It is now common practice to smash up wages and workers’ rights by initiating bankruptcy proceedings. The best known case is the American auto giant General Motors, which laid off 30,000 workers, slashed wages in half for new-hires, and cut retiree benefits. If the German government gets its way, this procedure will be applied to entire countries.
According to a report in the news magazine Der Spiegel, the chancellery in Berlin has drawn up a six-point plan for far-reaching “structural reforms” in Greece and other highly indebted European Union countries. The plan includes the sale of state enterprises, the gutting of employment protection rights, the promotion of a low-wage labor sector, the removal of constraints on businesses, and the establishment of special economic zones and privatization agencies modeled on the German Treuhand.
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert has not confirmed the plan, but neither has he denied it.
The new director of Business Roundtable et al called Innovate NZ? is Oliver someone from Germany who doesn’t believe that left and right wing have any basis any more but basically free and non-free markets. An excellent choice for his position by the sounds of him. Interviewed this a.m. by Kathryn Ryan.
“The merger comes at a time when other business lobby groups are also merging or closing, most notably the recent folding of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development into Business New Zealand, the closure this week of the Greenhouse Policy Coalition, and the creation of a new Financial Services Council from several smaller bodies”
“The new think tank has been named The New Zealand Initiative. It will build on the legacies of its two founding organisations and will focus on raising debate on public policy and contributing bold, rigorously-researched ideas to achieve a more prosperous future for New Zealand’
–Done a slap up job before they merged in achieving a more prosperous NZ…shuffle around, consolidate, confuse, dominate!
— SO even the lobby groups are now merging…We are well andf truly heading down the wrong path here…
How to take over institutions, companies, whole countries 101: Play the long game, and ensure that you have foothold across all industry, and public life…only those from certain backgrounds, educations, families etc will fill roles which control and determine direction…revolving door policy between public and private entities to ensure “strong” ties to legislature. Take it slow, most people will never notice. Repeat cycle until full control is gained, and if people start to suspect, use media arm to change tact to support opposition to elections victory. Ensure another 3-6 year period to further decay society, and remove wealth from country..Repeat as often as required to maintain the illusion of democracy!
Herr Hartwich will no doubt be writing the Welfare, Education and Justice policies for Aotearoa now. Independent in the name is about as meaningless as it is in the name of the IPCA.
And where did he learn all this befuddled thinking?
“He started his career as a Research Assistant to Lord Matthew Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay in the UK House of Lords in 2004. From January 2005 to October 2008, he worked for the British think tank Policy Exchange, first as a Research Fellow and then as Chief Economist.[2]
At Policy Exchange, Hartwich co-authored several reports on housing and planning policy with Alan W. Evans. Their report Unaffordable Housing – Fables and Myths won Prospect Magazine’s prize for Publication of the Year at the British Think Tank Awards in 2005.[3]
Some of Hartwich’s policy proposals, such as the establishment of the Office for Budget Responsibility and reforms to strengthen community involvement in town planning, were taken up by the UK government under Prime Minister David Cameron.[4]”
“Hartwich is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Economic Society of Australia, the Foreign Correspondents’ Association, and the German journalistic network Die Achse des Guten.” (The axle of good)
If he would have stuck to the German model he would have to advocate for a lot more social cohesion.
As a rank and file delegate to last weekends Labour Party Regional Conference, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of enthusiasm and good vibes among the delegates.
The Labour Party team from Wellington have done a bloody good job on the Party Review and this was really appreciated by the delegates from my LEC and others around me.
The Region finally has a Strategic Plan and a team that looks capable of pulling it off! There is a Candidates’ and Activists’ School underway and there is real enthusiasm for the campaigns we are being asked to get involved in around the Asset Sales and the Living Wage.
The Regional Council elected over 20 activists to its executive which is pretty good given the Regional Council is sort of irrelevant to most LECs. The new chair also looks like injecting some serious enthusiasm.
I have been to a few of these in the past and they have had none of the enthusiasm and drive this one had.
Finally, David Shearer. A couple of our other delegates were pretty critical of him before his speech but he nailed it. He comes across as a genuine guy who has done some really tough, freaky stuff in his other life.
In summary, a really good Conference with drive, direction and leadership.
Labour Electorate Committee. Its the representatives of the Labour Party branches in an area who oversee the election campaign in their electorate. They work closely with the MP, find volunteers to help etc.
Right David Shearer you sound as if you are prepared for our freaky little NZ and economic and social world problems, so sock us with your capabilities.
Normally a package deal for a conference wouldn’t raise any eyebrows but this Govts dealings with SkyCity are beginning to look a bit suspect, there’s too much of it.
Joyce is too repulsive as a person to be leader…you can’t mix those policies with a face like that. It could have been done 25+ years ago, not now.
He’ll continue to pull the strings, which is ironic, since his eyebrows look like they belong on a muppet. Nat’s need someone a bit more palatable
Palatable? Do you mean cheesy like Jokey Hen? Or lightly grilled like Brownlee? Or with soft, sweet outers but hard centres like most of NACT women MPS?
No such thing as palatable Nat,fatty they are all a sleazy untrustworthy lot.
My bet for their next leader is Groser,a silent rather creepy covert activist,
I would not wish turn my back on him. However I do agree that, like him, Maori language should be compulsory at primary school.
“Maybe The Paula Bennett”
“Interesting how JK tends to put promising women into portfolios where they instigate unpopular austerity policies.”
True…Nat’s have a special place for women. This should be exposed. They soften the blow.
We might laugh, but for many voters Bennett is difficult to dislike…that’s her reason for existing.
C’mon Paula Bennett has graduated from the school of Confident Speech, done well in the Think and Talk on her Feet bracket and can hold her Notes about how bad welfare is against the combined voices of a Heavenly Choir.
Who saw a TV program last night where police could not prosecute a male for “under age sex” because the girl, 14 yrs old would not give evidence. She was a willing partner.
Who thinks that they are a mature adult and they know it all. SO DO NOT QUESTION ME.
Who thinks that they just about know it all, but they can not imagine what else there is to learn.
Who thinks that they are an adventurer on the journey of life. It would be booring if there was nothing to learn.
Who thinks that they do not have to accept responsibility for their actions. SELF SATISFACTION is the key.
Who has got the courage to make a comitment for life. It affects them and so many others.
With so many enthusiastic amateurs on the street, how do the professionals make a living?
You can not expect quality if you buy shop soiled goods.
Sex is a beautiful and unique experience. For so many people it is the CONSUMATION of marriage.
(def:- Of the highest perfection or completeness.) Because it is some times associated with the conception of life, yours and mine, it used to be priviledged to married couples. This situation was never perfect but it was something to aim for. A goal to set. Men and women had respect for each other and one way of showing it was by not demanding self-satisfaction.
How many of my critics have had the courage to make a “promise for life” where both parties will be faithful.
I am not saying that I have been perfect, but it is a goal to aim for.
” Because it is some times associated with the conception of life, yours and mine, it used to be priviledged to married couples.”
Not universally though, and not for all of human history. Many cultures have had different values around marriage and children than the the model you espouse (presumably the Christian one originating in Europe in the past thousand years), and been successful with it. Besides, the only reason we’ve had lifelong monogamy as the only respectable choice until reasonably recently is because it’s been enforced by the church and then by the state. As soon as women achieve emancipation, they mostly make a variety of choices (some of those are lifelong commitments). What does that tell you? Oh, right, it tells *you* that many women are dirty whores.
My parents have been married for over 50 years. I think that’s great, and anyone that wants to do that should be supported. It’s stupid to think that that is what everyone should have, or even want though, not least because humans just don’t act like that given a choice.
Men and women had respect for each other and one way of showing it was by not demanding self-satisfaction.
Men and women can have respect for each other without your authoritarian BS. In fact, marriage is a minority position in world cultures for raising children. Usually marriage is about inheritance and mens control over women and has nothing to do with love or the raising of children. Can’t find the link now but monogamous marriage is actually a minority position across cultures.
Don’t worry, the view of John72 is never linked to any other people.
He is amusing…I like the way his attempt to be the ‘Dalai Lama of The Standard’ is constricted by his inner-Brian Tamaki.
None of none of my critics have addressed my question,”… who has had the courage to make a commitment for life…”?
They all think that they “know it all”
I Corinthians 13:11 ;- When I was a child I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.
John72, I am delighted that you have your faith. I hope it gives you comfort and support. I don’t think that you have chosen the most appropriate forum for pushing your point, however. That said, you have a perfect right to both hold and expound your views, just don’t be surprised when others, some of whom may be of the same faith, disagree with your particular expression of belief.
I also don’t have a problem with your faith or you valuing marriage. I do have a problem with your implications that other forms or relationship are morally deficient.
“None of none of my critics have addressed my question,”… who has had the courage to make a commitment for life…”?”
Lots of people have done this. Many not out of courage, but out of necessity or because it was the only thing on offer. What’s your point?
There are also people who have made other kinds of commitments for life, with courage. What’s your point?
Sometimes resorting to the authority of the bible by plucking out some apparently apposite wisdom is a very unsatisfactory reply to a query or comments.
prism, the bible quotation shows that the thought is not new, just expressed so clearly. Do not be overwhelemed by the bible. So many of the thoughts and parables are still relevant 2000 years later even if you do not believe. A program on TV One this evening made the observation that, physically, the human brain is growing till about 20 years of age. I am sure that emotionally, most of us are maturing for another 50 years. I remember thinking, “50 years ago” that I knew it all. 50 Years ago I wrote some very personal letters to a young lady. They were returned when her interests changed and I was deeply embarrassed to see how much I had matured in 18 months. I hope that some of the contributors to The Standard will not embarrass themselves. Only two people read my letters.
(Quote Graham Greene ) :- ” Morality comes with sad wisdom of age. When the sense of curiosity has withered.”
One thought but, as always, not the complete answer.
So because many people in this pseudonymous forum choose not to share some aspects of their life, you assume that they are not married and are probably young?
Isn’t sex great. You can enjoy it, bash it, judge it, manipulate it. And concentrate on it as The Important Thing in the world and not get half as excited over war and bayonetting babies or anybody and violence and poverty and starvation blah blah. The world’s terrible events and actions continue on, but concentrate on being judgmental about sex why don’t you.
It must be the right way for humans to think as there are whole mass religions based on the idea that sex is all the evil there is, and they must stamp it out.
It must be the right way for humans to think as there are whole mass religions based on the idea that sex is all the evil there is, and they must stamp it out.
What religions would that be then? Your comment shows woeful prejudice and ignorance.
Oddly enough, woeful prejudice and ignorance is what I associate with most organised religions. The maintenance of the religious bureaucracy requires its adherents have blind faith in whatever doctrine is being peddled and it helps to engender prejudice against ‘lesser’ religions to shore up belief in the ‘true’ religion.
I read the article and I must say that the young woman going out and enjoying safe and responsible sex didn’t worry me. The fact that the MSM didn’t hold the parents to account for the horrific way they treated their daughter did. I note that you don’t seem to have anything to say to their virtually imprisoning and spying on the daughter either.
People are ready for sex when they decide and that’s not something that a law can change. We should be on guard against undue influence and coercion but that comes down to rape and if we supported our people fully in their own decisions then we would actually know when that happened as the people raped would be willing to tell us.
Oh, BTW, this young woman sounds as if she’s definitely quality, got the chutzpah to take life in both hands and live it.
How would you know? The reason for the statuatory rape law, as opposed to one that says, okay have sex unless it’s not ok, is because it’s hard to tell what’s ok and what’s not (and we are really pretty bad around the whole consent thing anyway even as adults). You think there aren’t women who ‘consented’ to sex at a young age and were damaged by that experience?
I’m also curious as to what you think the age of consent should be.
The reason for the statuatory rape law, as opposed to one that says, okay have sex unless it’s not ok, is because it’s hard to tell what’s ok and what’s not.
The statutory rape law is because men were going around raping young girls and then saying that they consented. This is where actually believing and supporting peoples decisions help. There’s a reason why rapes don’t get reported and, IMO, its the vilifying and shaming that John72 shows that’s the main reason. We shame woman for having sex and that is completely fucked up.
(and we are really pretty bad around the whole consent thing anyway even as adults)
Yep, that’s because we, as a culture, go round hiding sex behind innuendo and sly glances rather than being open about it.
I’m also curious as to what you think the age of consent should be.
Should there be an age of consent? If the children are well taught, respected and supported by the community then they would know when they’re ready and won’t give in to peer pressure or coercion.
You think there aren’t women who ‘consented’ to sex at a young age and were damaged by that experience?
There was a story a few years ago about a woman who’d had sex with a young boy and he showed changes in personality so, no, I don’t.
Ae, Draco, I agree with most of that. Problem is, we don’t live in a world where children are taught, respected and supported. And even if we did, still not all children would have the skills or knowledge to make good choices about sex. The age that people can do that will always vary, and so the community needs to take some responsibility.
The other problem is that such a high number of 14 year old girls have already been sexually abused, and have not been well supported in dealing with that. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect all of them to be able to make safe decisions where they’ve already been socialised into patterns of behaviour that damage them.
“We shame woman for having sex and that is completely fucked up.”
Yep. And I liked the little bit I saw of what the woman in the article said. Sex positive works for me too. Doesn’t mean the world is safe though.
I see Bert Potter has been mentioned. A pretty good example or the problem
If the 14 year old is fine with it then I’m supportive of their decision.
I remember being 14, and thinking I knew much more than I actually did. The fact is, she’s still legally below the age of consent, and that should be that…
The reason we have statuatory rape laws is to prevent predatory adults coercing people who are no longer children but not yet adults into sex. This doesn’t mean that all sex between a 20 year old and a 14 year old is wrong or abusive (although that age gap makes me uncomfortable).
I haven’t watched the video, but I read the TVNZ page, and the thing that strikes me is that the situation is very complex. I don’t think anyone could make a judgement about that situation based on the information available. I agree with Draco that the woman does seem like she has some sense. But that doesn’t mean the situation was ok when she was 14. When I see reports of multiple 20 yr old men having sex with multiple 14 year old girls, I want someone with some clues to be looking at that closely.
You’d also have to wonder why the 14 year old was running away from home at that age.
I don’t agree that all 14 year old girls are ok to make decisions about sex on their own.
The situation sounds pretty stink all around, but I still think that having sex with a 14yo when you’re 20 or older is just wrong.
I mean, it’s all good to say that it’s one of the rare occasions where all parties concerned gave 100% informed consent and it was all fine, but even in that case…
the males had sex with a 14 year old girl
When one party is that young and there’s an age gap of 6 years or more, that’s getting well into Bert Potter / Gary Glitter territory. It’s just fucked up.
Yeah, she now seems to have a strong sense of self, a university education and to probably have had more difficulty with her family than dealing with that part of her life, but…
the males had sex with a 14 year old girl
It’s not a John72 “soiled goods” line, I’m not lamenting the decline in marriage or pretending that fornication didn’t exist before 1963, I’m just pointing out that
Exactly. Since when was a 14 year-old defined as a consenting adult? And an adult (or 2) having sex with a 14 year-old is exploitative, and that’s the mildest term I can think of.
So it’s been since 1896 that a 14 year-old has been defined as a consenting adult. Good answer, since 1896 males have not been legally allowed to exploit 14 year-olds girls for sex.
to heck with the legality of the situation. Can we just establish whether you think fucking people barely in their teens is an acceptable or normal practise for grown males?
McFlock DTB Is pointing out the reality of the situation that affects young people and age of first sexual experience. I think early NZ had no age limit.
Is it a question of it being “normal” or of it being unhealthy? I certainly don’t consider it unhealthy. Normal is another question that seems to be a cultural value.
And, while were just asking, why the ageism and sexism that you’re showing?
Except in our cultures we have many examples of where it is unhealthy: Bert Potter and co, Pitcairn Island, child pornography and prostitution.
I think it is possible for a 14 yr old girl and a 20 yr old man to have a genuine connection including sex that doesn’t involve manipulation or abuse or power over. But I don’t think that is common, and we have far to many examples of where it IS unhealthy, to consider your argument as anything other than abstract.
Sexism? The case involved mature males and a young female. My criticism stands regardless of gender.
Ageism? Damned straight: there are power imbalances between aduts and children in society, and adolescents and children have cognitive performance issues compared with adults. This makes me question, as a general rule, the ability of children to enter into a sexual relationship with adults as equal partners in the relationship.
But both of those points are irrelevant.
The dudes fucked a kid.
Am I culturally biased against adults screwing kids or young adolescents? I should fucking hope so.
I couldn’t quite figure it out. Did he just call the 14 year old girl a whore who can no longer have meaningful relationships because she is dirty for the rest of her life? Did he just imply that sex workers are dirty and can’t offer any quality service. Or did he mean that men can’t buy decent wives if women have been soiling themselves by running round fucking already?
I guess that is the case. But what do you expect from a bible bashing bigot.
He didn’t say any of the above, you simply chose to interpret his words the way you want to.
Sex workers are dirty*, and further more as the experience of Leah Stephens and Jayne Furlong show, they can never be anything else! The media won’t let them. (I remember reading an article by Leah Stephens’ mother, in which she talked about how much it upset her to have the word ‘prostitute’ appended to her murdered daughter’s name as if it was part of it.)
* But they don’t have to always be dirty, unless they want to be, which I seriously doubt. It’s just a whole lot harder to ever be anything else, since it’s all been legalised – I think that every time I see a job advert on TradeMe for a ‘massage girl’. (I was very naive once even though I was 28 years old, and I asked my neighbour who was a ‘massage girl’ at the time, if there were any jobs going where she worked. Then she told me what massage girls actually do! 😀 )
Sounds like she might have more brains than John72.
Although I’m gobsmacked the guys weren’t charged, but then that’s not uncommon “policing”. Don’t do a thing unless a cast-iron case is handed to you by other people who gathered the evidence, which you then refer on and call it a clearance. The difference between “investigators” and sinecure-holders who are just treading water.
While discussing Pike River on Radionz this morning, the speaker referred to services working in dangerous circumstances like firemen, police not being prepared to take risks to carry out their duties effectively. Which I agree is happening in NZ. Remember police staying outside a dairy where a man had been shot while a man was dying inside. The memories of Aramoana may have imprinted into the police heads so that they are so cautious they can’t fulfil their role of protection and assistance to the public and see it as car chasers, drug baggers and protest busters.
At Pike River there was absolute refusal by police to consider an entry and penetration of the mine, even if there were gas checks and with safety precautions. While they were not prepared to do this, they also barred others from being involved in exploratory trials. But experienced miners could have formed opinions about the feasibility if information was gathered and shared, and those with family down there would have tried if feasible.
The police were not the appropriate authority in this situation. Search and rescue was the main task, not treating the area as a crime scene with bodies as evidence of possible law breaking of safety procedures. The police response is to assume sole authority and bar the public from consultation, involvement and support for their desired initiatives. An inclusive and consultative approach, still under police authority, would be a better way to manage crises.
grumpy I don’t know that there was no danger in the dairy, but did the police attempt a maneouvre to find out? I think they stood by for 15-20 mins and the dairy owner died as a result of the burglar’s shot. It didn’t feel right to me.
Ain’t just NZ. A guy fell into a duck pond in the UK and was floating face down. Firemen stood at the pond side and did nothing because it was against regulations to enter water over 3 foot deep. Judge eventually concluded that the drowned guy could possibly have been saved if action had been taken…ie resuscitated. A photo emerged of a fireman recovering the body…after all due safety considerations and measures had been fully implemented of course! He was wading in chest deep water.
Woman fell down a disused mine shaft. Firemen were about to lower themselves down to get her out. (She had broken bones and was suffering from exposure. Someone had already been lowered with blankets and come back up). Head honcho arrives on the scene and orders everyone to stand down until all safety considerations had been worked through and corresponding measures put in place. She died because that process took several hours.
I don’t know what it is that makes adherance to a rule or regulation more important than a life. I don’t know where such a culture of safety came from or why it is tolerated, but hey. The moral of the story would be that if you get in shit you better hope it’s just a passer by who will be your potential rescuer, I guess.
It is hardly surprising that initiative in people is reducing as the ever-expanding bubble of government intervention in lives grows. Responsibility is being removed from individuals and given to ‘authorities’.
vto I personally don’t like the idea of responsibility being largely left to individuals to manage how they can. I think that authorities and government should work WITH people for the best result for the individual need and the social ‘fabric’. Not over people or ignore some people but put our collective taxes to provide help that people have difficulty providing on their own.
Was just off idly speculating and, well…members of the police force are probably of a personality type that doesn’t question authority. So if rules and regulations are an expression of authority and are disseminated by a person in a higher position of authority, then a paralysis of initiative would be ‘on the cards’, no?
But it goes beyond police officers or others in positions that rely on a certain codification (if that’s the correct expression for written rules, regulations and procedures ) of authority.
I think there’s a pervasive mentality whereby people simply won’t question authority whether that be the boss, the teacher or whoever. And as for defying authority, well that’s ‘unthinkable’ for most (maybe).
Is it unreasonable to suggest that in the past a rescue team comprised of miners might have simply responded to police ‘forbidding’ mine entry with a “Bite me” attitude and proceeded anyway? This paralysis of independent action in the face of authority; this apparent inability to question or defy it seems to have become somewhat pervasive in society. Why?
When and how did we become so well trained?
Government and various authorities have been around for a long, long time and have probably always acted in a basically conservative fashion, ie relied on ‘rules and regulations’. I don’t think anything much has changed there. But our relationship to them has. We defer and comply far more readily than we once did. And not just to overt commands issued from a person. But to a 1001 ‘indicators’ that invisibly or subtly extend authority…signs telling us we ‘can’t’ enter though this door because it’s for exiting only…lines on floors that no-one stands beyond even when, in given situations, there’s no reason not to. And so on and so on. Culminating in us learning to do what we are told to do.
Messrs prism and Bill, in the past government was much smaller. Tiny in fact. No social welfare, no public education system, not even any income tax and few other taxes. Certainly no health & safety legislation.
Today government is collosal in comparison.
As I said above, I think you will find the answer to your questions inside that fact. Today people have less responsibility for much of their lives, less accountability, less need to provide for themselves, less empathy for their fellow manwoman. All because those things are provided today by the state – so they don’t need to. And now it has become embedded. Something up? Look to government. Something threatening? Ask the appropriate authority. That ladder looks wobbly? Look up the health & safety booklet. Everything is prescribed.
The answer to this issue is simple, which is rare.
vto
Are you from USA? That’s what they or large numbers in some states, believe. They aren’t very impressive as examples of 21st century people.
The pioneers in NZ had it tough, had to look to themselves and the class system was strong. Little Lil and the lamp in Katherine Mansfield’s story The Doll’s House really displays how unhappy being independent of help and dependent on the whims of charity felt to the poor.
Trouble there are fashions in opinion and behaviour. Overconcern for personal comfort, high salaries and corporate good public relations is in fashion at the moment rather than a commitment to duty and service to the public. Which is what prompted the comment.
Ok, maybe we are talking about different things. You seem to be talking about the poor and how a community looks after them. I was responding to the issue of firemen not going into 3ft deep water to save a drowning man, policemen not going into a dairy to save a shot man, and police refusing to enter Pike – and the reasons behind this change in culture around initiative. My point excluded any class distinctions.
I disagree. In order to have the wealth and prosperity we need stabilization measures. Obviously they don’t need to be government driven, but just are because of the clueless right who just don’t want to give up control unless its total, or the clueless left who don’t want to give up control if when its empowering to the people.
But its naive the extreme to believe that without welfare, for individuals and corporations, that much of society as exists today, that we benefit from would actually exist. In fact we’d have to invent welfare and redistribution to get the mass society we have now.
Just because we have massive pollution social, fiscal, environmental, does not mean we should sack government, which would result in short life spans, little exotic or mass pollution, or fiscal global banking crisis. we shoudl sack government when we have a better approach to those tasks. i.e. Simplistically demand government non-existance is banal, venal and retarded.
The internet provides the means to reorganize the human world in entirely new ways, but requires local-ism, a local right to food, housing, education and healthcare, out of the purview of centralized states or corporations.
I don’t know what it is that makes adherance to a rule or regulation more important than a life.
When an action could endanger more lives. Of course, what we’re seeing here is the process of safety taken to extremes.
I don’t know where such a culture of safety came from or why it is tolerated, but hey.
Because if proper process isn’t followed and death occurs due to those actions then the people who took action will be up in court and vilified by the MSM.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing overall (it’s much better than the other extreme), but there should probably be a tweaking of legislation to explicitly give a “competent samaritan” immunity – something about not being liable for H&S actions if you are reasonably experienced to estimate risks in that situation, impose that risk only on yourself or other volunteers (in the case of collaborative efforts) and can reasonably expect to lessen the risk to life of another person.
John 15:13 No greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.
After the second Christchurch EQ, when the rescue helicopter was working for hours around the city, it was being operated outside it’s normal operating limits to save lives. The crew got away with it and rescued many people. If they had made a mistake, people who were not there would have crucified them for breaking some rule.
“I don’t know where such a culture of safety came from or why it is tolerated, but hey.”
In NZ the watershed moment is Cave Creek. That’s the point where kiwi ingenuity/# 8 wire mentality failed abysmally. Because that happened under the responsibility of a Minister of the Crown, it’s made government employees very very cautious since.
Likewise the bridge that collapsed on private land killing a beekeeper. The bridge had been built by the army when the land was under previous ownership. The owners at the time have spent years in court subsequently. This has made private land owners very very cautious since.
Leaky building syndrome is the other pertinent one. In that case it’s the local body govt that is paranoid.
What had changed in NZ society to allow those things to happen?
btw, I’m not sure the problem is a culture of safety. I think it’s a culture of denial. It’s the idea that we can control everything and avoid all risk. This makes us blind to risk assessment that is actually useful on the ground.
We see it in the way children are often raised now too. Trying to control all risk has replaced teaching kids their own risk assessment skills.
Having to make changes to and effectively re-write the budget before the inks even dry is gross incompetence that only a National government could display…
They probably don’t think the details are important as long as we’re all moving in the (very) right direction. I tend to see it as a mixture of incompetence and absolute arrogance.
Thinking upon the words of John72 above, the tide of history has turned against that great institution, the traditional Christian church. For me it was starkly symbolised when the response of the Anglican diocese to a smashed ChristChurch Cathedral was to build a colourful cardboard box and call that a house of worship! It seems that solidity, dignity, tradition, conservatism, have been shaken and not withstood the turmoil of global events.
The great empires of Europe – gone. The mighty totalitarian states – disintegrated. The ancient religious institutions – decayed and irrelevant. The supremacy of finance and oil based economics – collapsing under their own weight of greed and power lust.
Freedom of thought, sexuality, and worship were always attacked by the forces of fear and doubt.
John72, the Creator gave us free will, a mind, body and life, not to live like a slave but to flourish.
Some observations of no real import but….
Has anyone notice that while Mr Joyce is replying to questions in the house in his usual condescending tone, he never looks anyone on the eye. What sort of personal insecurity is going on there?
Perhaps that’s why he pretends that he has a brain the size of a planet and eveybody else is a fool. Compensation for having a small….
I understand why English doesn’t look at the opposition but always looks up to the gallery – it’s the shame he feels about his problem with premature projections.
Tremaine and Bridges are keen little brown-nosers and eagerly nod their heads like bobble-head lap-dogs. Bridges especially makes a duck face, adopts a furrowed brow and nods.
The Speaker habitually responds to opposition points of order by telling the person who raised it why they are wrong – even if it is he that is wrong.
Is it me or are Winston’s questions incomprehensible?
So I get that Cameron wants his own billionaire’s retreat and that we are naive enough to be selling anything that’s not nailed down at the moment, but am I the only one that thinks 11,000,000m2 of land and a medium sized lake is a bit – ah – esurient?
Or putting it another way, if each of the US’s 30,000 ‘Ultra-HNWIs’ decided to buy a modest Cameron sized slice of the country, that would be the entire land area of NZ.
***
In February, The Dominion Post revealed he had applied for residency under Immigration NZ’s Investment Plus category – reserved for those investing more than $10m. As such, the 57-year-old director must now spend at least 44 days in New Zealand each year in the final two years of a three- year investment period.
***
Who comes up with that stuff? $10m + 44 days??
I live in a part of the country where it’s normal to have farms above 1000ha in size, so for me it’s not the size that’s the issue. I would want to know what joining those farms does to the local community, including what will happen if Cameron wants to sell. Also, what does it mean in terms of management of the land – does it increase sustainability or decrease it?
And he shouldn’t be allowed to buy the land until he lives here, and demonstrates that he actually wants to be a NZer (as opposed to just wanting to live here because the US is so crap now).
Point taken regarding NZ station sizes, particularly in the South Island – the Shania Twain estate purchases were in the region of 25,000ha, so 1000ha is comparatively small (comparative being the operative word).
But is Cameron’s land-grab really anything to do with ‘farming’ ? Why buy the adjacent lake plus 313 ha of covenanted bush? When looked at in totality, it’s more akin to building an estate or fiefdom.
Regarding sustainability, in a strict ecological sense the most sustainable option would indeed be to sell all of NZ’s farms to Ultra-HNWIs who could then retire the land from dairy production and instead use them as personal playground, but is ‘Investment Plus’ a sustainable strategy as a country?
Have to admit, if I had Cameron’s money I’d be buying up land to prevent it being converted to dairy. I’d probably let it grow gorse too, and then regenerate to native bush. I’m sure that would go down well.
I think CV’s point is good, but I’m still waiting for the work to be done on how much land NZ needs to feed itself. As opposed to how much land we need in agriculture to export our millennia of fertility to China etc.
I was of course meaning ecological sustainability not economic.
I’ve come to the conclusion that to own land you should be a citizen and spend 80% of your time in the country. That way you’re connected to the community.
Just flicked over to Kiwiblog to see if there was any substance to the Jones resignation story referred to here on the Standard (there isn’t). Couldn’t help but notice that the Curia ‘average’ poll of polls hasn’t been updated for 5 weeks. How curious. Could it be because Farrar can’t bring himself to publish the bad news that NZ is no longer BFF with Mr Australia?
…which is precisely the point: to let big communities take over and rule smaller ones against their will. Whatever you want to call this, it isn’t democracy.
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
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Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
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Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
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Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
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Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
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 The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
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A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, 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 ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
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ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
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Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
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Germany’s six-point plan for sweatshop Europe
Sounds pretty close to NACT policy for Aotearoa.
“Sounds pretty close to NACT policy for Aotearoa.”
And a carbon copy blue-print of what they did to East Germany following reunification.
The new director of Business Roundtable et al called Innovate NZ? is Oliver someone from Germany who doesn’t believe that left and right wing have any basis any more but basically free and non-free markets. An excellent choice for his position by the sounds of him. Interviewed this a.m. by Kathryn Ryan.
Leading the new organisation will be German-born economist Oliver Hartwich, currently a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Independent Studies, a Roundtable-equivalent organisation that at one stage had operations in New Zealand.
“The merger comes at a time when other business lobby groups are also merging or closing, most notably the recent folding of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development into Business New Zealand, the closure this week of the Greenhouse Policy Coalition, and the creation of a new Financial Services Council from several smaller bodies”
“The new think tank has been named The New Zealand Initiative. It will build on the legacies of its two founding organisations and will focus on raising debate on public policy and contributing bold, rigorously-researched ideas to achieve a more prosperous future for New Zealand’
–Done a slap up job before they merged in achieving a more prosperous NZ…shuffle around, consolidate, confuse, dominate!
— SO even the lobby groups are now merging…We are well andf truly heading down the wrong path here…
How to take over institutions, companies, whole countries 101: Play the long game, and ensure that you have foothold across all industry, and public life…only those from certain backgrounds, educations, families etc will fill roles which control and determine direction…revolving door policy between public and private entities to ensure “strong” ties to legislature. Take it slow, most people will never notice. Repeat cycle until full control is gained, and if people start to suspect, use media arm to change tact to support opposition to elections victory. Ensure another 3-6 year period to further decay society, and remove wealth from country..Repeat as often as required to maintain the illusion of democracy!
Herr Hartwich will no doubt be writing the Welfare, Education and Justice policies for Aotearoa now. Independent in the name is about as meaningless as it is in the name of the IPCA.
And where did he learn all this befuddled thinking?
“He started his career as a Research Assistant to Lord Matthew Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay in the UK House of Lords in 2004. From January 2005 to October 2008, he worked for the British think tank Policy Exchange, first as a Research Fellow and then as Chief Economist.[2]
At Policy Exchange, Hartwich co-authored several reports on housing and planning policy with Alan W. Evans. Their report Unaffordable Housing – Fables and Myths won Prospect Magazine’s prize for Publication of the Year at the British Think Tank Awards in 2005.[3]
Some of Hartwich’s policy proposals, such as the establishment of the Office for Budget Responsibility and reforms to strengthen community involvement in town planning, were taken up by the UK government under Prime Minister David Cameron.[4]”
“Hartwich is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, the Economic Society of Australia, the Foreign Correspondents’ Association, and the German journalistic network Die Achse des Guten.” (The axle of good)
If he would have stuck to the German model he would have to advocate for a lot more social cohesion.
Ironically it is Germany that was the birthplace of the welfare state.
A delegates view
As a rank and file delegate to last weekends Labour Party Regional Conference, I was pleasantly surprised at the level of enthusiasm and good vibes among the delegates.
The Labour Party team from Wellington have done a bloody good job on the Party Review and this was really appreciated by the delegates from my LEC and others around me.
The Region finally has a Strategic Plan and a team that looks capable of pulling it off! There is a Candidates’ and Activists’ School underway and there is real enthusiasm for the campaigns we are being asked to get involved in around the Asset Sales and the Living Wage.
The Regional Council elected over 20 activists to its executive which is pretty good given the Regional Council is sort of irrelevant to most LECs. The new chair also looks like injecting some serious enthusiasm.
I have been to a few of these in the past and they have had none of the enthusiasm and drive this one had.
Finally, David Shearer. A couple of our other delegates were pretty critical of him before his speech but he nailed it. He comes across as a genuine guy who has done some really tough, freaky stuff in his other life.
In summary, a really good Conference with drive, direction and leadership.
LEC means??
I am not understanding this LEC
🙂 Thank you
Labour Electorate Committee. Its the representatives of the Labour Party branches in an area who oversee the election campaign in their electorate. They work closely with the MP, find volunteers to help etc.
Thank you TRP
Now i understand allot better 🙂
Google was not help in the instance 🙂
Right David Shearer you sound as if you are prepared for our freaky little NZ and economic and social world problems, so sock us with your capabilities.
Is SkyCity the only business this Govt knows, here they are cropping up yet again and benefiting from the taxpayers largesse;
“Immigration NZ staff meet costs taxpayers $191k”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10809713
Normally a package deal for a conference wouldn’t raise any eyebrows but this Govts dealings with SkyCity are beginning to look a bit suspect, there’s too much of it.
Didn’t take Hekia long to rise to the level of her incompetence.
Who does that leave as the next Nat leader? Just Collins (lol) and Joyce, isn’t it?
Talk about the shallow end of the talent pool.
“and Joyce, isn’t it?”
Joyce is too repulsive as a person to be leader…you can’t mix those policies with a face like that. It could have been done 25+ years ago, not now.
He’ll continue to pull the strings, which is ironic, since his eyebrows look like they belong on a muppet. Nat’s need someone a bit more palatable
I understand this point well 🙂
He looks very umm mean
But the muppets are very funny
He is not
Maybe The Paula Bennett 😛
Palatable? Do you mean cheesy like Jokey Hen? Or lightly grilled like Brownlee? Or with soft, sweet outers but hard centres like most of NACT women MPS?
Which NACT woman MP has anything sweet about her?
No such thing as palatable Nat,fatty they are all a sleazy untrustworthy lot.
My bet for their next leader is Groser,a silent rather creepy covert activist,
I would not wish turn my back on him. However I do agree that, like him, Maori language should be compulsory at primary school.
You know, having being heavily exposed to the Maori language from New Entrant to 4th form, I thought it already was…
Interesting how JK tends to put promising women into portfolios where they instigate unpopular austerity policies.
“Maybe The Paula Bennett”
“Interesting how JK tends to put promising women into portfolios where they instigate unpopular austerity policies.”
True…Nat’s have a special place for women. This should be exposed. They soften the blow.
We might laugh, but for many voters Bennett is difficult to dislike…that’s her reason for existing.
C’mon Paula Bennett has graduated from the school of Confident Speech, done well in the Think and Talk on her Feet bracket and can hold her Notes about how bad welfare is against the combined voices of a Heavenly Choir.
That’s been going on for years, and not just under National.
Since before Shipley as welfare minister.
Oh yes, the Nats did that in the 90s too…
Who saw a TV program last night where police could not prosecute a male for “under age sex” because the girl, 14 yrs old would not give evidence. She was a willing partner.
Who thinks that they are a mature adult and they know it all. SO DO NOT QUESTION ME.
Who thinks that they just about know it all, but they can not imagine what else there is to learn.
Who thinks that they are an adventurer on the journey of life. It would be booring if there was nothing to learn.
Who thinks that they do not have to accept responsibility for their actions. SELF SATISFACTION is the key.
Who has got the courage to make a comitment for life. It affects them and so many others.
With so many enthusiastic amateurs on the street, how do the professionals make a living?
You can not expect quality if you buy shop soiled goods.
If the 72 means your age John then tone it down. You are giving the rest of us a bad rap.
The truth hurts.
Sex is a beautiful and unique experience. For so many people it is the CONSUMATION of marriage.
(def:- Of the highest perfection or completeness.) Because it is some times associated with the conception of life, yours and mine, it used to be priviledged to married couples. This situation was never perfect but it was something to aim for. A goal to set. Men and women had respect for each other and one way of showing it was by not demanding self-satisfaction.
How many of my critics have had the courage to make a “promise for life” where both parties will be faithful.
I am not saying that I have been perfect, but it is a goal to aim for.
Funnily enough, I always thought that promising life-partnership was the consummation of a relationship.
” Because it is some times associated with the conception of life, yours and mine, it used to be priviledged to married couples.”
Not universally though, and not for all of human history. Many cultures have had different values around marriage and children than the the model you espouse (presumably the Christian one originating in Europe in the past thousand years), and been successful with it. Besides, the only reason we’ve had lifelong monogamy as the only respectable choice until reasonably recently is because it’s been enforced by the church and then by the state. As soon as women achieve emancipation, they mostly make a variety of choices (some of those are lifelong commitments). What does that tell you? Oh, right, it tells *you* that many women are dirty whores.
My parents have been married for over 50 years. I think that’s great, and anyone that wants to do that should be supported. It’s stupid to think that that is what everyone should have, or even want though, not least because humans just don’t act like that given a choice.
Weka, that is an unwarranted assumption on your part, you don’t know that he thinks that…
Yes we do, he said quite explicitly.
Beautiful but not unique.
Men and women can have respect for each other without your authoritarian BS. In fact, marriage is a minority position in world cultures for raising children. Usually marriage is about inheritance and mens control over women and has nothing to do with love or the raising of children. Can’t find the link now but monogamous marriage is actually a minority position across cultures.
Me also! Agreed John 72… 😀
Don’t worry, the view of John72 is never linked to any other people.
He is amusing…I like the way his attempt to be the ‘Dalai Lama of The Standard’ is constricted by his inner-Brian Tamaki.
Lol. That’s very funny fatty.
None of none of my critics have addressed my question,”… who has had the courage to make a commitment for life…”?
They all think that they “know it all”
I Corinthians 13:11 ;- When I was a child I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put away childish things.
John72, I am delighted that you have your faith. I hope it gives you comfort and support. I don’t think that you have chosen the most appropriate forum for pushing your point, however. That said, you have a perfect right to both hold and expound your views, just don’t be surprised when others, some of whom may be of the same faith, disagree with your particular expression of belief.
I also don’t have a problem with your faith or you valuing marriage. I do have a problem with your implications that other forms or relationship are morally deficient.
“None of none of my critics have addressed my question,”… who has had the courage to make a commitment for life…”?”
Lots of people have done this. Many not out of courage, but out of necessity or because it was the only thing on offer. What’s your point?
There are also people who have made other kinds of commitments for life, with courage. What’s your point?
Sometimes resorting to the authority of the bible by plucking out some apparently apposite wisdom is a very unsatisfactory reply to a query or comments.
prism, the bible quotation shows that the thought is not new, just expressed so clearly. Do not be overwhelemed by the bible. So many of the thoughts and parables are still relevant 2000 years later even if you do not believe. A program on TV One this evening made the observation that, physically, the human brain is growing till about 20 years of age. I am sure that emotionally, most of us are maturing for another 50 years. I remember thinking, “50 years ago” that I knew it all. 50 Years ago I wrote some very personal letters to a young lady. They were returned when her interests changed and I was deeply embarrassed to see how much I had matured in 18 months. I hope that some of the contributors to The Standard will not embarrass themselves. Only two people read my letters.
(Quote Graham Greene ) :- ” Morality comes with sad wisdom of age. When the sense of curiosity has withered.”
One thought but, as always, not the complete answer.
So because many people in this pseudonymous forum choose not to share some aspects of their life, you assume that they are not married and are probably young?
Isn’t sex great. You can enjoy it, bash it, judge it, manipulate it. And concentrate on it as The Important Thing in the world and not get half as excited over war and bayonetting babies or anybody and violence and poverty and starvation blah blah. The world’s terrible events and actions continue on, but concentrate on being judgmental about sex why don’t you.
It must be the right way for humans to think as there are whole mass religions based on the idea that sex is all the evil there is, and they must stamp it out.
What religions would that be then? Your comment shows woeful prejudice and ignorance.
Oddly enough, woeful prejudice and ignorance is what I associate with most organised religions. The maintenance of the religious bureaucracy requires its adherents have blind faith in whatever doctrine is being peddled and it helps to engender prejudice against ‘lesser’ religions to shore up belief in the ‘true’ religion.
I read the article and I must say that the young woman going out and enjoying safe and responsible sex didn’t worry me. The fact that the MSM didn’t hold the parents to account for the horrific way they treated their daughter did. I note that you don’t seem to have anything to say to their virtually imprisoning and spying on the daughter either.
People are ready for sex when they decide and that’s not something that a law can change. We should be on guard against undue influence and coercion but that comes down to rape and if we supported our people fully in their own decisions then we would actually know when that happened as the people raped would be willing to tell us.
Oh, BTW, this young woman sounds as if she’s definitely quality, got the chutzpah to take life in both hands and live it.
So you think it’s OK for 20 year olds to have sex with a 14 year old ?
If the 14 year old is fine with it then I’m supportive of their decision.
How would you know? The reason for the statuatory rape law, as opposed to one that says, okay have sex unless it’s not ok, is because it’s hard to tell what’s ok and what’s not (and we are really pretty bad around the whole consent thing anyway even as adults). You think there aren’t women who ‘consented’ to sex at a young age and were damaged by that experience?
I’m also curious as to what you think the age of consent should be.
How about we ask?
The statutory rape law is because men were going around raping young girls and then saying that they consented. This is where actually believing and supporting peoples decisions help. There’s a reason why rapes don’t get reported and, IMO, its the vilifying and shaming that John72 shows that’s the main reason. We shame woman for having sex and that is completely fucked up.
Yep, that’s because we, as a culture, go round hiding sex behind innuendo and sly glances rather than being open about it.
Should there be an age of consent? If the children are well taught, respected and supported by the community then they would know when they’re ready and won’t give in to peer pressure or coercion.
There was a story a few years ago about a woman who’d had sex with a young boy and he showed changes in personality so, no, I don’t.
Ae, Draco, I agree with most of that. Problem is, we don’t live in a world where children are taught, respected and supported. And even if we did, still not all children would have the skills or knowledge to make good choices about sex. The age that people can do that will always vary, and so the community needs to take some responsibility.
The other problem is that such a high number of 14 year old girls have already been sexually abused, and have not been well supported in dealing with that. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect all of them to be able to make safe decisions where they’ve already been socialised into patterns of behaviour that damage them.
“We shame woman for having sex and that is completely fucked up.”
Yep. And I liked the little bit I saw of what the woman in the article said. Sex positive works for me too. Doesn’t mean the world is safe though.
I see Bert Potter has been mentioned. A pretty good example or the problem
I remember being 14, and thinking I knew much more than I actually did. The fact is, she’s still legally below the age of consent, and that should be that…
14 year old me was pretty keen on the concept. Shame there were no takers.
The reason we have statuatory rape laws is to prevent predatory adults coercing people who are no longer children but not yet adults into sex. This doesn’t mean that all sex between a 20 year old and a 14 year old is wrong or abusive (although that age gap makes me uncomfortable).
I haven’t watched the video, but I read the TVNZ page, and the thing that strikes me is that the situation is very complex. I don’t think anyone could make a judgement about that situation based on the information available. I agree with Draco that the woman does seem like she has some sense. But that doesn’t mean the situation was ok when she was 14. When I see reports of multiple 20 yr old men having sex with multiple 14 year old girls, I want someone with some clues to be looking at that closely.
You’d also have to wonder why the 14 year old was running away from home at that age.
I don’t agree that all 14 year old girls are ok to make decisions about sex on their own.
The situation sounds pretty stink all around, but I still think that having sex with a 14yo when you’re 20 or older is just wrong.
I mean, it’s all good to say that it’s one of the rare occasions where all parties concerned gave 100% informed consent and it was all fine, but even in that case…
the males had sex with a 14 year old girl
When one party is that young and there’s an age gap of 6 years or more, that’s getting well into Bert Potter / Gary Glitter territory. It’s just fucked up.
Yeah, she now seems to have a strong sense of self, a university education and to probably have had more difficulty with her family than dealing with that part of her life, but…
the males had sex with a 14 year old girl
It’s not a John72 “soiled goods” line, I’m not lamenting the decline in marriage or pretending that fornication didn’t exist before 1963, I’m just pointing out that
the males had sex with a 14 year old girl
That’s the issue I have with the story.
Exactly. Since when was a 14 year-old defined as a consenting adult? And an adult (or 2) having sex with a 14 year-old is exploitative, and that’s the mildest term I can think of.
Oh, since about forever. 16 is actually a fairly modern change (1896 in NZ).
So it’s been since 1896 that a 14 year-old has been defined as a consenting adult. Good answer, since 1896 males have not been legally allowed to exploit 14 year-olds girls for sex.
Draco,
to heck with the legality of the situation. Can we just establish whether you think fucking people barely in their teens is an acceptable or normal practise for grown males?
Just asking.
McFlock DTB Is pointing out the reality of the situation that affects young people and age of first sexual experience. I think early NZ had no age limit.
The age of the first sexual experience isn’t a problem – kids have been shagging each other for millenia.
It’s the age of the sexual partner I have an issue with. What sort of adult even considers having sex with someone that age?
Is it a question of it being “normal” or of it being unhealthy? I certainly don’t consider it unhealthy. Normal is another question that seems to be a cultural value.
And, while were just asking, why the ageism and sexism that you’re showing?
Except in our cultures we have many examples of where it is unhealthy: Bert Potter and co, Pitcairn Island, child pornography and prostitution.
I think it is possible for a 14 yr old girl and a 20 yr old man to have a genuine connection including sex that doesn’t involve manipulation or abuse or power over. But I don’t think that is common, and we have far to many examples of where it IS unhealthy, to consider your argument as anything other than abstract.
Sexism? The case involved mature males and a young female. My criticism stands regardless of gender.
Ageism? Damned straight: there are power imbalances between aduts and children in society, and adolescents and children have cognitive performance issues compared with adults. This makes me question, as a general rule, the ability of children to enter into a sexual relationship with adults as equal partners in the relationship.
But both of those points are irrelevant.
The dudes fucked a kid.
Am I culturally biased against adults screwing kids or young adolescents? I should fucking hope so.
There were way more issues in that family than the daughter having sex with older men.
Thousands of parents manage their way through that without getting slapped with a divorce from their kid.
You can not expect quality if you buy shop soiled goods
Offensive. And very telling…
You remind me of the Eagle on the muppets.
I couldn’t quite figure it out. Did he just call the 14 year old girl a whore who can no longer have meaningful relationships because she is dirty for the rest of her life? Did he just imply that sex workers are dirty and can’t offer any quality service. Or did he mean that men can’t buy decent wives if women have been soiling themselves by running round fucking already?
I guess that is the case. But what do you expect from a bible bashing bigot.
He didn’t say any of the above, you simply chose to interpret his words the way you want to.
Sex workers are dirty*, and further more as the experience of Leah Stephens and Jayne Furlong show, they can never be anything else! The media won’t let them. (I remember reading an article by Leah Stephens’ mother, in which she talked about how much it upset her to have the word ‘prostitute’ appended to her murdered daughter’s name as if it was part of it.)
* But they don’t have to always be dirty, unless they want to be, which I seriously doubt. It’s just a whole lot harder to ever be anything else, since it’s all been legalised – I think that every time I see a job advert on TradeMe for a ‘massage girl’. (I was very naive once even though I was 28 years old, and I asked my neighbour who was a ‘massage girl’ at the time, if there were any jobs going where she worked. Then she told me what massage girls actually do! 😀 )
All the above weka.
Sounds like she might have more brains than John72.
Although I’m gobsmacked the guys weren’t charged, but then that’s not uncommon “policing”. Don’t do a thing unless a cast-iron case is handed to you by other people who gathered the evidence, which you then refer on and call it a clearance. The difference between “investigators” and sinecure-holders who are just treading water.
I wonder if this is how “honour killings” are justified by family members.
While discussing Pike River on Radionz this morning, the speaker referred to services working in dangerous circumstances like firemen, police not being prepared to take risks to carry out their duties effectively. Which I agree is happening in NZ. Remember police staying outside a dairy where a man had been shot while a man was dying inside. The memories of Aramoana may have imprinted into the police heads so that they are so cautious they can’t fulfil their role of protection and assistance to the public and see it as car chasers, drug baggers and protest busters.
At Pike River there was absolute refusal by police to consider an entry and penetration of the mine, even if there were gas checks and with safety precautions. While they were not prepared to do this, they also barred others from being involved in exploratory trials. But experienced miners could have formed opinions about the feasibility if information was gathered and shared, and those with family down there would have tried if feasible.
The police were not the appropriate authority in this situation. Search and rescue was the main task, not treating the area as a crime scene with bodies as evidence of possible law breaking of safety procedures. The police response is to assume sole authority and bar the public from consultation, involvement and support for their desired initiatives. An inclusive and consultative approach, still under police authority, would be a better way to manage crises.
Sad but true. See also the actions of police in the Christchurch earthquake, which led to the deaths of some victims.
Who will ever forget the cowardice they showed with the dairy owner being allowed to bleed to death, even though they knew there was no danger……………
grumpy I don’t know that there was no danger in the dairy, but did the police attempt a maneouvre to find out? I think they stood by for 15-20 mins and the dairy owner died as a result of the burglar’s shot. It didn’t feel right to me.
Ain’t just NZ. A guy fell into a duck pond in the UK and was floating face down. Firemen stood at the pond side and did nothing because it was against regulations to enter water over 3 foot deep. Judge eventually concluded that the drowned guy could possibly have been saved if action had been taken…ie resuscitated. A photo emerged of a fireman recovering the body…after all due safety considerations and measures had been fully implemented of course! He was wading in chest deep water.
Woman fell down a disused mine shaft. Firemen were about to lower themselves down to get her out. (She had broken bones and was suffering from exposure. Someone had already been lowered with blankets and come back up). Head honcho arrives on the scene and orders everyone to stand down until all safety considerations had been worked through and corresponding measures put in place. She died because that process took several hours.
I don’t know what it is that makes adherance to a rule or regulation more important than a life. I don’t know where such a culture of safety came from or why it is tolerated, but hey. The moral of the story would be that if you get in shit you better hope it’s just a passer by who will be your potential rescuer, I guess.
It is hardly surprising that initiative in people is reducing as the ever-expanding bubble of government intervention in lives grows. Responsibility is being removed from individuals and given to ‘authorities’.
vto I personally don’t like the idea of responsibility being largely left to individuals to manage how they can. I think that authorities and government should work WITH people for the best result for the individual need and the social ‘fabric’. Not over people or ignore some people but put our collective taxes to provide help that people have difficulty providing on their own.
Was just off idly speculating and, well…members of the police force are probably of a personality type that doesn’t question authority. So if rules and regulations are an expression of authority and are disseminated by a person in a higher position of authority, then a paralysis of initiative would be ‘on the cards’, no?
But it goes beyond police officers or others in positions that rely on a certain codification (if that’s the correct expression for written rules, regulations and procedures ) of authority.
I think there’s a pervasive mentality whereby people simply won’t question authority whether that be the boss, the teacher or whoever. And as for defying authority, well that’s ‘unthinkable’ for most (maybe).
Is it unreasonable to suggest that in the past a rescue team comprised of miners might have simply responded to police ‘forbidding’ mine entry with a “Bite me” attitude and proceeded anyway? This paralysis of independent action in the face of authority; this apparent inability to question or defy it seems to have become somewhat pervasive in society. Why?
When and how did we become so well trained?
Government and various authorities have been around for a long, long time and have probably always acted in a basically conservative fashion, ie relied on ‘rules and regulations’. I don’t think anything much has changed there. But our relationship to them has. We defer and comply far more readily than we once did. And not just to overt commands issued from a person. But to a 1001 ‘indicators’ that invisibly or subtly extend authority…signs telling us we ‘can’t’ enter though this door because it’s for exiting only…lines on floors that no-one stands beyond even when, in given situations, there’s no reason not to. And so on and so on. Culminating in us learning to do what we are told to do.
Messrs prism and Bill, in the past government was much smaller. Tiny in fact. No social welfare, no public education system, not even any income tax and few other taxes. Certainly no health & safety legislation.
Today government is collosal in comparison.
As I said above, I think you will find the answer to your questions inside that fact. Today people have less responsibility for much of their lives, less accountability, less need to provide for themselves, less empathy for their fellow manwoman. All because those things are provided today by the state – so they don’t need to. And now it has become embedded. Something up? Look to government. Something threatening? Ask the appropriate authority. That ladder looks wobbly? Look up the health & safety booklet. Everything is prescribed.
The answer to this issue is simple, which is rare.
vto
Are you from USA? That’s what they or large numbers in some states, believe. They aren’t very impressive as examples of 21st century people.
The pioneers in NZ had it tough, had to look to themselves and the class system was strong. Little Lil and the lamp in Katherine Mansfield’s story The Doll’s House really displays how unhappy being independent of help and dependent on the whims of charity felt to the poor.
Trouble there are fashions in opinion and behaviour. Overconcern for personal comfort, high salaries and corporate good public relations is in fashion at the moment rather than a commitment to duty and service to the public. Which is what prompted the comment.
Ok, maybe we are talking about different things. You seem to be talking about the poor and how a community looks after them. I was responding to the issue of firemen not going into 3ft deep water to save a drowning man, policemen not going into a dairy to save a shot man, and police refusing to enter Pike – and the reasons behind this change in culture around initiative. My point excluded any class distinctions.
I disagree. In order to have the wealth and prosperity we need stabilization measures. Obviously they don’t need to be government driven, but just are because of the clueless right who just don’t want to give up control unless its total, or the clueless left who don’t want to give up control if when its empowering to the people.
But its naive the extreme to believe that without welfare, for individuals and corporations, that much of society as exists today, that we benefit from would actually exist. In fact we’d have to invent welfare and redistribution to get the mass society we have now.
Just because we have massive pollution social, fiscal, environmental, does not mean we should sack government, which would result in short life spans, little exotic or mass pollution, or fiscal global banking crisis. we shoudl sack government when we have a better approach to those tasks. i.e. Simplistically demand government non-existance is banal, venal and retarded.
The internet provides the means to reorganize the human world in entirely new ways, but requires local-ism, a local right to food, housing, education and healthcare, out of the purview of centralized states or corporations.
When an action could endanger more lives. Of course, what we’re seeing here is the process of safety taken to extremes.
Because if proper process isn’t followed and death occurs due to those actions then the people who took action will be up in court and vilified by the MSM.
snap.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing overall (it’s much better than the other extreme), but there should probably be a tweaking of legislation to explicitly give a “competent samaritan” immunity – something about not being liable for H&S actions if you are reasonably experienced to estimate risks in that situation, impose that risk only on yourself or other volunteers (in the case of collaborative efforts) and can reasonably expect to lessen the risk to life of another person.
John 15:13 No greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend.
After the second Christchurch EQ, when the rescue helicopter was working for hours around the city, it was being operated outside it’s normal operating limits to save lives. The crew got away with it and rescued many people. If they had made a mistake, people who were not there would have crucified them for breaking some rule.
“I don’t know where such a culture of safety came from or why it is tolerated, but hey.”
In NZ the watershed moment is Cave Creek. That’s the point where kiwi ingenuity/# 8 wire mentality failed abysmally. Because that happened under the responsibility of a Minister of the Crown, it’s made government employees very very cautious since.
Likewise the bridge that collapsed on private land killing a beekeeper. The bridge had been built by the army when the land was under previous ownership. The owners at the time have spent years in court subsequently. This has made private land owners very very cautious since.
Leaky building syndrome is the other pertinent one. In that case it’s the local body govt that is paranoid.
What had changed in NZ society to allow those things to happen?
btw, I’m not sure the problem is a culture of safety. I think it’s a culture of denial. It’s the idea that we can control everything and avoid all risk. This makes us blind to risk assessment that is actually useful on the ground.
We see it in the way children are often raised now too. Trying to control all risk has replaced teaching kids their own risk assessment skills.
Today is the last day for on-line MMP Submissions. There is a 5 minute option for your considered opinions.
Idiot in charge of education
Having to make changes to and effectively re-write the budget before the inks even dry is gross incompetence that only a National government could display…
They probably don’t think the details are important as long as we’re all moving in the (very) right direction. I tend to see it as a mixture of incompetence and absolute arrogance.
aerobubble.Excellence
DAVID CUNLIFFE.an immediate and striking difference in the house.
RUSSELL NORMAN. very informative and persuasive.
JULIE-ANN GENTER.Excellence.
John72.moralising.sad.
Very little consideration given to TIME and socio/cultural historical REALITY in much political discourse.
“Escape from Freedom” Erich Fromm.
GREENS.Welcome The Chinese.
Investment.Infrastructure.Employment.
Post-Growth Society.
Thinking upon the words of John72 above, the tide of history has turned against that great institution, the traditional Christian church. For me it was starkly symbolised when the response of the Anglican diocese to a smashed ChristChurch Cathedral was to build a colourful cardboard box and call that a house of worship! It seems that solidity, dignity, tradition, conservatism, have been shaken and not withstood the turmoil of global events.
The great empires of Europe – gone. The mighty totalitarian states – disintegrated. The ancient religious institutions – decayed and irrelevant. The supremacy of finance and oil based economics – collapsing under their own weight of greed and power lust.
Freedom of thought, sexuality, and worship were always attacked by the forces of fear and doubt.
John72, the Creator gave us free will, a mind, body and life, not to live like a slave but to flourish.
Some observations of no real import but….
Has anyone notice that while Mr Joyce is replying to questions in the house in his usual condescending tone, he never looks anyone on the eye. What sort of personal insecurity is going on there?
Perhaps that’s why he pretends that he has a brain the size of a planet and eveybody else is a fool. Compensation for having a small….
I understand why English doesn’t look at the opposition but always looks up to the gallery – it’s the shame he feels about his problem with premature projections.
Tremaine and Bridges are keen little brown-nosers and eagerly nod their heads like bobble-head lap-dogs. Bridges especially makes a duck face, adopts a furrowed brow and nods.
The Speaker habitually responds to opposition points of order by telling the person who raised it why they are wrong – even if it is he that is wrong.
Is it me or are Winston’s questions incomprehensible?
So I get that Cameron wants his own billionaire’s retreat and that we are naive enough to be selling anything that’s not nailed down at the moment, but am I the only one that thinks 11,000,000m2 of land and a medium sized lake is a bit – ah – esurient?
Although the stuff story makes out like he’s going to run the whole 1000ha farm on his own with his three kids to instil a “strong work ethic”:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/7022639/Cameron-buys-three-more-NZ-properties
This might help you visualise the scale: Sold – Lake Pounui Preserve.
http://www.bayleysfiji.com/391740
Or putting it another way, if each of the US’s 30,000 ‘Ultra-HNWIs’ decided to buy a modest Cameron sized slice of the country, that would be the entire land area of NZ.
It does seem to be getting pretty excessive. Talk about “personal space issues”…
[edit: and does “reside indefinitely” mean an extended period of time, or just that he has not idea whether it will be 6 months or 6 decades?
from the first link:
***
In February, The Dominion Post revealed he had applied for residency under Immigration NZ’s Investment Plus category – reserved for those investing more than $10m. As such, the 57-year-old director must now spend at least 44 days in New Zealand each year in the final two years of a three- year investment period.
***
Who comes up with that stuff? $10m + 44 days??
I live in a part of the country where it’s normal to have farms above 1000ha in size, so for me it’s not the size that’s the issue. I would want to know what joining those farms does to the local community, including what will happen if Cameron wants to sell. Also, what does it mean in terms of management of the land – does it increase sustainability or decrease it?
And he shouldn’t be allowed to buy the land until he lives here, and demonstrates that he actually wants to be a NZer (as opposed to just wanting to live here because the US is so crap now).
Point taken regarding NZ station sizes, particularly in the South Island – the Shania Twain estate purchases were in the region of 25,000ha, so 1000ha is comparatively small (comparative being the operative word).
But is Cameron’s land-grab really anything to do with ‘farming’ ? Why buy the adjacent lake plus 313 ha of covenanted bush? When looked at in totality, it’s more akin to building an estate or fiefdom.
Regarding sustainability, in a strict ecological sense the most sustainable option would indeed be to sell all of NZ’s farms to Ultra-HNWIs who could then retire the land from dairy production and instead use them as personal playground, but is ‘Investment Plus’ a sustainable strategy as a country?
Loss of ag/hort export earnings from that land would be a huge hit. As well as the loss of the food production itself of course.
Have to admit, if I had Cameron’s money I’d be buying up land to prevent it being converted to dairy. I’d probably let it grow gorse too, and then regenerate to native bush. I’m sure that would go down well.
I think CV’s point is good, but I’m still waiting for the work to be done on how much land NZ needs to feed itself. As opposed to how much land we need in agriculture to export our millennia of fertility to China etc.
I was of course meaning ecological sustainability not economic.
1 ha. per person is heaps.
I’ve come to the conclusion that to own land you should be a citizen and spend 80% of your time in the country. That way you’re connected to the community.
Sounds reasonable to me. Maybe people who have legitimate reasons for travelling alot should have to apply for an exemption.
Or you could nominate a citizen to be a legal custodian of your land while you travel.
Well, if you’re travelling chances are you’re going to put someone there to look after the place, you know, like a lawyer.
Or tenants 😉
tenants would be a safer bet
Just flicked over to Kiwiblog to see if there was any substance to the Jones resignation story referred to here on the Standard (there isn’t). Couldn’t help but notice that the Curia ‘average’ poll of polls hasn’t been updated for 5 weeks. How curious. Could it be because Farrar can’t bring himself to publish the bad news that NZ is no longer BFF with Mr Australia?
Ah, more RWNJobbery and authoritarianism from NACT:
I reside in a aspect of the nation where it’s regular to have plants above 1000ha in dimension, so for me it’s not the dimension that is the problem.