You can stick people into two groups. Those who comply and those don't. Those who comply do so for their own safety and the safety of others. They do so for the greater collective good. Those who don't don't comply feel they themselves are the most important unit and will break any rule which suggests otherwise. These people are from the political right.
Because SARS – CoV 2 favours the non-complying group I comply. I wear a mask, wash my hands, physically distance and avoid crowds, try to stay as healthy as I can – easier for some than others.
"This metasynthesis provides among the most compelling evidence to date that personality predicts overall health and well-being."
In the past weeks own south people seem pretty relaxed about L2, basically not really doing much. More Q codes visible, some manual lists to sign, signs telling people to keep their distance, but while people are aware I guess, seems like it's a bit lax. Presumably because most people think there's no covid here. I assume people are allowed to leave Auckland now so hopefully that perception will change.
Anyone know why 900 state houses in Porirua were handed over to iwi, even though the government promised to put an end to privatisation of state housing?
Probably part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement and I would not call handing these houses over to Iwi to administer privatisation. Meeting of a treaty settlement is paramount I would have thought. What owners do then is the same as any other owner whose land has been taken. Some handing back is subject to restrictions but I am not sure if this part of the Treaty claim was.
I am looking forward to the time when Paraparaumu airport, taken for Defence purposes around the time of WW2 and the Iwi never compensated, is handed back.
Any shareholder owned organisation that's accumulating and reinvesting virtually all returns from invested settlement assets is by definition a private business.
Iwi have businesses (like the government), but they're not businesses. The Pākehā system forced Māori to adopt Iwi legal structures that suited Pākehā, but Iwi themselves predate any modern concept of business by a long time.
And does or should this overly technical approach by Joe90 override the fact that these settlements endeavour to bring the Iwi into a situation that they should have been had the Treaty of Waitangi breach not occurred.
I think not.
As Weka has said these are our Treaty partners, they have been badly treated in cases where Maori land has been taken for Public Works such as housing, roads, schools etc etc. and most have chosen a range or mix of former crown assets and $$$ to settle their grievances. It is mean-spirited not to allow Iwi to conduct their own commercial operations. Some of these ops have meant that Iwi does the managing eg Ngai Tahu and others the managing has been done by the former Govt dept.
If land owned by the Crown is not going to be in the mix, and Iwi want productive land as part of their settlement then the Treaty Settlements will stall big time.
I think to define the use of assets returned under Treaty settlements as private business is simplistic. To trammel the return of assets to Iwi with strictures on future use risks setting up yet another ToW claim. There are crown assets such as particular reserves that are not available for sale that are passed over to Iwi control.
Possibly it is a lack of knowledge about what the meaning of being a treaty partner is that has led to these mystifying picky comments
I would suggest that readers look at some of these settlements
Some of us who were around in Govt Depts when the full force of the Rogernomics was upon us will recall that it was only the intervention of our Treaty partner, by and through the NZ Maori Council taking Court cases, that some of the worst land related affects such as the proposal to sell the land under the trees as well as the forest crops were tossed out. Ordinary NZers had no ability to seek any stop to the tidal wave of Rogernomics that was going on. There were several cases other than the Forestry one where they over turned what had been proposed. Our Treaty partners have stepped up many times over the years since 1840, and it behoves us to treat their claims in a generous and fair-spirited way.
"The Speaker has referred independent MP Jami-Lee Ross to the Privileges Committee for misusing edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.
"Trevor Mallard ordered the anti-vaccination video – posted by Ross's party and that of Billy Te Kahika's NZ Public Party – to be removed from social media, but that's been met with a blunt refusal.
Parliamentary footage of an exchange between government minister Megan Woods and National's Erica Stanford was edited for use in the political ad, posted on several sites."
Yeah I wonder why we can't force the main internet players twitter facebook etc to have a "local office" so that when something like this comes along they can easily be contacted so that at the very least it can be labeled "false" or "edited"or taken down fast rather than going through some offshore process.
Yes, it is certainly time for government to declare that being connected is a right and then ensure that the means exist for people to fulfil that right without being ripped off by private enterprise.
In other words, time to re-nationalise telecommunications and to produce capable phones and PCs here in NZ also by a government owned production process.
This is a very real problem with both government and private sector. There are whole communities that are effectively excluded.
I've stayed offline because I can't be bothered with the being hacked bit plus I have the ability to complain loudly – which not everyone has.
The government needs to sort its act out for starters. Any government fee or charge should be capable of being paid on the ground with no extra charge or fee payable – that is far from the current situation. Nor should costs and access be pushed sideways onto community organisations libraries funded by ratepayers etc.
There is also the major secondary discrimination- there are government jobs that cannot be applied for unless a real me id is used. Citizen tracking by default.
edit
There is a major and obvious question here, so obvious that nobody has thought to ask it. Did the citizens get asked if they agreed to have government retreat from face to face dealings, to only communicating with citizens through machines? Was it right that such swingeing changes were enabled by a handful of anarchists? Were taxpayers advised that lower taxes meant limited human input into dealing with citizens?
Were people enabled to discuss the result of withdrawal of government from the ordering of people's lives and that elections and ministers in government were becoming less and less true agents of the people? Perhaps if there wasn't so much hype about how marvellous it is, and truthfulness instead of truthiness about this bloody technological takeover and its constant expansion with obsolescence designed in, people might see things as they are, not rosy at all.
Addlepated* is a great word for the quandary we are in. Google quickly finds all I need to know to describe the poor state we and our state are in. I don't think that is quixotic (extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.)
* In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addlepated
I want government back – with real people, and all channels open to all citizens., on-line plus traditional. I think that we need to reorganise Parliament though, and all people who work for government have to have a skill or profession that they have worked at adequately for five years before applying for government jobs.
Corin Dan this morning commenting (to Phil Goff I think) that the poor messaging that asked South and West Aucklanders to get tested "muddied the waters" on the country's response and then goes on to ask questions that invite others to muddy the messaging even further.
The PM on TVNZ this morning sensibly sidestepped a question about opening the borders because of "business". If she had addressed it, anything she said would be used to muddy the country's response at the moment. The best response for the economy is a health response. What is the sharemarket doing at the moment? Is the MSM banging on about it?
The thing about Distributed Denial of Service Attacks is they are often (always?) done by people activating Bot Nets.
"
A botnet is a logical collection of Internet-connected devices such as computers, smartphones or IoT devices whose security have been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each compromised device, known as a "bot", is created when a device is penetrated by software from a malware (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols, such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[3][4]
Those who are not complying with wearing a mask the reasons why not would need to be known. Wise to wear a mask and not a team player if not wearing a mask.
I have a goal of making 500 cloth masks and donating them where needed. I will even cut extra elastic for ear loops and safety pin it on the mask as the elastic may wear due to a hot soapy hand wash.
I feel that a new cluster could only be a day away anywhere.
Another Auckland CCO failure. Not Watercare, this time it's POAL. Not content with shitting on Aucklanders by building a bloody great carpark in the middle of the harbour, Ports of Auckland is an exploitative employer as well.
The next government needs to take a serious look at the corporate model of governance for public utilities. The profit motive does not deliver for the people, only a bunch of MBA executives whose only skills are "cost" cutting and bullshit.
No. Just that massive port and truckie testing drive a few weeks ago. And the fact the Auckland outbreak is still sourced to Americold.
They still came up with nothing but a possible theory: Foreign crew member > stevedore > truck-driver > Americold worker. These people generally work (and have smoke breaks) in close contact so I wonder if there was a bit of mixing going on which shouldn't have happened.
I've had thoughts often re Americool as their Melbourne branch apparently had 2 cases a fortnight earlier – I know they dismiss it but seeing how some things are packed and that it can withstand cold surely is not just coincidence.
Around August 15th through 18th there was a big fluffy of articles about Americold Melbourne covid cases getting genome sequenced.
I have yet to find anything explicitly saying the genomes were different to the B.1.1.1 strain in the outbreak here, but I think it's safe to assume that if the Melbourne cases were also B.1.1.1 we would have heard all about it.
Over the last thirty odd years we've seen that the profit motive always brings about the worst possible response and does not meet the needs of the community.
Tony Gibson again, "Their health is our number one concern." Sure it is, mate. Sure it is. This guy was an arsehole all through the strikes, and he's still an arsehole.
The Pentagon is forming a new task force to investigate UFOs that have been observed by US military aircraft, according to two defense officials. Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist will help oversee the task force
Members of Congress and Pentagon officials have long expressed concerns about the appearance of the unidentified aircraft that have flown over US military bases, posing a risk to military jets. There is no consensus on their origin… The Senate Intelligence Committee voted in June to have the Pentagon and intelligence community provide a public analysis of the encounters, following the official Pentagon release of three short videos showing US aircraft encountering these phenomena.
You can understand how distressing it must be when your top guns get left flat-footed all the time. Hard to be macho. The hormones just stop flowing.
If US intelligence would only learn from random website entrepreneurs posing as tech expert theoreticians, instead of believing what defense personnel & hotshot pilots saw, everyone would live happily ever after… 👽
Hotshot pilots with a penchant for trolling those who want to believe.
Said Fravor, “We used to fly night vision goggles… [and] you can see a campfire from like fifty miles away. So we would go out at night flying around on goggles. You’d see a campfire and go, ‘Oh. UFO time’”. “[Y]ou get the airplane going around 600 knots and then you pull the power back to idle so you can’t hear it. Then you get zinging toward the fire and you turn the lights all down because we’re in a restricted area so you can do that. There’s lights on it you can only see if you’re on vision goggles. So the other airplanes can see us, but no one else can see us. Then you go zinging at it and right when you get to the campfire you pull the airplane into vertical and stroke the afterburners, let ’em light off, you count to three and then you just go away. Instant UFO reporting.”
Obviously pranksters get in on such acts. I recall some faking crop circles in the early '90s & impressing the media – but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing. So that's a red herring. Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
"…the real thing." Oh Dennis, isn't your inner skeptic twitching, just a little?
"Although obscure natural causes or alien origins of crop circles are suggested by fringe theorists, there is no scientific evidence for such explanations, and all crop circles are consistent with human causation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_circle
I admire the creativity/artistry of some hoaxers, provided it’s all in good fun.
all crop circles are consistent with human causation
Seems like total crap to me. Written by the type of sceptic who is possessed by an inner ideological agenda. You know, the kind of person who is too lazy to check out evidence.
Not that I have. I just looked at the photos & read parts of the books at the time. So I arrived at an opinion based on pattern recognition. Neither true believer nor retard sceptic. Binary folk are ever so reluctant to categorise stuff into the maybe category, eh? That's due to being unable to conceive a third alternative.
Like me, a physics graduate, so he ought to have known better! We may be alone, we may not, so that third option exists until you collapse the wave function (via experimental detection).
Journalists who enquired of Clarke whether he was gay were told, "No, merely mildly cheerful."
However, Michael Moorcock wrote: "Everyone knew he was gay. In the 1950s, I'd go out drinking with his boyfriend."
"There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including aliens, mysterious vortices, time travelers and wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. The only known cause of crop circles is humans. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until then perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art."
Radford, B. "Crop Circles Explained". LiveScience. [2017]
"Seems like total crap to me."
Like Radford, I’m all for keeping an open mind, but with past and present crop circle evidence pointing in one direction, we’ll have to agree to disagree re “total crap“.
Anticipating publication of another theory sometime soon: those crop circles in English fields that have been reported on & off since the Middle Ages (according to one researcher years ago) must have been done by wallabies travelling from Oz on ufos.
What bothered me was the perfect symmetry exhibited by the wheat stalks. Perhaps wallabies are capable of levitation? That would explain the lack of footprints within the circles. 🤩
Wallabies are not capable of levitation AFAIK but some birds are and then there is the flying squirrel, of course, which happened to be native to Europe and is nocturnal.
I'd bet there's some really interesting aerodynamics going on. Maybe something like each loop of the undulations generating lift off a specific part of a vortex shed from the loop ahead.
I hope you didn't think I included your good self in that categorisation! There's an immense difference between a sceptic with an open mind and one without, and, operating within the former category, I tend to see you as more likely to be in that camp.
Those wielding scepticism as an ideology are sufficiently robotic that you can read them from phraseology used, denial of existence of evidence, aversion to even looking for it, etc.
“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard Feynman
Terence McKenna says it's the Japanese crop-circle tourists who make them; they're always there as soon as the circles appear (and before, nearby, waiting…) and act completely innocent when challenged. Cameras are the perfect excuse for being there and a lack of English language the perfect foil to interrogation. The precision of some of those crop-circles certainly points toward a culture of accuracy, elegance and attention to detail in the creators: the Japanese fit the bill!
I wasn't aware that I was claiming anything, John, but I think upon re-reading what I wrote that I can see why you thought so.
So to clarify: my perception of the difference between the fakes and the real thing is derived from the researchers plus the photos in their books, but I probably was too loose in the phrasing.
This is merely my personal impression we're talking about. Nothing to do with objective fact. And I don't rely on any single source – I scan the field & get an overview, a technique I acquired long ago. So my opinion re authenticity is not an assertion in the way you read it. I'm sorry to have used real thing in a way that may have implied whatever, when I just meant `no evidence of fakery apparent'. To differentiate those from the obvious fakes!
You are assuming that pentagon (especially air arm) officials see no advantage in a perceived techological "gap" between the USA and an unidentified neer-peer adversary.
After all, 60-70 years ago the "missile gap" resulted in budget cuts, right? But that had claims that were demonstrably false. These videos, released without comment, make no claims other than the subjects weren't conclusively and individually identified. Like, whose balloon was it? Obviously it's unidentified.
No, I agree that budget capture is a thing, and the US military hierarchy are masters of the art. It would be fair enough to then classify the senators as suckers – unless you'd rather deem them scamsters (ie operating as agents for the military), but that is probably more feasible for those with military corporations in their home state.
The only thing I deem is that there is nothing particularly novel or interesting about those films – the release of the footage and lack of classification of the objects is not proof of aliens, nor is it proof of a funding conspiracy, nor is it proof of haoxers, nor does it indicate that the pentagon merely declassifies shit without comment because it wants to keep the tinfoil hats at arm's length.
The general indications of the videos and the debunkers and the alternative theories is that the explanations for the content of those videos are incredibly banal. Why would I care to know or speculate beyond that, other than to respond to some obscurantist stupidity posted here?
If I were in their shoes (US military decision-makers & their pr hire) I'd reassure the public by making obscure videos available too! Heaven forbid they'd ever release the good ones!!
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Really?
The new one seemed to be the subject of comment 10, but the point still seems to be elusive. Could you please express your point more clearly?
The news reported by CNN alerts us to a pattern of behaviour by the US military & govt: create official UFO investigations, terminate them a considerable time later, then recreate them in a somewhat different form some years after that.
Bureaucracy is like gardening – the well-tended plots have things come and go and regrow and pruning is done, preferably for the health of the plant rather than convoluted topiary.
Bureaucracy is like a tropical jungle, full of poisonous animals and plants (e.g. Triffid deskus), and easy to get lost in and die, never to be seen again.
Back when children did domestic chores every day, I received training from the patriarch & become proficient at pushing a mechanical mower around the lawn. Come the 1960s, we moved up-market & became fossil-fuel dependent local neighbourhood noise polluters.
Last year I told my neighbour I intend to eliminate my front lawn & gazed curiously at him to see how much he would freak out, but he rolled with it. Sam is cool. Electrical inspector & staunch Labour voter, but we shoot the breeze with political conversations often with no arguments. Maori but looks Greek patrician, talks more like a pakeha, and his property is immaculate!
So I get your point. Encultured control of nature is embedded as much as bureaucracy. I'm rewilding – but slowly enough to not spook the locals. My frogs have been in winter hibernation but have seen a couple medium-sized, almost black, moving now & then but not much. Wonder why they never croak (even in spring & summer)…
A scout troup were on a camp over the hills to the East of Paraparaumu at Camp Waghorn I think. One of the tasks was to build some hot air balloons out of tissue paper and fuelled with methylated spirits on cotton wool. Launched at night they drifted westwards over Paraparaumu. They were sighted by excited townsfolk. Police notified. Reports of figures looking out of portholes and craft as big as two football fields. Certain eyewitnesses. Until the lads went home on Sunday PM. Cover blown.
You have reminded me of the international ballyhoo over the UFO's seen in the night sky seaward of Kaikoura in 1978. Every now and them TV3 comes up with a re-run of the story, totally ignoring the explanation for the phenomena issued at the time by the Meteorological Service.
There was an intense anticyclone over the South Island and an inversion layer at about 2000 feet. On the surface and just beyond the 12 mile limit there was a Japanese fishing fleet. The lights from the fishing fleet was being reflected back at the point of the inversion layer as bright lights seemingly bobbing around the night sky. Sea must have been quite choppy.
What I can't figure out is why we sceptics never see the paranormal. The Kaikoura episode with Blenheim pilot Bill Startup brings back Bruce Cathie's leylines and Harmonic 33, and a local woman Moreland who saw a UFO there in 1959.
Seriously, I can identify with the startling sight of something inexplicable but evident to the eyes. Earlier this year looking at the night sky and then seeing travelling lights in a straight line was freaky, until I looked up online what was happening with a series of satellites……….
The individual experiences are often explained via optical illusions. The mass simultaneous sightings are usually ignored by sceptics due to being too hard to dismiss via this method.
I recall reading once about one such in Taupo, that happened in the 1950s. Think it made the newspaper, but what impressed me was the sheer number of eyewitness accounts that all told the same story.
Re Cathie's theory, I couldn't get my head into it, so I share the sceptic's view. Ley lines in Britain I'm agnostic about. Since they have a fair bit of physical correlates from the megalithic era, not just a personal fantasy of some nutcase.
except 10.2.1 was literally a mass sighting addressed by sceptics. They tend to be hyper-examined these days – e.g. the "missile" off California was examined exhaustively.
What "mass sightings" of ufos have been ignored? A taupo one in the 1950s deserves to be added to wikipedia.
On a related note, a while back I saw a joke chart that purported to show the incidence of miracles – consistantly high until photography was invented, then low and flat until photoshop was invented when it spiked up again. Same sort of thing applies to UFOs, I reckon.
Funnily, this sceptic has never been even part of a mass sighting. I did, though, find out as a young student on a ouija board that I could very subtly spell out all sorts of messages. Nearly cost me a relationship when my girlfriend finally sussed what I was doing………
Something similar happened to me in my first year at university: a group of us tried the ouija method & got mixed results. Some gibberish yet some words spelt out. After we gave up my old school friend & current flatmate admitted to the group that he had been steering the pointer. Taught me that the spirit of (scientific) enquiry is always vulnerable to being trumped by jokers…
Extremely upsetting to hear parent being part of the problem and spouting some very unpleasant Pasifika remarks with regards to the outbreak, and by extension, immigration in general. No amount of calling out and calmly challenging her thought process made any difference.
I'm more confused given she's a refugee herself, and is also disgusted by her father's anti-semetic views during the war when his Jewish neighbours were literally being carted off for extermination. It seems her own life experiences haven't produced tolerance. The only thing we seem to agree on is maybe it stems from her growing up in Australia at a time when racism/white superiority was actively encouraged and perhaps a bit of indoctrination that stuck.
Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?
build bridges and keep lines of communication open over time (if you can). Change doesn't have to happen in one conversation or debate, it can happen gradually, building on each previous discussion.
My experience in conservative communities was that keeping the relationship sound was just as important as any reasoning.
When worldometers is updated Australia's total deaths from Covid will be 652. The 'first wave' stopped at 102 so the July outbreak there has cost 550 lives so far.
…… the Victorian health department said Monday's deaths included 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 and were only reported to DHHS by aged-care facilities on Sunday.
Save those cute little bats, and their home territory for hundreds, thousands? of years, that nasty great humans are just preparing to rip away and colonise with their own kind.
That is such a familiar theme in our country – here in NZ where we like to say we are a developed, highly civilised country. But a query – what did we develop from and what, to? Have we been fooling ourselves – is there someone who can give a studied, balanced opinion out there (not Mike Hosking or others with their feet in the troughs out there overflowing with goodies that I've heard of)?
Why bother to save anything (sarc). Think how rich we could be by allowing what is unique to NZ die out and we are left with sparrows, Tahr, Wallibies, rabbits, rats etc
I'm not into saving anything. Habitat restoration and pest free islands then leave the mainland (plus Rakiura and Te Waipounamu) to mother nature. Love chilling on a river bank smothered with blossoming broom, watching the hares skittering, quail coveying, trout dimpling.
No maybe, ifs or buts. SkyCity is a private business with restrictions and not a public place as such. There are also CCTVs operating in prisons, which is an equally flawed comparison for this discussion. You are diverting, and this may be accidental, but now I have pointed it out to you, you have a conscious choice.
Ignore my point about SkyCity using facial recognition.
I just don't have an issue with the police using facial recognition if it catches bad people.
Yes, there may one or two cases of people using it for bad things, but the same could be argued for police having access to vehicle owners personal details from number plates at the push of a few buttons.
Matching vehicle ownership for licensing purposes, for example, is not quite the same as biometrics identification (and authorisation?), is it? A better comparison would be the use of fingerprints or the publication of photos taken in public.
It really helps to very clearly articulate the issue before launching (into) debate.
Well I have a lot of issues with nasty little authoritarian tribes like the cops running around and spying on people going about their normal daily business. What about the taking of photos at demo's – then later using these to discriminate against certain classes of people. Where are these cameras going to be and will there be a bias towards younger and lower skilled people being photographed.
As to catching bad people – they would need to CCTV far more executive workplaces , clubs , the roads to coromandel baches and exclusive restaurants to catch the real crooks who prey on society.
Then the traffic enforcement side – the costs of licences, rego's etc has soared compared to minimal wages and benefits. Little wonder that otherwise law abiding citizens slither around in not so legal cars – the costs are beyond them. If the legalise dope goes through then there is whole areas of enforcement that will no longer be needed. Looks like cops are going for some job protection there.
From my limited understanding of dealing with them. And it is pretty limited apart from someone trying to sell it,
It is anywhere where the cameras are up to spec' to be good enough to pick up the details needed visually by the software, used on the servers which controls the network of cameras.
Ie your average old camera from the 90s is probably a bit screwed, but new ones on the main black spots like Courtney Place where there are drunken fights or same sort of places in Auckland would probably be ok.
And obviously the thing looking at the cameras needs access two the visual in real time or it is a bit pointless, so public ones in this case.
Thank you for confirming my point. and no we do not need the attempted distraction of the type of camera.
Clearly your idea of a camera set up to catch a "bad guy" boils down to a public camera for low level street drug deals, some public drunkenness and a forgot to rego the car moment.
How about a few cameras that catch high income males in cafes assaulting female wait staff, issuing warrants to search journalists homes and insinuating to third parties that said journalists are being looked at for criminal reasons all of which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Street camera's won't catch the real crooks of society they will just be used to intimidate lawful people going about their lawful business.
What if the cops become bad people and set out to catch good people. It is important to try and care about surveillance, loss of personal freedom if you are commenting on a leftish blog Chris T.
If we are going to do hypotheticals I can come up with doozys
What if [name deleted; against TS policy] got away that day and the to catch him was through facial CCTV facial recognition?
Look I agree there will be bad cops like in every other profession, and a couple may even take advantage of it, that is a security issue for the police, but they already have way more access to private info' through other methods like vehicle registration etc, tracing phone movements with a warrant, to the point that I really can't see facial recognition making a difference to privacy.
If they start talking about bugging peoples phones and planting tracking devices on peoples cars I would be concerned. But this. Not really.
It is happening all over the world as part of policing, in airports, casinos as mentioned earlier etc (Yes I know these aren't public places)
[Some hypotheticals are just a bad idea – Incognito]
Again you confirm that there is far too much access by cops to private data in an unregulated way already. And the few bad cops – get real we have a continuing trickle of stories roast busters, Hager and other journalists, computer hacking investigations, illegal traffic stops to get information, tooling up and running around doing traffic stops like they are in a war zone and that's just what we know about .. that's just more than the odd bad egg it's a systemic problem that needs dealing with.
Nor is it correct to conflate such things as phone hacking which should need a warrant to the unrestricted unsupervised collection of public data using facial recognition of citizens doing absolutely nothing wrong as they go about their lawful daily lives.
and yes a lot of stuff is collected in non public spaces and again should we be ruling more fully against some of this.
Just remember the police work for us as a society not for some right wing authoritarian clique.
I like No Right Turn – it often has interesting information that is picked up much later by other media, but at other times it is frustrating in its blatant partisanship:
National often claims that the government has failed because an element of party policy put forward before the election has not been achieved and that this represents a failure of government – and the policy is of course always represented as a promise, so according to National it is a "broken promise." We know that a three party government does require compromises, but these do not always represent failure by the party or party that wants something to happen; it may represent a ''victory" for the third party. Also of course there are some policies which are overtaken by events (covid for example?) or where other priorities mean something gets lower than desired priority.
In this case NRT is talking about a "failure'' by the Green Party and Labour – not a failure of government. We need to remember this going into an election campaign; we collectively get what we collectively vote for…
Sadly NRT does not accept comments – fair enough as far as the time it clearly takes on The Standard to keep discussion civil and weed out the nutters; but for a blog that clearly supports some Green policies to blame the government for the need for consensus that is a fundamental part of that government is somewhat short sighted – despite problems I believe that a smaller party like the Green Party does have legitimate views; I do not want voters to think that it is only worth voting for Labour or National.
IS at NRT used to accept comments a long time ago. He shut it down because he prefers to write rather than deal with the ignorant dipshits who used to write most of the comments. I think that he stopped about 2006 or 7
It was pity because the comments were often as good as the posts.
A terrible look for Judith Collins here. Corrupt husband and chief Kauri stump digger David Wong tung has taken to posting misogynist memes about the Prime Minister.
You are well known for not recognising misogyny. One clue is in the use of the name "Cindy" which minimises and trivialises the PM, and all women, really.
Also worrying for Collins is the second one retweeted there by her apparently unruly husband is watermarked “the BFD” which is Slater’s vehicle. He set it up after claiming he had a stroke in order to avoid paying his debtors from the failed WOBF.
Collins has had a cosy relationship with Slater through the years, using him to conduct Dirty Politics. That relationship also contributed to her fall from grace and generally highlighted her and her husband’s corrupt nature.
It's actually less IMO about Jacinda Ardern who just gets one vote & given a raft of slights that most of the public have not had to witness, and would be rightly appalled by, this is how the public will view the LOTO. Regardless of her trying to dismiss it & perhaps suggesting NZers can't "take a joke" or a bit of levity it goes to the core of showing two faces to the public, one that's relatively benign and the other that is a relationship with a nasty and dismissive view of wider NZ
But What About Judith's personal responsibility for the poor personal choice of 41 years ago? Isn't that what the RW says to single mothers struggling to bring up the kids? They made a poor personal choice to have kids with someone so need to be pounded by the right?
Could you imagine the uproar if first bloke was doing anything like this? but he's far too sensible.
Collins shrugs and claims she can't do anything about it. This is an admission she endorses it. If she felt it was damaging she could say to her husband, "you are hurting my career, please stop". But she won't because she doesn't believe he is hurting her career.
Or, she told him to stfu and he didn't and it's better for her to make light of it in public. Her husband sounds like a total dick, and her point about not being able to control him seems potentially true.
Bring it on. The more he tweets the more the election will be a referendum on Judith Collins' relationship with her husband. If she can't control him, how can she control a cabinet?
" If you’ve got the secret to how you control a man who is 64 years old, used to play a lot of rugby and was a policeman, good luck and let me know,” Judith said.
"“He is one of the least sexist men I know, he is married to me, how could he be sexist?” Collins said."
“He is an adult, he will make his own decisions and let’s put it this way, I don't have to answer for him because I have not been able to control him in 41 years."
"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz." and in the river and on its banks at the foot of my garden there are nests which produce cygnets and ducklings, little kawau and pukeko, tiny scaup and paradise shelducks, so I know 'where the birdies is." Life is indeed good.
Full moon as far as I can see tonight. 21 degrees today in Gisborne on the last day of winter. First day of chafing for me.
Why don't I think of myself as a manual worker? Yet by all measures I am for 34 years. I feel I'm posturing since I'm middle class and my real life is in my head.
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
You can stick people into two groups. Those who comply and those don't. Those who comply do so for their own safety and the safety of others. They do so for the greater collective good. Those who don't don't comply feel they themselves are the most important unit and will break any rule which suggests otherwise. These people are from the political right.
Because SARS – CoV 2 favours the non-complying group I comply. I wear a mask, wash my hands, physically distance and avoid crowds, try to stay as healthy as I can – easier for some than others.
"This metasynthesis provides among the most compelling evidence to date that personality predicts overall health and well-being."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28277701/
Plenty of people that would otherwise be progressive who aren't following the rules. We ignore this and make it a partisan issue at out peril.
Be interesting to hear the range of reasons why. Presumably our media will vox pop that for us.
In the past weeks own south people seem pretty relaxed about L2, basically not really doing much. More Q codes visible, some manual lists to sign, signs telling people to keep their distance, but while people are aware I guess, seems like it's a bit lax. Presumably because most people think there's no covid here. I assume people are allowed to leave Auckland now so hopefully that perception will change.
There's also the anti-authoritarian crowd.
She’ll be right, mate.
lol, not sure it's *quite that bad.
Anyone know why 900 state houses in Porirua were handed over to iwi, even though the government promised to put an end to privatisation of state housing?
Ref: https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/122560292/ngti-toa-will-take-its-land-back-and-bring-its-people-home-iwi-ceo-says
Probably part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement and I would not call handing these houses over to Iwi to administer privatisation. Meeting of a treaty settlement is paramount I would have thought. What owners do then is the same as any other owner whose land has been taken. Some handing back is subject to restrictions but I am not sure if this part of the Treaty claim was.
I am looking forward to the time when Paraparaumu airport, taken for Defence purposes around the time of WW2 and the Iwi never compensated, is handed back.
Iwi aren't private businesses, they're Treaty partners with the Crown.
Any shareholder owned organisation that's accumulating and reinvesting virtually all returns from invested settlement assets is by definition a private business.
Iwi have businesses (like the government), but they're not businesses. The Pākehā system forced Māori to adopt Iwi legal structures that suited Pākehā, but Iwi themselves predate any modern concept of business by a long time.
And does or should this overly technical approach by Joe90 override the fact that these settlements endeavour to bring the Iwi into a situation that they should have been had the Treaty of Waitangi breach not occurred.
I think not.
As Weka has said these are our Treaty partners, they have been badly treated in cases where Maori land has been taken for Public Works such as housing, roads, schools etc etc. and most have chosen a range or mix of former crown assets and $$$ to settle their grievances. It is mean-spirited not to allow Iwi to conduct their own commercial operations. Some of these ops have meant that Iwi does the managing eg Ngai Tahu and others the managing has been done by the former Govt dept.
If land owned by the Crown is not going to be in the mix, and Iwi want productive land as part of their settlement then the Treaty Settlements will stall big time.
I think to define the use of assets returned under Treaty settlements as private business is simplistic. To trammel the return of assets to Iwi with strictures on future use risks setting up yet another ToW claim. There are crown assets such as particular reserves that are not available for sale that are passed over to Iwi control.
Possibly it is a lack of knowledge about what the meaning of being a treaty partner is that has led to these mystifying picky comments
I would suggest that readers look at some of these settlements
Ngati Toa's is here
https://www.govt.nz/treaty-settlement-documents/ngati-toa-rangatira/
It is instructive to read some of the happenings and the beautiful language that has been used in these settlement documents
https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Ngati-Toa-Rangatira/Ngati-Toa-Rangatira-Deed-of-Settlement-7-Dec-2012.pdf
Some of us who were around in Govt Depts when the full force of the Rogernomics was upon us will recall that it was only the intervention of our Treaty partner, by and through the NZ Maori Council taking Court cases, that some of the worst land related affects such as the proposal to sell the land under the trees as well as the forest crops were tossed out. Ordinary NZers had no ability to seek any stop to the tidal wave of Rogernomics that was going on. There were several cases other than the Forestry one where they over turned what had been proposed. Our Treaty partners have stepped up many times over the years since 1840, and it behoves us to treat their claims in a generous and fair-spirited way.
MP Jami-Lee Ross referred to committee over anti-vaccination video.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300094071/mp-jamilee-ross-referred-to-committee-over-antivaccination-video?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
"The Speaker has referred independent MP Jami-Lee Ross to the Privileges Committee for misusing edited parliamentary TV video for political ads.
"Trevor Mallard ordered the anti-vaccination video – posted by Ross's party and that of Billy Te Kahika's NZ Public Party – to be removed from social media, but that's been met with a blunt refusal.
Parliamentary footage of an exchange between government minister Megan Woods and National's Erica Stanford was edited for use in the political ad, posted on several sites."
Yeah I wonder why we can't force the main internet players twitter facebook etc to have a "local office" so that when something like this comes along they can easily be contacted so that at the very least it can be labeled "false" or "edited"or taken down fast rather than going through some offshore process.
Just heard this ad on RNZ,
!!!!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018761552/how-a-digital-inclusion-policy-is-widening-the-inequality-gap
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300094308/the-detail-kiwis-are-suffering-from-digital-exclusion
Yes, it is certainly time for government to declare that being connected is a right and then ensure that the means exist for people to fulfil that right without being ripped off by private enterprise.
In other words, time to re-nationalise telecommunications and to produce capable phones and PCs here in NZ also by a government owned production process.
This is a very real problem with both government and private sector. There are whole communities that are effectively excluded.
I've stayed offline because I can't be bothered with the being hacked bit plus I have the ability to complain loudly – which not everyone has.
The government needs to sort its act out for starters. Any government fee or charge should be capable of being paid on the ground with no extra charge or fee payable – that is far from the current situation. Nor should costs and access be pushed sideways onto community organisations libraries funded by ratepayers etc.
There is also the major secondary discrimination- there are government jobs that cannot be applied for unless a real me id is used. Citizen tracking by default.
edit
There is a major and obvious question here, so obvious that nobody has thought to ask it. Did the citizens get asked if they agreed to have government retreat from face to face dealings, to only communicating with citizens through machines? Was it right that such swingeing changes were enabled by a handful of anarchists? Were taxpayers advised that lower taxes meant limited human input into dealing with citizens?
Were people enabled to discuss the result of withdrawal of government from the ordering of people's lives and that elections and ministers in government were becoming less and less true agents of the people? Perhaps if there wasn't so much hype about how marvellous it is, and truthfulness instead of truthiness about this bloody technological takeover and its constant expansion with obsolescence designed in, people might see things as they are, not rosy at all.
Addlepated* is a great word for the quandary we are in. Google quickly finds all I need to know to describe the poor state we and our state are in. I don't think that is quixotic (extremely idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.)
* In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addlepated
I want government back – with real people, and all channels open to all citizens., on-line plus traditional. I think that we need to reorganise Parliament though, and all people who work for government have to have a skill or profession that they have worked at adequately for five years before applying for government jobs.
Thankee for addlepated. 'Fun with words' is our non-lasting legacy. 10,000 of agriculture and 270 of industry.
JLR openly goes the false news route, gets caught and claims he's being 'censored' in an election campaign.
The apple doesn't fall far from the dirty politics tree does it.
JLR published an EDITED video.
Isn't “careful” selection of another's words a form of censorship?
lol.
Actually, its outright lying. Same as what National did the other day.
So, yeah, more proof that we need to make the publication and broadcasting of lies and misinformation illegal. Especially in politics.
@millsy 2 (reply not working etc, etc)
Did you read the article? The land the houses are on are part of a treaty settlement that was concluded in 2014.
Corin Dan this morning commenting (to Phil Goff I think) that the poor messaging that asked South and West Aucklanders to get tested "muddied the waters" on the country's response and then goes on to ask questions that invite others to muddy the messaging even further.
The PM on TVNZ this morning sensibly sidestepped a question about opening the borders because of "business". If she had addressed it, anything she said would be used to muddy the country's response at the moment. The best response for the economy is a health response. What is the sharemarket doing at the moment? Is the MSM banging on about it?
It has been down.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/122599368/hell-to-pay-from-kiwisaver-managers-if-nzx-doesnt-get-on-top-of-cyberattacks
Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It is actually not funny.
Edit: it is still happening FFS!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/122611626/stock-market-website-crashes-but-trading-continues-without-a-blip-nzx-says
The thing about Distributed Denial of Service Attacks is they are often (always?) done by people activating Bot Nets.
"
A botnet is a logical collection of Internet-connected devices such as computers, smartphones or IoT devices whose security have been breached and control ceded to a third party. Each compromised device, known as a "bot", is created when a device is penetrated by software from a malware (malicious software) distribution. The controller of a botnet is able to direct the activities of these compromised computers through communication channels formed by standards-based network protocols, such as IRC and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).[3][4]
Botnets are increasingly rented out by cyber criminals as commodities for a variety of purposes.[5]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botnet
Why isn't more done to help people improve security of their systems to avoid them becoming part of a BotNet?
[This comment was held up in Pre-Moderation because it contains too many hyperlinks]
See my Moderation note @ 12:15 PM.
@ Muttonbird 1
Those who are not complying with wearing a mask the reasons why not would need to be known. Wise to wear a mask and not a team player if not wearing a mask.
I have a goal of making 500 cloth masks and donating them where needed. I will even cut extra elastic for ear loops and safety pin it on the mask as the elastic may wear due to a hot soapy hand wash.
I feel that a new cluster could only be a day away anywhere.
Why is a Samsung phone not working to reply?
Reply function doesn't work on iPad either.. my guess is some mobile browsers have trouble rendering the fancy comment box
Lprent is aware of the issue and working on it. You can try switching between mobile and desktop versions, sometimes that helps.
Another Auckland CCO failure. Not Watercare, this time it's POAL. Not content with shitting on Aucklanders by building a bloody great carpark in the middle of the harbour, Ports of Auckland is an exploitative employer as well.
The next government needs to take a serious look at the corporate model of governance for public utilities. The profit motive does not deliver for the people, only a bunch of MBA executives whose only skills are "cost" cutting and bullshit.
https://twitter.com/labourcartel/status/1300155354714570752?s=20
There also more than a whiff that POA (or Tauranga) was the source of the Auckland outbreak.
Are you sure it's not this incident which did circulate on SM before it came to light officially?
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/250672-tauranga-port-worker-covid19-claim-hoax.html
No. Just that massive port and truckie testing drive a few weeks ago. And the fact the Auckland outbreak is still sourced to Americold.
They still came up with nothing but a possible theory: Foreign crew member > stevedore > truck-driver > Americold worker. These people generally work (and have smoke breaks) in close contact so I wonder if there was a bit of mixing going on which shouldn't have happened.
I've had thoughts often re Americool as their Melbourne branch apparently had 2 cases a fortnight earlier – I know they dismiss it but seeing how some things are packed and that it can withstand cold surely is not just coincidence.
Around August 15th through 18th there was a big fluffy of articles about Americold Melbourne covid cases getting genome sequenced.
I have yet to find anything explicitly saying the genomes were different to the B.1.1.1 strain in the outbreak here, but I think it's safe to assume that if the Melbourne cases were also B.1.1.1 we would have heard all about it.
Over the last thirty odd years we've seen that the profit motive always brings about the worst possible response and does not meet the needs of the community.
Tony Gibson again, "Their health is our number one concern." Sure it is, mate. Sure it is. This guy was an arsehole all through the strikes, and he's still an arsehole.
It's deja vu all over again, again: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/13/politics/pentagon-ufo-task-force/index.html
You can understand how distressing it must be when your top guns get left flat-footed all the time. Hard to be macho. The hormones just stop flowing.
Yeah, those camera flares are a serious national security threat.
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/explained-new-navy-ufo-videos.11234/
If US intelligence would only learn from random website entrepreneurs posing as tech expert theoreticians, instead of believing what defense personnel & hotshot pilots saw, everyone would live happily ever after… 👽
Hotshot pilots with a penchant for trolling those who want to believe.
Obviously pranksters get in on such acts. I recall some faking crop circles in the early '90s & impressing the media – but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing. So that's a red herring. Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
Military authorities aren't ever likely to be fooled by time-wasters.
I'm rendered utterly speechless by that statement, so I'll just spend a while basking in the gloriousness of the worldview that produced it.
Be my guest, but I'd go with gloriosity… 😎
"…the real thing." Oh Dennis, isn't your inner skeptic twitching, just a little?
I admire the creativity/artistry of some hoaxers, provided it’s all in good fun.
all crop circles are consistent with human causation
Seems like total crap to me. Written by the type of sceptic who is possessed by an inner ideological agenda. You know, the kind of person who is too lazy to check out evidence.
Not that I have. I just looked at the photos & read parts of the books at the time. So I arrived at an opinion based on pattern recognition. Neither true believer nor retard sceptic. Binary folk are ever so reluctant to categorise stuff into the maybe category, eh? That's due to being unable to conceive a third alternative.
Like me, a physics graduate, so he ought to have known better! We may be alone, we may not, so that third option exists until you collapse the wave function (via experimental detection).
"There are many theories about what creates crop circles, including aliens, mysterious vortices, time travelers and wind patterns, but they all lack one important element: good evidence. The only known cause of crop circles is humans. Perhaps one day a mysterious, unknown source will be discovered for crop circles, but until then perhaps they are best thought of as collective public art."
Radford, B. "Crop Circles Explained". LiveScience. [2017]
Like Radford, I’m all for keeping an open mind, but with past and present crop circle evidence pointing in one direction, we’ll have to agree to disagree re “total crap“.
" but not the experts, who would point out the physical differences between the fakes and the real thing "
There are no real crop circles. They are all man made
Incorrect.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/crop-circles-stoned-wallabies_n_916196
Never heard of Black Swans either?
Anticipating publication of another theory sometime soon: those crop circles in English fields that have been reported on & off since the Middle Ages (according to one researcher years ago) must have been done by wallabies travelling from Oz on ufos.
What bothered me was the perfect symmetry exhibited by the wheat stalks. Perhaps wallabies are capable of levitation? That would explain the lack of footprints within the circles. 🤩
Wallabies are not capable of levitation AFAIK but some birds are and then there is the flying squirrel, of course, which happened to be native to Europe and is nocturnal.
I've got a soft spot for flying snakes.
Cool!
I'd bet there's some really interesting aerodynamics going on. Maybe something like each loop of the undulations generating lift off a specific part of a vortex shed from the loop ahead.
First 'reported' by the BBC in June 2009; for ‘true believers‘ only – it's enough to make a "retard sceptic" weep (with laughter.)
We need more laughter in this world.
I hope you didn't think I included your good self in that categorisation! There's an immense difference between a sceptic with an open mind and one without, and, operating within the former category, I tend to see you as more likely to be in that camp.
Those wielding scepticism as an ideology are sufficiently robotic that you can read them from phraseology used, denial of existence of evidence, aversion to even looking for it, etc.
Phew, that's a relief
Curiosity & skepticism: a knockout combination for researchers IMO.
https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~rikblok/wiki/doku.php?id=science:the_curious_skeptic#curiosity_and_skepticism
“Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
– Richard Feynman
Curiosity & scepticism are the foundation of and for all learning. Otherwise, we would still be living in grottos.
Mere conjecture. No proof offered.
Terence McKenna says it's the Japanese crop-circle tourists who make them; they're always there as soon as the circles appear (and before, nearby, waiting…) and act completely innocent when challenged. Cameras are the perfect excuse for being there and a lack of English language the perfect foil to interrogation. The precision of some of those crop-circles certainly points toward a culture of accuracy, elegance and attention to detail in the creators: the Japanese fit the bill!
Good theory. Levitating Japanese wallabies is even better tho. 🤩
" Mere conjecture. No proof offered."
It's you lacking the proof, sir. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and it isn't up to me – you made the claim, you back it up
I wasn't aware that I was claiming anything, John, but I think upon re-reading what I wrote that I can see why you thought so.
So to clarify: my perception of the difference between the fakes and the real thing is derived from the researchers plus the photos in their books, but I probably was too loose in the phrasing.
This is merely my personal impression we're talking about. Nothing to do with objective fact. And I don't rely on any single source – I scan the field & get an overview, a technique I acquired long ago. So my opinion re authenticity is not an assertion in the way you read it. I'm sorry to have used real thing in a way that may have implied whatever, when I just meant `no evidence of fakery apparent'. To differentiate those from the obvious fakes!
You are assuming that pentagon (especially air arm) officials see no advantage in a perceived techological "gap" between the USA and an unidentified neer-peer adversary.
After all, 60-70 years ago the "missile gap" resulted in budget cuts, right? But that had claims that were demonstrably false. These videos, released without comment, make no claims other than the subjects weren't conclusively and individually identified. Like, whose balloon was it? Obviously it's unidentified.
No, I agree that budget capture is a thing, and the US military hierarchy are masters of the art. It would be fair enough to then classify the senators as suckers – unless you'd rather deem them scamsters (ie operating as agents for the military), but that is probably more feasible for those with military corporations in their home state.
Dude, I don't deem them to be anything.
The only thing I deem is that there is nothing particularly novel or interesting about those films – the release of the footage and lack of classification of the objects is not proof of aliens, nor is it proof of a funding conspiracy, nor is it proof of haoxers, nor does it indicate that the pentagon merely declassifies shit without comment because it wants to keep the tinfoil hats at arm's length.
The general indications of the videos and the debunkers and the alternative theories is that the explanations for the content of those videos are incredibly banal. Why would I care to know or speculate beyond that, other than to respond to some obscurantist stupidity posted here?
If I were in their shoes (US military decision-makers & their pr hire) I'd reassure the public by making obscure videos available too! Heaven forbid they'd ever release the good ones!!
Anyway the point of the posting is the oscillating tendency of the US military & govt to create official UFO investigation orgs, wind them up some years or decades later, then do it all again in a different form…
Really?
The new one seemed to be the subject of comment 10, but the point still seems to be elusive. Could you please express your point more clearly?
The news reported by CNN alerts us to a pattern of behaviour by the US military & govt: create official UFO investigations, terminate them a considerable time later, then recreate them in a somewhat different form some years after that.
Bureaucracy is like gardening – the well-tended plots have things come and go and regrow and pruning is done, preferably for the health of the plant rather than convoluted topiary.
Bureaucracy is like a tropical jungle, full of poisonous animals and plants (e.g. Triffid deskus), and easy to get lost in and die, never to be seen again.
There are those who prefer open lawns over native jungle or forest. But remember -heavily rolled and mown non-pastoral, decorative lawns were adopted by the powerful to demonstrate their power. 🙂
It's like a magic money tree.
Back when children did domestic chores every day, I received training from the patriarch & become proficient at pushing a mechanical mower around the lawn. Come the 1960s, we moved up-market & became fossil-fuel dependent local neighbourhood noise polluters.
Last year I told my neighbour I intend to eliminate my front lawn & gazed curiously at him to see how much he would freak out, but he rolled with it. Sam is cool. Electrical inspector & staunch Labour voter, but we shoot the breeze with political conversations often with no arguments. Maori but looks Greek patrician, talks more like a pakeha, and his property is immaculate!
So I get your point. Encultured control of nature is embedded as much as bureaucracy. I'm rewilding – but slowly enough to not spook the locals. My frogs have been in winter hibernation but have seen a couple medium-sized, almost black, moving now & then but not much. Wonder why they never croak (even in spring & summer)…
Rewilding, Dennis!?!
He nui te tautoko!
His voice betrayed no guile to my ears.
I used to see UFOs all the time in my garden until somebody pointed out to me that they were Tui.
A scout troup were on a camp over the hills to the East of Paraparaumu at Camp Waghorn I think. One of the tasks was to build some hot air balloons out of tissue paper and fuelled with methylated spirits on cotton wool. Launched at night they drifted westwards over Paraparaumu. They were sighted by excited townsfolk. Police notified. Reports of figures looking out of portholes and craft as big as two football fields. Certain eyewitnesses. Until the lads went home on Sunday PM. Cover blown.
Those balloons were box shaped about 600mm high.
The Yes vote will be high in Paraparaumu in the upcoming referendum, undoubtedly.
You have reminded me of the international ballyhoo over the UFO's seen in the night sky seaward of Kaikoura in 1978. Every now and them TV3 comes up with a re-run of the story, totally ignoring the explanation for the phenomena issued at the time by the Meteorological Service.
There was an intense anticyclone over the South Island and an inversion layer at about 2000 feet. On the surface and just beyond the 12 mile limit there was a Japanese fishing fleet. The lights from the fishing fleet was being reflected back at the point of the inversion layer as bright lights seemingly bobbing around the night sky. Sea must have been quite choppy.
Jeez what a fun grinch, Anne.
Do you go to play-centres and tell the kids Santa isn't real as well?
What I can't figure out is why we sceptics never see the paranormal. The Kaikoura episode with Blenheim pilot Bill Startup brings back Bruce Cathie's leylines and Harmonic 33, and a local woman Moreland who saw a UFO there in 1959.
Seriously, I can identify with the startling sight of something inexplicable but evident to the eyes. Earlier this year looking at the night sky and then seeing travelling lights in a straight line was freaky, until I looked up online what was happening with a series of satellites……….
The individual experiences are often explained via optical illusions. The mass simultaneous sightings are usually ignored by sceptics due to being too hard to dismiss via this method.
I recall reading once about one such in Taupo, that happened in the 1950s. Think it made the newspaper, but what impressed me was the sheer number of eyewitness accounts that all told the same story.
Re Cathie's theory, I couldn't get my head into it, so I share the sceptic's view. Ley lines in Britain I'm agnostic about. Since they have a fair bit of physical correlates from the megalithic era, not just a personal fantasy of some nutcase.
except 10.2.1 was literally a mass sighting addressed by sceptics. They tend to be hyper-examined these days – e.g. the "missile" off California was examined exhaustively.
What "mass sightings" of ufos have been ignored? A taupo one in the 1950s deserves to be added to wikipedia.
On a related note, a while back I saw a joke chart that purported to show the incidence of miracles – consistantly high until photography was invented, then low and flat until photoshop was invented when it spiked up again. Same sort of thing applies to UFOs, I reckon.
Funnily, this sceptic has never been even part of a mass sighting. I did, though, find out as a young student on a ouija board that I could very subtly spell out all sorts of messages. Nearly cost me a relationship when my girlfriend finally sussed what I was doing………
Something similar happened to me in my first year at university: a group of us tried the ouija method & got mixed results. Some gibberish yet some words spelt out. After we gave up my old school friend & current flatmate admitted to the group that he had been steering the pointer. Taught me that the spirit of (scientific) enquiry is always vulnerable to being trumped by jokers…
Worked night shifts off and on for thick end of 40 years including outside work, never seen anything not explained by science.
gsay Hah Lol
The plane that reported the Kaikoura UFO is now a cafe parked opposite the Blenheim Airport.
Several police officers were handing out free disposable masks at the Wellington station.
This is the way.
The red balloon over the harbour was a spectacle, they said.
Extremely upsetting to hear parent being part of the problem and spouting some very unpleasant Pasifika remarks with regards to the outbreak, and by extension, immigration in general. No amount of calling out and calmly challenging her thought process made any difference.
I'm more confused given she's a refugee herself, and is also disgusted by her father's anti-semetic views during the war when his Jewish neighbours were literally being carted off for extermination. It seems her own life experiences haven't produced tolerance. The only thing we seem to agree on is maybe it stems from her growing up in Australia at a time when racism/white superiority was actively encouraged and perhaps a bit of indoctrination that stuck.
Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?
build bridges and keep lines of communication open over time (if you can). Change doesn't have to happen in one conversation or debate, it can happen gradually, building on each previous discussion.
My experience in conservative communities was that keeping the relationship sound was just as important as any reasoning.
What does this comment relate to?
I took it to be about an offline conversation.
"Is there any point in continuing to reason with her?"
Only for as long as you have the energy to.
Can you please put up a link, we don't know what you are referring to.
Apologies, it was a phone conversation this morning so no link.
Just a shock my otherwise very liberal mother has an extremely racist streak
Offense is only ever offered, it is over to you if you want to take it.
Try looking at where you have commonalities.
Plus, it is yr Mum…different generations, different experiences, different expectations.
Tell her to criticise government policy, not people just trying to make a life for their families
41 Covid deaths in Melbourne today.
When worldometers is updated Australia's total deaths from Covid will be 652. The 'first wave' stopped at 102 so the July outbreak there has cost 550 lives so far.
Hawaii should be a major heads-up for us, too.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/30/hawaii-coronavirus-cautionary-tale-404564
Lazy sensationalist headline from the Herald.
…… the Victorian health department said Monday's deaths included 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to August 27 and were only reported to DHHS by aged-care facilities on Sunday.
Which is why it can be helpful to look at rolling (moving) averages such as 3- or 7-day average.
What was the headline? You haven't linked to it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424837/fight-to-protect-hamilton-s-rare-bats-heads-to-environment-court
Save those cute little bats, and their home territory for hundreds, thousands? of years, that nasty great humans are just preparing to rip away and colonise with their own kind.
That is such a familiar theme in our country – here in NZ where we like to say we are a developed, highly civilised country. But a query – what did we develop from and what, to? Have we been fooling ourselves – is there someone who can give a studied, balanced opinion out there (not Mike Hosking or others with their feet in the troughs out there overflowing with goodies that I've heard of)?
Why bother to save anything (sarc). Think how rich we could be by allowing what is unique to NZ die out and we are left with sparrows, Tahr, Wallibies, rabbits, rats etc
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/118303821/housing-development-protects-long-tailed-bats-as-well-as-housing-people
I'm not into saving anything. Habitat restoration and pest free islands then leave the mainland (plus Rakiura and Te Waipounamu) to mother nature. Love chilling on a river bank smothered with blossoming broom, watching the hares skittering, quail coveying, trout dimpling.
Set the wilding-pines free!
Police evasiveness, facial-recognition cameras, No Right Turn.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424845/police-setting-up-9m-facial-recognition-system-which-can-identify-people-from-cctv-feed
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/if-police-think-this-is-lawful-and.html
Bit of a non thing IMHO.
Places like SkyCity use it already, so if it helps the cops catch bad people who cares?
Maybe the people who get affected when the system is misused?
SkyCity is at Victoria Street, it is not Victoria Street. In other words, your comment contains a false equivalence.
Maybe.
And maybe I am just a drone, willing to be lead.
But I don't really see it as different from finger prints, and DNA records from crim's
They actually have to know who you are for the thing to work.
No maybe, ifs or buts. SkyCity is a private business with restrictions and not a public place as such. There are also CCTVs operating in prisons, which is an equally flawed comparison for this discussion. You are diverting, and this may be accidental, but now I have pointed it out to you, you have a conscious choice.
Apologies.
I was meaning the facial recognition.
The CCTV bit is irrelevant as they are every where
Yes, what about it?
Let me put it another way.
Ignore my point about SkyCity using facial recognition.
I just don't have an issue with the police using facial recognition if it catches bad people.
Yes, there may one or two cases of people using it for bad things, but the same could be argued for police having access to vehicle owners personal details from number plates at the push of a few buttons.
Ok, thanks.
Matching vehicle ownership for licensing purposes, for example, is not quite the same as biometrics identification (and authorisation?), is it? A better comparison would be the use of fingerprints or the publication of photos taken in public.
It really helps to very clearly articulate the issue before launching (into) debate.
Well I have a lot of issues with nasty little authoritarian tribes like the cops running around and spying on people going about their normal daily business. What about the taking of photos at demo's – then later using these to discriminate against certain classes of people. Where are these cameras going to be and will there be a bias towards younger and lower skilled people being photographed.
As to catching bad people – they would need to CCTV far more executive workplaces , clubs , the roads to coromandel baches and exclusive restaurants to catch the real crooks who prey on society.
Then the traffic enforcement side – the costs of licences, rego's etc has soared compared to minimal wages and benefits. Little wonder that otherwise law abiding citizens slither around in not so legal cars – the costs are beyond them. If the legalise dope goes through then there is whole areas of enforcement that will no longer be needed. Looks like cops are going for some job protection there.
RedBaronCV
From my limited understanding of dealing with them. And it is pretty limited apart from someone trying to sell it,
It is anywhere where the cameras are up to spec' to be good enough to pick up the details needed visually by the software, used on the servers which controls the network of cameras.
Ie your average old camera from the 90s is probably a bit screwed, but new ones on the main black spots like Courtney Place where there are drunken fights or same sort of places in Auckland would probably be ok.
And obviously the thing looking at the cameras needs access two the visual in real time or it is a bit pointless, so public ones in this case.
Thank you for confirming my point. and no we do not need the attempted distraction of the type of camera.
Clearly your idea of a camera set up to catch a "bad guy" boils down to a public camera for low level street drug deals, some public drunkenness and a forgot to rego the car moment.
How about a few cameras that catch high income males in cafes assaulting female wait staff, issuing warrants to search journalists homes and insinuating to third parties that said journalists are being looked at for criminal reasons all of which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Street camera's won't catch the real crooks of society they will just be used to intimidate lawful people going about their lawful business.
Sorry RBC, but think we might have to agree to disagree on this one.
An example. Some piece of scum king hits some innocent down Courtney Place, and does a runner.
The dude/dudette king hit smashes their head into the ground while falling and dies.
If all the police have is footage of the scums face, I would prefer them to be able to identify them as easily as possible.
Apologies, my comment on real time, was probably a bit too short sighted after thinking about it more.
What if the cops become bad people and set out to catch good people. It is important to try and care about surveillance, loss of personal freedom if you are commenting on a leftish blog Chris T.
If we are going to do hypotheticals I can come up with doozys
What if [name deleted; against TS policy] got away that day and the to catch him was through facial CCTV facial recognition?
Look I agree there will be bad cops like in every other profession, and a couple may even take advantage of it, that is a security issue for the police, but they already have way more access to private info' through other methods like vehicle registration etc, tracing phone movements with a warrant, to the point that I really can't see facial recognition making a difference to privacy.
If they start talking about bugging peoples phones and planting tracking devices on peoples cars I would be concerned. But this. Not really.
It is happening all over the world as part of policing, in airports, casinos as mentioned earlier etc (Yes I know these aren't public places)
[Some hypotheticals are just a bad idea – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:01 PM.
Fair call
I apologise
Again you confirm that there is far too much access by cops to private data in an unregulated way already. And the few bad cops – get real we have a continuing trickle of stories roast busters, Hager and other journalists, computer hacking investigations, illegal traffic stops to get information, tooling up and running around doing traffic stops like they are in a war zone and that's just what we know about .. that's just more than the odd bad egg it's a systemic problem that needs dealing with.
Nor is it correct to conflate such things as phone hacking which should need a warrant to the unrestricted unsupervised collection of public data using facial recognition of citizens doing absolutely nothing wrong as they go about their lawful daily lives.
and yes a lot of stuff is collected in non public spaces and again should we be ruling more fully against some of this.
Just remember the police work for us as a society not for some right wing authoritarian clique.
I like No Right Turn – it often has interesting information that is picked up much later by other media, but at other times it is frustrating in its blatant partisanship:
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/08/climate-change-this-government-is.html
National often claims that the government has failed because an element of party policy put forward before the election has not been achieved and that this represents a failure of government – and the policy is of course always represented as a promise, so according to National it is a "broken promise." We know that a three party government does require compromises, but these do not always represent failure by the party or party that wants something to happen; it may represent a ''victory" for the third party. Also of course there are some policies which are overtaken by events (covid for example?) or where other priorities mean something gets lower than desired priority.
In this case NRT is talking about a "failure'' by the Green Party and Labour – not a failure of government. We need to remember this going into an election campaign; we collectively get what we collectively vote for…
Sadly NRT does not accept comments – fair enough as far as the time it clearly takes on The Standard to keep discussion civil and weed out the nutters; but for a blog that clearly supports some Green policies to blame the government for the need for consensus that is a fundamental part of that government is somewhat short sighted – despite problems I believe that a smaller party like the Green Party does have legitimate views; I do not want voters to think that it is only worth voting for Labour or National.
IS at NRT used to accept comments a long time ago. He shut it down because he prefers to write rather than deal with the ignorant dipshits who used to write most of the comments. I think that he stopped about 2006 or 7
It was pity because the comments were often as good as the posts.
A terrible look for Judith Collins here. Corrupt husband and chief Kauri stump digger David Wong tung has taken to posting misogynist memes about the Prime Minister.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/08/judith-collins-responds-to-criticism-of-husband-david-wong-tung-s-anti-jacinda-ardern-social-media-posts.html
She says she can’t do anything about it but in reality she endorses this behaviour.
Should be worth at least 50K votes for JA. Keep it up David.
While I don't really think it is that clever, I am missing where the misogynist bit is.
Have you seen some of the Collin's and Bridge's ones?
You are well known for not recognising misogyny. One clue is in the use of the name "Cindy" which minimises and trivialises the PM, and all women, really.
Also worrying for Collins is the second one retweeted there by her apparently unruly husband is watermarked “the BFD” which is Slater’s vehicle. He set it up after claiming he had a stroke in order to avoid paying his debtors from the failed WOBF.
Collins has had a cosy relationship with Slater through the years, using him to conduct Dirty Politics. That relationship also contributed to her fall from grace and generally highlighted her and her husband’s corrupt nature.
Seems Mr Wong tung is still an avid reader…
Something tells me Ardern is tough enough to not get offended by a stupid nickname, or needs people getting offended on her behalf.
Same as Crusher, or does that not count as misogynistic for some reason?
Or Soymun Brudges. Which I assume is misandrist.
It's actually less IMO about Jacinda Ardern who just gets one vote & given a raft of slights that most of the public have not had to witness, and would be rightly appalled by, this is how the public will view the LOTO. Regardless of her trying to dismiss it & perhaps suggesting NZers can't "take a joke" or a bit of levity it goes to the core of showing two faces to the public, one that's relatively benign and the other that is a relationship with a nasty and dismissive view of wider NZ
You have to wonder about the intellect…feeding the base has its limitations…they can only vote once
But What About Judith's personal responsibility for the poor personal choice of 41 years ago? Isn't that what the RW says to single mothers struggling to bring up the kids? They made a poor personal choice to have kids with someone so need to be pounded by the right?
Could you imagine the uproar if first bloke was doing anything like this? but he's far too sensible.
Yea seen that. This from ODT. Photo …a right pair. The dodgy duo.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/collins-husband-criticised-sharing-anti-ardern-memes
Yuk, the face matches his personality.
The husband of Judith Collins is actually posting childish rubbish which one would think came from an immature 14 year old boy.
Collins shrugs and claims she can't do anything about it. This is an admission she endorses it. If she felt it was damaging she could say to her husband, "you are hurting my career, please stop". But she won't because she doesn't believe he is hurting her career.
Or, she told him to stfu and he didn't and it's better for her to make light of it in public. Her husband sounds like a total dick, and her point about not being able to control him seems potentially true.
Do you really think Collins would be genuinely concerned about what her husband's doing and would ask him to stop?
place yourself in his position and ask yourself the same question…do you wish your partner to succeed in his/her ambition?
if it was harming her election campaign, yes.
from the reporting it would appear he disagrees
yep.
But it's not so she won't.
Bring it on. The more he tweets the more the election will be a referendum on Judith Collins' relationship with her husband. If she can't control him, how can she control a cabinet?
It's probably mission accomplished now, getting the internet traffic through that toxic slater-esque website. Dirty politics john key style.
I guess he's fair game then.
If she can't even manage her husband she won't be much use as PM. Don't their billboards state "strong leadership" ?
"strong" ties to their puppet masters,
"leadership" in the game of dirty politics
" If you’ve got the secret to how you control a man who is 64 years old, used to play a lot of rugby and was a policeman, good luck and let me know,” Judith said.
Shudder…..
Yep. Screams male dominance and domestic abuse. And it screams even louder she is accepting of it.
That needs to go to the media.
Are you accusing Collin's husband of domestic abuse against her Muttonbird?
No. I am accusing her of trivialising domestic abuse in order to deflect and for political purposes.
That she would suggest the prospect is pretty gross.
OK
Point out where she is suggesting it.
Hint…… it's not about control, but Judith doesn't get that.
"“He is one of the least sexist men I know, he is married to me, how could he be sexist?” Collins said."
“He is an adult, he will make his own decisions and let’s put it this way, I don't have to answer for him because I have not been able to control him in 41 years."
These 2 claims are contradictory, Judith.
It's juvenile behaviour from the husband of the Leader of the Opposition.
Rebutting Chris Trotter's analysis of Winston Peters:
Misreading the Sorcerer's Apprentice
as usual neither party is correct…..id suggest both are writing to a desired outcome….and as time passes both will become increasingly unlikely
The green school saga get worst, funding conspiracy theorist and new age crystal moonbeams
Spring tomorrow, full moon the day after. Life is good.
"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz." and in the river and on its banks at the foot of my garden there are nests which produce cygnets and ducklings, little kawau and pukeko, tiny scaup and paradise shelducks, so I know 'where the birdies is." Life is indeed good.
Full moon as far as I can see tonight. 21 degrees today in Gisborne on the last day of winter. First day of chafing for me.
Why don't I think of myself as a manual worker? Yet by all measures I am for 34 years. I feel I'm posturing since I'm middle class and my real life is in my head.