Two things stood out here
– there is no pressure on the parent who does a runner and these are largely male
– that one in two adult women will be in sole charge of a family at some point in their adult lives.
Now, the been there done that group of women, with a few exceptions like PB, are unlikely to be too impressed with the benefit hounding going on and women vote on the left.
Just how much would it cost the labour party to show at least some loyalty to a large group of their demographic and at least oppose some of the hounding. FFS some of it, like sending out letters to people’s 16 year old daughters telling them to go onto contraception aren’t even policies that it will cost anything to reverse ever – they just violate the civil rights of a young girl who has had no say in her domestic situation whosoever.
And, I am repeating myself here, if this is such a good idea for 16 year old girls to get these letters, then perhaps some voluntary group should receive a grant to write letters to all 16 year old girls on the same topic, even the daughters of Nact politicians.
I like this young woman! She is at the center of the “Topless Jihad” – a global protest where women bare their breasts rebelling against female oppression after Amina Tyler posted topless pictures of herself with “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honor” written in Arabic.
Obviously this is found to be highly objectionable so her family shipped her off to a psych ward stating publically that she was suicidal and that is why she has posted the pics.
Dear Author: I am a Muslim woman and think Amina’s protest is entirely culturally relevant in post-revolution Tunisia. Read the writing on Amina’s body: “My body is mine, not somebody’s honor” in Arabic. No protest that was universally loved and agreed with changed the world for the better. Please stop speaking for “everyday Muslims” such as myself. We can do without the sweeping generalizations about the “West” and “Islam”. They are simplistic and silly – even from someone taking on this native informant role. Muslim (or western) societies are not homogenous.
1. Required EQC to immediately shut down all external email systems – there will be no emails going into the organisation and none will be sent out.
2. Required EQC to immediately shut down all business-to-business systems and data exchanges as well as access into EQC systems by external parties.
3. Asked the Government’s Chief Information Officer Colin MacDonald to investigate and oversee the solutions for issues relating to information management within EQC.
I had to laugh (otherwise I would cry), so now instead of EQC doing nothing Gerry Brownlee has made it mandatory.
I would say the leaks are in all likelyhood deliberate, sent by staff disgruntled with the underhand way eqc is dealing with claims. Either that or they have some seriously incompetent staff with access to data that they really shouldnt. ( ala winz kiosks)
Wondered about just how accidental the EQC leaks really were Cricklewood.
And were the amounts of compensation listed on the released documents actually being given to the claimants or being with-held?
Coal Free Mangatawhiri and Auckland Coal Action are joining forces on Monday to protest Fonterraʼs proposed new coal mine beside state highway 2.
Protesters will gather from 2pm at Mangatawhiri south of Auckland for the roadside rally protesting Fonterraʼs proposed new Mangatangi Mine.
They hope to engage with people queued in traffic on SH2 on their way back to Auckland.
Local residents, iwi and supporters from Auckland will be calling for ʻno new coalʼ and making the point that ʻcoal cooks the climateʼ in an awareness raising campaign against the proposed mine.
Public submissions on resource consents for the mine, closed this week with Waikato Regional Council and Waikato District Council. Hundreds of submissions were sent in by local residents, iwi and others opposing the proposed new coal mine at Mangatawhiri.
The resource consent applications were made by Fonterraʼs coal mining subsidiary Glencoal Energy Ltd, which is seeking consents for an open cast mine on farmland at Mangatawhiri right beside SH2.
If the mine goes ahead it will be highly visible to anyone driving along SH2. The mine is intended to produce 120,000 tonnes of coal a year to supply the Fonterra dairy factories at Waitoa, Hautapu and Te Awamutu. Fonterraʼs nearby Kopako coal mine is predicted to close in 2014.
Instead of opening a new coal mine in a farming community, locals believe Fonterra should phase out coal in favour of locally available cleaner burning, wood waste.
At the time of the farmer vote to turn Fonterra into a shareholding corporation there was severe misgivings that farmers, particularly less well off share milkers who had no vote, and whose incomes are reliant on milk prices would suffer, and so it is.
Fonterra directors’ failure to use the dairy giant’s stellar first half earnings to increase the full-year dividend guidance has confirmed predicted tension between farmer and external-investor interests in the new capital structure.
Stuff.co.nz
As farms become corporate factories with out roofs that increase profits, by driving down the livelihoods of the producers. Less sharemilkers will enter the industry, resulting in bigger farms staffed with employees, who like most NZ workers over the last three decades will have declining incomes. While, year after year, in favour of better shareholder returns, profits continuously exceed previous records. That is, until the whole top heavy edifice topples over as the profit bubble bursts under the combined weight of lack of skilled farmers without any commitment to the land, and less forgiving climatic conditions that will make farming less productive and rural life harsher for those doing it at the milk face.
Critics of the hybrid capital structure predicted a tug of war over earnings between external investors wanting a strong dividend and farmers needing the highest possible milk price to secure their livelihoods.
This week’s half-year result was the first time Fonterra’s financial performance has been put under the microscope by sharemarket analysts, and those predictions proved true.
Forsyth Barr’s Andy Bowley said the size of the profit Fonterra managed to generate came as a big surprise to most market analysts.
Stuff.co.nz
The move to squeeze more out of farmers in favour of profits, may have some unforeseen (read forseen) outcomes.
Asked for his response to directors leaving the dividend unchanged at 32c, Bowley said: “I think two things. One, that the second half of the year will be much more challenging for them because of a number of factors including higher input costs (read climate change fueled drought) which will pressure the margins in some of their businesses.
Yeh I saw this too and it was a prefectly predictable outcome. Even at the time it was obvious that the Fonterra managers were going back and back with the proposals no matter how often the farmers voted them down. It was very much in management interests I imagine, to have two groups with vested interests, Farmers and bond holders to play off against each other, for their own gain and ultimately the sort of gain that comes from stock market listing and moving the whole lot into overseas ownership.
Mind you most of them vote for the Nact’s too, be careful what you wish for perhaps?
More legislation written for corporations and against the rights of our people to protest.
Masked as protecting us from our own “reckless and dangerous” behaviour and delivered by the Glove Puppet from Tauranga, Simon Bridges.
Parroting prepared lines, statements that were shameless begging the question and all with a deadpan face the Glove Puppet from Tauranga presented restrictions on our right to protest mineral and oil exploration off our coast.
– http://www.3news.co.nz/Crackdown-on-anti-drilling-protesters/tabid/423/articleID/292432/Default.aspx
Bridges also, when asked, pretty much ruled out putting the O and G revenue into an investment fund (like in other oil rich nations). Which means all this money is going to be frittered on tax cuts.
More from the Bank Bailout U$K Austerity Class War:
Disability rights activist Susan Archibald, in Edinburgh, said: ‘We have heard talk about “strivers and skivers”.
‘One person can be a striver one day and then get made redundant. Will they be a skiver the next day? That’s how easy it happens.’
“John McArdle, from anti-disability discrimination campaign Black Triangle, said: ‘Every day our campaign receives more messages from desperate people who are on the brink of suicide.
‘This government is killing disabled people, and we must stand together and say enough is enough.’
Have seen this really interesting report on ChristChurch in the http://www.wsws.org website. It’d be good to if we could comment and/or criticise on it?
“Residents face bitter winter in New Zealand’s quake-hit city”
“Residents of the New Zealand city of Christchurch, devastated by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people in February 2011, are facing a bitter winter. While the National Party government, city council and business investors concentrate on rebuilding the central business district, thousands of people, particularly those in working class suburbs, are into their third year of unresolved social stress and personal dislocation.” http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/30/nzch-m30.html
The Money Market’s P@mp John Yankee continues to flog off this Nation’s commonwealth (Asset Sales) and our ability to help and support our own people. The Market in the end does not mind if you end up in a workhouse. 🙁
This from our colleagues working hard to oppose workfare:
In one of his most disgusting manoeuvres yet, last week Iain Duncan Smith laid legislation to rewrite history to stop the 225,000 people who were sanctioned on his unlawful workfare schemes being able to reclaim what they are due.
To make matters worse, the bill is being rushed through parliament; the second reading; committee stage; and third reading are all scheduled for one day: this Tuesday.
As if this wasn’t outrageous enough, Labour have indicated that they will support the Bill.
“The savage attacks on benefits for unemployed, low paid workers, single parents and disabled which will push millions further into poverty and despair.
The vicious attacks on those in the rented sector whose landlords charge huge rents but who now face a cap in their Housing Benefit which is seeing families evicted and shipped out of London to find cheaper accommodation around the country.
The disgusting Bedroom Tax which will force council and social landlord tenants who claim Housing benefit and have a spare room to either pay more rent or downsize to a smaller home. This will hit 600.000 tenants. Tory Welfare minister responsible for this bedroom tax is Lord Freud who has a plush 4 bedroom London home as well as an 8 bedroom mansion elsewhere.”
Kyle Bass runs Hayman Capital. Here he talks about Japan’s impending financial/demographic implosion (including 10 finance ministers in just the last 5 years).
Not pretty. He makes several references to future severe social discontent as a result.
“Bank of Cyprus depositors could lose up to 60% of their savingsCypriot finance officials say initial losses will be 37.5%, but up to 22.5% more could be taken if bank needs further capitalisation
But, but , but TPTB said Cyrpian banks were over-flowing with dirty Russian money, where is it then!
After an initial estimate that the capital controls would be in place for a matter of days, the government then warned later in the week they could last for as long as a month.
Capital controls will not be coming off, the accounts will be empty before that happens!
Capital controls in Iceland remain in place more than five years after its economic crisis.
And a finger in the eye for Iceland, balance is important in the MSM!
So, a year and a half until the next general election, and the Labour party are still shitting on their own doorstep, mired in a fantasy land game plan to win (bribe) back 5% of the middle ground they think will open the door to the treasury.
Dumb arses.
The win is in the numbers who didn’t vote last time.
Bollocks to the sensibilities of centre right politics of nothingness.
Go left, that man.
If the nat’s are the worst negotiators, then NZ Labour must surely rank as worst political strategists, ever.
Labour must surely rank as worst political strategists, ever
Not necessarily. The way I see it, this is strategy which is wanted by the *internationalists*, and being rolled out effectively, by giving the NACT a free ride, to what could easily be another 3 years.
As if it matters in real terms who the government is, the decline will continue, as the *foreign owners*, like any good hedge, control both sides of bet!
Try viewing Labour’s actions and strategy from the standpoint of it’s present as a centrist middle class party. One which is focussed on continuing (but socially moderating) the political economic status quo, while appealing to the top 1/3 of income earners.
When you do that it’s approach becomes entirely consistent and coherant.
I’m sure someone believes in what they’re doing, somewhere, playing the game like they are, but whatever the outcome (crushing defeat 😉 ), watching the cogs turn is like them cleaning a hammer with a walnut.
I can’t believe parties facing another three years in opposition aren’t out there getting those stay at home voters interested, engaged and motivating change, unless like said, they don’t really care about the majority of kiwis and pay lip service to the plight facing New Zealanders.
Time for that new left wing party idea to crop up again.
But seriously, what answers has political science given us in the last 20 years? The other area to defund is economics, finance and financial engineering.
Yeah, when I think about it CV none worth listening to and to be honest once I’ve sorted out who the unhinged ideologues are and who’s worth listening to I reckon the most astute and nuanced appraisals are usually to be found buried in comments threads.
I thought the Mayflower was one of the first four ships to get to America. They did that on sail I thought. Maybe I am not up with the modern ideas that now it is okay to have a major negative oil spill event every five years or so. Just part of the risk profile engineered in using the modern equipment and modern efficiencies of corporations as accepted by the modern governments.
You made the allegation, so the burden of proof is yours. Don’t expect me to assist you.
Slander is what this massive hole is all about. Slander was also the issue that was being discussed just before I was moderated into posting on open mike.
Ugly, you’re the one talking about “non-harm paedophilia” as if there is such a thing.
Context is everything. The original context was girls 13 and over who were repeatedly soliciting.
If these girls were being harmed, these who was forcing them?
And I suggest that this comment implies you think 13 year old girls can give valid informed consent to have sex with an elderly tv star.
Why are you bringing up Saville now? He is dead, had nothing to do with the South Auckland flap.
Just like you brought up fantasing.
Just like you brought up NABMLA.
You’re just slinging shit to divert from the fact that you’ve got no argument.
I reckon your comments are proof enough. You seem to think that harm can only result from force. And the original point wasn’t about slander, it was about appropriate responses to revelations that adults are paying to screw children. If you reckon a possible slander against yourself is more important, then that also says much about you.
You seem to think that harm can only result from force.
I don’t think that.
And the original point wasn’t about slander, it was about appropriate responses to revelations that adults are paying to screw children.
O.K. Slander is important because it was the issue that was being discussed just before I was moderated into posting on open mike. It would be too convenient for you if I just dropped the issue.
if these girls were being harmed, these who were focing them?
Assuming you meant “then who was forcing them”, why are you raising force if force at the time is irrelevant to harm?
slander is a falsehood, right? What falsehood did I utter? You’re arguing that sex between a thirteen year old and a sixty year old can be consensual for the child, are you not?
McFlock, force is relevant because without anyone forcing the girls the most likely explanation is that they were soliciting of their own free will. The fact that they were doing this repeatedly suggests that they were not being harmed, so non-harm paedophilia is not an oxymoron like you said it was.
Like Redlogix said, paedophilia usually refers to pre-pubescent children, but in the rape culture thread it was also used in the context of older men having sex with teenage girls.
Your falsehood was:
Actually, I brought up an organisation that defends child rape. Like you do.
You couldn’t show proof of your allegation, your argument was:
I reckon your comments are proof enough
So McFlock, do you think that you can slander other people and just get away with it?
Frankly, a kid in the lower half of their teens is a child. Legally, as well.
Secondly, children can’t consent or do a contract. They have issues with impulse control, abstraction, and long term planning.
Thirdly, there are economic and other power issues at play in the case of prostitution, and sex in general. These are marked when one party is adult and the other is not. Both adults, fair enough, both can give informed consent all else being equal. Both kids, well both can be making the same mistake if it appears consensual. But an adult and a kid? Any adult with the interests of the child as a concern would bail based on the power imbalance implicit in the relationship.
Secondly, children can’t consent or do a contract.
In general this is true not because they are not able to reach an agreement, but because they are under the power of another, i.e. their parents.
In the case the South Auckland girls the parental power argument isn’t so solid: either the girls are under the power of their parents which makes the parents responsible, or they are not (ie the family is dysfunctional), in which agreement and contract may be possible.
It’s got nothing to do with being under the power of their parents.
Kids can’t give informed consent because they lack experience, information and the ability to process that with long term objectives taken into full consideration.
Just to spell it out: kids, including young teens, cannot consent to sex.
Sex without consent is rape.
You argue that young teens at the very least (you’ve been cagey on the exact age cutoff where you regard any sex=rape) can consent to sex.
That is a defense of child rape.
Just to spell it out: kids, including young teens, cannot consent to sex.
You are wrong, they can consent if the understand what is involved.
Consent. A concurrence of wills. Voluntarily yielding the will to the proposition of another; acquiescence or compliance therewith. Agreement; the act or result
of coming into harmony or accord. Consent is an act of reason, accompanied with deliberation, the mind weighing as in a balance the good or evil on each side.
You are confusing uninformed consent with actual consent. Knowing someone who was manipulated into “consenting” sex by adults when she was a young teen, and seeing the issues she’s dealt with over the years in no small part due to those experiences, I say that you are deluding yourself. Severely. I don’t know if your reasons are nutty or nefarious, but I sure know “uninformed consent at the time” in no way equals “no-harm sex “.
What you argue for doesn’t exist. And if it did, it would be indistinguishable from apparent but uninformed consent, so essentially you’re arguing that it’s not rape unless harm occurs in subsequent years. Which is pretty pointless moral guidance for someone considering sticking his elderly dick in a 13 year old girl.
I’m interested because the issues of sexual predators, family, and protection are closely related to the conflict between legislation and the law of the land. Most people are unaware of how the system misleads them about the nature of the law. The system takes the privilege of oath from the common law but it also denies that the source of this privilege exists.
Television (was) New Zealand is dropping BBC News which used to come on at off-peak hours, which one would think was a triumph for pragmatic, responsible, budget conscious services. It’s to be replaced by – infomercials. Or to put it another way Info-unmercifuls. Recommendation -Only to be watched in an alcoholic haze. If want to know more Radionz’s Mediawatch today.
Also being dropped by Television NZ (spit) – teletext function. It’s been serving NZ’s for 30 years and is particularly useful for older people. Hence why it is being dropped. Who gives a f..k for older people, they aren’t the advertisers preferred demographic which is – 15 to 55? after that you’re history old codgers!
John Drinnan broke the news of the dropping of BBC World on Friday. Its sad, but is thanks to the government chopping the TVNZ charter and telling it to make more idiot TV to make money (amazing how the same people who moan about our education system being ‘dumbed down’ seem fine with it happening to our television)..
As for Teletext, it was a damn good service. Not only did it provide captions for the deaf, but it provided information services to the general public with very low overheads, via simple RF signal, to a teletext capable TV (which cost a few hundred dollars). It would be way easier for a farmer in Marokopa to look up the weather on teletext than to use his smartphone or tablet.
and you condemned paedophilia” – that’s fucken right, I did, unlike you I don’t think raping children is a-okay
Paedophilia and raping children are two different things. In the original argument the paedophilia involved teenage girls as young as 13 soliciting. They were not crying rape, they were doing business.
You and your ‘law’ mates are the lowest scum around – twisting so that you can increase your self interest, and as for the not paying taxes you are just as selfish and self interested as the big fat corporate pigs who don’t pay tax by slime-ing out of it.
People and corporations don’t have the same status in law. Corporations owe their existence to the state, people do not. It’s not unfair to refuse to give money to something that is of no benefit to you.
What it means, North, is that corporations are subject to the law of the state, but people not subject to it. But people in a common law jurisdiction are still subject to the law of the land.
do you pay GST ugly or don’t they have that tax in canada?
I suppose you don’t utilise any of the services that society provides, you know, because you don’t pay tax lol
and as for your line “they were not crying rape” well, enough has been written about that and obviously it doesn’t fit with your morals, beliefs, or actions as evidenced in the threads discussing it. I am not surprised you don’t get what so many have tried to explain to you – it doesn’t fit with your self interest does it?
I don’t pay GST, the shop does. I pay the marked price.
Society doesn’t implement the taxation scheme, the state does.
Get a grip marty, you’re ranting.
A beautiful day with mokos so no chance to check TS but I did get to see that prissy little ex-crown prosecutor (you know that shit-arsed wee type, witheringly socially retarded, mock angelic) Simon Bridges on Q + A this morning.
Yeah, he’s the messenger boy with the the news that this corporate-tending-to-facist-if-necessary government is gonna take a hard line with people who “endanger saftey” in protest around foreign rape of our resources.
A black lie of course but your final proof that this government is traitorous. “But they broke the law”. Yeah, right. A law created by a devious harlot of a government which in one out of ten parts has it’s heart outside New Zealand and inside the pockets of the ilk of its leader. The nine out of ten parts are mediocre self-seekers and cargo-cult thickos who follow Key because they believe they could be him one day.
On this day of all days for Christ’s Sake, it’s only gonna make the hard folks go harder. That’s the big joke of it. The world ain’t the Tauranga District Court sitting in its indictable jurisdiction wee Simon. Where you jump up and down with your petty points and strut out of court in the conviction that you’re shit-hot. And where success is winning and when you win that’s ALWAYS justice, definitionally.
It’s been occurring to me for some time that sooner or later there is going to be significant civil unrest in this country. Bring it on Simon Bitch ! Pathetic, atrocious, little ex-crown prosecutor.
I do it all of the time on a android nexus7 with chrome with android. I have noticed that the javascript on my old iPad1 is crap for anything to do with javascript.
But I’ll check. Could you provide any more info about what OS you’re using?
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An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...
Matariki has been and gone, but this year we saw a couple of op-eds arguing that it should be a public holiday, replacing the foreign monarch's fake birthday. And now, New Zealand Republic - a group which campaigns for an ...
The discussion on the quality of economic advice, which we reported last week, has spilled over into a discussion about whether so many senior appointments should be of non-New Zealanders. Recall I discussed the failure to develop career paths within ...
When Nicky Hager revealed US footage of the Operation Burnham raid, obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, one of the obvious questions was whether Ministers had seen it - and in particular, whether they'd been told that it ...
Northern Ireland is the Alabama of the UK: a backwards region where women and gay people are denied fundamental rights. But Westminster has just decided to fix that:MPs have voted resoundingly to extend same-sex marriage and access to abortion to ...
There's a problem with "synthetic cannabis", and not just the one you think. It's the name.We're in the midst of a wave of news stories that link synthetic drugs to serious harm, through deadly road accidents and accidental overdoses (which ...
Ranjit Kauri, The Dancing Maharani and Other Stories, Swansea, Head and Heart, 2019, £6.99; reviewed by Don Franks Working people are not the same country to country. Our struggles for a better life take place in surroundings of very different ...
Let's Do Them! All Jacinda Ardern has to do to clinch the 2020 General Election is frighten the bejesus out of the electorate by describing in the most graphic terms imaginable what will happen to all the positive beginnings her ...
It may be that we have all misinterpreted the somewhat surprising “bromance” between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. It has been all too easy to assume that it is Kim who is cosying up to Trump rather than the ...
by Michael Roberts So the full circle is completed. The corrupt pro-business conservative New Democracy party in Greece that was ousted by the anti-capitalist Syriza party in 2015 has been returned to office in yesterday’s general election, with an outright ...
When the Australian government passed a series of new spy laws over the last few years, they pinky-promised that they wouldn't use them to spy on journalists and subvert freedom of the press. They lied:The anti-encryption laws passed by the ...
From 1975 to 1989, the spy agencies of South America's right-wing military dictatorships cooperated in Operation Condor, a joint campaign of extermination against the continent's left. Roughly 400,000 people were imprisoned, 30,000 disappeared, and 60,000 murdered - kidnapped, tortured, executed, ...
When she was standing for office, Jacinda Ardern promised she would take abortion out of the Crimes Act. And to be fair, there was some early action on that, with an immediate referral of the issue to the Law Commission ...
When the government introduced the Zero Carbon Bill, people rightly asked what they planned to do to reduce transport emissions, which basicly had no policy at all other than the ETS. Today, they responded, announcing a "feebate" system which would ...
At almost every level, the problem with medicinal cannabis is a lack of good information. In the US, FDA regulations make it hard to research. Most doctors aren't familiar with what research there is and most patients don't know either. ...
Redline is critical of Corbyn for his political weaknesses, but he’s no anti-Semite. There is no substance to the McCarthyist witch-hunt being run by the right wing, and the pro-Israel lobby inside and outside the Labour Party in the UK. ...
The government's billion trees program is the sort of policy which could make a real difference to our emissions and the fight against climate change. But climate scientist Jim Salinger isn't convinced:The Forestry Minister Shane Jones' one billion trees won't ...
Last month the government was celebrating another surplus. Meanwhile, children are starving:One in five children are living in households where putting food on the table is a struggle, according to a new report from the Ministry of Health. It found ...
Show Me The Money! The alternative to state funding of infrastructure is, of course, to fund it by taking on massive amounts of private debt. On this issue, at least, Auckland mayoral challenger, Tamihere, has some solid points to make. ...
If we are to avoid making the earth uninhabitable, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to practically nothing over the next decade. But that will still leave us with the problem of the carbon we have already emitted, which ...
Former Waikato DHB CEO Nigel Murray allegedly misused public funds, spending more than $120,000 of public money on unjustified travel. He was forced to resign and the Serious Fraud Office began an investigation. But despite the SFO finding that the ...
Jeremy Corbyn, we are told, is being advised – not least by his deputy (as well as by some of his would-be successors) – that he must come “off the fence” on the Brexit issue if he wants to bolster ...
The End of Life bill has been read a second time and is now heading for the House for further debate. Personally, I support the proposal. I don't ever epect to take advantage of the Bill's provisions myself, but as ...
Before the substantive issue which this column is about – whether there has been a deterioration in the economic advice given to the government – a paragraph about the budget leaks.read more ...
Below is a translation of the editorial in the June 24 round of weekly workplace bulletins issued all over France by the revolutionary workers’ organisation Lutte Ouvriere. Last Saturday, 8,000 people took to the streets of Belfort (eastern France) to ...
Why hasn't Parliament followed the lead set by our local authorities and declared a climate emergency? The answer is the National Party:The Prime Minister’s admission that she is open to the idea of declaring a climate change emergency is nothing ...
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...
A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...
Million-dollar start to gun collection eventsPolice Minister Stuart Nash says a solid start has been made to the gun buyback and amnesty after the first weekend of community collection events. “Gun owners will walk away with more than ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash has praised Police and gun owners after the first firearms collection event saw a busy turnout at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch. “Police officers and staff have put a tremendous effort into planning and logistics for the ...
Seventy-eight new Police constables are heading out to the regions following today’s graduation of a new recruit wing from the Royal New Zealand Police College. Police Minister Stuart Nash says the record high number of new Police officers being recruited, ...
Tuesday, July 23: The Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have reached OMV’s offices on the 20th floor and announced a public protest to evict the Austrian oil giant. ...
The New Zealand Deerstalkers Association says it will take an active role in the debate on proposed firearm law changes to ensure any future legislation is fair, reasonable and meets the needs of both firearm owners and the general public. ...
The latest Safety of Children in Care report reveals the scale of the challenge facing social workers as they act to better protect children / tamariki and young people / rangatahi in Oranga Tamariki in the system. While the statistics ...
The next round of proposed Arms Act Amendments will further alienate law abiding firearms licence holders from the Government, according to the NZ Outdoors Party. ...
The current law for dividing property on separation is out of date and in need of reform, the Law Commission concludes in its report, Review of the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 – Te Arotake i te Property (Relationships) Act 1976 ...
First National Real Estate Chief Executive Bob Brereton is predicting that homes currently being built as part of a KiwiBuild development, in Te Kauwhata, will not sell and that the Government will be left with 175 homes and few, if ...
A short time ago, kaumatua and kuia representing mana whenua from Te Kawerau ā Maki, Te Ākitai Waiohua, and Tainui, walked onto the land that Fletcher Building owns at Ōruarangi Road, known as Ihumātao, and asked protestors to leave. ...
The Greenpeace climb of the Majestic Tower in Wellington is ignorant grandstanding says the Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ). ...
Tuesday, July 23: The two Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have unfurled the first of a series of banners. ...
The Independent Police Conduct Authority has found that an officer's decision to fire three warning shots to stop a fleeing driver from reversing towards him was not justified. ...
Government figures out today are consistent with what working people have told the Council of Trade Unions in our own survey, that a significant group of working Kiwis are unhappy and dissatisfied at work. Now the Government must act to ...
Deputy State Services Commissioner John Ombler has today announced the outcome of an examination of what led Inland Revenue to commission a public poll that included a question about the political leanings of taxpayers. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Tracey Martin for wasting money on a meaningless “translation” of a written press statement into a sign language video, when the vast majority of any deaf or hard-of-hearing persons are perfectly capable of reading ...
Te Mana o Ngāti Rangitihi Trust (Te Mana) and Tūhourangi Tribal Authority (TTA) have announced that they will jointly negotiate with the Crown for the return of the lands at Waimangu and Otūkapuarangi. These lands have been at the centre ...
Government documents reveal the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) approved a shipment of cattle last month, despite the Government announcing a review into live export five days earlier. ...
“The Government’s second round of firearms reforms has hunters concerned that they will be burdened with onerous and unnecessary compliance and costs,” says Game Animal Council Chair Don Hammond. ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) are concerned at the statements by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Police Minister Stuart Nash at the Post-Cabinet Press Conference this afternoon stating that firearm ownership and licences should ...
National’s Climate Change spokesperson Todd Muller told Q+A he has “total confidence” that technology will be developed to mitigate the effects of climate change. “To simply take the New Zealand agriculture sector which is the most emissions efficient ...
PM can’t say whether the Government will meet its KiwiBuild goals. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern couldn’t say whether the Government would meet its goal of building 16-thousand KiwiBuild homes by the end of its first term. She was interviewed on ...
Greenpeace climbers are scaling the outside of the Majestic Centre, the tallest building in Wellington, to reach the headquarters of Austrian oil giant, OMV. ...
Media statement on behalf of Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie and Donna Marie Tai Tokerau Hall: Māori Television has admitted publishing false allegations about former High Court justice, Sir Edward Taihākurei Durie, and his wife, Donna Hall, and it has ...
Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March. The Prime Minister acknowledged ...
Misgivings about the practicality and cost of a firearms register is likely to dominate feedback from rural areas on the second round of proposed Arms Act amendments, Federated Farmers says. ...
School Strike 4 Climate NZ organisers Sophie Handford and Raven Maeder delivered a clear message to over 600 local government mayors, chairs, chief executives and councillors at the recent LGNZ conference : make climate change a priority. ...
The Police Association, Te Aka Hāpai backs the government’s emphasis on public safety as the driver of its second tranche of amendments to New Zealand’s firearms law, announced today. ...
The growing housing shortage crisis about more than supply and demand- it is about inequity. Recently released analysis by Kiwibank shows that last year’s “severe” shortage of housing has worsened, with the shortfall growing from 100,000 to 130,0000 ...
One of the country’s largest district health boards has a severe shortage of hospital specialists, says the senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is joining opposition to possible regulations on the strength of nicotine vaping liquid. Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “The Government would certainly benefit from regulations on the strength ...
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is calling for significant changes to the Zero Carbon Bill with a new analysis using the Government’s preferred modelling indicating that the proposed methane targets are excessive if all other gases go to net zero. ...
Victoria University Feminist Organisation and ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa, in conjunction with the VUW Feminist Law Students, Organise Aotearoa, Fem Force, and with the support of VUW Student Association announced they are sponsoring a march ...
With the Government's firearm buyback scheme starting to draw over 30,000 police man hours away from fighting crime, the safety of law abiding citizens is being compromised. ...
Social Credit Party leader Chris Leitch is calling on the sale of Westland Milk to Chinese company Yili to be put on hold pending an approach to the Government by Westland Milk for funding assistance. ...
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa seems intent on ensuring the Government’s vaping legislation will heavily target flavours and nicotine levels – a move that would be completely counterproductive to helping Kiwis quit smoking and achieving ...
A new website has launched in response to recent RNZ reporting about Police in Dunedin unlawfully entering people’s homes and breath-testing them. “I was disgusted when I saw what they cops were doing in Dunedin. Their behaviour undermines all of ...
Hundreds of whanau and Maori leaders gathered at a hui in Mangere last weekend where they voted unanimously for an inquiry into Oranga Tamariki. The historic meeting called for a child welfare framework to be developed by Maori, for Maori. ...
The Head of the New Zealand Maori Council has called for the Government to hold an immediate investigation into the global cosmetics company Sephora after they were caught dumping waste hundreds and thousands of waste paper products embedded with ...
Simon Shepherd: The government says its agreement with farmers, that they should pay for agricultural emissions, is historic. But there's no agreement on how. One proposal says farmers should pay a 5 per cent emissions tax. Another suggests farmers ...
The O’Brien Institute for Public Health at Calgary University has just released their report on fluoridation. This institute has, up to now, been staunchly in favour of fluoridation. However, yesterday, with regards to fluoride’s effect on the brain, ...
July 19 (BusinessDesk) - The government is looking to tighten control and impose harsher penalties after the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak revealed cracks in the country's stock management system. ...
Kia Anga Mua Ngā Hapū o Ngāpuhi (KAM) has reached a pivotal milestone following a hui yesterday at Waitangi with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little. ...
Opinion - The gun buyback scheme is working to remove firearms from society and enforcement laws are strong, but creating a meaningful gun registry is also essential, writes Lew Stoddart. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese Keane, Associate Professor, Deputy Chair Department of Education, Swinburne University of Technology A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn ...
After months of protest, the last occupants were moved off Ihumātao in south Auckland by police this afternoon. Don Rowe reports. Most of the occupants of Ihumātao had been moved on. The police, numbering at least 30, had finally made good ...
Hundreds of people marched to Parliament today calling for reform of New Zealand's abortion laws, as Cabinet prepares to consider a bill that would remove abortion from the Crimes Act. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The two Centre Alliance senators, Stirling Griff and Rex Patrick will often be pivotal to the fate of government legislation. The smaller non-Green Senate crossbench ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chongyi Feng, Associate Professor in China Studies, University of Technology Sydney Australian authorities have been told to stop interfering in the case of the Chinese-Australian writer Dr Yang Hengjun who has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Newton Cain, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape is visiting Australia this week, his first overseas ...
The Greens may have achieved their sought-after mainstream credibility, and scored some wins in government, but commentators warn this will not necessarily result in more votes. On the contrary – it might even result in a loss of enthusiasm from ...
Dr Bryce EdwardsThe supposed end of the 20-year standoff between environmentalists and farmers was announced last week, with the release of the Interim Climate Change Committee’s report on “Action on agricultural emissions”. It was celebrated as an “historic consensus” ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentGovernment Joseph Nunweek (Spinoff): Jacinda Ardern and bringing the ...
The 2019 budget put aside $300m for venture capital for small to medium-sized startups with the hope it will allow businesses to grow locally and stay in New Zealand for longer. In a small rural town on the east coast ...
To give the Pacific a fighting chance Australia and NZ need to take a stand, writes a Fijian litigator and activist.Climate change is now an everyday reality for the Pacific. Its impact on our countries is undeniable. To remain within ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Grové, Educational Psychologist and Lecturer, Monash University Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...
Questions about political leanings in surveys by Inland Revenue, DOC and Stats NZ were inappropriate and had the potential to undermine political neutrality, a report has found. ...
Treaty Negotiations Minister Andrew Little says he cannot understand why the previous government ever accepted Ngāpuhi's problematic Tūhoronuku mandate. ...
The Electricity Authority’s latest take on transmission prices has softened the expected hike in power prices for Aucklanders from $176 per year to $21 a year. ...
New Zealanders are as parochial about charity as they are about sport, with only a fraction of the money we donate leaving our shores or even going outside our local areas.Less than 9% of private donations in New Zealand go ...
Infrastructure investor Infratil is looking for potential buyers of a group of mature investments across Australia and NZ's health, education and prison sectors,according to the AFR. ...
A nightmarish and near-fatal high-speed pursuit of a New Zealand Chinese family concluded with a judge rejecting the prosecution’s request for hate crime sentencing. Tze Ming Mok discusses why New Zealand’s approach to hate crime is utterly useless.I don’t like ...
The Māori midwives on the frontline of whānau care and Oranga Tamariki scrutiny say their voices are going unheard and their wisdom unheeded.*All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involvedNewsroom’s powerful investigation into Oranga Tamariki’s attempt ...
From fine art school graduates to hobbyists, magazine-making talent from all over the city is showcased in Auckland Zinefest. Lucy Zee went along to check out the zines and meet some makers.Aucklanders love a festival. If it’s not food, wine ...
Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin has recently been taught by ancestors in Hawai’i the skills of beating tapa or barkcloth, reviving as contemporary form a Māori art largely lost after the extinction of the aute plant in Aotearoa. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stopped short of committing to a declaration of climate emergency in Parliament, despite again saying she supports such a move. ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Australian authorities to drop all charges against four French TV journalists who – in what RSF called an “unacceptable attack on investigative journalism” – were arrested yesterday ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neville Nicholls, Professor emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University This month the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide Viral photo app FaceApp has taken the world by storm. Launched in 2017, the app has recently enjoyed mass popularity due largely to Hollywood ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University A key element in the success of countering terrorism in Australia has been a series of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Around one-quarter of the world’s population menstruate. That’s more than 1.9 billion people in the world who will bleed, on average, for 65 days ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese Keane, Associate Professor, Deputy Chair Department of Education, Swinburne University of Technology A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University There is a case for not proceeding with, or at least further deferring, the legislated increase in employers’ compulsory superannuation contributions from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Ostling, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University Review: Margaret Olley: A Generous Life, and Quilty, QAGOMA Margaret Olley’s exhibition at QAGOMA is titled A Generous Life, referring to ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...
Almost as soon as it was announced, the Royal Commission tasked with probing the lead-up and response to the terrorist attacks in March attracted criticism, both over the process and its engagement with Muslim groups. Former race relations commissioner Joris ...
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...
Joseph Nunweek joins the adoring throngs gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall to watch the New Zealand prime minister. The warm feeling is contagious, but a question hangs in the airThursday, 18 July: a big night for New Zealanders in ...
Open mike 31/03/2013 
The person responsible for the ad has been sent to their bedroom for further scapegoating. The Green Party is standing by its views that 16-year-olds should be eligible to vote, even as they acknowledge that they shouldn’t have let them ...10 mins ago
My idealistic position on the role of MPs was articulated by Edmund Burke: ‘Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.’read more ...3 hours ago
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled on the pillage of swamp kauri, stating clearly that export was forbidden unless it had been clearly turned into a finished product. But less than a month later, MPI was again approving minimally carved ...6 hours ago
Having spent the last 3 months in these countries and getting some appreciation of their dependence on fossil fuels – oil, gas, coal – one realises how loopy is the idea popular in societies like New Zealand that have negligible ...11 hours ago
I have been unimpressed with Western corporate media coverage of the tensions involving Iran in the Straits of Hormuz. They repeat the line that Iran is the source of current tensions, that it is a major sponsor of terrorism, that ...2 days ago
2 days ago
2 days ago
Much like Tuvalu, the manmade climate change Cult love to tell people the Maldives is almost totally underwater. In fact the dishonest Maldives Govt d on the same bandwagon, believing they would receive billions of dollars aid from other Countries ...3 days ago
As the entry on Wikipedia shows (and no, one doesn’t necessarily have to regard Wikipedia as the be-all and end-all of truth, because it isn’t on a great many things, to agree with the following): “…a fallacious argument that concludes ...3 days ago
by Daphna Whitmore The story of how the world awoke to a big injustice is starting to be told. The Pacific Games held this month in Samoa is another chapter. On the podium was Laurel Hubbard, the giant transgender weightlifter, ...3 days ago
Our conversations and push against specific supremacist and ultra-Nationalist groups, and the pseudo-intellectual underpinnings of them, need to mature at all levels. But in doing so, it’s going to have to include a more thorough and brutally honest self-examination ...4 days ago
Something I missed: not only did Youth MPs declare a climate emergency; they also launched a campaign to lower the voting age to 16:Youth Parliament week in Parliament has seen the establishment of Make it 16, a campaign to ...4 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh This article aims to answer a simple question, whether the conflict is only a rural one or whether it is also urban. The verb ‘to be’ is conjugated in the present tense as ,despite what some ...6 days ago
6 days ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...1 week ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...1 week ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
The first full week of the firearms buy-back and amnesty has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time. “Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country, ...2 days ago
Tuesday, July 23: The Greenpeace climbers who are scaling the outside of the tallest building in Wellington have reached OMV’s offices on the 20th floor and announced a public protest to evict the Austrian oil giant. ...2 hours ago
Opinion - The gun buyback scheme is working to remove firearms from society and enforcement laws are strong, but creating a meaningful gun registry is also essential, writes Lew Stoddart. ...1 hour ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Therese Keane, Associate Professor, Deputy Chair Department of Education, Swinburne University of Technology A cute human-like robot taught students in a small, rural school how to code while also helping them learn ...3 hours ago
After months of protest, the last occupants were moved off Ihumātao in south Auckland by police this afternoon. Don Rowe reports. Most of the occupants of Ihumātao had been moved on. The police, numbering at least 30, had finally made good ...4 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tess Newton Cain, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Political Science & International Studies, The University of Queensland Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape is visiting Australia this week, his first overseas ...5 hours ago
5 hours ago
The 2019 budget put aside $300m for venture capital for small to medium-sized startups with the hope it will allow businesses to grow locally and stay in New Zealand for longer. In a small rural town on the east coast ...6 hours ago
To give the Pacific a fighting chance Australia and NZ need to take a stand, writes a Fijian litigator and activist.Climate change is now an everyday reality for the Pacific. Its impact on our countries is undeniable. To remain within ...7 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christine Grové, Educational Psychologist and Lecturer, Monash University Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...7 hours ago
The Electricity Authority’s latest take on transmission prices has softened the expected hike in power prices for Aucklanders from $176 per year to $21 a year. ...8 hours ago
New Zealanders are as parochial about charity as they are about sport, with only a fraction of the money we donate leaving our shores or even going outside our local areas.Less than 9% of private donations in New Zealand go ...9 hours ago
Infrastructure investor Infratil is looking for potential buyers of a group of mature investments across Australia and NZ's health, education and prison sectors,according to the AFR. ...9 hours ago
Mistakes happen but this one was a biggy, and a lack of proactive correction did not look good for the Government. ...9 hours ago
The Māori midwives on the frontline of whānau care and Oranga Tamariki scrutiny say their voices are going unheard and their wisdom unheeded.*All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involvedNewsroom’s powerful investigation into Oranga Tamariki’s attempt ...10 hours ago
From fine art school graduates to hobbyists, magazine-making talent from all over the city is showcased in Auckland Zinefest. Lucy Zee went along to check out the zines and meet some makers.Aucklanders love a festival. If it’s not food, wine ...11 hours ago
Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin has recently been taught by ancestors in Hawai’i the skills of beating tapa or barkcloth, reviving as contemporary form a Māori art largely lost after the extinction of the aute plant in Aotearoa. ...12 hours ago
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Australian authorities to drop all charges against four French TV journalists who – in what RSF called an “unacceptable attack on investigative journalism” – were arrested yesterday ...13 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neville Nicholls, Professor emeritus, School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University This month the world has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the Moon. But this ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Giancaspro, Lecturer in Law, University of Adelaide Viral photo app FaceApp has taken the world by storm. Launched in 2017, the app has recently enjoyed mass popularity due largely to Hollywood ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Kang, Associate professor, University of Technology Sydney Around one-quarter of the world’s population menstruate. That’s more than 1.9 billion people in the world who will bleed, on average, for 65 days ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will Rifkin, Chair in Applied Regional Economics and Director, Hunter Research Foundation Centre, University of Newcastle News of evacuations from cracked apartment buildings in Sydney and the need to replace combustible cladding ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University There is a case for not proceeding with, or at least further deferring, the legislated increase in employers’ compulsory superannuation contributions from ...14 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Ostling, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University Review: Margaret Olley: A Generous Life, and Quilty, QAGOMA Margaret Olley’s exhibition at QAGOMA is titled A Generous Life, referring to ...14 hours ago
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Second round of gun law changes announced, hundreds with conditions like Down syndrome get early Kiwisaver, and a major refusal to participate in March 15 inquiry.The second major phase of ...15 hours ago
Fraser Newman tells of opening Atlantis Books in Rotorua and Tokoroa – and having to close shop in Whakatāne. ...16 hours ago
Following the Silver Ferns’ World Cup victory, another New Zealand team playing korfball – netball’s European cousin - are about to make world championship history of their own. ...16 hours ago
As NZ Bird Rescue cares for record numbers of ruru/morepork at Auckland, one theory is they're being poisoned. ...16 hours ago
A swamp kauri log exported to China sparked deep discussion among forestry public servants over what is art and what is a log. ...16 hours ago
Anna Rawhiti-Connell shakes her head at the state of our health system, urging MPs to take their duties seriously. ...16 hours ago
A victim of domestic violence has had to find alternative accommodation after Oranga Tamariki breached her privacy for the second time in three years. ...16 hours ago
While researching NZ on Air for a recent history, Duncan Greive noticed a shocking 30 year trend.News broke over the weekend that Love Island NZ, Three’s biggest announcement of the year, will now not screen in 2019, and realistically is unlikely ...17 hours ago
Yesterday I tried to link to this post on the prime real estate that is Open Mike post #1… so, finally getting the attention it deserves here it is:
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/30/the-myths-and-lies-about-the-domestic-purposes-benefit/
Two things stood out here
– there is no pressure on the parent who does a runner and these are largely male
– that one in two adult women will be in sole charge of a family at some point in their adult lives.
Now, the been there done that group of women, with a few exceptions like PB, are unlikely to be too impressed with the benefit hounding going on and women vote on the left.
Just how much would it cost the labour party to show at least some loyalty to a large group of their demographic and at least oppose some of the hounding. FFS some of it, like sending out letters to people’s 16 year old daughters telling them to go onto contraception aren’t even policies that it will cost anything to reverse ever – they just violate the civil rights of a young girl who has had no say in her domestic situation whosoever.
And, I am repeating myself here, if this is such a good idea for 16 year old girls to get these letters, then perhaps some voluntary group should receive a grant to write letters to all 16 year old girls on the same topic, even the daughters of Nact politicians.
I like this young woman! She is at the center of the “Topless Jihad” – a global protest where women bare their breasts rebelling against female oppression after Amina Tyler posted topless pictures of herself with “My body belongs to me, and is not the source of anyone’s honor” written in Arabic.
Obviously this is found to be highly objectionable so her family shipped her off to a psych ward stating publically that she was suicidal and that is why she has posted the pics.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/amina-tyler-supporters-set-topless-jihad-day-april-4-article-1.1301311#ixzz2P3LzC9D8
Best pic is Amina extending her two fingers, topless, with the words, “fuck your morals”.
http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/30/april-4th-defend-amina/
Kiaora AWW
Here is another perspective worth reflecting on.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/8486908/Why-protests-must-be-culturally-appropriate
This comment is from Stuff’s blog:
Dear Author: I am a Muslim woman and think Amina’s protest is entirely culturally relevant in post-revolution Tunisia. Read the writing on Amina’s body: “My body is mine, not somebody’s honor” in Arabic. No protest that was universally loved and agreed with changed the world for the better. Please stop speaking for “everyday Muslims” such as myself. We can do without the sweeping generalizations about the “West” and “Islam”. They are simplistic and silly – even from someone taking on this native informant role. Muslim (or western) societies are not homogenous.
Hold onto your hats CHCH.
“The Government has taken three steps:
1. Required EQC to immediately shut down all external email systems – there will be no emails going into the organisation and none will be sent out.
2. Required EQC to immediately shut down all business-to-business systems and data exchanges as well as access into EQC systems by external parties.
3. Asked the Government’s Chief Information Officer Colin MacDonald to investigate and oversee the solutions for issues relating to information management within EQC.
I had to laugh (otherwise I would cry), so now instead of EQC doing nothing Gerry Brownlee has made it mandatory.
I would say the leaks are in all likelyhood deliberate, sent by staff disgruntled with the underhand way eqc is dealing with claims. Either that or they have some seriously incompetent staff with access to data that they really shouldnt. ( ala winz kiosks)
Wondered about just how accidental the EQC leaks really were Cricklewood.
And were the amounts of compensation listed on the released documents actually being given to the claimants or being with-held?
Media Release
Coal Free Mangatawhiri and Auckland Coal Action
Saturday 30th March 2013
Roadside Coal Protest at Mangatawhiri
Coal Free Mangatawhiri and Auckland Coal Action are joining forces on Monday to protest Fonterraʼs proposed new coal mine beside state highway 2.
Protesters will gather from 2pm at Mangatawhiri south of Auckland for the roadside rally protesting Fonterraʼs proposed new Mangatangi Mine.
They hope to engage with people queued in traffic on SH2 on their way back to Auckland.
Local residents, iwi and supporters from Auckland will be calling for ʻno new coalʼ and making the point that ʻcoal cooks the climateʼ in an awareness raising campaign against the proposed mine.
Public submissions on resource consents for the mine, closed this week with Waikato Regional Council and Waikato District Council. Hundreds of submissions were sent in by local residents, iwi and others opposing the proposed new coal mine at Mangatawhiri.
The resource consent applications were made by Fonterraʼs coal mining subsidiary Glencoal Energy Ltd, which is seeking consents for an open cast mine on farmland at Mangatawhiri right beside SH2.
If the mine goes ahead it will be highly visible to anyone driving along SH2. The mine is intended to produce 120,000 tonnes of coal a year to supply the Fonterra dairy factories at Waitoa, Hautapu and Te Awamutu. Fonterraʼs nearby Kopako coal mine is predicted to close in 2014.
Instead of opening a new coal mine in a farming community, locals believe Fonterra should phase out coal in favour of locally available cleaner burning, wood waste.
ENDS
A Farmer’s cooperative turns into a corporation.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/8485681/Investor-tensions-evident-in-Fonterra
At the time of the farmer vote to turn Fonterra into a shareholding corporation there was severe misgivings that farmers, particularly less well off share milkers who had no vote, and whose incomes are reliant on milk prices would suffer, and so it is.
As farms become corporate factories with out roofs that increase profits, by driving down the livelihoods of the producers. Less sharemilkers will enter the industry, resulting in bigger farms staffed with employees, who like most NZ workers over the last three decades will have declining incomes. While, year after year, in favour of better shareholder returns, profits continuously exceed previous records. That is, until the whole top heavy edifice topples over as the profit bubble bursts under the combined weight of lack of skilled farmers without any commitment to the land, and less forgiving climatic conditions that will make farming less productive and rural life harsher for those doing it at the milk face.
The move to squeeze more out of farmers in favour of profits, may have some unforeseen (read forseen) outcomes.
Yeh I saw this too and it was a prefectly predictable outcome. Even at the time it was obvious that the Fonterra managers were going back and back with the proposals no matter how often the farmers voted them down. It was very much in management interests I imagine, to have two groups with vested interests, Farmers and bond holders to play off against each other, for their own gain and ultimately the sort of gain that comes from stock market listing and moving the whole lot into overseas ownership.
Mind you most of them vote for the Nact’s too, be careful what you wish for perhaps?
More legislation written for corporations and against the rights of our people to protest.
Masked as protecting us from our own “reckless and dangerous” behaviour and delivered by the Glove Puppet from Tauranga, Simon Bridges.
Parroting prepared lines, statements that were shameless begging the question and all with a deadpan face the Glove Puppet from Tauranga presented restrictions on our right to protest mineral and oil exploration off our coast.
– http://www.3news.co.nz/Crackdown-on-anti-drilling-protesters/tabid/423/articleID/292432/Default.aspx
Surely this would be unconstitutional and the right to protest protected if this was tested in law by the courts..
New Zealand has no constitution.
Bridges also, when asked, pretty much ruled out putting the O and G revenue into an investment fund (like in other oil rich nations). Which means all this money is going to be frittered on tax cuts.
This vexes me so.
Bridges has been through the rinse, and is likely as anyone else inside Parliament to actually believe in what he’s representing!
West Auckland my foot!
More from the Bank Bailout U$K Austerity Class War:
Disability rights activist Susan Archibald, in Edinburgh, said: ‘We have heard talk about “strivers and skivers”.
‘One person can be a striver one day and then get made redundant. Will they be a skiver the next day? That’s how easy it happens.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2301575/Axe-bedroom-tax–Thousands-protesters-join-demonstrations-cut-benefits.html
“John McArdle, from anti-disability discrimination campaign Black Triangle, said: ‘Every day our campaign receives more messages from desperate people who are on the brink of suicide.
‘This government is killing disabled people, and we must stand together and say enough is enough.’
Have seen this really interesting report on ChristChurch in the http://www.wsws.org website. It’d be good to if we could comment and/or criticise on it?
“Residents face bitter winter in New Zealand’s quake-hit city”
“Residents of the New Zealand city of Christchurch, devastated by the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people in February 2011, are facing a bitter winter. While the National Party government, city council and business investors concentrate on rebuilding the central business district, thousands of people, particularly those in working class suburbs, are into their third year of unresolved social stress and personal dislocation.”
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/03/30/nzch-m30.html
The Money Market’s P@mp John Yankee continues to flog off this Nation’s commonwealth (Asset Sales) and our ability to help and support our own people. The Market in the end does not mind if you end up in a workhouse. 🙁
http://benefitjustice.wordpress.com/ More on the U$K situation likely to come here too. 🙁
”
Workfare
March 18, 2013
This from our colleagues working hard to oppose workfare:
In one of his most disgusting manoeuvres yet, last week Iain Duncan Smith laid legislation to rewrite history to stop the 225,000 people who were sanctioned on his unlawful workfare schemes being able to reclaim what they are due.
To make matters worse, the bill is being rushed through parliament; the second reading; committee stage; and third reading are all scheduled for one day: this Tuesday.
As if this wasn’t outrageous enough, Labour have indicated that they will support the Bill.
Tell your MP to vote against these outrageous attempts to rewrite history and rob people of £130 million in benefit repayments with this one minute online form: http://action.pcs.org.uk/page/speakout/ask-your-mp-to-stop-the-government-changing-the-law-on-workfare”
“The savage attacks on benefits for unemployed, low paid workers, single parents and disabled which will push millions further into poverty and despair.
The vicious attacks on those in the rented sector whose landlords charge huge rents but who now face a cap in their Housing Benefit which is seeing families evicted and shipped out of London to find cheaper accommodation around the country.
The disgusting Bedroom Tax which will force council and social landlord tenants who claim Housing benefit and have a spare room to either pay more rent or downsize to a smaller home. This will hit 600.000 tenants. Tory Welfare minister responsible for this bedroom tax is Lord Freud who has a plush 4 bedroom London home as well as an 8 bedroom mansion elsewhere.”
UK Labour is still enmeshed in Blairism. Doesnt look to be getting out anytime soon.
Looks to me like Thatcherism is still strong. Making beneficiaries work for corporate megastores for free? Welcome back to the 10th century.
“Looks to me like Thatcherism is still strong”
I’d take Blairism over Thatcherism any century.
There really isn’t that much difference between the two. Both thrive on neoliberal claptrap.
Kyle Bass runs Hayman Capital. Here he talks about Japan’s impending financial/demographic implosion (including 10 finance ministers in just the last 5 years).
Not pretty. He makes several references to future severe social discontent as a result.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/30/bank-of-cyprus-depositors-lose-savings
“Bank of Cyprus depositors could lose up to 60% of their savingsCypriot finance officials say initial losses will be 37.5%, but up to 22.5% more could be taken if bank needs further capitalisation
But, but , but TPTB said Cyrpian banks were over-flowing with dirty Russian money, where is it then!
Capital controls will not be coming off, the accounts will be empty before that happens!
And a finger in the eye for Iceland, balance is important in the MSM!
More lies and BS, see how this all works!
So, a year and a half until the next general election, and the Labour party are still shitting on their own doorstep, mired in a fantasy land game plan to win (bribe) back 5% of the middle ground they think will open the door to the treasury.
Dumb arses.
The win is in the numbers who didn’t vote last time.
Bollocks to the sensibilities of centre right politics of nothingness.
Go left, that man.
If the nat’s are the worst negotiators, then NZ Labour must surely rank as worst political strategists, ever.
Not necessarily. The way I see it, this is strategy which is wanted by the *internationalists*, and being rolled out effectively, by giving the NACT a free ride, to what could easily be another 3 years.
As if it matters in real terms who the government is, the decline will continue, as the *foreign owners*, like any good hedge, control both sides of bet!
I’ll rephrase my perspective for the benefit of your world view:
As a lefty voter, NZ Labour must surely rank as worst political strategists, ever.
Try viewing Labour’s actions and strategy from the standpoint of it’s present as a centrist middle class party. One which is focussed on continuing (but socially moderating) the political economic status quo, while appealing to the top 1/3 of income earners.
When you do that it’s approach becomes entirely consistent and coherant.
I’m sure someone believes in what they’re doing, somewhere, playing the game like they are, but whatever the outcome (crushing defeat 😉 ), watching the cogs turn is like them cleaning a hammer with a walnut.
I can’t believe parties facing another three years in opposition aren’t out there getting those stay at home voters interested, engaged and motivating change, unless like said, they don’t really care about the majority of kiwis and pay lip service to the plight facing New Zealanders.
Time for that new left wing party idea to crop up again.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-politicians-are-sensi_b_2978297.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
An honest politician is one who stays bought, or why we are not allowed democracy on anything important, like the economy, and inequality!
And just make sure that no one knows WTF is going on, de-fund polsci.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/21/senate-votes-defund-political-science-research-save-tuition-assistance-budget-bill
But seriously, what answers has political science given us in the last 20 years? The other area to defund is economics, finance and financial engineering.
Yeah, when I think about it CV none worth listening to and to be honest once I’ve sorted out who the unhinged ideologues are and who’s worth listening to I reckon the most astute and nuanced appraisals are usually to be found buried in comments threads.
“I reckon the most astute and nuanced appraisals are usually to be found buried in comments threads.”
And now on live TV during question time, 2pm, channel 22 🙂
Pipe ruptures, who’d a thunk it.
http://www.katv.com/story/21831082/oil-spill-in-mayflower-near-lake-conway-subdivision-evacuated
I thought the Mayflower was one of the first four ships to get to America. They did that on sail I thought. Maybe I am not up with the modern ideas that now it is okay to have a major negative oil spill event every five years or so. Just part of the risk profile engineered in using the modern equipment and modern efficiencies of corporations as accepted by the modern governments.
open-mike 28/03
To: McFlock
You made the allegation, so the burden of proof is yours. Don’t expect me to assist you.
Slander is what this massive hole is all about. Slander was also the issue that was being discussed just before I was moderated into posting on open mike.
Context is everything. The original context was girls 13 and over who were repeatedly soliciting.
If these girls were being harmed, these who was forcing them?
Why are you bringing up Saville now? He is dead, had nothing to do with the South Auckland flap.
Just like you brought up fantasing.
Just like you brought up NABMLA.
You’re just slinging shit to divert from the fact that you’ve got no argument.
I reckon your comments are proof enough. You seem to think that harm can only result from force. And the original point wasn’t about slander, it was about appropriate responses to revelations that adults are paying to screw children. If you reckon a possible slander against yourself is more important, then that also says much about you.
What you reckon isn’t proof, it’s opinion.
I don’t think that.
O.K. Slander is important because it was the issue that was being discussed just before I was moderated into posting on open mike. It would be too convenient for you if I just dropped the issue.
Assuming you meant “then who was forcing them”, why are you raising force if force at the time is irrelevant to harm?
slander is a falsehood, right? What falsehood did I utter? You’re arguing that sex between a thirteen year old and a sixty year old can be consensual for the child, are you not?
McFlock, force is relevant because without anyone forcing the girls the most likely explanation is that they were soliciting of their own free will. The fact that they were doing this repeatedly suggests that they were not being harmed, so non-harm paedophilia is not an oxymoron like you said it was.
Like Redlogix said, paedophilia usually refers to pre-pubescent children, but in the rape culture thread it was also used in the context of older men having sex with teenage girls.
Your falsehood was:
You couldn’t show proof of your allegation, your argument was:
So McFlock, do you think that you can slander other people and just get away with it?
This is all beginning to sound rather familiar.
Frankly, a kid in the lower half of their teens is a child. Legally, as well.
Secondly, children can’t consent or do a contract. They have issues with impulse control, abstraction, and long term planning.
Thirdly, there are economic and other power issues at play in the case of prostitution, and sex in general. These are marked when one party is adult and the other is not. Both adults, fair enough, both can give informed consent all else being equal. Both kids, well both can be making the same mistake if it appears consensual. But an adult and a kid? Any adult with the interests of the child as a concern would bail based on the power imbalance implicit in the relationship.
Even if it were legal.
In general this is true not because they are not able to reach an agreement, but because they are under the power of another, i.e. their parents.
In the case the South Auckland girls the parental power argument isn’t so solid: either the girls are under the power of their parents which makes the parents responsible, or they are not (ie the family is dysfunctional), in which agreement and contract may be possible.
It’s got nothing to do with being under the power of their parents.
Kids can’t give informed consent because they lack experience, information and the ability to process that with long term objectives taken into full consideration.
Wrong again,. it is important for contracts.
SUI JURIS. One who has all the rights to which a freemen is entitled; one who is not under the power of another, as a slave, a minor, and the like.
2. To make a valid contract, a person must, in general, be sui juris. Every one of full age is presumed to be sui juris. Story on Ag. p. 10.
I think you might need a newer legal text. Preferably one that deals with new zealand law.
Just to spell it out: kids, including young teens, cannot consent to sex.
Sex without consent is rape.
You argue that young teens at the very least (you’ve been cagey on the exact age cutoff where you regard any sex=rape) can consent to sex.
That is a defense of child rape.
You are wrong, they can consent if the understand what is involved.
Consent. A concurrence of wills. Voluntarily yielding the will to the proposition of another; acquiescence or compliance therewith. Agreement; the act or result
of coming into harmony or accord. Consent is an act of reason, accompanied with deliberation, the mind weighing as in a balance the good or evil on each side.
You are confusing uninformed consent with actual consent. Knowing someone who was manipulated into “consenting” sex by adults when she was a young teen, and seeing the issues she’s dealt with over the years in no small part due to those experiences, I say that you are deluding yourself. Severely. I don’t know if your reasons are nutty or nefarious, but I sure know “uninformed consent at the time” in no way equals “no-harm sex “.
Wrong again. I said “if they understand what is involved”, which implies informed consent.
Why is it that slanderers refuse to admit they are wrong, but try to divert with straw men and other fallacies?
Sex with under-16s is against New Zealand law. Legally there is no possibility of informed consent.
Arguing you believe in some other philosophy of life does not negate that. Why are you so interested in the topic?
Ah, the “no true rapist” argument.
What you argue for doesn’t exist. And if it did, it would be indistinguishable from apparent but uninformed consent, so essentially you’re arguing that it’s not rape unless harm occurs in subsequent years. Which is pretty pointless moral guidance for someone considering sticking his elderly dick in a 13 year old girl.
Handle, the legality of it is based on fictions.
I’m interested because the issues of sexual predators, family, and protection are closely related to the conflict between legislation and the law of the land. Most people are unaware of how the system misleads them about the nature of the law. The system takes the privilege of oath from the common law but it also denies that the source of this privilege exists.
It is OK to want to protect others without needing an elaborate belief system to justify that. Did you have a particular 13-year old in mind?
Television (was) New Zealand is dropping BBC News which used to come on at off-peak hours, which one would think was a triumph for pragmatic, responsible, budget conscious services. It’s to be replaced by – infomercials. Or to put it another way Info-unmercifuls. Recommendation -Only to be watched in an alcoholic haze. If want to know more Radionz’s Mediawatch today.
Also being dropped by Television NZ (spit) – teletext function. It’s been serving NZ’s for 30 years and is particularly useful for older people. Hence why it is being dropped. Who gives a f..k for older people, they aren’t the advertisers preferred demographic which is – 15 to 55? after that you’re history old codgers!
John Drinnan broke the news of the dropping of BBC World on Friday. Its sad, but is thanks to the government chopping the TVNZ charter and telling it to make more idiot TV to make money (amazing how the same people who moan about our education system being ‘dumbed down’ seem fine with it happening to our television)..
As for Teletext, it was a damn good service. Not only did it provide captions for the deaf, but it provided information services to the general public with very low overheads, via simple RF signal, to a teletext capable TV (which cost a few hundred dollars). It would be way easier for a farmer in Marokopa to look up the weather on teletext than to use his smartphone or tablet.
I think the teletext system was affected by needing updates on its equipment, and TVNZ weren’t prepared to invest in this updating.
All of which is being replaved by Freeview.
open mike 28/03
To: Marty Mars
Paedophilia and raping children are two different things. In the original argument the paedophilia involved teenage girls as young as 13 soliciting. They were not crying rape, they were doing business.
People and corporations don’t have the same status in law. Corporations owe their existence to the state, people do not. It’s not unfair to refuse to give money to something that is of no benefit to you.
What the fuck does the last paragraph of your post at 17 mean, Ugly Truth ? It is utterly unintelligible.
I’m a bit hoha with your pronouncements on “law”. You seem always to get it very wrong.
What it means, North, is that corporations are subject to the law of the state, but people not subject to it. But people in a common law jurisdiction are still subject to the law of the land.
What do you think that I get wrong?
do you pay GST ugly or don’t they have that tax in canada?
I suppose you don’t utilise any of the services that society provides, you know, because you don’t pay tax lol
and as for your line “they were not crying rape” well, enough has been written about that and obviously it doesn’t fit with your morals, beliefs, or actions as evidenced in the threads discussing it. I am not surprised you don’t get what so many have tried to explain to you – it doesn’t fit with your self interest does it?
I don’t pay GST, the shop does. I pay the marked price.
Society doesn’t implement the taxation scheme, the state does.
Get a grip marty, you’re ranting.
lol you pay the marked price – what a hero.
btw have you tried the old agree and ask a question line with the legal system yet?
A beautiful day with mokos so no chance to check TS but I did get to see that prissy little ex-crown prosecutor (you know that shit-arsed wee type, witheringly socially retarded, mock angelic) Simon Bridges on Q + A this morning.
Yeah, he’s the messenger boy with the the news that this corporate-tending-to-facist-if-necessary government is gonna take a hard line with people who “endanger saftey” in protest around foreign rape of our resources.
A black lie of course but your final proof that this government is traitorous. “But they broke the law”. Yeah, right. A law created by a devious harlot of a government which in one out of ten parts has it’s heart outside New Zealand and inside the pockets of the ilk of its leader. The nine out of ten parts are mediocre self-seekers and cargo-cult thickos who follow Key because they believe they could be him one day.
On this day of all days for Christ’s Sake, it’s only gonna make the hard folks go harder. That’s the big joke of it. The world ain’t the Tauranga District Court sitting in its indictable jurisdiction wee Simon. Where you jump up and down with your petty points and strut out of court in the conviction that you’re shit-hot. And where success is winning and when you win that’s ALWAYS justice, definitionally.
It’s been occurring to me for some time that sooner or later there is going to be significant civil unrest in this country. Bring it on Simon Bitch ! Pathetic, atrocious, little ex-crown prosecutor.
Don’t mention the chemtrails, he’s the minister for climate change issues. 😉
north
+1
Me too.
Turned the TV off. Couldn’t even bear to look at the supercilious little toad. He reminds me of a youthful Tony Ryall.
lprent just wondering if there’s a way to edit a comment posted from a tablet using chrome?
I do it all of the time on a android nexus7 with chrome with android. I have noticed that the javascript on my old iPad1 is crap for anything to do with javascript.
But I’ll check. Could you provide any more info about what OS you’re using?
Young Simon had a wee laugh (hehe) on his Facebook page at the idea of slapping the interviewer. Screenshots are lovely things. What a scumbag.