Trotter hallucinates revolting natives: "It is always dangerous to remind the colonisers of the world they have extinguished. To offer them a glimpse of that world is more perilous still. It proves that the culture they conquered and left for dead can be brought back to life. Ihumatao has smouldered for 156 years. The effect of the mass occupation of the past week has gifted it a sudden inrush of oxygen. Now there are flames amongst the fern."
Why? Not enough racism in the media yet, apparently. "Those flames glitter in the narrowed eyes of the watchers. From the ill-educated and ill-disciplined the responses are already forthcoming. Angry posts on Facebook and Twitter, filled with the raw racism of those for whom the possession of a white skin constitutes their sole claim to superiority. Reading these, it is difficult to decide who they hate the most: Maori, or the Pakeha who support them?" http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/07/ihumatao-watched-by-unfriendly-eyes.html
Best way to fan the flames of hostility is to play the racism card, particularly when it has already been over-played. Yeah, I know it makes no sense, I'm just illuminating the thought processes that drive his florid prose. Can't have a media career unless you beat up controversy…
with the rise of (indistinguishable from the 'real thing') meats and cheeses – the reasons to eat for flavor/texture etc. will be soon long gone..
and those who will still insist on 'the real thing' will just be insisting on a subtext/sauce of wholesale cruelty to animals/destruction of the environment..with their food..
when the issue is boiled down to just that – the 'real thing' will become less and less palatable to many/most..
this is when we will see the sea-change from animal/cruelty-based foods – to the healthier/better for the planet – plant-based foods..
Will we have the decency not to allow the animals we have farmed not to go extinct or will we toss them aside and breed more humans to fill the spaces they leave.
i think there is little chance of that happening – on the other hand there are all the species that are being/have been made extinct – by the farming of animals/growing of soy etc. to feed them…
They'd certainly have to pry the fancy cheese from my cold, dead hands! Take away camembert, blue brie, feta, parmigiano, maasdam etc and only alcohol, sex and chocolate are left.
Periodically some fucking hippie manages to persuade me to try some hyper-expensive dross that is "indistinguishable from the real thing". always bollocks.
The closest they've managed so far is "indistinguishable from a particularly shite and cheap attempt to sell something as the real thing".
If it was indistinguishable, it would drive the "real thing" into a niche market.
It will certainly have to get close to the taste and texture, regardless of how cheap it becomes. At the moment it's a fail on all counts.
My kid turned veggonaut, and the other day I got ripped for nine bucks for three hundred grams of quorn mince. I made a meal and it was effing gross. Ended up binning mine. Thought I couldn't go wrong with a fake sausage. I was wrong. No matter how much sauce I put on my pretend banger it just tasted wrong.
lol so when you say stuff is indistinguishable from the real thing, you mean indistinguishable from your 30y.o. recollection of what the real thing once tasted like.
Recently been eating a lot of self caught, free range rabbit, though, so a good casserole and hearty pie later, the only sour taste left became a bitter afterthought.
nah..i am going on the blind taste-tests done @ fiekd days in hamilton..where tasters couldn't tell the difference – with many preferring the plant-based..
i am going on the burger chains in u.s. being early adopters – and the punters loving them..
i am going on the factories for both the leading brands being unable to keep up with orders..
i am going on the first of those companies to float on u.s. stockmarket – and being heavily over-subscribed..
i am not going on my 30+ yrs memories..
and hey..!..while you weren't watching/paying attention – most breads in supermarkets have gone vegan…
i used to be only able to buy one or two – now i can buy most..
betcha didn't know all that…eh..?
best you put down that slice of bread – and step well back..eh..?
.where tasters couldn't tell the difference – with many preferring the plant-based..
Unless it's 50/50, they could tell the difference.
Bread is a good example of a cost-effective substitute "indistinguishable from the real thing". Margarine vs butter is another. But milk is still milk, and the meat aisles are still meat aisles (except for sausages, which are anything from "meat and random herbs" to "meat but mostly sawdust, and you don't want to know which bits of animals constitute the meat").
but seriously there – p.m…i continue to be surprised by how many people who self-regard as progressive – are so reactionary on this issue…
especially in light of the indeniable health/environment issues from the farming/eating of animals – (need i remind you of the bowel-cancer equation?..that nz has worlds' highest rates of bowel-cancer + world-beating rates of consumption of animal-flesh/bye-products + red-meat/bacon being proven cause of bowel-cancer..
how much more information do you need…..to drive any change in yr dietary practices..?
and of course this reactionary attitude from many progressives has echoes in the abolition of human slavery (in the west)..
many progressives/suffragettes from that era are on the record as being emphatic on the inferiority of the darker races..of being totally reactionary on the question of race..
and so it is now on the question of animal-slavery/eatimg..eh..?
Philip Ure I suspect that the truly ethical position on meat-eating is to eat ourselves, no other animal to be hurt in this process.
As we have been making a living from feeding and growing animals for so long – it is hard to make the change to plant-first-and-only diets. But as you say our bowel cancer is high on the charts in a bad way, less meat is better.
Why not put up a couple of recipes for your favourite flavoured meals on Sunday's How to Get There – but please don't swamp us with your sales pitch – you can get carried away. Antagonism and stress is bad for the digestion of any food, keep it simple and sweet will you.
Oh forget I ever said anything PU. I am sick of people who can't think anything through and just react to life and everything that is said to them with their favourite obsession or interest blocking their vision. I will take no further interest in you or anything you say.
I agree greywarshark. This debate driven by Philip Ure has already happened some years ago when I had only just discovered the benefits of reading TS.
To be honest, I do not look forward to a repeat of that long and turgid debate, in which I seem to remember James making rather a pig of himself by over-indulgence in barbeques.
The coalition has set the terms for the two referenda at the next election, but with a sunset clause. NRT questions the wisdom of the clause. Winston was once real big on citizens-initiated referenda, so I'm surprised he has endorsed the sunset strategy.
Could it be that realpolitik has prevailed over populism in his mind? Those who object to people power usually cite the madness of crowds (just as likely as wisdom). I wonder if he has had a conversion experience.
What a joke – and not funny at all. How long are we going to put up with this bullshit?
Debating oil and gas drilling without mentioning climate change has been labelled as like ''fighting a fire without water'' during a Dunedin hearing into an Austrian company's Otago plans.
Environmental Protection Authority hearings started yesterday relating to OMV's intentions to drill an oil and gas exploration well costing about $80million in the Great South Basin this summer.
It is required by its permit to do so before July 2021.
The hearing was called a ''farce'' by environmentalists, including Oil Free Otago spokesman Adam Currie, as the topic of climate change was barred from being considered.
About 40 protesters gathered outside the building in the late morning holding signs and singing songs.
OMV New Zealand said it respected their democratic right to express points of view, but asked them to do so lawfully.
Hearing consideration was limited to the effects of a small potential discharge of harmful substances from the drill rig's deck drains.
Pathetic. What a rig-up against the planet – there are more possibilities of oil spill than from deck drains. And the fact that climate change is happening but must not be acknowledged though it is a scientific fact – can't be accepted by people who draw on their own preferred facts to make their case for doing business. Let's settle this with a duel you could say instead of having an expensive legal hearing with counsel being paid in mega-dollars. Come outside the two protagonists could say, choose your weapons, and let's see who has the best facts.
On the brightside the consensus forecasts suggest a significant deepening (strictly negative) of the antarctic oscillation and increased probability of significant southerly regimes for the next couple of weeks.
Interesting graphs Poission. I think I saw that the temp will not stay at -4 for long but will likely be below freezing for the 14-day period with this oscillation which will please the ski fields hearts mightily.
I hope they have been able to get their staff okay. They were saying that new measures the Immigration Impairment have introduced meant that what used to be straightforward and timely had extra time-consuming layers. That made it difficult for the special people required to get their paperwork, and their travel etc. arrangements done. They could miss the snow completely the way it worked (not). I think it is so wrong to allow individuals to get on top of a heap that they fashion into a shape of their own design.
This is intersting and good to hear. Good on them. We all can do something – besides writing here, which is useful itself because we need to have discussion and thinking about our country and its problems and what sort of road blocks we need against continuing bad systems and what we need to remove.
OPINION: Your fingerprint is uniquely your own, tied to your identity for your entire life. It is for this very reason that technology is advancing the usefulness of biometric data like fingerprints, making it much harder for people to keep their identity and history private. These technological advances are everywhere – from DNA technology allowing police to solve cold cases to everyday people unlocking their phone with a scan of their face…
Take the recent Australian Fair Work Commission decision involving Queensland sawmill worker Jeremy Lee and his employer, Superior Wood.
Lee refused to give his fingerprints to his employer as part of a new work sign-in system. After a period of some months involving discussions and then warnings, Lee was sacked for his persistent refusals.
Lee wasn’t just thinking about privacy, he declared: “It’s my biometric data. It’s not appropriate for them to have it”.
(Question: Why should an employer have the right to take samples of your body, readings of your functions, skin details? Are we things bought and sold, like animals at a saleyard, teeth, eyes, hooves checked? Isn’t this just the same – an invasion of our individual rights becoming normalised?)
Overseas: https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892471/rise-face-and-fingerprint-recognition-technology-just-how Face recognition technology to help “tag” friends in photographs, fingerprint recognition to unlock smartphones, and fingerprint door locks are just some of the ways in which biometric data has been used in recent years. In Asia, developments include palm vein authentication technology for payments and mobile terminals, or “biocarts” that take photos and fingerprints of passengers for immigration processing in Japan; fingerprint authentication for ATMs in Vietnam; and facial recognition technology . Is this the end of long passwords and complex authentication systems?
These lasers Hong Kong protesters are pointing at riot police through billowing tear gas, it's like something out of a sci-fi movie. #AntiELABpic.twitter.com/noTllDuc09
HONG KONG — The police officers wrestled with Colin Cheung in an unmarked car. They needed his face.
They grabbed his jaw to force his head in front of his iPhone. They slapped his face. They shouted, “Wake up!” They pried open his eyes. It all failed: Mr. Cheung had disabled his phone’s facial-recognition login with a quick button mash as soon as they grabbed him.
As Hong Kong convulses amid weeks of protests, demonstrators and the police have turned identity into a weapon. The authorities are tracking protest leaders online and seeking their phones. Many protesters now cover their faces, and they fear that the police are using cameras and possibly other tools to single out targets for arrest.
Good to check what's been happening down there imo
A Government appointed watchdog could soon monitor the troubled Westland District Council.
Stuff understands Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta recently wrote to the council's chief executive, Simon Bastion, outlining her intention to put in place a Crown observer.
… The Westland District Council, according to a March briefing to Mahuta, has a history of issues relating to dysfunctional governance and management, inadequate procurement and process, and non compliance with statutory obligations.
I think that the Mayor felt that urgent attention was needed and did the commonsense thing with the stopbank. But then probably that is normal behaviour for that area, a hearty, quick decision-making of we'll fix that -without proper planning which looked at the bigger issues, and long-term needs and what the latest 'best practice' is, if only to decide to ignore it – it not always being reasonable and cost-efficient.
Wonder if maureen pugh wishes to comment? Probably not she was busy sending out a presser to local news outlets yesterday announcing that she had a cake to celebrate 3 yrs in parliament. True story.
Anger over the deportation of New Zealand citizens from Australia is likely to intensify, with Canberra set to introduce even tighter visa requirements.
Lecturing a bunch of Bible-thumping white racists that their immigration policies are shitty has backfired in spectacular fashion, and Kiwis will pay the price.
The poor Ockers aren't a happy bunch right now shaggy, their economy is going off the cliff and that bunch of muppets across the Tasman are steaming ahead. Their dollar has fallen from it's customary level of over NZ$1.20 to only just buying one NZ$ (today's cash rate) And I can't see it changing any time soon.
Good point, Pat. Back in the late 80s we invented lots of dodgy private tertiary institutes so that our young unemployed would become students gaining worthless qualifications, instead of featuring in unemployment stats.
Didn't work, because a few years later they still had no jobs.
Australia gets rid of the actual person – much more efficient.
Don't know if I'd vote New Conservative (unless Jude became leader then obviously I would) but this is better then what Labour have done, its more thought out, fairer and will actually address some of the issues
New Conservative party
New Conservative takes constructive feedback on our policies very seriously. Here is our latest on Firearms:
Lots of stuff to unpack there, even if they weren't a bunch of fucking numpties.
Still, better without the poetry.
edit: what about tourist hunters?
mandatory minimums, wtf?
Do they want the chchfuck’s live stream uncensored? Why? And that’s not a govt issue, that’s the censor’s office. Like any court suppression issues. Or do they want all the fiveeyes stuff made public too?
I guess Republicans have been right all along, they are the party of Reagan.
The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh.
[…]
The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines. This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior. The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.
The exchange was taped by Nixon, and then later became the responsibility of the Nixon Presidential Library, which I directed from 2007 to 2011. When the National Archives originally released the tape of this conversation, in 2000, the racist portion was apparently withheld to protect Reagan’s privacy. A court order stipulated that the tapes be reviewed chronologically; the chronological review was completed in 2013. Not until 2017 or 2018 did the National Archives begin a general rereview of the earliest Nixon tapes. Reagan’s death, in 2004, eliminated the privacy concerns. Last year, as a researcher, I requested that the conversations involving Ronald Reagan be rereviewed, and two weeks ago, the National Archives released complete versions of the October 1971 conversations involving Reagan online.
If you know anyone with ME/CFS/Tapanui 'Flu that is being put through CBT and graduated exercise PLEASE send them and most importantly their doctor to the link below. There are many inside the DHBs who are wasting health $ abusing clients with these treatments on the basis of this PACE study – It’s not even science 🙁
I don't want to give pblicity to certain parts of the internet that are better left to fester in their own irrelevance (I know, a bit like this place) but the listing of Chris Trotter as a 'author' on Cameron Slater's spinoff website, the BFD requires some explanation.Now, I don't ...
The text below is a Twitter thread by Heather Heying that explains the essence of sexual reproduction and it long evolutionary history. She is an evolutionary biologist and a “professor-in-exile” after she and her husband, Bret Weinstein, stood up to supporters of an enforced “Day of Absence” for white staff and teachers ...
With crunch time for new Zealand climate policy approaching, most of the New Zealand media have got on board with a global reporting effort to cover the issue. There's one strand of stories today about polling and what it shows about changing public attitudes to the crisis, but the strand ...
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...
Current and former NZDF top brass are being publicly grilled this week by the hit and run inquiry over their public responses to allegations of civilian casualties. Previously, they've claimed there were no casualties, a position which led them to lie to Ministers and to the public. Now, they're saying ...
by Rafael D. Quiles (gender-critical gay man from Puerto Rico) The writing on the wall is right in people’s faces and people just don’t see it or don’t want to. What could actually possess a heterosexual male to want to feminize himself and claim that he is a lesbian? Because ...
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...
by the Redline blog collective At Redline we are very saddened to hear of the death of Magdalen Burns who passed away on the morning of Friday, September 13 (British time). Magdalen was a great fighter for the rights of women in general and lesbian women in particular, a defender ...
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...
The government has released its Arms Legislation Bill, containing the second tranche of changes to gun laws following the March 15 massacre. And it all looks quite sensible: a national gun register, higher penalties for illegal possession and dealing, tighter restrictions on arms dealers and shooting clubs, and a shorter ...
Private prisons are a stain on humanity. Prison operators explicitly profit from human misery, then lobby for longer prisons terms so they can keep on profiting. And in the US, prison companies run not only local and state prisons, but also Donald Trump's immigration concentration camps. Faced with this moral ...
When National was in power, they were very keen on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) - basicly, using private companies to finance public infrastructure as a way of hiding debt from the public. They were keen on using them for everything - roads, schools, hospitals. But as the UK shows, that "service" ...
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...
by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class. There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
So, those who “know best” have again done their worst. While constantly claiming to be the guardians of democracy and the constitution, and respecters of the 2016 referendum result, diehard Remainers (who have never brought themselves to believe that their advice could have been rejected) have striven might and main ...
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...
Over the next week or two we will be running three synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016). The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Marx began Capital not with a sweeping historical ...
The State Services Commission and Ombudsman have released another batch of OIA statistics, covering the last six months. Request volumes are up, and the core public service is generally handling them within the legal timeframe, though this may be because they've learned to extend rather than just ignore things. And ...
In 1994, I was editing an ambitious street mag called Planet, from a fabled office at at 309 Karangahape Road. The thirteenth issue of the magazine was published in the winter of that year and its cover embodied a particularly ambitious goal: the end of cannabis prohibition.I wanted to do ...
KiwiBuild was one of the Ardern government's core policies. The government would end the housing crisis and make housing affordable again by building 100,000 new homes. Of course, it didn't work out like that: targets weren't met, the houses they did build were in the wrong place, and the whole ...
As the climate crisis escalates, it is now obvious that we need to radically decarbonise our economy. The good news is that its looking easy and profitable for the energy sector. Wind is already cheaper than fossil fuels, and now solar is too:The levellised cost of solar PV has fallen ...
A Crown Asset? For reasons relating to its own political convenience, the Crown pretends to believe that “No one owns the water.” To say otherwise would re-vivify the promises contained in the Treaty of Waitangi – most particularly those pertaining to the power of the chiefs and their proprietary rights ...
Most people would say, no doubt, that they have a pretty good idea of what money is. They live with the reality of money every day. It is what is needed to buy the necessities of life and to maintain a decent standard of living. You get money, they would ...
The article below was an opinion piece that appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Te Awa (the NZ Green Party’s newsletter) and on the Greens website. In keeping with their policy of hostility to women defending women’s right to female-only spaces, Green bureaucrats have since removed the opinion piece. ...
Longer term readers may remember my complaining that, as a political scientist, it is burdensome to have non-political scientists wanting to engage me about politics. No layperson would think to approach an astrophysicist and lecture him/her on the finer details of quarks and black holes, but everybody with an opinion ...
Joining The Fight: Stevan Eldred-Grigg's argument for New Zealand staying out of the Second World War fails not only on the hard-headed grounds of preserving the country’s strategic and economic interests; and not just on the soft-hearted grounds of duty and loyalty to the nation that had given New Zealand ...
On September 27, School Strike 4 Climate will be striking for a future to pressure the government for meaningful climate action. This time, they've asked adults to join them. And now, Lincoln University and Victoria University of Wellington have signed on:Victoria University of Wellington has joined Lincoln University in endorsing ...
New Zealand's new fresh water regulation rules will have no major impacts on the national economy, according to an independent report just out. The report by independent economic consultancy New Zealand Institute of Economic Research shows that dairying ...
Fish & Game New Zealand has welcomed the findings of a New Zealand Institute of Economic Research report, which rejects claims the Government’s freshwater proposals will have a significant economic impact. ...
The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (COLFO) says the Government should take its proposed firearms legislation to the people with a touring Select Committee, as it just has with the Zero Carbon bill. ...
Water reforms and the long term sustainability of water will be a key focus at the Water New Zealand conference and expo this week (18-20 September) in Hamilton. ...
“Kiwi ex-smokers are mobilising against the Government’s plans to drastically limit vaping flavours. Flavours have been key to them quitting tobacco and they now just want other smokers to have the same chance,” says Jonathan Devery, co-owner ...
Oil company Tamarind Resources has reportedly halted drilling at its Tui oil field off the Taranaki coast after the first of the three planned wells came up dry and bad weather caused delays. ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is calling on the left-wing campaign group “ActionStation” to front up and be transparent about how much taxpayer funding it takes from the Government to underwrite its activism activities. Earlier in the month, the Taxpayers’ ...
The ‘ Unplanned ’ movie is here and Family First has secured one of the first screenings in New Zealand tonight. ‘Unplanned’ brings an eye-opening look inside the abortion industry from a woman who was once its most passionate advocate. All ...
James Renwick claim that NZ is failing on climate change is valid, and since James has been receiving widespread media coverage that we outline most of it again here now as we gear up for the ‘Global climate change conference’ beginning next week. ...
Protestors will be outside the venue of the fourth hearing for Operation Burnham Inquiry on Monday morning from 8.30am to give a message to former and current military officers as they arrive to speak about the ongoing coverup of the 2010 attack on ...
The long-running campaign against purported Chinese “interference” in New Zealand’s political system intensified in the past week following a five-day visit to Beijing by opposition National Party leader Simon Bridges. ...
National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett spent the week claiming a serious cover-up in the Prime Minister's office. She used parliamentary privilege to name three of the Prime Minister's closest advisors who, she says, knew about the sexual assault ...
Six months on from the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand history, Simon Shepherd asked Al Noor Mosque spokesperson Anthony Green how the Christchurch Muslim is community faring. ...
“The Game Animal Council is concerned that the Government’s second tranche of firearms legislation released today may contain unreasonable provisions that will unfairly impact hunters,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
Government policy work on the Carbon Zero bill highlights connections between climate change, carbon sequestration and agriculture. Water quality and allocation are also topical with the release of the Draft Policy Statement for Freshwater Management ...
DairyNZ Chief Executive Dr Tim Mackle is welcoming this afternoon’s announcement that consultation on Essential Freshwater has been extended by two weeks - but is calling on the Minister to go further. ...
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle is calling on the Government to move swiftly to extend the six-week timeframe of the Essential Freshwater consultation. ...
Immigration New Zealand could really benefit from an large investment of money, comments Ms June Ranson, chair of the New Zealand Association for Migration and Investment (NZAMI) , a leading voice in the immigration sector. “Instead of spending $25m ...
In recent times there has been no shortage of commentary regarding whistleblowers, with the proposed amendments to the Protected Disclosures Act 2000. These are aimed at strengthening the protection available to whistleblowers in New Zealand. That ...
Gun Control NZ strongly welcomes the comprehensive gun law reform bill and calls on all political parties to support it. Gun Control NZ encourages New Zealanders to let their MPs know they support this Bill, submit to the Select Committee, and ...
Federated Farmers agrees with most of the steps by government to protect people from illegal or irresponsible firearms use. But concerns about pest control and the effectiveness of a register remain. ...
Today at Parliament the NZ Drug Foundation released Taking control of cannabis: A model for responsible regulation, a new report that shows how we can take back control of cannabis from organised crime. ...
In the face of overwhelming public opinion that farmers need to clean up after themselves, Federated Farmers has mounted an offensive to try and stop some of its members having to do just that. ...
Responding to reports that Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa plans to restrict flavoured e-cigarette liquid, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says: ...
Māori and non- Māori value different aspects of plantation forestry, which owners should bear in mind if they want to maximise their social licence to operate, a new study shows. ...
The Prime Minister’s Award in the first annual Spirit of Service Awards has been won by the Ministry of Health and five agencies who teamed up on the Healthy Homes Initiative. ...
Smoking kills 5,000 Kiwis each year, so any government policies to help reduce smoking are a good thing. However, the current approaches are not working nor will the proposed limit on flavoured e-liquid that Associate Minister Salesa announced on the news ...
A petition, that promises a significant and dramatic improvement for the New Zealand economy, was handed to Dr Deborah Russell, the MP for New Lynn today. The petition, signed by over 5,000 New Zealanders addresses our crippling level of debt as well ...
The New Zealand Medical Association welcomes the announcement of an Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. We look forward to working with the newly appointed Chair Hayden Wano and the Commission. “It is vital that the steps to mental health ...
For anyone who even randomly follows the news will know that Hong Kong has been embroiled in demonstrations for months. These sometimes bloody demonstrations initially started as a result of a proposed Extradition Bill whereby there would be special ...
The release yesterday of Port Otago’s financial result for 2019, outlining a 12% increase and profits, including the news that the Chief Executive had received a $100,000 pay increase taking his remuneration to between $610,000-620,000, is like ...
“ I continue to be amazed at the incompetence of this Government when it comes to suicide prevention and mental health. Not only is this Government about to appoint a regional coroner who has a history of under reporting suicides amongst children ...
An unannounced inspection at Tongariro Prison has found a safe and well-managed prison, with a clear sense of purpose and striving for continuous improvement. ...
The Auditor-General’s discussion paper Public accountability: A matter of trust and confidence was presented to the House of Representatives today. ...
Keep New Zealand Beautiful (KNZB) are proud to announce the winners of the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) – Litter Less 2019 competition. ...
The Far North District Council (FNDC) and the Whangarei District Council (WDC) have lodged a joint appeal against the Northland Regional Council’s (NRC) omission of precautionary rules in its plan. [1] ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer was not justified in tasering a man for a second time during an arrest in Picton on 23 June 2018. ...
The Chairman of the Authority, Judge Colin Doherty, has agreed to assist the Hong Kong Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) as a member of an international panel to provide high level advice to the IPCC in relation to its proposed "Thematic ...
“Putting families into motels is a temporary fix for desperate situations, rather than a sustainable solution to problems of poverty and homelessness,” says Scott Figenshow, Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa. He was commenting on media ...
Could it be that that the press, especially the US press, is finally waking up to the climate story? Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope, co-founders of the Covering Climate Now initiative, report. ...
In spite of Jacinda Ardern’s exhortation that ‘it would be preferable if this case were not in the public domain’, differing accounts of what was said in an inquiry into the conduct of a (now former) Labour staffer, who denies wrongdoing, have been issued today to media from the chair ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’s time to change Australia’s economic course “in a responsible and affordable way which doesn’t jeopardise the surplus”. Chalmers predicts the budget outcome for last financial year, forecast to be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Maguire, Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, James Cook University Lucy (Charlotte Nicado) is a pink-haired millennial having a quarter-life crisis. Her school friends have drifted away, she has a useless law degree, and a depressing rotation of casual jobs has ...
One of the people who investigated complaints about a Labour staffer has hired a forensic computer expert to prove he was never told about sexual assault allegations. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Sherwen, Director Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, University of Melbourne Each year, from September to mid-October, the tiny and very precious mountain pygmy-possums arise from their months of hibernation under the snow and begin feasting on billions of bogong moths ...
In our latest local elections 2019 race briefing (read the rest here), Alex Braae breaks down the surprisingly bitter Hutt City mayoral race.The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.Where?Hutt City covers the ...
Covering Climate Now: Why we’re saying adios to animal products (just for a little while). The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!As part of The Spinoff’s commitment to Covering Climate Now, a week-long worldwide initiative aimed at strengthening the media’s focus ...
Covering Climate Now: Grim post-apocalyptic settings are a dime a dozen in gaming, but which ones are the most realistic? Sam Brooks talked to climate scientist David Tong to find out.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Every year there’s a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kassia Beetham, Exercise Physiology Lecturer, Australian Catholic University Expectant mothers receive an avalanche of information about potential risks to their baby. There’s a growing list of foods, toxins and environmental threats to avoid. It’s normal for this to lead to an increased ...
Complaints to the Banking Ombudsman rose 20 percent in the last financial year as the conduct of banks and financial agencies was thrust into the spotlight. ...
One of our country’s finest writers gorges herself on Gilead – and finds herself wishing for more osmosis between the Booker-shortlisted new novel and the horror-story politics playing out around us. Over the past five days I’ve re-read Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, caught myself up with the MGM/Hulu ...
In this special episode, we welcome you back to Waterdeep Mountain High, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast set in a below average school in the mystical land of Faerun.The gang are back and this time they have to… get summer jobs! Join Kate, Forrest, Hillardo and Peng as they begin ...
Author and social activist Naomi Klein talks the Green New Deal, Greta Thunberg and the links between the rise of white supremacy and the climate crisis. ...
Napier-based women’s clothing company KILT is a big brand with local charm. Josie Adams finds out how they’ve adapted their boutique strategy to work on a national level.Having grown up in the internet era New Zealand fashion label KILT has developed a unique relationship with its customers via an online ...
National is concerned the government's bill to tighten up gun laws and introduce a gun registry will stop gun owners in mental crisis seeking help from their GPs. ...
For the first day of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Alice Neville banned herself from speaking English. Here’s how it went down.I discovered a foolproof way to make a day of speaking only te reo Māori easy. Just don’t talk. Seriously, turituri and you’ll be fine. I know, I know, ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Labour Party sexual assault allegations John Armstrong (1News): Are we witnessing the beginning of the ...
Facebook electioneering.Dr Bryce EdwardsThe National Party is in trouble again for its Facebook advertising campaigning. Late last week, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against one of the party’s social media ads targeting the Government’s vehicle efficiency feebate scheme. The authority ruled it was “likely to confuse or ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsIf the political reputation of the Labour-led Government and Jacinda Ardern have been badly or even fatally damaged by the ongoing #MeTooLabour scandal, it will be because they’ve disappointed their own supporters, and failed to live up to their own values. This is very different to a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Maxwell, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland What a week it has been in the Apple core. In recent days the tech giant has released a litany of products, including new phones, watches, tablets, and more. The big-ticket items are clearly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Senior Lecturer in American Politics and Foreign Policy, Academic Director of the US Studies Centre, University of Sydney Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s official visit to Washington this week carries some prestige. It is just the second “official visit” (including a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology On the way home, you wander into the supermarket for a loaf of bread. But before you reach the bread aisle, you drop in your prescription at the supermarket pharmacy. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Program Director – Health and Physical Education, Maths/Science, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania Physical education is one of the most popular subjects for children in their early school years. Yet by secondary school less favourable attitudes towards what’s known ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Climate change increasingly threatens communities all over ...
Townies are naive about the "huge" impact and cost a proposed government freshwater action plan will have across the country, says Federated Farmers. ...
Politicians have been criticised for their "cowardice" in persisting with a "racist" refugee policy, as the government repeatedly points to a review underway to excuse the lack of action. ...
David Hannay, who has for decades been trying to get a seat on the council, will not be taking part in a major debate this week because he is facing open heart surgery. ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Covering Climate Now week begins, hate crimes in focus six months after Christchurch attack, and scale of house flipping laid bare. Over the course of this week, you’re going to see a lot of climate change coverage. The Spinoff will be one ...
In the first of our Covering Climate Now week of news features, Eloise Gibson finds moving coastal land due to earthquakes could double the risks of rising seas for some New Zealanders.. ...
Our most feared pest could be starting its journey to New Zealand. Nikki Mandow discovers the superhuman efforts that officials and scientists are making to eradicate the brown marmorated stink bug. ...
A scheme to get low income families out of debt and into safe cars is being delayed because no one can agree who should stump up the money to get a pilot off the ground. ...
As sea-levels rise globally and around New Zealand, this country's earthquakes are also causing some land to sink, meaning certain coastlines could face twice inundation risk. Eloise Gibson reports. ...
Covering Climate Now: A changing climate means changing landscapes and changing lives. Mirjam Guesgen talks to the experts about the implications at two ends of New Zealand.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Auckland is known for its sandy, inviting coastlines ...
The New Zealand Drug Foundation has just released a proposed model for the legalisation and regulation of cannabis in Aotearoa. With the 2020 referendum fast approaching, what should the government be considering in their approach to this legislation?As the days tick down towards 2020 and the referendum on cannabis legalisation ...
Covering Climate Now: Submit, protest, vote. These are the moments that must be seized, writes Sam McGlennonThe Spinoff’s participation is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!The waves are now running together. The next month of national, regional and local politics in New Zealand will go a long ...
Open mike 31/07/2019 
6 hours ago
The text below is a Twitter thread by Heather Heying that explains the essence of sexual reproduction and it long evolutionary history. She is an evolutionary biologist and a “professor-in-exile” after she and her husband, Bret Weinstein, stood up to supporters of an enforced “Day of Absence” for white staff and teachers ...6 hours ago
With crunch time for new Zealand climate policy approaching, most of the New Zealand media have got on board with a global reporting effort to cover the issue. There's one strand of stories today about polling and what it shows about changing public attitudes to the crisis, but the strand ...10 hours ago
Dangerous Foes: For those readers of Bowalley Road who feel disposed to dismiss any prospect of an Israeli destabilisation of New Zealand politics, the example of the United Kingdom repays close attention. Ever since the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour Party, the Israelis have sanctioned, funded and ...13 hours ago
Make It 16, the youth-led campaign to lower New Zealand's voting age, is holding an official campaign launch at Parliament this Friday from 16:30. If you'd like to attend, you can register using EventBrite here. ...14 hours ago
by Don Franks It was a lovely sunny Wellington afternoon with blue skies above the beaches. In Courtenay Place, political activists packed out a stuffy upstairs room for an important meeting. The assembled pacifists, anarchists, communists and independent young radicals of Peace Action Wellington felt the need for a mission ...14 hours ago
From the Wall Street Journal:Inside a room of the ornately decorated Hotel du Palais during last month’s Group of Seven summit in Biarritz, France, President Trump awaited a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. Mr. Trump looked over a gathering of American and Egyptian officials and called out in ...2 days ago
The Brexit issue has certainly brought with it a series of apparently difficult constitutional issues, many of them concerning the respective roles of the executive and parliament. Most of them arise because of the unwillingness of MPs, despite their professions to the contrary, to be bound by a constitutional rarity ...3 days ago
. . This blogpost is different to my usual format of reporting on issues… Since July 1011, I have blogged on a variety of political issues; near always political and/or environmental; mostly highly critical of the previous National Government. Other issues included Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and repression of ...3 days ago
Those close to the Police Minister believe the initiative may be the result of Nash “seeing a great deal” on AliExpress. In a move that comes seemingly out of nowhere, Police Minister Stuart Nash announced this afternoon that he expects all frontline staff to don bearskin hats, famously worn by ...3 days ago
Moving And Shaking: There was a time when people spoke matter-of-factly about the “labour movement” – a political phenomenon understood to embrace much more than the Labour Party. Included within the term’s definition was the whole trade union movement – many of whose members looked upon the Labour Party as ...4 days ago
By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...4 days ago
Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...5 days ago
By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...5 days ago
Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ... 5 days ago
An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...6 days ago
There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...6 days ago
Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...6 days ago
During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...6 days ago
Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...6 days ago
Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...7 days ago
Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua. Nothing else helped her. If I ...1 week ago
Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...1 week ago
Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...1 week ago
Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...2 weeks ago
Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...2 weeks ago
Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ... 2 weeks ago
Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...2 weeks ago
A Crown Asset? For reasons relating to its own political convenience, the Crown pretends to believe that “No one owns the water.” To say otherwise would re-vivify the promises contained in the Treaty of Waitangi – most particularly those pertaining to the power of the chiefs and their proprietary rights ...2 weeks ago
Joining The Fight: Stevan Eldred-Grigg's argument for New Zealand staying out of the Second World War fails not only on the hard-headed grounds of preserving the country’s strategic and economic interests; and not just on the soft-hearted grounds of duty and loyalty to the nation that had given New Zealand ...2 weeks ago
New Zealand's new fresh water regulation rules will have no major impacts on the national economy, according to an independent report just out. The report by independent economic consultancy New Zealand Institute of Economic Research shows that dairying ...8 hours ago
The media and climate activists must “name and shame” laggards, says the UN special envoy. Mark Hertsgaard reports. ...4 hours ago
Could it be that that the press, especially the US press, is finally waking up to the climate story? Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope, co-founders of the Covering Climate Now initiative, report. ...4 hours ago
In spite of Jacinda Ardern’s exhortation that ‘it would be preferable if this case were not in the public domain’, differing accounts of what was said in an inquiry into the conduct of a (now former) Labour staffer, who denies wrongdoing, have been issued today to media from the chair ...6 hours ago
While eight candidates are vying for the top job in Hamilton, only three appear to be front-runners. ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers says it’s time to change Australia’s economic course “in a responsible and affordable way which doesn’t jeopardise the surplus”. Chalmers predicts the budget outcome for last financial year, forecast to be ...8 hours ago
Six months on from the terrorist attacks, and after years of frustrations, the Office of Ethnic communities is changing. ...9 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Maguire, Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, James Cook University Lucy (Charlotte Nicado) is a pink-haired millennial having a quarter-life crisis. Her school friends have drifted away, she has a useless law degree, and a depressing rotation of casual jobs has ...9 hours ago
Labour Party member tasked with investigating misconduct doubles down on claims he never received sexual assault complaints. ...10 hours ago
Germany doesn't need a grand scale infrastructure programme, it needs a different Chancellor in a different coalition government. ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sally Sherwen, Director Wildlife Conservation and Science, Zoos Victoria, University of Melbourne Each year, from September to mid-October, the tiny and very precious mountain pygmy-possums arise from their months of hibernation under the snow and begin feasting on billions of bogong moths ...11 hours ago
More than 42,000 households switched power companies last month, the highest amount for a month since 2011. ...11 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: Why we’re saying adios to animal products (just for a little while). The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!As part of The Spinoff’s commitment to Covering Climate Now, a week-long worldwide initiative aimed at strengthening the media’s focus ...12 hours ago
Covering Climate Now: Grim post-apocalyptic settings are a dime a dozen in gaming, but which ones are the most realistic? Sam Brooks talked to climate scientist David Tong to find out.The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us here!Every year there’s a ...12 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kassia Beetham, Exercise Physiology Lecturer, Australian Catholic University Expectant mothers receive an avalanche of information about potential risks to their baby. There’s a growing list of foods, toxins and environmental threats to avoid. It’s normal for this to lead to an increased ...12 hours ago
Complaints to the Banking Ombudsman rose 20 percent in the last financial year as the conduct of banks and financial agencies was thrust into the spotlight. ...12 hours ago
One of our country’s finest writers gorges herself on Gilead – and finds herself wishing for more osmosis between the Booker-shortlisted new novel and the horror-story politics playing out around us. Over the past five days I’ve re-read Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel The Handmaid’s Tale, caught myself up with the MGM/Hulu ...14 hours ago
Builders are setting up a new scheme to lessen the chances that companies close to collapse can win major contracts. ...14 hours ago
Author and social activist Naomi Klein talks the Green New Deal, Greta Thunberg and the links between the rise of white supremacy and the climate crisis. ...15 hours ago
Napier-based women’s clothing company KILT is a big brand with local charm. Josie Adams finds out how they’ve adapted their boutique strategy to work on a national level.Having grown up in the internet era New Zealand fashion label KILT has developed a unique relationship with its customers via an online ...16 hours ago
For the first day of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, Alice Neville banned herself from speaking English. Here’s how it went down.I discovered a foolproof way to make a day of speaking only te reo Māori easy. Just don’t talk. Seriously, turituri and you’ll be fine. I know, I know, ...16 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of Technology On the way home, you wander into the supermarket for a loaf of bread. But before you reach the bread aisle, you drop in your prescription at the supermarket pharmacy. ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frank Jotzo, Director, Centre for Climate and Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Climate ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Program Director – Health and Physical Education, Maths/Science, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania Physical education is one of the most popular subjects for children in their early school years. Yet by secondary school less favourable attitudes towards what’s known ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith University This story is part of Covering Climate Now, a global collaboration of more than 250 news outlets to strengthen coverage of the climate story. Climate change increasingly threatens communities all over ...19 hours ago
Townies are naive about the "huge" impact and cost a proposed government freshwater action plan will have across the country, says Federated Farmers. ...19 hours ago
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Trotter hallucinates revolting natives: "It is always dangerous to remind the colonisers of the world they have extinguished. To offer them a glimpse of that world is more perilous still. It proves that the culture they conquered and left for dead can be brought back to life. Ihumatao has smouldered for 156 years. The effect of the mass occupation of the past week has gifted it a sudden inrush of oxygen. Now there are flames amongst the fern."
Why? Not enough racism in the media yet, apparently. "Those flames glitter in the narrowed eyes of the watchers. From the ill-educated and ill-disciplined the responses are already forthcoming. Angry posts on Facebook and Twitter, filled with the raw racism of those for whom the possession of a white skin constitutes their sole claim to superiority. Reading these, it is difficult to decide who they hate the most: Maori, or the Pakeha who support them?" http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2019/07/ihumatao-watched-by-unfriendly-eyes.html
Best way to fan the flames of hostility is to play the racism card, particularly when it has already been over-played. Yeah, I know it makes no sense, I'm just illuminating the thought processes that drive his florid prose. Can't have a media career unless you beat up controversy…
one for the flesh-eaters to chew over…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/dairy-scary-public-farming-calves-pens-alternatives
with the rise of (indistinguishable from the 'real thing') meats and cheeses – the reasons to eat for flavor/texture etc. will be soon long gone..
and those who will still insist on 'the real thing' will just be insisting on a subtext/sauce of wholesale cruelty to animals/destruction of the environment..with their food..
when the issue is boiled down to just that – the 'real thing' will become less and less palatable to many/most..
this is when we will see the sea-change from animal/cruelty-based foods – to the healthier/better for the planet – plant-based foods..
Will we have the decency not to allow the animals we have farmed not to go extinct or will we toss them aside and breed more humans to fill the spaces they leave.
i think there is little chance of that happening – on the other hand there are all the species that are being/have been made extinct – by the farming of animals/growing of soy etc. to feed them…
Phew, good job we're not getting our milk from Britain, eh?
heh..!..that's all you've got there..?..p.m..?
and will they be tearing the (animal)-flesh from yer dead/cold hands…..heh..!
They'd certainly have to pry the fancy cheese from my cold, dead hands! Take away camembert, blue brie, feta, parmigiano, maasdam etc and only alcohol, sex and chocolate are left.
you clearly need to go to a vegan-cheese tasting – p.m – 'cos (as i noted) there are now plant-based versions indistinguishable from the real thing..
so you can still have yr camambert/blue-brie etc..tastes/textures you so love..
without the soupcon of animal-suffering/environmental damage..?..eh..?
what's wrong with that picture..?
Periodically some fucking hippie manages to persuade me to try some hyper-expensive dross that is "indistinguishable from the real thing". always bollocks.
The closest they've managed so far is "indistinguishable from a particularly shite and cheap attempt to sell something as the real thing".
If it was indistinguishable, it would drive the "real thing" into a niche market.
We were told these frankemeats were going to replace the good stuff four or five years ago. It just didn't happen.
As soon as they're broadly equivalent in price and quality, they'll start taking over.
Until then, phil's fooling only himself.
It will certainly have to get close to the taste and texture, regardless of how cheap it becomes. At the moment it's a fail on all counts.
My kid turned veggonaut, and the other day I got ripped for nine bucks for three hundred grams of quorn mince. I made a meal and it was effing gross. Ended up binning mine. Thought I couldn't go wrong with a fake sausage. I was wrong. No matter how much sauce I put on my pretend banger it just tasted wrong.
poor bugger.
i agree that the first attempts were pretty vile – i don't eat them – but the next generation is something different..
but once again – i won't be eating them – i haven't eaten animal flesh for over 30 yrs..
it is not a taste/texture sensation i want..
too much like the real thing – for my tastes..
they are like methadone for flesh-eaters/addicts..
they'll help ya..!
lol so when you say stuff is indistinguishable from the real thing, you mean indistinguishable from your 30y.o. recollection of what the real thing once tasted like.
Explains a lot.
Funny how vegans so often come across as delusional.
Must be a lack of protein.
I reckon lol
Recently been eating a lot of self caught, free range rabbit, though, so a good casserole and hearty pie later, the only sour taste left became a bitter afterthought.
nah..i am going on the blind taste-tests done @ fiekd days in hamilton..where tasters couldn't tell the difference – with many preferring the plant-based..
i am going on the burger chains in u.s. being early adopters – and the punters loving them..
i am going on the factories for both the leading brands being unable to keep up with orders..
i am going on the first of those companies to float on u.s. stockmarket – and being heavily over-subscribed..
i am not going on my 30+ yrs memories..
and hey..!..while you weren't watching/paying attention – most breads in supermarkets have gone vegan…
i used to be only able to buy one or two – now i can buy most..
betcha didn't know all that…eh..?
best you put down that slice of bread – and step well back..eh..?
Unless it's 50/50, they could tell the difference.
Bread is a good example of a cost-effective substitute "indistinguishable from the real thing". Margarine vs butter is another. But milk is still milk, and the meat aisles are still meat aisles (except for sausages, which are anything from "meat and random herbs" to "meat but mostly sawdust, and you don't want to know which bits of animals constitute the meat").
If 'fermented curd' were gone, then such gems as the Cheese Shop skit from Monty Python would have no meaning.
heh..!
but seriously there – p.m…i continue to be surprised by how many people who self-regard as progressive – are so reactionary on this issue…
especially in light of the indeniable health/environment issues from the farming/eating of animals – (need i remind you of the bowel-cancer equation?..that nz has worlds' highest rates of bowel-cancer + world-beating rates of consumption of animal-flesh/bye-products + red-meat/bacon being proven cause of bowel-cancer..
how much more information do you need…..to drive any change in yr dietary practices..?
and of course this reactionary attitude from many progressives has echoes in the abolition of human slavery (in the west)..
many progressives/suffragettes from that era are on the record as being emphatic on the inferiority of the darker races..of being totally reactionary on the question of race..
and so it is now on the question of animal-slavery/eatimg..eh..?
Philip Ure I suspect that the truly ethical position on meat-eating is to eat ourselves, no other animal to be hurt in this process.
As we have been making a living from feeding and growing animals for so long – it is hard to make the change to plant-first-and-only diets. But as you say our bowel cancer is high on the charts in a bad way, less meat is better.
Why not put up a couple of recipes for your favourite flavoured meals on Sunday's How to Get There – but please don't swamp us with your sales pitch – you can get carried away. Antagonism and stress is bad for the digestion of any food, keep it simple and sweet will you.
how have i been in the slightest way 'antagonistic'..?
(perhaps you are discomfited by these uncomfortable truths..?..'tis different..eh..?..)
and 'swamping you with a sales pitch'..?
really..?
i am arguing a fundamental moral/environmental-issue of our times..hardly a 'sales-pitch'…
and one that doesn't get a huge hearing in this forum..eh..?
so..hardly 'swamped'…
and you are presenting the same economic arguments that were presented to defend the continuation of human slavery..
ie: 'we've been doing it for so long..'..'we make a living from it'..
those arguments didn't stand then..and don't stand here/now..
Oh forget I ever said anything PU. I am sick of people who can't think anything through and just react to life and everything that is said to them with their favourite obsession or interest blocking their vision. I will take no further interest in you or anything you say.
I agree greywarshark. This debate driven by Philip Ure has already happened some years ago when I had only just discovered the benefits of reading TS.
To be honest, I do not look forward to a repeat of that long and turgid debate, in which I seem to remember James making rather a pig of himself by over-indulgence in barbeques.
Yes we seemed to get down in the mosh pit when we want to keep on the stage demonstrating what great debaters we are.
you will always lose this particular debate – 'cos no matter how much the bluster..
the plant-based foods/arguments have science and history on their side..
animal-extraction industries are sunset industries…
well yes – i have been making these arguments for some 20 yrs..unsure how that invalidates them..
and the truth/facts of the matter are just that..indisputable..
and isn't it all going rather well..?
especially compared with 20 yrs ago.
you can't go anywhere these days – without falling over a vegan..
Don't get me started, Phil! Already blathered on about it at length yesterday and again today on threads about National's cancer announcement.
Interesting technical point here from NRT: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-referendum-bill.html
The coalition has set the terms for the two referenda at the next election, but with a sunset clause. NRT questions the wisdom of the clause. Winston was once real big on citizens-initiated referenda, so I'm surprised he has endorsed the sunset strategy.
Could it be that realpolitik has prevailed over populism in his mind? Those who object to people power usually cite the madness of crowds (just as likely as wisdom). I wonder if he has had a conversion experience.
What a joke – and not funny at all. How long are we going to put up with this bullshit?
Pathetic. What a rig-up against the planet – there are more possibilities of oil spill than from deck drains. And the fact that climate change is happening but must not be acknowledged though it is a scientific fact – can't be accepted by people who draw on their own preferred facts to make their case for doing business. Let's settle this with a duel you could say instead of having an expensive legal hearing with counsel being paid in mega-dollars. Come outside the two protagonists could say, choose your weapons, and let's see who has the best facts.
On the brightside the consensus forecasts suggest a significant deepening (strictly negative) of the antarctic oscillation and increased probability of significant southerly regimes for the next couple of weeks.
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/aao/new.aao_index_ensm.html
Interesting graphs Poission. I think I saw that the temp will not stay at -4 for long but will likely be below freezing for the 14-day period with this oscillation which will please the ski fields hearts mightily.
I hope they have been able to get their staff okay. They were saying that new measures the Immigration Impairment have introduced meant that what used to be straightforward and timely had extra time-consuming layers. That made it difficult for the special people required to get their paperwork, and their travel etc. arrangements done. They could miss the snow completely the way it worked (not). I think it is so wrong to allow individuals to get on top of a heap that they fashion into a shape of their own design.
This is intersting and good to hear. Good on them. We all can do something – besides writing here, which is useful itself because we need to have discussion and thinking about our country and its problems and what sort of road blocks we need against continuing bad systems and what we need to remove.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018706229/raglan-s-waste-free-goal
This was a new direction that will help in managing down plastic use.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018706549/are-bio-plastics-the-answer
Intelligent regulation and standard setting assisting the building trade.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018706547/calls-for-national-register-for-building-materials
News this morning. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/114611592/biometric-data-can-be-a-useful-tool-for-employers-but-what-about-your-privacy by Employment Lawyer Peter Cullen 31/7/2019
OPINION: Your fingerprint is uniquely your own, tied to your identity for your entire life. It is for this very reason that technology is advancing the usefulness of biometric data like fingerprints, making it much harder for people to keep their identity and history private.
These technological advances are everywhere – from DNA technology allowing police to solve cold cases to everyday people unlocking their phone with a scan of their face…
Take the recent Australian Fair Work Commission decision involving Queensland sawmill worker Jeremy Lee and his employer, Superior Wood.
Lee refused to give his fingerprints to his employer as part of a new work sign-in system. After a period of some months involving discussions and then warnings, Lee was sacked for his persistent refusals.
Lee wasn’t just thinking about privacy, he declared: “It’s my biometric data. It’s not appropriate for them to have it”.
(Question: Why should an employer have the right to take samples of your body, readings of your functions, skin details? Are we things bought and sold, like animals at a saleyard, teeth, eyes, hooves checked? Isn’t this just the same – an invasion of our individual rights becoming normalised?)
Overseas: https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1892471/rise-face-and-fingerprint-recognition-technology-just-how
Face recognition technology to help “tag” friends in photographs, fingerprint recognition to unlock smartphones, and fingerprint door locks are just some of the ways in which biometric data has been used in recent years. In Asia, developments include palm vein authentication technology for payments and mobile terminals, or “biocarts” that take photos and fingerprints of passengers for immigration processing in Japan; fingerprint authentication for ATMs in Vietnam; and facial recognition technology
. Is this the end of long passwords and complex authentication systems?
Overseas – Australia: https://www.biometricupdate.com/201907/australian-intelligence-community-seeks-new-biometric-access-control-system Australia National Intelligence Community (NIC) has issued a tender for a new common access card system, preferably featuring biometric identity verification, to control access to buildings of all 10 of the country’s security and intelligence agencies, which make up the group, reports
Interestingly enough the placement of a persons ears are up there with fingerprints for identifying people.
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/ears-biometric-identification/
A method to the madness?
HONG KONG — The police officers wrestled with Colin Cheung in an unmarked car. They needed his face.
They grabbed his jaw to force his head in front of his iPhone. They slapped his face. They shouted, “Wake up!” They pried open his eyes. It all failed: Mr. Cheung had disabled his phone’s facial-recognition login with a quick button mash as soon as they grabbed him.
As Hong Kong convulses amid weeks of protests, demonstrators and the police have turned identity into a weapon. The authorities are tracking protest leaders online and seeking their phones. Many protesters now cover their faces, and they fear that the police are using cameras and possibly other tools to single out targets for arrest.
http://archive.li/uQZx3
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/26/technology/hong-kong-protests-facial-recognition-surveillance.html
Good to check what's been happening down there imo
I think that the Mayor felt that urgent attention was needed and did the commonsense thing with the stopbank. But then probably that is normal behaviour for that area, a hearty, quick decision-making of we'll fix that -without proper planning which looked at the bigger issues, and long-term needs and what the latest 'best practice' is, if only to decide to ignore it – it not always being reasonable and cost-efficient.
Now that's excellent news.
Wonder if maureen pugh wishes to comment? Probably not she was busy sending out a presser to local news outlets yesterday announcing that she had a cake to celebrate 3 yrs in parliament. True story.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/395585/australia-looks-to-further-tighten-visa-requirements
Anger over the deportation of New Zealand citizens from Australia is likely to intensify, with Canberra set to introduce even tighter visa requirements.
Nice work, Jacinda. Heckuva job.
Did she call Peda Duddin a fuckknuckle again shggy?
Lecturing a bunch of Bible-thumping white racists that their immigration policies are shitty has backfired in spectacular fashion, and Kiwis will pay the price.
The poor Ockers aren't a happy bunch right now shaggy, their economy is going off the cliff and that bunch of muppets across the Tasman are steaming ahead. Their dollar has fallen from it's customary level of over NZ$1.20 to only just buying one NZ$ (today's cash rate) And I can't see it changing any time soon.
What does this have to do with either country's economy?
it allows them to export their unemployment stats
Good point, Pat. Back in the late 80s we invented lots of dodgy private tertiary institutes so that our young unemployed would become students gaining worthless qualifications, instead of featuring in unemployment stats.
Didn't work, because a few years later they still had no jobs.
Australia gets rid of the actual person – much more efficient.
What better system have you got shag?
Don't know if I'd vote New Conservative (unless Jude became leader then obviously I would) but this is better then what Labour have done, its more thought out, fairer and will actually address some of the issues
New Conservative party
New Conservative takes constructive feedback on our policies very seriously. Here is our latest on Firearms:
FIREARMS POLICY
[Deleted and replaced with one simple link; https://www.newconservative.org.nz/firearms-policy ]
Lots of stuff to unpack there, even if they weren't a bunch of fucking numpties.
Still, better without the poetry.
edit: what about tourist hunters?
mandatory minimums, wtf?
Do they want the chchfuck’s live stream uncensored? Why? And that’s not a govt issue, that’s the censor’s office. Like any court suppression issues. Or do they want all the fiveeyes stuff made public too?
Seriously, what are they on?
I guess Republicans have been right all along, they are the party of Reagan.
The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh.
[…]
The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines. This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior. The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.
The exchange was taped by Nixon, and then later became the responsibility of the Nixon Presidential Library, which I directed from 2007 to 2011. When the National Archives originally released the tape of this conversation, in 2000, the racist portion was apparently withheld to protect Reagan’s privacy. A court order stipulated that the tapes be reviewed chronologically; the chronological review was completed in 2013. Not until 2017 or 2018 did the National Archives begin a general rereview of the earliest Nixon tapes. Reagan’s death, in 2004, eliminated the privacy concerns. Last year, as a researcher, I requested that the conversations involving Ronald Reagan be rereviewed, and two weeks ago, the National Archives released complete versions of the October 1971 conversations involving Reagan online.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/
Well, they do now admit that Reagan had dementia. Does Trump by any chance have anything in common with Reagan?
If you know anyone with ME/CFS/Tapanui 'Flu that is being put through CBT and graduated exercise PLEASE send them and most importantly their doctor to the link below. There are many inside the DHBs who are wasting health $ abusing clients with these treatments on the basis of this PACE study – It’s not even science 🙁
Weird shit happening at our Universities:
AUT scraps Tiananmen Square event
Female activist knocked to the ground as Hong Kong/China tensions spill over at University of Auckland
Beijing supporters plan anti-Hong Kong protest at Auckland Uni