did have to eat their shoes, they don't know how lucky were!
I was imprisoned by WINZ for an extended period of time, and then forced to eat my hat after I had previously told people that I would eat the damn thing if I ever found welfare dependency to be harsher than being gainfully employed or in business.
Well, it was harsher and I have had indigestion ever since.
Which brings me to a linked subject which is Covid-19 handouts.
My view is that if New Zealanders find themselves with their heads above the sour milk and bitter honey welfare dependency mammary gland feed, they should take whatever handouts are available to keep them to get them through, whether employed or in business, whilst the handout money is still flowing. They should take the money with no feelings of guilt whatsoever.
The choice of walking from a failing business or a job with fewer fringe benefits might actually lead to permanent subsistence welfare dependency even after reaching superannuation eligibility age, unless people have a guaranteed accommodation arrangement already in place and already paid for.
Don't walk away to the dole queue unless you have no other choice. In the long run, it just ain't worth it.
Look. Even if you have to bend (not break) government rules and ignore certain societal fostered assertions in relation to start up enterprise or self reliance, if you can do it with a chance of success, then give it a try.
Given that my current financial disposition appears precarious, I may now withdraw from these read and post sessions (as enlightening and entertaining as they have been) and seek to find some way I can use my spare time to an obtain extra, and hopefully a more reliable, income source.
Adios
good post. extra ,more reliable income source, or maybe sauce. pay for view whatever??
You are every complimentary.
Cheers
A poll from East Coast, looks good for Kiri Allan:
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/local-news/20200930/allan-ahead-in-labour-poll/
(and "commissioned by" doesn't mean "conducted by", e.g. Curia and UMR do polls for National/Labour, but they are still real polls).
The party vote numbers show a big swing, too. The numbers in 2017 were very close to the nationwide total (Nat 44 Lab 36).