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Open Mike 30/11/2016

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 30th, 2016 - 159 comments
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159 comments on “Open Mike 30/11/2016 ”

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  1. Andre 1
    30 November 2016 at 6:56 am

    Interesting, anti-immigrant groups in the past have used a “competitor standing” doctrine to try to limit immigration on the grounds that immigrants compete with local workers and harm their prospects. Now that doctrine may get used to go after Trump.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/trump-immigration-legal-theory-231899

  2. Rosemary McDonald 2
    30 November 2016 at 7:38 am

    Sit still for a wee while and read this….http://www.radionz.co.nz/stories/201825742/justice-delayed-justice-denied

    “At first she didn’t think of the state welfare homes as incarceration. But when she started to interview people she changed her mind. The regimes they were subject to were very similar to prison regimes.

    “They were horrific. Really austere. Children were left in the secure cell during the day with nothing. Nothing. A concrete plinth. They even removed the mattress so they wouldn’t be comfortable during the day. They’d be boiling in the summer, they’d be freezing in the winter. In some institutions they even had a nodding system where the guards or workers wouldn’t even speak to them. You can’t imagine what that would do to you if you’re an adult let alone if you’re 11, 12, 15, that dehumanisation.”

    That dehumanisation included regular use of physical violence as punishment, including electric-shock therapy. Some victims say the shocks were applied to their genitals and other parts of their bodies. Some children were controlled with drugs that sedated or knocked them out.

    Not only are victims deeply distrustful – the state is still acting in ways that call into question its trustworthiness. Currently the process for making a complaint about abuse in state institutions means going through a system set up and administered by the government department that ran the institutions where the abuse happened.”

    Great work by Aaron Smale supporting this morning’s RNZ’s piece about the reports about abuse in State care.

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport

    Interview with Judge Henwood, and currently Kim Hill has Anne Tolley on the griddle. I hope the audio will be available later.

    Anne Tolley’s current defense is along the lines that only 3.odd percent of the 100,000 who went through State care during this period have made complaints.

    Heartless bastards.

  3. DH 3
    30 November 2016 at 7:44 am

    Meantime back on planet NZ where life still goes on our despicable Government is caught out by whistle-blowing from Housing NZ and no-one appears to have even noticed, likely because they’re too obsessed with Donald Trump.

    The opposition parties have been handed the opportunity of a lifetime and I’ll bet few if any even know it.

    • Ed 3.1
      30 November 2016 at 8:00 am

      OK I’ll bite – I haven’t noticed – do you have a cite?

      • DH 3.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 8:21 am

        Page 72 of their annual report….. hidden away in the notes.

        http://www.hnzc.co.nz/assets/Uploads/Annual-Report-2016.pdf

        • millsy 3.1.1.1
          30 November 2016 at 8:35 am

          ?

        • James Thrace 3.1.1.2
          30 November 2016 at 9:26 am

          If you’re talking about the Tamaki Redevelopment Co notes, that’s already been covered off on an earlier Open Mike.

          The Tauranga and Invercargill property sales are dead in the water.

          If it’s not either of those things, a more specific example that’s not a vague reference to “hidden away in the notes” would be more helpful.

          • DH 3.1.1.2.1
            30 November 2016 at 9:32 am

            Just how hard is it to download the file and read a page James?

            • James Thrace 3.1.1.2.1.1
              30 November 2016 at 11:35 am

              Point.

              >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>You.

              I read it, but it wasn’t immediately obvious to what you were referring to.

              More clarity next time please.

              Thank you.

        • Graeme 3.1.1.3
          30 November 2016 at 10:04 am

          HNZC is a social housing agency.

          But they have to make an allowance in their asset valuations for an impairment for a small proportion of their stock that they are selling to account for being a social housing agency.

          WTF

          So they are valuing their assets, and the return on those assets as if they were a normal commercial landlord. They say themselves that their assets are overvalued by 50 – 60%

          Jeez, if a private sector business tried that on it’d get messy fast.

          • DH 3.1.1.3.1
            30 November 2016 at 10:14 am

            Yup. And a whole lot can be read and concluded from that.

            One logical conclusion is they’ve established a formula for pricing the state houses they intend to sell to social housing providers. They’ve just announced the intended sale of 2400 state houses in ChCh and using their own formula they’d be intending to sell $1 billion worth of property for $380 million.

            Selling significant publicly owned assets for only 38% of their value is not condusive to staying a government. Even National voters wouldn’t wear that, we all know what property is worth.

            • alwyn 3.1.1.3.1.1
              30 November 2016 at 10:47 am

              Really? That sounds exactly like the proposed Labour Party policy of building houses and selling them to people with low incomes at a discount.

              The fact that the Party website says
              “KiwiBuild homes will only be sold to first home buyers. To avoid buyers reaping windfall gains a condition of sale will require them to hand back any capital gain if sold on within 5 years”
              clearly implies they expect to sell them at below market value.

              I wonder how you qualify to buy one? Will production of a Union Card or proof of Labour Party membership be required?

              • DH …
                30 November 2016 at 10:58 am

                You need to go back for further programming alwyn, that was a pretty weak attempt at diversion even by your standards.

                • alwyn …
                  30 November 2016 at 11:09 am

                  You mean it is true and you don’t know how to justify it.

                  • DH …
                    30 November 2016 at 11:16 am

                    Ah, no alwyn. Meaning your hearing is impaired. The information you posted doesn’t sound anything like what you thought you heard. No mention is made there of discounting the houses, indeed they’re doing the opposite in taking any capital gain that might accrue.

                    Now either your reading comprehension is so poor there’s no point in me conversing with you for fear of having my words misread, or you’re merely trying to derail & divert in which case there’s no point in me conversing with you there either.

                    Back to the reprogramming booth for you.

            • Graeme 3.1.1.3.1.2
              30 November 2016 at 12:11 pm

              Good that HNZC recognise that covenants are required to protect the social housing use once sold to the private provider. But that should have been explicit in the valuation, and expected return on that valuation, from the very beginning.

              When the beginning was will have considerable political import, and along the way someone may have miss-understood, or been devious / deceived around the basis of valuation.

              Time to sit well back and see where this cow pat lands.

              It’s not that they were “Selling significant publicly owned assets for only 38% of their value”, the assets were overvalued by 163%

              • DH …
                30 November 2016 at 12:56 pm

                They’re not overvalued Graeme, HNZ are required to declare their housing stock at “Fair Value” according to IFRS rules and have done so for quite some time.

                The social housing providers are non-profit organisations so there is no commercial valuation here. This is really about funding IMO. This tells me the charities that the Govt wants to sell to have no spare money. They look to be needing to borrow the dosh to buy the houses and HNZs income statement reveals the nett rental return from the properties won’t even come close to paying the interest on substantial levels of borrowed funds.

                They can’t fund the deal on borrowed money at market rates, the rental income won’t pay the interest, so I’d expect the only way the deal can proceed is if English gives them a humungous discount or fronts them a low/no interest loan.

                • Graeme …
                  30 November 2016 at 1:15 pm

                  And they would have been valued under the same rules once the covenant / encumbrance had been applied to the property title. But nothing has changed about the property or it’s use, just the expected owner.

                  I see it more as explaining how inappropriate the “dividends” HNZC paid to the shareholding minister were. Both from the moral repugnance of it all and the usurious way that these dividends appear to have been calculated. No wonder the govt got out of there as quickly as they did.

                  • DH …
                    30 November 2016 at 2:21 pm

                    Oh come now Graeme, do you seriously believe that a 25 year encumbrance really lowers the value of a house?

                    Commercial properties are often leased out on encumbrances like 7×7 terms, do you see any of those having their price lowered because they have to be leased for the next 14 years?

                    Get real mate, the encumbrance values are bullshit. All housing NZ properties are rented out at market rates and you’re trying to justify them being sold at a 60% discount to market price?

                    • Graeme …
                      30 November 2016 at 7:53 pm

                      Well one of them is bullshit, as I said at the start nothing has actually changed, just a different way of looking at it.

                      The original valuations would have reflected the commercial value of the properties that could be rented and sold on the open market. The second reflected properties that could be rented as social housing, but not on-sold for capital gain.

                      The govt has got themselves in a bit of a hole there, as it would be politically difficult if the properties were on-sold for a profit, hence the encumbrance.

                      Whether HNZ’s properties were, or could be rented or sold on a commercial basis on the open market is a very debatable concept due to it’s social housing responsibilities and function. It does increase the possible / requires dividend if the assets are viewed as fully commercial however. I tend to the view that it’s actually the first valuations that are questionable.

                    • DH …
                      30 November 2016 at 9:25 pm

                      “Well one of them is bullshit, as I said at the start nothing has actually changed, just a different way of looking at it.”

                      Huh? A very fundamental change has occurred, $240 million worth of a publicly owned asset has been written off for no good reason or reward.

                      “The original valuations would have reflected the commercial value of the properties that could be rented and sold on the open market. The second reflected properties that could be rented as social housing, but not on-sold for capital gain. ”

                      One would need to have come down in the last rain shower to fall for that line Graeme. These new valuations occurred in the context of the Govt being in lengthy negotiations with a potential buyer. It would be a complete fool who gives away their bottom line price to the other party wouldn’t it, clearly the ‘valuations’ were retrospective.

                      Of course they can be on-sold for capital gain. They can be held for 25yrs, amassing very considerable gains, and on-sold to anyone or on-sold earlier to another social housing provider. It’s little different to the situation of operators like Rymans and they don’t get to buy their retirement complexes at 38cents in the dollar do they.

                      “I tend to the view that it’s actually the first valuations that are questionable.”

                      You’d be questioning IFRS there and it’s not really relevant to the topic.

  4. Tricledrown 4
    30 November 2016 at 8:28 am

    Tolley the terrible.
    She is under orders to minimise the financial damage.
    Having an independent agency and enquiry will show its more like 70% of children who were state wards were violently sexually psychologically abused.
    Tolley’s dispicable obfuscation including she was just a child(still).
    I know many many state wards most seriously damaged unable to function as adults.
    Nasty Nasty piece of Work .
    Shame on you Tolley.

    • tc 4.1
      30 November 2016 at 11:15 am

      Thats why she is there along with collins, parata and bennett.

      Nasty people in a nasty party doing nasty things in govt.

      Recall kate wilkinson, far to nice and nowhere near nasty enough so got moved on.

  5. Ad 5
    30 November 2016 at 8:28 am

    The interview with Minister Anne Tolley on RNZ is going to go down in infamy as one of the worst and most heartless pieces of work in modern New Zealand politics.

    Has anyone heard anything like it in the last three decades?

    Also a particularly stupid juxtaposition:

    On the one hand, Minister of Education Hekia Parata shuts down a Special Needs school in Dunedin for allegations about two teachers where the Police don’t see a case to answer, and so far there’s no evidence to be seen anywhere. So far.

    Quite a strong reaction from the state to protect people under its direct control and care.

    And on the same day, the Minister of Social Welfare cannot open her mouth and utter the word “I am sorry” for decades of solidly proven abuse on behalf of the state while protecting people under its direct control and care.

    This story is now set to roll.

    • jcuknz 5.1
      30 November 2016 at 8:42 am

      And also reported one parent who saw nothing untoward at that Dn school.
      Me thinks some stirrers with bees in their bonnet at work. Perhaps that parent has brought up their child correctly?

      • Rosemary McDonald 5.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 8:51 am

        “Perhaps that parent has brought up their child correctly?”

        You might want to back up the judgmental truck there a tad jcuknz.

        The whole issue of managing meltdowns and difficult behaviours is nuanced…requires a little more knowledge and experience that perhaps some commenters lack.

    • Rosemary McDonald 5.2
      30 November 2016 at 8:48 am

      Natrad is on fire this morning!

      Although, having to listen to the smarmy, patronising and eventually whiny tones of both Tolley and Parata in the same morning is almost too much.

  6. Puckish Rogue 6
    30 November 2016 at 9:09 am

    I don’t always agree with him but he’s pretty much spot on here:

    http://www.philquin.com/blog/2016/11/29/castro-mourning-by-hipster-lefties-makes-me-sick

    • joe90 6.1
      30 November 2016 at 9:29 am

      Or is it the 79,000 extrajudicial killings?

      Quin’s source for this figure, his arse or the lunatic claims of the exile community?.

      • Puckish Rogue 6.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 9:44 am

        Phew that’s lucky, here I was thinking Castro was an unpleasant person, glad that’s cleared up:

        https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/11/fidel-castro-s-human-rights-legacy-a-tale-of-two-worlds/

        Upon establishing his provisional government in 1959, Castro organised trials of members of the previous government that resulted in hundreds of summary executions. In response to an international outcry and amid accusations that many of the trials were unfair, Castro responded:

        “Revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts, but on moral conviction… we are not executing innocent people or political opponents. We are executing murderers and they deserve it.”

        • KJT 6.1.1.1
          30 November 2016 at 9:57 am

          From a supporter of our Government of serial child abusers.

          FIFY.

        • joe90 6.1.1.2
          30 November 2016 at 9:58 am

          Oh, he was a particularly unpleasant person but unless of course Quin counted the estimated Balseros death toll, 79,000 extrajudicial killings, really.

          February 19, 2008 Update on Findings

          This work documents loss of life and disappearances of a political or military nature attributed to the Cuban Revolution. Each documented case is available for review at http://www.CubaArchive.org and substantiated by bibliographic/historic data and reports from direct sources. Due to the ongoing nature of the work and the difficulty of obtaining and verifying data from Cuba, the following totals change as research progresses and are considered far from exhaustive. Cuba Archive is currently examining additional cases –most are expected to be added to this table. Experience has shown that as additional outreach efforts are undertaken, many more cases are likely to be uncovered’.

          […]

          Documented Cases

          Firing squad executions 4,074

          Extrajudicial killings not in prison 1,334

          Missing and disappeared 219

          Other, including deaths in prison(1) 2,215

          http://www.cubaverdad.net/genocide.htm#Other

          • Puckish Rogue 6.1.1.2.1
            30 November 2016 at 10:01 am

            It’s good that since Quinn got those numbers, allegedly, wrong everything else can be safely ignored 🙂

            • McFlock 6.1.1.2.1.1
              30 November 2016 at 12:11 pm

              It does bring to mind the question of the accuracy of “everything else” if estimates vary that wildly.

              Frankly, seven thousand just after the revolution seems a bit low to me – they captured 1200 in the Bay of Pigs, I would have thought many of those would have been put on trial and received severe sentences.

              Even so, Cuba’s better off than if Batista had remained.

      • Gosman 6.1.2
        30 November 2016 at 9:47 am

        The moral bankruptcy of people on the left is truly wonderful to behold. I suspect you think the ends justifies the means.

        • KJT 6.1.2.1
          30 November 2016 at 9:55 am

          You crying for Batista’s bunch of criminals.
          LOL.

          • Gosman 6.1.2.1.1
            30 November 2016 at 9:57 am

            Ummm… you seem to be making a massive leap there. Not surprising for supporters of brutal leftists dictators like Castro. The idea that if you are not with them you must support who they disposed is one of the reasons human rights went out the window when Castro took power.

            • KJT 6.1.2.1.1.1
              30 November 2016 at 10:10 am

              Local councils with democratic control who send remits and consensus upwards to their Government.
              Cubans have more democratic control over things that affect them than we do.

              Meanwhile, in the USA, everyone is terrified of what Trump may do with his dictatorial powers.

              Castro saved Cuba from being one of the many examplars of US controlled South American capitalism.
              Haiti, Nicaragua, Chile, Mexico. All poverty and crime ridden failed States.

              Funny we never hear about all the people trying to leave them. Except for Trump and Obama trying to send them back.

              If you are going on about human rights. There are some really serious and continued abuses in Cuba. In the US controlled Guantanamo Bay.
              Not to mention, on our own doorstep. In Indonesia and Australia/Nauru

              • Gosman …
                30 November 2016 at 10:22 am

                You really think the average Cuban has more control over their life than we do? Pray tell how the average Cuban can afford to go to a holiday resort in their own country without access to hard currency and why should they be denied that right?

                • Clump_AKA Sam …
                  30 November 2016 at 10:23 am

                  I don’t know much about Cuba. But Britians have less control than Cubans

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  30 November 2016 at 11:29 am

                  This may come as a surprise but going to a holiday resort isn’t a human right.

                  • Gosman …
                    30 November 2016 at 11:35 am

                    Except in moderately developed economies the vast majority can afford to spend some time at a holiday resort at some stage.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      30 November 2016 at 11:39 am

                      Have you got proof that Cubans can’t?

                    • Gosman …
                      30 November 2016 at 11:47 am

                      If you think the vast majority of Cubans are able to access a resort (even a relatively down market one) more power to you.

                    • KJT …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:01 pm

                      Tell that to the jobless brown kids in Whangarei.

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      30 November 2016 at 1:29 pm

                      If you think the vast majority of Cubans are able to access a resort (even a relatively down market one) more power to you.

                      Ah, so you don’t have anything to back up your assertion. That would make what you said a lie.

                      But that’s all we can expect from RWNJs – they have to lie because reality doesn’t conform to their delusional beliefs.

                    • ropata …
                      30 November 2016 at 2:55 pm

                      RWNJ’s think that an independent nation should just bend over and take it when US corporations want to rape and pillage.

                      The Cubans should not have stood up for freedom and justice, they should have let themselves be impoverished and exploited by criminal US enterprises.

                      Remind us, which nation throws people into Guantanamo Bay without trial?

            • Tricledrown 6.1.2.1.1.2
              30 November 2016 at 10:33 am

              Was that when the mafia ran Cuba into communism.
              After years of exploitation by the Mafia anything was better as far as the peasants were concerns.
              American foreign policy could have solved the problem but alas just like in Syria the Russians gave Fidel Castro a better deal.
              The Americans have propped up nasty dictators all through Central America for over a century!

              • Gosman …
                30 November 2016 at 10:36 am

                Castro was always a communist dictator (either in waiting OR in power). There was no way he was going to be some sort of Carribean Social Democrat. The Soviet Union didn’t force him to outlaw private enterprise or send Cubans offshore to ferment Communist revolution in other nations.

            • joe90 6.1.2.1.1.3
              30 November 2016 at 10:35 am

              human rights went out the window when Castro took power

              .

              Yeah, if you ignore the 20,000 Cubans murdered by the Batista regime, human rights in Cuba prior to Castro were just fucking peachy.

              • Gosman …
                30 November 2016 at 10:57 am

                So that makes it okay in your book does it? Somehow all Castro’s human rights abuses are fine because the person he replaced was worse. I suppose that would explain why many leftists in the West supported East Germany. At least they weren’t the Nazi’s

                • Draco T Bastard …
                  30 November 2016 at 11:32 am

                  No it doesn’t make it right but it does show that he actually made life better in Cuba from what was before.

                  Unlike our present NZ government which is actively making life worse for the poor so a few rich people can get richer. And, yes, there’s probably deaths involved as well from those policies.

                  • Gosman …
                    30 November 2016 at 11:39 am

                    The average poor person in NZ has a life that the average Cuban could only dream of. That is the tragedy of Cuba. With better economic management the country could have been a success story. Instead it is an economic basket case.

                    • adam …
                      30 November 2016 at 11:52 am

                      Basket case, yeap you put an embargo on NZ for half a century and see where we end up. I like how you cherry pick and ignore facts Gosman.

                    • Red []
                      30 November 2016 at 11:58 am

                      Trade is bad, ask Draco and the Nz loony left, any decent planned economy does not need it, so sorry no out there Also hard to trade with some one that wants to nuke you

                    • Gosman …
                      30 November 2016 at 11:59 am

                      Stop with the nonsense of the embargo. There is not one documented case of Cuba not being able to trade with a nation outside the US as a result of the embargo. Heck the country traded with the Soviet Bloc for 30 years. It can trade with the EU or China or even NZ. Name me one item that it couldn’t get from outside the US.

                    • KJT …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:08 pm

                      Looked far from a “basket case” to me.

                      Actually havn’t seen so many clean, happy leisured people anywhere else, apart from New Zealands dairy farmer retirement towns, Mt Muanganui and Cambridge.

                      Especially glaring compared to parts of New Jersey, and Haiti and Jamaica.

                      You’ve been reading far too much propaganda from the same people who say that Chavez was a dictator?

                    • KJT …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:10 pm

                      Life expectancy in Cuba is better than the USA, and not far behind us.

                    • adam …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:16 pm

                      Car parts. Kiwifruit. There two.

                      Your utter refusal to look at how international politics, and how it works Gossy is outstanding. The Embargo had the effect of stopping trade with anyone who did not want to piss off the USA. Which was a big group, that even NZ was part of till after the fourth labour government.

                      But lets leave aside your lack of understanding of international politics. The other effect was to limit hard currency Cuba could lay it’s hands on. You understand what that does to an economy right?

                    • Gosman …
                      30 November 2016 at 1:15 pm

                      Car parts and Kiwifruit? ?? The Cubans can get those from any number of nations. As for the US applying pressure on countries not to trade, there is no evidence for that. Indeed I believe Mexico is one of Cuba’s largest trading partners. That is not indicative of the US causing problems.

                    • Macro …
                      30 November 2016 at 1:34 pm

                      Facts to Gosman are such horrid things.
                      Cuba is the living example of what life will be like post oil.
                      Gossy take a hard long look and if you happen to be young enough to survive to until the time oil becomes so expensive it is no longer extracted, just think of what it must have been like for Cubans for the past 50 + years.
                      By the way – if you ever need a doctor in that part of the world – make sure you are in Cuba – not the US. In Cuba its free – you will come out minus an arm and a leg in the US.

                    • adam …
                      30 November 2016 at 2:21 pm

                      Are being obtuse Gossy, or are you really that ignorant of international politics and it’s machinations?

                  • Red …
                    30 November 2016 at 11:45 am

                    Yes I give you Castro did well in convincing left ideologues and his people of that, as does North Korea howeve pre and post Cuba economic stats don’t support your rediculous statement, even before contrasting living standards in Cuba vs Latin America, Europe pre revolutions to now

                • adam …
                  30 November 2016 at 11:47 am

                  Geez Gossy your lot have many on the right supporting old PInochet. It’s a dilemma for your lot.

                  The Cuban revolution was better than what became before, I know you find that hard because a leftist made it better. But they were far from perfect. Guess what – it’s a imperfect world.

                  As for many of your dumb assertions over the last few days have been sickening. The Cuban revolution was born out of nasty set of events. It was led by a Castro and like all authoritarian regimes it was crap. But, and it’s a big but, it was better than the authoritarian right wing gangsta nation it was before he came to power.

                  But lets not forget that for 2 million dollars a day the USA put Cuba under an embargo for almost half a century. So, so much for your free trade ah Gosman, so much for freedom there.

                  • Gosman …
                    30 November 2016 at 11:51 am

                    I don’t think many people on the right have claimed Pinochet was anything but a brutal military dictator with blood on his hands. He certainly hasn’t been set up to be some sort of Right wing icon who people should aspire to and that despite Pinochet leaving the country a whole lot better off economically than the mess Allende was making of the place. Noone can claim the same of Castro and Cuba.

                    • adam …
                      30 November 2016 at 11:56 am

                      Actually you just did, by saying he was economically better.

                      You just put him on a pedestal.

                    • Gosman …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:00 pm

                      I’m not putting him on a pedestal. As I stated he was a brutal military dictator with blood of his opponents on his hands. Are you willing to state the same for Castro?

                    • adam …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:06 pm

                      But you did, when you said he was economically better. That is supporting his world view, and economic choices.

                      I have never said otherwise about Castro. But what I have with you is simple, your blanket statements, and ignoring that the Cuban economy was bulldozed by the US.

                      Plus, I think you are conveniently ignoring how bad it was before the revolution. The gangster state before the revolution, was one of the worst in the whole of America’s.

                    • KJT …
                      30 November 2016 at 12:14 pm

                      The economy in Chile took 20years to recover from Pinochet.

                      In what right wing phantasy world did he improve it?

                    • Draco T Bastard …
                      30 November 2016 at 1:25 pm

                      In what right wing phantasy world did he improve it?

                      Rich people got richer and that’s all that the RWNJs care about.

                • Gabby …
                  30 November 2016 at 12:53 pm

                  You agree it was an improvement then.

        • Brigid 6.1.2.2
          30 November 2016 at 10:04 am

          “the ends justify the means” ..like in say Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay?

    • Morrissey 6.2
      30 November 2016 at 10:10 am

      Puckish Rogue, you are a fool to quote Phil Quin for ANYTHING, let alone something where he is clearly so far out of his depth.

      Perhaps the most risible part of the rant you linked to was the sentence beginning: “Anne Applebaum, a brilliant Washington Post reporter, hardly of the right….”

      Anyone who has any familiarity with the views of Anne Applebaum—and Quin obviously does not—would immediately recognize that statement as an absurdity. Applebaum is an “adjunct fellow” at the American Enterprise Institute, a notorious extreme right think tank. Her writing is shrill, biased and the antithesis of scholarly: on one infamous occasion she claimed, outlandishly, that the late Ho Chi Minh, Salvador Allende and Fidel Castro were similar to Stalin, Mao and Kim Il-Sung.

      Applebaum is one of the loudest and most incessant agitators on behalf of the Ukrainian junta, and she has been trenchantly condemned by leading thinkers like Glenn Greenwald.

      On top of all that, she is actively involved in attempts to minimize and trivialize the under-age rape allegations against her friend Roman Polanski.

      Yet Phil Quin, that vacuous chuntering radio ninny, claims she is “brilliant” and “hardly of the right.”

      I don’t expect anything intelligent from Phil Quin, but I must say, Puckish Rogue, that I do expect better from you.

      • Puckish Rogue 6.2.1
        30 November 2016 at 10:48 am

        Fair enough, so whats your take on Castro?

        • framu 6.2.1.1
          30 November 2016 at 12:32 pm

          he appears on way too many t-shirts

        • Morrissey 6.2.1.2
          30 November 2016 at 6:55 pm

          I think Castro was a brave and inspirational leader, and a symbol of freedom and resistance against oppression. However, that doesn’t mean that I think he was not deeply flawed. His intolerance of gays was notorious, which of course makes him pretty similar to a significant portion of the United States House of Representatives. And I never fail to be deeply angry and depressed when I think about Castro’s bumptious and destructive attitude toward the beautiful avante-garde architectural work of the National Art Schools.

          http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2015/05/cuba-unfinished-spaces-150519094656409.html

          So my take on him is complicated. But let’s not forget the reality of the situation he faced: He was demonized and targeted for assassination by the United States, which never forgave him for the radical act of leading a popular revolt against Fulgencio Batista, the dictator it backed. Cuba was in a permanent state of siege, as a vengeful superpower pursued a vicious, illegal and internationally condemned jihad against the island state for more than half a century.

          Castro’s legacy should be rigorously criticized—-but by serious scholars, not by shallow know-nothings like Phil Quin.

      • Stunned Mullet 6.2.2
        30 November 2016 at 10:56 am

        4th rate stenographer is outraged….outraged I tells ya !

    • adam 6.3
      30 November 2016 at 11:32 am

      No hipsters are not left Puckish, Liberal (but, so is John Key) but not left. Most hipsters are all about money.

    • reason 6.4
      30 November 2016 at 6:40 pm

      Right wing death squads kill millions and you do not give a stuff ….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJMJqjqEdw

      Sick ol Puck …….

      http://www.amara.org/en/videos/lCHCQE8uqUJb/info/jagal-the-act-of-killing-full-movie/

  7. Red 7
    30 November 2016 at 11:03 am

    Cuba income before revolution where 60 pc of European levels, amoung the highest in Latin America they are now the poorest in line with Central America. GDP 1950 per capita was approx 3k still as such in 1999, all hail the planned economy and the great Castro before we even consider the human rights record

    • Gosman 7.1
      30 November 2016 at 11:11 am

      Ah yes but GDP doesn’t count for many leftists. So long as education and health care are ‘free’ that is the real definition of a successful state. No matter that medical professionals don’t earn enough and many have to moonlight in jobs that pay hard currency, or that there is usually not enough drugs or other medical supplies and patients have to provide their own, or that the education they receive hasn’t led to any innovative new businesses or helped develop the Cuban economy at all.

      • Red 7.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 11:31 am

        strange also not many people drowned sailing from Miami to Cuba,

      • Draco T Bastard 7.1.2
        30 November 2016 at 11:38 am

        You do realise that the healthcare available in Cuba is better than that available in the US don’t you?

        In fact, everything you said there sounds like a lie started and propagated through right-wing fake news outlets.

        • Gosman 7.1.2.1
          30 November 2016 at 11:42 am

          No it’s not. What you are stating is the health care in Cuba is better than the health care available in the US for the uninsured. This may well be the case but I suspect in the US poor people are able to access health care of some level that does not need them to provide their own drugs and health supplies.

        • Red 7.1.2.2
          30 November 2016 at 11:48 am

          For the socialist elite and offshore paying customers yes, for the average Cuban, get real, smell the roses Many Cuban doctors are simply sent offshore to generate hard currency for the state

          • Draco T Bastard 7.1.2.2.1
            30 November 2016 at 1:24 pm

            Many Cuban doctors are simply sent offshore to generate hard currency for the state

            [citation needed]

            Although it sounds like more RWNJ false news.

            • alwyn 7.1.2.2.1.1
              30 November 2016 at 6:27 pm

              From the New York Times

              “Havana gets subsidized oil from Venezuela and money from several other countries in exchange for medical services. This year, according to the state-run newspaper Granma, the government expects to make $8.2 billion from its medical workers overseas. The vast majority, just under 46,000, are posted in Latin America and the Caribbean. A few thousand are in 32 African countries.”

              http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/opinion/a-cuban-brain-drain-courtesy-of-us.html?_r=0

              The article is quite strongly opposed to the US Government’s action but it does confirm the claim about being a source of income to Cuba.

              • Draco T Bastard …
                30 November 2016 at 6:44 pm

                Ok.

                But this brings up an interesting question:
                What is it about this trade that upsets the right-wing?

                I’m pretty sure that they’ve been telling us how great trade is for centuries. Is it just that there isn’t a private individual making a profit from the work of others as corporations would?

              • reason …
                30 November 2016 at 7:06 pm

                https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/28/indonesia-and-act-forgetting

                “I was a couple of months old in October 1965, when the Indonesian government gave free rein to a mix of Indonesian soldiers and paramilitaries to kill anyone they considered to be a “communist.” Over the next few months into 1966, at least 500,000 people were killed (the total may be as high as one million). The victims included members of the Communist Party of Indonesia (P.K.I.), ethnic Chinese, as well as trade unionists, teachers, civil society activists and leftist artists.”

                The Act of Killing

                The film focuses on the perpetrators of the Indonesian killings of 1965–66 in the present day; ostensibly towards the communist community where almost a million people were killed. When Suharto overthrew Sukarno, the President of Indonesia, following the failed coup of the 30 September Movement in 1965, the gangsters Anwar Congo and Adi Zulkadry in Medan (North Sumatra) were promoted from selling black market movie theatre tickets to leading the most powerful death squad in North Sumatra. They also extorted money from ethnic Chinese as the price for keeping their lives. Anwar is said to have personally killed 1,000 people.

                Today, Anwar is revered as the right wing of a paramilitary organization Pemuda Pancasila that grew out of the death squads. The organization is so powerful that its leaders include government ministers who are openly involved in corruption, election rigging and clearing people from their land for developers.”

                A right wing Gangster nation where mass murders are celebrated and walk free …………. I think we either just did a trade deal with them ,,,,,,,,,, or maybe it was a tax haven/offshore network meeting

                Its hard to know with john keys nats ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

              • McFlock …
                30 November 2016 at 7:14 pm

                okey dokey.
                That says 50-odd thousand doctors overseas.

                CIA reckons 6.7 docs per thousand Cubans (looks like 2010 WHO stats).
                Cuban population is 11.1 mil (same source).
                That’s roughly 75 thousand doctors.
                50,000 overseas, that’s 25,000 remaining.
                Or, reversing the process, that’s 2.25 doctors per thousand.
                NZ is 2.74, US is 2.45 per thousand.

                Jamaica is 0.41 per thousand. Just as comparison.

                • alwyn …
                  30 November 2016 at 10:13 pm

                  I really couldn’t care less.
                  DTB asked for a citation that Cuba sent medical people overseas as a way of raising money.
                  I had been talking to a Cuban born friend who was telling me what incredibly low incomes the people in Cuba have. I found this reference when I was googling for info on that subject and remembered it when DTB asked for a reference. I posted it to satisfy his curiosity.
                  For the record I think that Castro was a miserable SOB. Not in the class of Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao or Hitler but a despicable specimen none the less.
                  I am old enough to remember the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. The one who came out of than looking sane was Khrushchev. Castro wanted to start WW3 and Kennedy wasn’t much different.
                  Castro was willing to destroy the world.

  8. greywarshark 8
    30 November 2016 at 11:11 am

    Hi Robert Guyton
    Are you involved with this new Southland initiative? Sounds promising in the line of other Invercargill moves like adopting toothy Tim as Mayor. You people might be a role model for the Far North, isolated and languishing a bit though trying but with too many conservatives sitting on their prejudices I think – up for violent disagreement with that. (Note a recent radio piece on the police difficulties and understaffing there).

    Southland can only go up along with feisty Stewart Island – after that there is only the Southern Ocean rocky outposts and sealife.

    • The lost sheep 8.1
      30 November 2016 at 1:09 pm

      ‘a bit languishing’
      Violent offense duly taken.
      Southland / Northland
      GDP per capita – 57,135 / 34,825
      Mean household income – 87,100 / 70,000
      Unemployment rate – 3.6% / 8.8%

      ‘Isolated’
      I’ll give you that one, and you forgot to point out that the weather in Southland is shit.

      • Robert Guyton 8.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 1:16 pm

        And Gore, though I think greywarshark was making his languishing comment with regards the Far North, rather than Southland but it certainly brought out the Parochial Defender in you. Good thing too.

        • The lost sheep 8.1.1.1
          30 November 2016 at 1:41 pm

          I’ve spent a bit of time in both places (Dang, sold the holiday home at Shipwreck Bay way too early!).
          IMO the primary reason for the economic disparity between the two regions is that while the kind of grass cows eat grows brilliantly in both, Southland has the good fortune to be crap for growing the kind you smoke.

          • Robert Guyton 8.1.1.1.1
            30 November 2016 at 1:59 pm

            It’s cooler here, so more incentive to dig and delve, rather than head to the beach and the bong.

          • greywarshark 8.1.1.1.2
            30 November 2016 at 3:02 pm

            That’s not a woolly idea. But I figure that with intelligent forward and smart thinking pollies instead of the prim and punitive little greasers we now have…if gummint could get its head around the growing and sale of marijuana under standards they would have a fast-moving expansionist economy. T

            he Northland area would have a ready-made expertise in growing the weed and just need strong guidance to be marketed properly and to standard and be controlled by and keep the returns in, local trusts shared by the community, but employing Maori and pakeha half and half. There would be problems for sure, but just on a better level than at present.

  9. Robert Guyton 9
    30 November 2016 at 11:26 am

    Hi greywarshark
    Do you mean the SoRDS (Southland Regional Development Strategy) that’s being launched this morning in the presence of Steven Joyce and Nathan Guy and seeks to establish fin-fish farms in Fiordland National Park, amongst other things?

    • greywarshark 9.1
      30 November 2016 at 11:39 am

      @Robert G
      Ho ho ho – I little innocent thought that Santa Claus had come with pressies that would be good to play with!

      • Robert Guyton 9.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 12:19 pm

        Sounds like it, doesn’t it. “Swords” though, eh! Economic development, bring in the tourists, double our production, full steam ahead and damn the torpedoes! Pretty keen on drilling and fracking to, that Tom Campbell, Head Sword-wielder. Seen Tom’s name before?

  10. greywarshark 10
    30 November 2016 at 11:55 am

    Ray Columbus has died. Stuff entertainment had this item.
    I thought this was a funny anecdote which relates to Gerry Brownlee – Vicki Anderson at http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/87016165/Ray-Columbus-always-had-the-last-word-even-for-Gerry-Brownlee

    2013, I wrote a story about Christchurch talent quest stars the Manetti Brothers, Gerry Brownlee and former schoolmate Richard Holden.
    The pair performed a unique mix of country and western and jazz cover songs around Christchurch bars from 1980 to 1986.

    Towards the end of their career, the Manetti Brothers auditioned in front of Ray Columbus for a TV show.
    “He subtly told us we were crap,” Brownlee told me in 2013.
    He went on to describe the audition as a “cock-up” on Columbus’s part.

    “It was the most appalling thing. We went to the second floor of the now demolished TVNZ building to audition,” said Brownlee.
    “Ray Columbus was there, very small he was. I had to look down to see him, and he said ‘show us what you’ve got’. We only got a little way through our act and he said ‘that’s enough, you guys’. I’m not bitter about it but it was a cock-up in my opinion.”
    Oh how Ray laughed when I read Brownlee’s quote to him.

    • alwyn 10.1
      30 November 2016 at 6:39 pm

      I really think you should have included the last bit of the article

      “”All right,” Ray eventually agreed when I suggested he should have right of reply. “But you can only print this response when I’m gone.”
      As I said, Ray did always like to have the last word.
      “I may be short, Mr Brownlee, but at least I could sing.””

      How true those last 3 words were.

      • greywarshark 10.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 9:46 pm

        Yes Alwyn true, the last three lines are good. But Brownlee has now found how to squeeze the rest of us till we sing.

  11. Rosemary McDonald 11
    30 November 2016 at 12:26 pm

    Deeply insightful piece by renegade farmer journalist Rachel Stewart.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=11756771

    She listened to Guy ‘humans only have ten years left’ McPherson and experienced a personal epiphany….

    “Many try to believe that politicians will soon see the error of their delays, act quickly on our behalf for the good of the planet, and all will be well. Business helps the environment, neoliberalism will save the kea, and continued fossil fuel extraction is a necessary evil. Technology will ultimately save the day. Hurrah!

    I’ve thought hard on what was emotionally so different about McPherson’s short timeframe versus my unquestioning belief in a much longer one. Obviously, the longer timeframe means I’d get to live out my natural life.

    I had never, for one second, consciously entertained the idea that human extinction was conceivable in the near term.

    In other words, I’m basically okay with the sadness and anxiety about some far-off future generation seeing the collapse of humanity. Just not this one. My one.

    Which tells me everything I didn’t want to know about myself. I possess precisely the same procrastination, selfishness and denial that got us into this mess.

    Turns out, I’m only human.”

    • greywarshark 11.1
      30 November 2016 at 12:43 pm

      @Rosemary
      Makes you gulp more than a little. Most people I know are ignoring warnings, but trying to make rational decisions based on the expectation that an ordered society will be possible in the long term. Short term, well more earthquakes, tsunami, a change of government, but near extinction no!

      And how many people are putting the Syrian and African refugees to the forefront. I gave some money some months ago but have been sidetracked by other costs of money and time. Though they are just ordinary people like us who deserve their chance to live and have settled communities without being bombed and murdered because they are inconveniently in the way of strategic assets wanted by giant powers.

      I am part of a group trying to do something for now for the community with an eye for the near to mid- future and having hard enough job to keep people on reality track when their heads are full of untested ideas, beliefs, personality clashes, examples from different times, areas etc which may not be replicated, differing understandings of what we are doing and about, what is of first priority etc. And trying to keep control from being wrested by charismatic loud voices that disdain questioning, quiet and meaningful analysis.

      • Rosemary McDonald 11.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 2:06 pm

        “Short term, well more earthquakes, tsunami, a change of government, but near extinction no!”

        A Young Twentysomething of my acquaintance has (and sometimes is blighted by) what she terms ‘Apocalypse’ nightmares. End of the world stuff in full living colour and 3D. Every disaster, natural or manmade that dominates the headlines results in a sub conscious -produced movie that robs her of the settled sleep she needs to function well. Often this will be a mish-mash of various cataclysms…a bit of earthquake, tsunami with a sub plot of volcanic eruption and civil disorder.

        I can’t say…”Chill, child, it’ll never happen”, that would be lying, but I do try to say that combining all these different types of incidents into one big nightmare is a bit OTT. Then…she points out, that in the middle of the earthquake, and the resulting tsunami warning, miserable scrotes broke into the houses of evacuees and robbed them. Such are humans…and do we really deserve to inhabit, never mind dominate, the planet? I try the “Not all folk are like that”, line, pointing out some of the good stuff that people do…but looking at the Big Picture, the Overall View of The World….???

        • Rosemary McDonald 11.1.1.1
          30 November 2016 at 2:10 pm

          Lyrics…. No lullaby
          Keep your eyes open
          And prick up your ears
          Rehearse your loudest cry.
          There’s folk out there
          Who would do you harm
          So I’ll sing you no lullaby.
          There’s a lock on the window;
          There’s a chain on the door:
          A big dog in the hall.
          But there’s dragons and beasties
          Out there in the night
          To snatch you if you fall.

          So come out fighting
          With your rattle in hand.
          Thrust and parry. Light
          A match to catch the devil’s eye.
          Bring a cross of fire to the fight.

          And let no sleep bring false relief
          From the tension of the fray.
          Come wake the dead with the scream of life.
          Do battle with ghosts at play.

          Gather your toys at the call-to-arms
          And swing your big bear down.
          Upon our necks when we come to set
          You sleeping safe and sound.

          It’s as well we tell no lie
          To chase the face that cries.
          And little birds can’t fly
          So keep an open eye.
          It’s as well we tell no lie
          So I’ll sing you no lullaby.

    • inspider 11.2
      30 November 2016 at 2:33 pm

      McPherson is a moonbat who follows a long line of millerites and millenialists.

      Stewart has been gullible to be sucked in by him as there is little in the way of a life lesson to be drawn from McPherson’s ‘science’ (except perhaps ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’).

      Stewart is particularly obtuse if she’s never encountered the possibility of humanity ending – as an opinion writer she’s remarkably uninformed if she has never read theories or novels on comet impacts, germ warfare, plagues, nuclear war, vogons, zombie apocalypse etc etc.

      • ropata 11.2.1
        30 November 2016 at 3:02 pm

        The IPCC always gives conservative estimates of AGW impact, as I see it McPherson is looking at worst case scenarios. Unlikely perhaps but not outside the realm of possibility.

      • greywarshark 11.2.2
        30 November 2016 at 3:12 pm

        inspider
        Don’t be such a jerk and know all. Plenty of totally unreal things have happened in the last 150 years, they have been real – not unreal, rarely have many imagined their unpleasant possibilities.

        I think you should read this wikipedia page that goes into the realms of thinking and knowing.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns

        And for those others who already know everything and just look sarcastically at others flailing around trying to open and expand their minds – note the numerous thinking pattern systems:

        Black swan theory
        Dunning–Kruger effect
        Epistemic modal logic
        Four stages of competence
        I know that I know nothing
        Ignoramus et ignorabimus
        Ignotum per ignotius
        Johari window
        Known and Unknown: A Memoir
        List of political catch phrases
        Outside Context Problem
        Russell’s teapot
        The Unknown Known
        Wild card (foresight)

        • ropata 11.2.2.1
          30 November 2016 at 5:49 pm

          These are not even unknown or unpredictable events, any science that contradicts the relentless pursuit of profit is treated as a pariah.

          History shows that all civilizations have a limited life span, and there are so many things going wrong with the climate and ecosystems sustaining human civilisation, I think we will see in our lifetimes massive collapses of cities and nations, but hopefully not complete extinction of humanity.

          Our species faces some existential threats but down here in Planet Key we are pretending it’s business as usual for as long as possible. Until it’s too late.

          – record levels of extinctions
          – collapsing bee populations
          – widespread soil degradation
          – increasing pressure on water supplies (fracking, cowshit, mining)
          – human population still growing out of control
          – destruction of remaining rainforests
          – overfishing and fish dumping
          – ocean acidification, warming, and gyres of floating garbage
          – methane emissions from thawing tundra
          – sea level rise and extreme weather events
          – donald trump

  12. Rosemary McDonald 12
    30 November 2016 at 2:36 pm

    Can anyone else hear “Woman of the Year” Helen Kelly cry….YES! ?

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11757719

    “Coroner Bain concluded: “Having reviewed all the evidence, the Court does not support the view that Mr McMurtrie is in effect, the author of his own misfortune. Considerable issues are raised by the family and the Counsel for Trade Unions in respect of fatigue and in the Court’s view this may well have played a significant part in what occurred,” he said.

    “The Court, on the balance of probabilities, finds no fault with Mr McMurtrie.”

    Coroner Bain went on to repeat general findings from three inquest findings released on Friday, in which he said the forestry industry was a far safer place to work now than it was when the eight men died.

    “The primary driver in highlighting the lack of safety in the forestry industry and the need for accountability and urgent safety reforms has been the CTU and, in particular, Helen Kelly,” he said.””

    • reason 12.1
      30 November 2016 at 7:26 pm

      +100……. thanks for the post Rosemary

      It made me happy … and sad.

      For both Helen Kelly and David McMurtrie …

  13. Incognito 13
    30 November 2016 at 3:20 pm

    Many people appear to be concerned about the spread and influence of “fake news” in this so-called post-truth era and agonise about how to deal with it. I don’t think there’s an easy answer – it would be worth a lengthy post here on TS if I knew it would ever get published – but this piece may be a step in the right direction although I don’t think it is nearly enough or sufficient:

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/86918289/why-we-should-be-teaching-philosophy-in-schools

    • ropata 13.1
      30 November 2016 at 6:21 pm

      Nope, even philosophy 101 would be far too abstract for most kids.

      Would be good to get the opinion of a teacher, but I remember learning about Nazi propaganda in social studies, and reading ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’ (and probably Fahrenheit 451) at various points.

      So I think the basics are covered, if the high school curriculum is anything like it was in the 80s.

      • Incognito 13.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 7:24 pm

        I don’t think philosophy needs to be abstract, rather the opposite, it can be highly practical and relevant. I think it would be great if more emphasis would be given in schools to ethics, logic, analytical thinking, etc. The (human) brain has awe-inspiring capabilities but if we don’t get taught how to engage our brains awful things can and do happen plus it is just a waste of our tremendous potential both individually and collectively IMHO.

        Obviously, you tailor your teaching to the children but IMO philosophy starts at a very young age.

    • Puckish Rogue 14.1
      30 November 2016 at 4:19 pm

      Leggett didn’t leave Labour, Labour left Leggett 🙂

      • James Thrace 14.1.1
        30 November 2016 at 4:53 pm

        Leggett has been right wing all the way through.

        He supports Rogernomics, Goff, hated Cunliffe, and thinks that Labour should focus more on the businessman.

        In short. Typical RWNJ and only out for himself.

    • james 14.2
      30 November 2016 at 4:46 pm

      This was interesting in the same link:

      “There are reports a deal with the Greens to stand aside in Nelson has fractured the local electorate, with as many as eight people said to have quit the party in protest.

      Labour sources suggested to Fairfax there were more.”

      Someone is telling porkies – But it sounds like its possible some of the members are not happy with the MOU implementation.

      • lprent 14.2.1
        30 November 2016 at 5:59 pm

        I believe I have pointed out previously that this is what I’d expect. I’d also expect that the number of people actually voting for the local candidates would drop. I think that the party votes for the area will also drop.

        It may make “political” sense for people in Wellington. However I suspect that overall it is a vote loser.

        Personally as a matter of principal I’d simply vote against whatever party did it. Doesn’t matter if it is National in Epsom or Labour in Nelson. The idea that a political party ‘owns’ votes is just outright dumb. If you have a decent candidate (and Labour and National usually do), then put them up and let the voters make up their mind. Don’t do deals that cut into the voting base.

        We have enough issues with the slow but steady reduction of the turnout already.

  15. McFlock 15
    30 November 2016 at 4:37 pm

    Seems to me that that’s the good direction for Labour to lose members.

    There needs to be a fundamental difference between the two main parties, imo. And a step to the left is illustrated by those who jump to the right 🙂

  16. Ad 16
    30 November 2016 at 5:18 pm

    Very interesting move from the NZ Reserve Bank to seek powers to limit lending to home buyers if they do not earn enough.

    English wants a bit more time to see if the current measures will continue to cool the Auckland market enough. But that’s quite a call if all this debt starts to get riskier.
    I seem to recall Minister Smith this morning saying how important it was that young people didn’t rack up more mortgage debt than they could bear, after figures came in showing the percentage of debt increase for fist home buyers over the last two years. (better jaw jaw than act act, or something).

    For example, events may change fast in the global economy that really push up interest rates up fast, so anyone with a mortgage that isn’t fixed gets in real trouble because it’s just too hard to pay back. Trouble Capital T.

    We will see Ministers meet with the Reserve Bank in the next few weeks to nut this one out. It’s a biggie.

  17. James 17
    30 November 2016 at 11:09 pm

    Latest Roy Morgan is out.

    Ouch for labour. A dismal 23%. Jesus wept.

    National on 49.5%.

    Confidence in the government right up:

    The NZ Roy Morgan Government Confidence Rating has increased strongly to 141pts (up 14.5pts) in November with a high 65% (up 9.5%) of NZ electors saying NZ is ‘heading in the right direction’ compared to only 24% (down 5%) that say NZ is ‘heading in the wrong direction’. This is the rating’s highest score for nearly two years since January 2015.

    • ropata 17.1
      30 November 2016 at 11:19 pm

      The lolly scramble and two-tier economy is working well for Gnat supporters.
      So is the media adulation and careful PR image of AB captain/beer swilling kiwi PM.

      We are ranked near the top of the OECD on all sorts of measures except for absolute basic stuff like education, health, and housing. But that’s all swept under the carpet.

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    Over in Switzerland, the racist "People's Party" tried to have a Brexit-style referendum on ending freedom of movement with the EU, so they could stop the "flood" of foreigners. But the Swiss people said No: Swiss voters have resoundingly rejected an attempt to tear up the country’s agreement with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • International Right To Know Day
    Today, 28 September, is International Right To Know Day (or, as the UN puts it, the "International Day for Universal Access to Information"). The Ombudsman is celebrating with a poll showing that while most people don't know about their freedom of information rights, those that use them mostly get what ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • One way or another, we’re paying for this
    Back in July, when foreign polluters (and archaeological criminals) Rio Tinto announced they planned to close Tiwai Point, I was dancing on its grave. Why? Because the carbon subsidies alone were more than enough to fund alternative jobs - or even just to pay everyone dependent on it a reasonable ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • End of life – it isn’t so easy
    In a few weeks, New Zealanders will make a choice whether we implement into law the End of Life Choice Act 2019.  My scientific expertise includes developing and validating methods to predict future events of ill people including death. There is one section of the Act that concerns me deeply. Section ...
    SciBlogsBy John Pickering
    2 days ago

  • Democracy Under Threat
    My wife and I are at an age when we have begun to think (and worry) about the kind of world we will leave behind for our children and, particularly, our grandchildren. We have experienced during our own lives, like others of our generation, our fair share of hard times ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    2 days ago

  • Liam Hehir: Why it’s important to be open to relationships with people who vote differently
      There are few things written more deeply on the human heart than religion. Differences between us on the purpose and ultimate destiny of human existence have sometimes inspired great intolerance and even wars. But what would we make today of a Catholic who refused to countenance a meaningful relationship ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 days ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #39
    Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The Warming Climates of the Arctic and the Tropics Squeeze the Mid-latitudes, Where Most People Live Melting Arctic ice sends ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • Where in the world will the next epidemic start?
    Naomi Forrester-Soto, Keele University Viruses jumping from animals to humans have been the starting point of numerous outbreaks, from Ebola to Zika. Given the similarity of SARS-CoV-2 to coronaviruses found in bats, this probably marked the beginning of COVID-19 too. We know that viruses have passed from animals to humans ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    3 days ago

  • Fiscal Maths with Paul “Goldie” Goldsmith
    Mr Thinks has asked me to come onto the blog today to outline a few concepts in fiscal mathematics. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    3 days ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #39
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 20, 2020 through Sat, Sep 26, 2020 Editor's Choice Climate Disruption Is Now Locked In. The Next Moves Will Be Crucial A crack on the Amery Ice Shelf in ...
    Skeptical Science
    3 days ago

  • National behind the times
    When Todd Muller resigned as leader of the National Party and allowed for Judith Collins to assume command, you could tell the blue “team” was desperate and in search of past glories. After all, Crusher is towards the end of her political career and from a bygone era where dirty ...
    The Jackal
    4 days ago

  • Coronavirus: the road to vaccine roll-out is always bumpy, as 20th-century pandemics show
    Samantha Vanderslott, University of Oxford If you have been following the media coverage of the new vaccines in development for COVID-19, it will be clear that the stakes are high. Very few vaccine trials in history have attracted so much attention, perhaps since polio in the mid-20th century. A now ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    4 days ago

  • PREFU: The State of Government Accounts
    ‘The Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update’ (PREFU) tells us something about the future of the Public Sector but it requires careful analysis to assess how it is going. The 2020 PREFU is the most important economic statement during any election campaign. Unfortunately the commentariat tends to treat it briefly ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    5 days ago

  • Predatory delay
    Farmers are whining again about being expected to clean up their act: Canterbury farmers want politicians to stop painting them as climate change villains, listen to their needs and allow them more time to boost environmental standards. [...] “The targets are necessary for the environment, but do we ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago

  • Flight to nowhere sends the wrong message in climate crisis
    Qantas Airlines’ 7-hour “flight to nowhere”, that sold out in 10 minutes with prices from A$787 to A$3787, seemed like a sick joke to climate advocates. Apart from the waste of fuel and the pointless emissions, passengers would be able to see first-hand, from a plane just like those that ...
    SciBlogsBy Robert McLachlan
    5 days ago

  • Speaker: The cannabis referendum – a doctor’s perspective
    Cannabis is part of our culture: 80% of adults have tried it sometime. Intuition tells us that legalising cannabis will increase use – science suggests that is not likely. Our Dunedin and Christchurch studies show that cannabis use peaks in our 20s. Older people are less frequent users whether it ...
    Public Address
    5 days ago

  • First steps: Jerry DeSilva on the evolution of bipedalism
    Yesterday morning I got up (at the rather early and unaccustomed hour of 3.30am) to listen to a webinar by paleoanthropologist Dr Jeremy DeSilva¹. Titled “First Steps”, his presentation was about the origins of bipedalism in the human lineage. It was a fascinating session & I thought I’d turn my ...
    SciBlogsBy Alison Campbell
    5 days ago

  • True Believers In A False God.
    Down The Rabbit Hole: "Social psychologists have found that when fearful people contemplate potential misfortunes, they tend to feel helpless and pessimistic, but when angry people contemplate the same, they feel a sense of optimism and control. And one simple way to transmute fear into anger is to perceive an evil ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Majority Rule Requires Majorities That Are Real.
    Fifty Percent Plus One: New Zealand’s genuine-majority-delivering two-party system endured for five elections only (1938, 1943, 1946, 1949, 1951) a period of just 16 years. Very few New Zealanders alive today can boast of participating in an election which delivered a true majority to either Labour or National. Someone who ...
    Bowalley Road
    5 days ago

  • Labour super exploitation
    This is the second in the lecture series by Andy Higginbottom on superexploitation. Here he looks at Marini’s theory of labour super-exploitation and Capital ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    5 days ago

  • Small asteroid to make near-miss of Earth in NZ skies tonight
    Sorry for the late notice on this one, but I only just heard myself, in common with most of the human race. A small asteroid, somewhere between the size of a truck and the size of a house in dimensions, will hurtle past the Earth tonight, dipping closer to ...
    SciBlogsBy Duncan Steel
    6 days ago

  • This is not what accountability looks like
    When someone commits trespass, assault with a weapon, and kidnapping, you'd expect them to be prosecuted, right? But apparently the rules are different if you wear a blue uniform: A police investigation has found officers in Northland trespassed on a man's property, then unlawfully pepper sprayed him and arrested ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Cycling: head injuries ignored because of entrenched macho culture
    Howard Hurst, University of Central Lancashire and Jack Hardwicke, University of Winchester Competitive road cycling is a demanding and unique sport. One where crashing is inevitable – especially at the professional level. While the risk of head injury is relatively low in cycling – approximately 5-13% – compared to contact ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    6 days ago

  • The coming US shitshow
    Today President Trump once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the US election. Coincidentally, The Atlantic has a long article on exactly what that means, from voter suppression by armed thugs in the name of "ballot security", to refusing to allow the vote ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • A moral void
    That's the only way to describe the SIS, who - like their British counterparts - decided to look the other way on child abuse: The SIS knew a young woman was being sexually abused by her father but failed to lodge a complaint with the police, effectively allowing the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • When will Goldsmith resign?
    The National Party’s campaign has gone from bad to worse with a further two large miscalculations being uncovered in their alternative fiscal plan. Firstly, National’s economic spokesperson and list MP, Paul Goldsmith, used May's Budget figures instead of last week's PREFU numbers, and came up with a whopping $4.3 billion ...
    The Jackal
    6 days ago

  • The Adventures of Annalax: Part IX
    The initial session was a struggle. Annalax and Magni tried sorting out the details with the Isaac twins (the people pursuing the mountain trip). Annalax happened to mention his devotion to Lolth… whom the Isaacs, being ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    6 days ago

  • This is bullshit
    On March 13, three plainclothes police officers kicked in Breonna Taylor's door under a no-knock warrant targeting another person. When a person inside reasonably assumed they were home invaders and (this being America) started shooting, they shot up the place and everyone around them - killing Taylor. Today, one of ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Arctic sea ice is being increasingly melted from below by warming Atlantic water
    Tom Rippeth, Bangor University Arctic sea ice today (white) is covering a much smaller area than in 1980-2010 (orange line). National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CC BY-SA Each September, scientists like me look out for the point when the Arctic’s meagre summer fizzles out and ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    6 days ago

  • The long-term health burden of COVID-19: further justification for NZ’s elimination strategy
    Prof John D. Potter* This blog briefly surveys the emerging scientific evidence on the longer-term burden of symptoms and disease in survivors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these symptoms point to damage in the brain and heart. These long-term harms add to the wide range of other reasons for ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    6 days ago

  • Going High, Going Low: An Assessment Of The First Leaders’ Debate.
    Uncrushed: Jacinda Ardern knew exactly what was expected of her in the first Leaders' Debate. Labour’s dominant position, three weeks out from the general election, is constructed out of the admiration and gratitude of hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who, more often than not, vote National.  Nothing she said ...
    Bowalley Road
    6 days ago

  • The smokefree policies of political parties: Do they care about people who smoke?
    George Thomson*, Nick Wilson, Janet Hoek, Andrew Waa, Richard Edwards In this time of Covid-19, helping people who smoke to quit their addiction has an even greater importance. Smokers are more vulnerable to many harmful health effects, including severe effects from the virus. Policies that support people who smoke to ...
    SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
    6 days ago

  • The Fog Of Economic Policy Is Starting To Clear…
    Bryan Bruce, https://www.facebook.com/www.redsky.tv, 19 September 2020 National’s economic policy of temporary tax cuts yesterday proved, if proof be needed, that they are unapologetic neoliberals. While their claim that with more money in their pockets people will spend more might sound attractive, the reality is that tax cuts always benefit the ...
    Closing the GapBy Tracey Sharp
    6 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #38, 2020
    Highlighted article: Carbon pricing and planetary boundaries  Engström et al take what might be called a systems approach to evaluating carbon pricing, taking into a account various economic sectors affected by and affecting paying for emissions. The conclusions are overall a rare pleasant surprise— a feature predicated on cooperation.  Abstract: ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Humans ignite almost every wildfire that threatens homes
    Nathan Mietkiewicz, National Ecological Observatory Network and Jennifer Balch, University of Colorado Boulder CC BY-ND Summer and fall are wildfire season across the western U.S. In recent years, wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate and exposed tens of millions to harmful ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    7 days ago

  • Climate Change: China steps up
    China has increased its climate change ambition, and set a target to be carbon-neutral by 2060: China will reach carbon neutrality before 2060 and ensure its greenhouse gas emissions peak in the next decade, Xi Jinping has told the UN general assembly. “China will scale up its intended nationally ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Humans have dealt with plenty of climate variability
    Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz How much climate variability have humans dealt with since we ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    7 days ago

  • Indigenous perspectives on unrestricted access to genomic data
    By Genomics Aotearoa researcher Maui Hudson, University of Waikato It is vital that genomics research respects genomic data and genetic heritage from indigenous communities. Genomics research is a rapidly growing field of study, and there is a strong push to make the huge amount of data being produced open ...
    SciBlogsBy Genomics Aotearoa
    7 days ago

  • Terrible luck: lockdowns on learning and youth job prospects
    What is bad luck? Bad luck is spilling spaghetti sauce down your shirt right before an important meeting. When the person in front of you gets the last seat on the bus, that’s bad luck. Bad luck is when it’s sunny outside, so you leave the house without a coat, ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    7 days ago

  • Ian Powell: Does private healthcare threaten public healthcare in New Zealand?
    Is the private health system impacting negatively on the public health system? Health commentator Ian Powell evaluates a recent NZ Herald article by Natalie Akoorie (“Public v private healthcare: Moonlighting, skimming, duplication – should NZ do better”), and looks at how the dual system works, and concludes that the answer ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 days ago

  • A rabbit-hole election debate: So do you want more avocado orchards?
    We live in strange and unusual times. It’s been a century since we’ve endured a global pandemic like this, more than half a century since we’ve had economic woes like this. So maybe we got an opening election debate for the times - because that was a strange and unusual ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    1 week ago

  • LIVE: Jacinda Ardern vs. Judith Collins, First Debate
    Tonight, The Civilian will be live-blogging the first of too many debates between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and National Party leader Judith Collins, and also the last fifteen minutes of the news. Be sure to tune in from 6:45pm for regular updates, which can be accessed by refreshing this page ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    1 week ago

  • Hundreds of Aucklanders arrested after illegal mass gathering on Harbour Bridge
    An enormous drive-in party, shown here, was held this morning on Auckland’s Harbour Bridge, where police were forced to intervene. Hundreds of Aucklanders were arrested this morning on public health grounds, after an apparent illegal mass gathering on the city’s Harbour Bridge. Police say hundreds of Aucklanders gathered in their ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    1 week ago

  • The Looming Fight.
    Social Distancing Be Damned - It's Jacinda! Shortly after ascending to Labour’s leadership, Jacinda described herself as a “pragmatic idealist”. It was an inspired oxymoron – packing into just two words the essence of the social-democrat’s dilemma. It was good to know that she knew what lay ahead of her. ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: Moving faster
    Back in 2017, the UK announced that it would ban the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles by 2040. Its a basic climate change measure, aimed at reducing emissions by shifting the vehicle fleet to cleaner technologies. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, they're planning to bring it forward ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • The Australian courts have had enough of refugee detention
    For the past decade, Australia has had a racist, anti-refugee policy. Those claiming refugee status are imprisoned without trial and left to rot in the hope they would "voluntarily" return to be tortured and murdered. When the courts have granted them visas, the government has immediately revoked them on racial ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Friction and the Anti-lock Braking System
    Yesterday afternoon I had to call on my car’s anti-lock braking system (ABS). For reasons best known to its driver, a car pulled out of a side road right in front of me while I was driving home after work, and I needed to stop in a hurry. I rather ...
    SciBlogsBy Marcus Wilson
    1 week ago

  • The Inside Word: New Zealand Quarantine
    There are a fair few misconceptions about conditions within New Zealand’s Quarantine Hotels. Madeline Grant’s misplaced accusations being one prominent example, though she is not alone. Today, I thought I’d share the inside word, so to speak. A friend of mine has recently returned to New Zealand from overseas, and ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago

  • Hard News: ASA: Let’s not talk about this
    Last week, major newspapers carried a full-page ad as part of the campaign for a "No" vote to the referendum question about supporting the Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill. The ad was authorised by the SAM NZ Coalition, which takes its name from a controversial American anti-cannabis group and includes ...
    Public Address
    1 week ago

  • This is not kind
    New Zealand has a serious homelessness problem, due to skyrocketing rents and a lack of state houses. One of the ways we stick a band-aid on it is to put people up in motels. Previously, they were charged full commercial rates, saddled with odious debt due to the government's failure ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Wokies are the establishment
    by Ani O’Brien In the absence of a better word with which to refer to the rabid activists who claim progressivism while demanding adherence to an increasingly prescriptive set of political beliefs, I call them “woke”. With its roots in Black American slang, the term originally denoted a person or ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • How to strengthen the post-isolation Covid rules
    Over the weekend, the Ministry of Health reported a case of Covid-19 in Auckland that is not related to the current Auckland cluster. Before we start to panic, here’s how I think the case happened and how we can strengthen our current border controls. The new Covid-19 case is someone ...
    SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
    1 week ago

  • Neuralink and You: A Human-AI Symbiosis
    Becky Casale Elon Musk reckons his Neuralink brain implant is much more than a medical device–that one day it will drive a symbiosis between humans and artificial intelligence. “Good morning! I’m Dr Benedict Egg and I’ll be supervising your Neuralink insertion today. Do you have any questions?” “Yes, Doc. ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    1 week ago

  • Liam Hehir: Our obsession with American politics
    Many New Zealanders take a strong interest in US politics, with the death of Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsberg being the latest example. Liam Hehir wonders if it very wise for New Zealanders to get so worked about it.   Many politically engaged New Zealanders are now furiously ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    1 week ago

  • COVID: Back to Level 1
    After stamping the Coronavirus out via strict lockdown between March and May, New Zealand went through a good three months without any community cases. Then a local outbreak in Auckland rather buggered things up last month. Auckland’s been in level 3 and level 2.5 for the past six weeks. ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: Climate injustice
    Who's causing our skyrocketing emissions? As with most of our other problems, It's the rich: The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Good riddance
    The border closure and resulting lack of foreign slave-workers is driving the fishing industry out of business: One fishing company is effectively out of business while others are bracing for large financial hits as the deepwater New Zealand industry, unable to get skilled foreign workers into the country, have ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #38
    Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The tipping points at the heart of the climate crisis Many parts of the Earth’s climate system have been destabilised by ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Anyone for Collins?
    In the absence of national public opinion polls, we have had to make do in recent weeks with other guides to voter intentions. Those guides, such as the Auckland Central poll, the incidence of google enquiries and the responses to Vote Compass questions, have suggested, not unexpectedly, that Labour is ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    1 week ago

  • Crusher’s fiscal malfunction
    Crusher Collins - National Party leaderWe all know that the National Party is desperate to gain some traction during this election campaign and have been throwing pretty much everything at the Labour Party in order to try and undermine Jacinda Ardern and what the Coalition Government has achieved. But unfortunately ...
    The Jackal
    1 week ago

  • Much of the commentariat’s reporting of the most recent GDP figure was misleading and unhelpful. The prize for the stupidest remark about the GDP figure for second quarter 2020 (2020Q2) released on Thursday (17 Sept) goes to Judith Collins, whose response to Grant Robertson’s comments indicated she did not ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago

  • Love and Hate as Complementary Revolutionary Acts
    by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh goloing@gmail.com (19/09/2020) Che Guevara said that a true revolutionary is motivated by love i.e. love of the oppressed, the poor, the children dying from preventable illnesses. This phrase of his is true but has been used by reformists and their more hippy wing have taken advantage ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    1 week ago

  • 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #38
    A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 13, 2020 through Sat, Sep 19, 2020 Editor's Choice Get to Net-Zero by Mid-Century? Even Some Global Oil and Gas Giants Think it Can Be Done A report by a ...
    Skeptical Science
    1 week ago

  • Tax cuts for all!!! (except you, you, and you)
    With the National Party this week announcing a new policy of tax cuts to spice up the election campagin. MyThinks went along to the launch and afterwards we spoke to the party’s finance spokesperson Paul “Golden Touch” Goldsmith. MT: Thanks for speaking to us Mr Goldsmith. PG: No. Thank you. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    2 weeks ago

  • Great Waves Washing Over New Zealand
    Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1.         The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    2 weeks ago

  • New Zealand has role to play in resolving crisis on ‘geopolitical fault line’, Helen Clark says
    By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 weeks ago

  • Euthanasia referendum: How to cut through the emotions
    Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologist This podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...
    SciBlogsBy Guest Author
    2 weeks ago

Older posts

  • Pasifika churches gain from PGF funding
    Pasifika churches around the country will receive a total of nearly $10 million in government funding for renovations and improvements which will improve facilities for the communities they serve and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio have announced. The funding will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    17 hours ago

  • Job numbers up in August
    New data from Stats NZ today shows a rise of more than 9,000 filled jobs from July – driven mostly by the education and training sector, Grant Robertson says. Filled jobs were up 9,147 to 2.2 million in August 2020 compared with July – with 7,409 of those in education ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Māori development receives funding
    Māori development projects across the country will receive a total of $18.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund that will create infrastructure and permanent jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “These projects will support economic development in Northland, Bay of Plenty, Tairawhiti, Manawatū-Whanganui, Waikato and Southland to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Hand-up for owners of earthquake-prone units
    From today, owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings can apply for financial support to fix their homes, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing financial hardship over earthquake strengthening costs. “We understand how complicated ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • PGF backing successful Māori enterprise
    Whanganui will benefit from a Provincial Growth Fund investment in a local food-processing company which will help the company increase production and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says. Kii Tahi Ltd, which is owned by South Taranaki iwi Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi, will receive a Provincial Growth Fund ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Hokitika Landmark earmarked for $22m restoration
    Seddon House in Hokitika, once a hub for government on the West Coast, has been earmarked for government use once again. “Today we’re announcing a $22 million investment from the Government’s $3 billion infrastructure fund for shovel ready projects for the purchase and restoration of Seddon House in the heart of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Town halls and war memorials in PGF renovation programme
    Town halls, war memorials and other community landmarks across the country will be renovated thanks to grants totalling just under $12.4 million from the Provincial Growth Fund. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says more than 1000 jobs are expected to be created during the renovation programme. “Town halls, other ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Minister of Foreign Affairs makes two diplomatic appointments
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced two new diplomatic appointments: •         Michael Appleton as New Zealand’s first resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. •        Tredene Dobson as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Viet Nam.  Sri Lanka “New Zealand is opening a post in Colombo in 2021 because we are ready ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • NZ’s most prestigious conservation award – Loder Cup presented to Graeme Atkins
    The Minister of Conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage, today presented Aotearoa New Zealand’s most prestigious conservation award, the Loder Cup, to the 2020 winner Graeme Atkins while in Gisborne/Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa. “Graeme Atkins of Ngāti Porou is a Department of Conservation ranger whose contribution to conservation goes well above and beyond his employment,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Early help for whānau who need extra support
    The Government is investing in a new, whānau-centred early intervention prototype designed to strengthen families and improve the safety and wellbeing of children. The new programme, Ngā Tini Whetū, is a collaboration between Oranga Tamariki, Te Puni Kōkiri, ACC and the Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency (WOCA) and was announced today ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Parliament to install solar and cut carbon
    Parliament is leading by example by taking action to cut its carbon footprint by installing solar and improving energy efficiency, the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw said today. The Minister confirmed that Parliamentary Services will receive support through the Clean-Powered Public Service Fund to install solar PV and LED ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Tuvalu Language Week theme promotes community resilience in the face of COVID-19
    The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio says the 2020 Tuvalu Language Week theme of “Fakatili Te Kiloga Fou” which means “Navigating the changing environment” is a call on all Pacific peoples to be strong and resilient in the face of COVID-19. “This theme is a reminder to us ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • International sport back up and running in New Zealand
    The Government is welcoming today’s announcement that the West Indies and Pakistan cricket teams will tour New Zealand this summer.  “A lot of hard work has been undertaken by sports officials including New Zealand Cricket, Netball New Zealand and government officials to ensure that international sport can return safely to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • 1BT funds for Northland forest taonga
    Northland’s indigenous tree canopy is set to grow for the benefit of mana whenua and the wider community thanks to nearly $2 million in One Billion Trees funding, Forestry Minister Shane Jones announced today. Te Komanga Marae Trust has received more than $1.54 million to restore and enhance the native ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Better health care for West Coasters as Te Nikau Hospital officially opened
    The Government has delivered a new hospital for Greymouth and is starting work on a much needed new health centre in Westport, ensuring local communities will benefit from better access to high quality integrated health services. Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare officially open Te ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Government backing local with PGF loan
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  • Primary sector exports and jobs up again
    Primary sector exports and jobs are up again, demonstrating the sector’s underlying strength amid the COVID-19 global pandemic and US-China trade war, and supporting New Zealand’s economic recovery. Stats NZ today reported New Zealand’s merchandise exports in August were up 8.6% on a year ago, driven by an increase in ...
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  • Clean energy future for more schools
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  • Building business strength with digital tools
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  • New pest lures to protect nature
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  • Support for innovative Pacific education responses to COVID-19 needs
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  • Eligibility expanded for COVID-19 leave support
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  • Seasonal work visa available to more people
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  • More border exceptions for critical roles
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  • Crown will not appeal Dodds v Southern Response decision
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  • Crucial PGF investments for Northland
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  • $27million investment in global vaccine facility
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  • Government backing Māori landowners
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  • New tools to make nature more accessible
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  • PGF makes Māori history more accessible
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  • Making it official: The journey of te reo Māori | Kia whakapūmautia: Ngā piki me ngā heke o te r...
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  • Better-than-forecast GDP reflects decision to protect New Zealand
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  • Boost for COVID-19 related Pacific education needs
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  • More resources for kiwi conservation
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  • Improving access to affordable electricity
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  • Government achieves 50 percent women on state boards
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  • Record transport investment to help economic recovery and save lives
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  • Advancing clean energy technology
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  • Major milestone reached in Pike River Re-entry
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  • Economic recovery guides Govt response to retirement income policy review
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