My own culture is vastly different to the culture of my first immigrant relatives 160 years ago – and their cultures changed dramatically after they arrived here. My culture is distinctly different to the culture of my parents and the culture of my childhood, and it’s change a lot since I was a young adult.
Some parts of Kiwi culture I’d rather see the end of – our culture of violence, our culture of getting too pissed, our culture of getting too fat, our culture of exaggerating differences, and more.
A Kiwi culture I’d like to see more of is being able to “do our own thing” alongside each other.
The ever excellent Bill Maher asks “are Americans closet socialists?”, challenges the myth that the wealthy “create jobs” and asks if things are better now than 30 years ago. His guests from the right seem to be lost for words for once.
His editorial this “overtime” section is responding to is not up yet unfortunately
Have you forgotten that unemployment steadily decreased under Labour until 2008 when the effects of the drought and the world financial crisis, matters beyond Labour’s control, caused the economy to worsen?
Right, party talking points. The decrease heading toward 2008 was the result of Labour’s prudent management but the last year of Labour govt when it all started to crash in horrible ways wasn’t their fault. What a loser – you buy that crap. Next you will be telling us NZ works best when we are heavily unionised. Wake up – your eye patch is starting to cover both eyes and now you only listen to your party talking points without even looking at the real world.
Hey burt time to send those Wairarapa kids off to National’s ever successful boot camps eh? Won’t do anything helpful but NATs core constituency can take pleasure out of young poor kids getting the boot in camp eh?
Frankly mate I don’t see any plans from National to deal with the issue of inter-generational welfare dependency.
Young NZers know pretty clearly that society doesn’t give a shit about them. The options we are giving them are unemployment, crappy jobs (that National want to cut their pay further on), the exciting combo of unemployment or crappy job WITH a massive sudent loan, leaving NZ for Australia, moving on to the benefit system, etc.
This combined with the consumer culture of wanting everything now without having to earn it.
New Zealand does work best when heavily unionised. Just compare the relative pay of workers over the years. Pay rates have dropped as the level of union membership has dropped.
As climate change and peak oil start to destroy our economy we are going to rediscover that its not the size of the economy that matters, its how well we share what we have.
The old right wing bullshit about growing the cake rather than distributing it is being well and truly exposed and the people who pushed are starting to look as silly as flat earthers.
Burt, first up remember i support no particular party and i am a member of none.
Let’s say it’s not National’s fault, OK. Got that. They are in Power though, people are losing work, left, right and center. Companies are relocating off shore, industries are being bought up by Foreign Corporations all over the place pushing wages down and work hours up.
SO what do you do? Is this really the environment that you shift a huge Tax burden onto the shoulders of those lest able to afford it in order to build a few roads no-one really needs at this time? Is this the best time to hike GST? Why, when retraining is the buzz word around the world do you remove Adult Education Classes, raise the costs of Early Childhood Education, and gut University and other Tertiary development.
With a growing number of people on diminishing incomes is it really the time to rip the heart out of a savings scheme that was producing regular income for the country. Is it really the time to hand out Industry contracts to every man and his dog except the families that live in your own backyard. Why in all that is sane and sensible would you take the Billions of cash reserves that were stable and producing income, then give it as tax cuts to a privilidged few who are generally only in that position because of an inter-generational advantadge that highlights the depths hidden by the canyons of opportunity most are stuck in the bottom of.
Oh, and it’s not my view – I didn’t write the article. It’s interesting though because the chickens of increasing welfare for the benefit of political popularity are coming home to roost.
Over the years a lot of different people from different stripes have debated the effects of multiple generations on benefits. This is a small window and it’s an ugly view.
In the 80’s there was some very good research done in the UK about what happened to young people when there were no jobs.
All young people need a transition to adulthood. In many respects that was why many cultures had some sort of rite of passage.
When you take the role of moving from training to employment away then you don’t leave a hell of a lot other than disaffection for the males and becoming parents for the females.
The curse of no jobs – which the free market cannot always provide – ultimately disadvantages women first and foremost because not only do they have the least work options but they also end up with the responsibility of raising the children.
The need to ensure young people have a meaningful role in communities and make that transition to adulthood has been known throughout many cultures for many many generations.
The policies of the past in this country to ensure young people had jobs, and often apprenticeships, through the public sector and who then often moved into the private sector when the job market improved held us in good stead in the past. It ensured they didn’t become disaffected.
Even if we disregard the fact that there are not enough jobs Burt tell me what should happen to those who can’t compete for work in the private sector – those with significant disabilities, or intellectual problems and psychiatric conditions, or facial disfigurements.
Where do you draw the line on who is deserving of help and who isn’t?
At want point are you making a moral judgement rather than for instance a medical one?
One of the things about our welfare system is that the people administering it don’t have to make moral judgements – and I’m not sure we as a society would want them to.
In the past all government departments had to take on some school leavers at the end of each year.
It’s called a commitment to youth employment.
They also employed people with disabilities – something else the private sector isn’t great at.
It’s never the whole solution – but it should be part of the solution.
Shit if the government can provide subsidies to multi-million dollar profit making companies like McDonalds surely it can commit to employing some young people as well.
If 100’s of thousands of dollars can be given to private providers to train people in crappy dive courses then surely a few million can be spent giving some on the job training in the public service – at least clerical skills are needed.
If 100′s of thousands of dollars can be given to private providers to train people in crappy dive courses then surely a few million can be spent giving some on the job training in the public service – at least clerical skills are needed.
Clerical job applicants already far exceed available positions.
The on the job training provided by the government in the past was often the opposite of what is required. My first career job after I left school was with the Post Office, and I found it stiflingly boring and uninspiring – it often involved trying to avoid doing jobs that didn’t need doing, and trying to avoid supervisors that hardly supervised anyway.
“Many either enjoyed the laziness or left for something challenging.”
What a load of crap.
I had family in both the public service and in private enterprise and there was and often is little difference between good and bad managers / jobs in both sectors.
Those who were in the public service worked for a fair days pay for a fair days work, often did shift work at unsociable hours and contributed much to their communities and work places over and above the hours they were paid for. All in all they also had a sense of commitment to their communities and to New Zealand.
After leaving school I worked in the freezing works, in the bush with a chainsaw and for several years in the banking industry.
If you want a boring job – banking was a pretty good bet. I’m sure waitressing, working in a car factory and working for a take away joint are pretty exciting jobs as well.
When you left school it wasn’t hard to get a job in the private sector yet somehow you ended up in the post office. How did that come about if you were so shit-hot and skilled?
In a modern context you would say that they were often overstaffed but remember there was a social commitment to employ young people and people with disabilities and intellectual and psychiatric problems – you know like the man who used to sweep the railway platform and keep it clean and tidy, or the alcoholic who used to go out and keep the blackberry from growing over the tracks along with others who had difficulty getting work.
$14,000 per year to do that or $12,000 a year on Invalids Benefit doing nothing – tell me which was better for him and the country. I know which I think was better.
I’ve always said a monkey could have made railways more efficient by simply laying all those people off – but efficiency was never the point nor the purpose. Government could have directly laid all those workers off without selling railways off. The point of the exercise was to asset strip.
Your denigration of public servants is unbecoming and without context.
What is evident however is that since the 90’s across both the public sector and the private there has been massive productivity gain but that workers in neither sector have particularly benefited from this.
Sure some areas of specialist skill have but the everyday, average workers has not.
Those who were in the public service worked for a fair days pay for a fair days work
Some did. Many didn’t. I “worked” as a technician trainee and there were far more of us than necessary. Much of the work we did (not a lot at times) was unnecessary and sometimes detrimental to performance of equipment.
Other parts of the public service were notoriously unproductive employment sops. The inspiration for Gliding On actually had some basis in real life.
Thanks for confirming you were an unproductive leach off the public tit. When can the Government expect a cheque refunding your wages Pete? Adjusted for inflation please.
When the new Railways Corporation was required to operate according to SOE rules in 1986, 17,800 employees fell to 5,000 before privatisation in July 1993. For the first time in its existence, governments had shrugged off the dead financial weight of Railways.
When recession struck more seriously after 1973 the Kirk-Rowling Labour Government acted like its predecessors. Ministers used government departments as employment agencies. Some parts of the public sector acted unilaterally.
Despite having been told by the Department of Health in August 1974 that no more staff could be employed, the Auckland Hospital Board blandly added 703 staff to its payroll in the months before 31 March 1975.
FFS lets keep celebrating putting people out of work shall we PG?
Few hundred defence staff here, few hundred DoC staff there, staffers from the Ministry of Research Science and Technology (no we didn’t need them for a high tech future, no sir-reee!)
And what shall we do with this loss ongoing of jobs and capabilities in NZ? Build brand new industries (i.e. McDonalds) that our future generations can work and train in?
Really, the biggest problem is that we still expect everyone to work 40 hour weeks when there just isn’t enough actual work available to support that.
You see, that bit’s been true since about the 1960s. Our productivity is so high that we produce* far more than we need and, due to the structure of capitalism, hand it over to the very rich for no benefit whatsoever.
* Take from the environment
PS, BTW, dropping from 17,800 employees to 5,000 doesn’t mean that it became more efficient. In fact, considering the state that rail was in when the government bought it back, it would seem that it became less efficient.
I left after a year because I preferred to actually work. I wasted a lot less time there than many.
I gave less than the required three months notice and that ruled out future public service employment. The Supervising Technician tried to talk me out of leaving and wanted me to talk to my parents about it (quaint) but I already had a far better job to go to.
I guess it’s an age thing – anyone that knows the era of the 60-80s knows how grossly over employed the public service was.
I’m surprised you either don’t know this history or are conveniently ignoring it.
This time Treasury sounded the warning. The incoming Muldoon Government was informed in March 1976 that while on average over the past decade more than 18% of New Zealand’s total workforce had been on the State’s payroll, the figure now topped 20%, and it was becoming unsustainable.
What can be described as a Public Serive culture ruled Wellington by this time. The journalist David McLoughlin captured some of the flavour:
“Anything approaching the definition of real work was regarded, particularly in government departments, as a form of perversion; turning up for an eight hour day… was all that was required; the Dominion crossword would see an army of grey-cardiganed clerks through nicely until morning tea…, and the first edition of the Evening Post, to help while away the afternoon, was on the streets at 1pm; the PSA ruled the city….”
You sort of miss the contextual point though although you also state it:
“Ministers used government departments as employment agencies.”
This was government policy to employ specifically young people and people with disabilities. That’s not being denied.
This involved a commitment to employing young people when the private sector couldn’t – not assigning them to the dole or the scrap heap.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a core of long term public servants who were committed and loyal.
The other context of course is that private enterprise was also grossly inefficient and had the same issues – hence the banking sector by way of comparison.
In general society saw employment and a decent wage as more important than return to shareholders and profit.
That is what has changed.
Sometime ago there was a graph published showing the change in GDP being paid out in wages vs profit.
Gone from 60:40 in favour of wages to the reverse. As a country we have not benefited from that change only those at the top have.
Even a return to 50:50 levels would be a vast improvement for the population as a whole.
Nice parting crack Pete at the mighty, fare, loyal, under payed, honest New Zealand public service and servants that kindly ran you out of the post office for us, at the first chance they got. now look at it Pete.
Actually it’s a good comparison because you are talking about two sets of organisations that had a large workforce, branches all over the country, mainly males in management positions, both a backroom and front of house service, had significant bureaucracy to deal with, etc.
Comparing the public sector to the local bookshop would be totally non-nonsensical.
If 100′s of thousands of dollars can be given to private providers to train people in crappy dive courses
Recent news about two people being killed on one of those dive courses, made me have an attack of deja vu…. Am I right, has the same thing happened before, people killed on one of these dive courses? If that’s so, how is it that they still continue – and also, what good are they? How much demand is there for trained divers, in job terms?
Government can generate 25,000 jobs in the next 6 months, easy. And 25,000 in the 6 months after that. We have a city to be rebuilt, land to be reclaimed, environmental areas to be upgraded. Schools and hospitals to be fixed up, emergency housing to be built. And that’s for a start.
Except we have a laissez faire hands off free market govt who are quite happy to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few and let everyone else struggle.
The money doesn’t just disappear into the ether. It gets recycled in exchange for goods, services and labour. Thats how the economy works. Whether the govt issues bonds, claims taxes or sells off assets, there still neds to be a basic level of structure for society to function (unless of course you want to live in Somalia).
That doesn’t mean it (or more importantly we) can afford it.
We can afford it. That’s not difficult. We do, after all, have all the resources necessary to ensure people have a good living standard.
Really, the biggest problem is that we still expect everyone to work 40 hour weeks when there just isn’t enough actual work available to support that.
How much more would you borrow ?
None. A government doesn’t need to borrow and should never do so because, as it’s the peoples administration, it can command the entire resources of the country.
Yes it is a tragedy. Perhaps you could ask Basher Bennett how her Green Paper which has been three years in the making will help. Then ask English how he feels about NZ having the third lowest per capita spending on early childhood education in th OECD.
If you want to be taken seriously you can’t just keep taking cheap shots based on past events.
Q+A dealt with the awful problems in New Zealand with children – and what is clear is that all our child abuse/poverty/welfare problems are far more important than being bogged down with political rhetoric.
Gluckman and the Green Paper and Annette King and many others keep saying this should be dealt with cross party. The best possible way this issue can be made clearly above politics is for pledges:
– National should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Annette King the Social Welfare Ministry
– Labour should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Paula Bennett the Social Welfare Ministry
Then we’d know they are serious about raising this to a whole of country problem that needs everyone’s support and efforts.
It’s pretty pointless to have a ministerial portfolio if you don’t have the budget that you require to run it. Since we know full well that National is hell bent on stripping funding from social welfare I don’t see how a Labour minister in a Nat govt could do anything except be the scapegoat – unless you are suggesting that ministers should be able to override the finance minister or the rest of the party when it comes to funding, which is clearly unworkable. As for Paula Bennett, I personally don’t think she should be allowed near a ministerial portfolio ever again.
‘Cross party’ is an inclusive sounding slogan but it overlooks the glaring fact that while different parties may agree on the existence of a particular problem, their solutions to the problem will undoubtably be different. This is especially true when the issue requires addressing poverty and inequality, as it does in this case.
‘Cross party’ is an inclusive sounding slogan but it overlooks the glaring fact that while different parties may agree on the existence of a particular problem, their solutions to the problem will undoubtably be different.
It seems glaringly obvious that there is little difference between the major parties on what the best approach to vulnerable children/parents should be, and there will be little difference on what sized budget is allocated.
The key thing is to use the available money as effectively as possible.
Just because a policy is deemed an efficient allocation, does not make it ‘effective’. You could argue that $2mill for a plastic waka is used efficiently but how effective is it likely to be?
It seems glaringly obvious that there is little difference between the major parties on what the best approach to vulnerable children/parents should be
You’ve picked out one very small initiative that seems to be of mixed value. I’m dubious about it. It’s possible it’s just an ineffective approach, but it can’t be easily determined in a short time frame.
Most things that will have long term benefits will take a long time to properly evaluate.
In the past National and Labour have continued similar policies with a few variations, I think it’s likely they would agree on most things once you strip away the political rhetoric.
Just trying to imagine the situation if Hana Harawira becomes leader of the Maori Womens Welfare League while Paula Bennett is Minister of DOSW Department of Social Woe.
Labour should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Paula Bennett the Social Welfare Ministry
Well apart from the fact she does not have a freakin idea about what is happening, that she is shallow and malicious, that her abilities are possibly up to her getting a job at McDonalds, that she has a track record of abusing beneficiaries for political gain and that she has been a total disaster in Government good idea Pete!
I note the Graphic of Parliament (polls) is still shown in the two party format, with a jumble of minor parties separating the major blocks.
Isn’t it about time that the colourings were arranged for the political spectrum, starting with the (depending which philosophy commands the treasury benches) most extreme parties being nearest the speaker and then spreading around to the opposition parties.
(The actual parliamentary seating does not appear to be arranged in order of list placing because the Prime Minister and Deputy appear to sit in front of the Speaker and not behind or beside that position.)
That way we could see the separation of the Greens and Act (seemingly at opposite ends of the political spectrum) into their rightful positions.
Mr I-will-go-with-whatever-party-Dunne could remain in his rightful position acting as the bridge (plank) for each to walk over.
In fact, is there any pre-ordained MMP parliamentiary seating arrangement?
Yep – The current parliament would have ACT occupying a few seats on the left hand side where Joyce usually sits. Then you would have the bulk of blue, then Dunne and the MP, then Labour and finally around by the speaker again, the Greens. But currently having the Greens next to ACT is laughable. As you say, having the likes of Douglas around by Lockwood would give a much stronger picture for JoBlo as to political leanings.
United Future and Peter Dunne-nothing do not belong in the centre – they belong in the past.
‘building a bridge’ using this outdated technology is doomed to fail.
vto made the following comment on The violent right thread
“Any similarities between the separatist politics of this madman Norwegian and the madman separatist politics of Hone Harawira you think?” and “The simiilarities are very real.”
This comment got some responses which were catagorised as
“all responses to the various points I have made here have been solely either attacks on me, or simple bare statements “you are wrong” in various forms. Not one person above has actually provided any facts or statements or evidence to refute. Not one.”
I dispute that because the thread has continued since then. Further, today on stuff they report
“Breivik also writes that white Europeans will flee to New Zealand in an apocalyptic war sparked by the “gradual Islamisation” of Europe.” and “He quotes German anti-Islamic columnist Henryk Broder urging young people get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable”.
“Breivik says that after the civil war in Europe is won, and Islam expelled, a new “European Federation” would be created, which would include New Zealand.”
My question vto is how does this fit into your ‘similarity theory’. The evidence you presented was your list which included “heavy discourse” and “showing some hatred” – it was subjective and reflected your own bias – I’d like to see actual evidence for your slur – just like I’m giving you here. The statements made by the murderer are fact and if others of his ilk come here what do you think they will think of the Mana Party, or māori like you? As i have said before I don’t have a problem if you hate Mana and Hone and everything they stand for – good for you. But you disrespect many by trying to connect the murderer and māori – you disrespect yourself.
Mr Mars, I did actually provide some evidence, copied below. But a couple of points first;
Why would you think I hate Mana and Hone? I don’t and that was your assumption. I applaud them and their politics, except the separatism component. You see Marty, assumptions such as that were repeated thru that thread by all and sundry. With zero basis.
What do I think any such immigrants would think of Mana and Hone? I suspect they would get on very well when it comes to dealing with new immigrants. Why wouldn’t they? They both suffer under a wave of colonisation for one thing. That is why I suggested that the indigenous people of Norway consider entering into a treaty similar to ours to cater for their own immigration wave. People struggling with immigration and colonisation is nothing new and most every people on the planet have at some time suffered such.
Anyways to the point… Lets check for similarities between the two scenarios (copied);
“to repeat … lets check for characteristics of terrorism with regard to Hone and his politics and similar followers within NZ;
1. Politics at the extreme end of the spectrum. (it is accepted that Mana’s sovereignty and other politics are right at one end of the spectrum. No?)
2. Politics advocating a form of separatism. (this is what Mana want, a form of separatism. This was one of the characteristic of the Norway terror. No?)
3. A discourse that is heavy. (read what the Norwegian murderer wrote and it is heavy. Similarly, two examples, so is ‘white mofos’ from an elected representative. And you may recall the call to maori convicts some years ago to ‘kill a whitey’. Heavy. No?)
4. A past that involves use or threatened use of weapons. (Hone some years ago referred to them in the north having guns and being prepared to use them. Similarly, recall Tame Iti shooting up a NZ flag recently? And we still have the Urewera ‘terrorists’. Weapons. No?)
”
(And where do the threats ladelled out to Maori Party members at the hui with the Mana Party up at Taipa (?) a while ago sit? What does Sue Bradford think of that given her anti-smacking law?)
I was asking the question and looking forward to seeing some answers. I then pushed it a little to stir (as is an unfortunate trait at times) by suggesting that the similarities were obvious. But if you follow the earlier thread you will see that there was no answer to the question, only put-downs. Please show where a proper answer was put.
What other traits are signatures for terrorism threat? Perhaps lonerism (are there any loners out there listening to Hone?). Others certainly.
What it led me to was that the separatism aspect of Mana, having looked at some facts, is hardcore right wing politics, jammed right hard up against left wing policies. And the headline of the post “The Violent Right” all fell into place.
I say Go Hone (except for the separatism and the intimidation and aggression).
edit: you are highly selective in what you quote from my posts which of course removes the context.
I think you have an extreme view of this so called ‘separatism’. Do you really think that our society can be separated? Do you think Mana or Hone think this? Self determination is actually about inclusivness and equality not the fear mongering of ‘separatism’.
I apologise for making assumptions about your view.
Ahaa I see your reply now (Tho it was only left late last night).
I would have thought we have some form of duty to see where the terrorism risks lie in our land. It clearly lies in certain quarters but questioning all risk quarters should be attended to. Asking such questions of Maori separatist politics has gone down like a cup of cold sick. I guess there are certain things that are not allowed to be questioned…
As for “do I think Mana think this (separatism)?” that is not the issue. Just looking for the trigger / risk points and their self-determination / separatism is one of them. And is self-determination not a form of separatism?
Clearly those trigger /risk points are a matter of degree but remember that it is not the people in public or party positions who are the risk it is the loner listening in the backblocks.
edit: one final: it was not ‘a theory of mine’ it was a question which has led to an answer which may well lead to a full blown theory at some later point. Or not.
What do you mean by separatism vto? I’ve not been aware of Mana or Harawira talking about separatism in the way that you seem to mean. It would be good if you could clarify and maybe link to something Harawira has said as we can understand your points.
I think you are conflating a whole bunch of things to support your argument. AFAIK Hone Harawira didn’t tell Maori to kill a whitey. No terrorism charges have been brought against anyone arrested in the Tuhoe raids.
Been reading the sewers thread regarding the ‘pre-teens who want benefits’ and I’d like to know. who the fuck is Alison Sutherland . She says she works in Wairarapa schools with children who have behavioural problems but does’t tell us who she works for. Surely she would be receiving government funding and be subject to confidentiality clauses in her contract which would prevent her from disclosing anything about her clients.
Is Alison Sutherland a wannna be Linsay Mitchel?. Too posh to work with all the time in the world to gloat about the failings of others.
Forget about the top 10% (this is about the top 1%)
I’ve had this nagging doubt for a while as to why we’ve been focusing on the wealth, income and political views of the “top 10%”. I for one know a lot of people who are in this group, (earn >$75K pa, own their own house, maybe a rental or two) and in the main they are good smart people, better informed than most, with high levels of concern for their community, families and the direction of the country. (There are always unpleasant exceptions of course, and there is no denying that the top 10% is far better off than the bottom 50% in society).
So in my comments I started focusing on the top 5% of income earners. To enter this bracket you have to be on incomes of between $90K pa and $100K pa. And yet, once you remove roughly $24K in income tax, the remaining sum (although very generous relative to most NZers) gives a lifestyle while comfortable and free of daily money worries is by no means luxurious. If you are raising children and paying off a sizeable AKL mortgage in 20 years, each months income is basically gone by the end of the month.
The following article, although US in origin, explains a different world quite well: the world of the top half of the top 1%. Although we do not yet have the massive income/wealth inequity of the States, we still have to put a laserlight focus on the top 1% here in NZ (earning well over $150K pa and above) because it is they who truly influence opinion, media, the formation of laws and regulations. They have privileged access to decision makers, politicians and regulators. They have the most generous funds to contribute to political movements and lobbying.
Most of those in the bottom half of the top 1% lack power and global flexibility and are essentially well-compensated workhorses for the top 0.5%, just like the bottom 99%. In my view, the American dream of striking it rich is merely a well-marketed fantasy that keeps the bottom 99.5% hoping for better and prevents social and political instability. The odds of getting into that top 0.5% are very slim and the door is kept firmly shut by those within it.
To enter this bracket you have to be on incomes of between $90K pa and $100K pa. And yet, once you remove roughly $24K in income tax, the remaining sum (although very generous relative to most NZers) gives a lifestyle while comfortable and free of daily money worries is by no means luxurious. If you are raising children and paying off a sizeable AKL mortgage in 20 years, each months income is basically gone by the end of the month.
As my son would say “Lolwut?” $90 000 minus $24,000 = $66,000. I raised one and a half kids on circa $18,000 so you’ll pardon me if my heart is stony when it comes to people doing the same on nearly 4 times as much.
Just checking Colmar Brunton polls to see if they are indeed an australian owned company.
They are owned by Millward Brown who are a subsidary of Kantar. Kantar looks like a multnational research company or GROUP. I’m trying to load their website at Kantar.com which is taking forever. Not happening really. If someone with a better connection wants to give it a try please do.
So thats one of the polling companies looking a bit creepy to me at least. Time to check the rest I think.
Fast Facts
Founded 1973
77 offices in 51 countries
Millward Brown is part of Kantar, the information and consultancy division of WPP
Millward Brown Specialist Practices:
BPRI Group
Dynamic Logic
MaPS
Millward Brown Optimor
Firefly Millward Brown
1,800 Dynamic Tracking studies currently running
65,000 Link™ copytests conducted
More than 5,300 BrandDynamics™ projects covering over 45,000 brands
Over 1,000 brand sales modeled
Over 4,400 separate BrandZ™ studies completed
BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands ranking released annually in April
11 years of Digital experience
6,000 campaigns measured across 27 digital platforms
300 CrossMedia Research studies completed
400 online creative pretests conducted using LinkSelect for Digital
100 mobile research studies conducted
115 filters in MarketNorms, the world’s largest online normative attitudinal database
Specialist practices for mobile, gaming and social media
The board of KPP are a really well connected lot i.e.with connections to the US govt.
So Colmar Brunton a supposed Australian company is really a part of pretty multinational. Why does this surprise me.
Philip Lader
Non-Executive chairman | Letter of appointment – Philip Lader
Philip Lader was appointed chairman in 2001. The US Ambassador to the Court of St James’s from 1997 to 2001, he previously served in several senior executive roles in the US Government, including as a Member of the President’s Cabinet and as White House Deputy Chief of Staff. Before entering government service, he was executive vice president of the company managing the late Sir James Goldsmith’s US holdings and president of both a prominent American real estate company and universities in the US and Australia. A lawyer, he is also a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley, a director of Marathon Oil, AES and Rusal Corporations, a trustee of the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Atlantic Council and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Skills that are relevant are in short supply and employers consistently seek training relevant to their skill and productivity needs.”
Yeah note how private enterprise want the state to pay to train their staff – or worse the state to pay for private enterprise to train their staff.
Where’s Phil O’Reilly saying businesses should get their shit together and train people up. Oh that’s right training is a cost to business and therefore must be socialised.
One of these days I’m going to get tired of this scam.
Especially when the state pays to train up the young ‘uns, NZ businesses refuse to pay decent wages, so the young ‘uns all bugger off to work for Australia instead, giving Oz the benefit of our NZ tax payer funded training.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is promising to repeal the anti-smacking law, which he says attacks good parents. He says he will replace it with a law that attacks brutal parents.
Life must be so simple when you’re a populist politician. Just agree with whatever you think the majority of the population thinks they want.
He has set up a good idea though:
Winston Peters says the public would buy his message, if only the media told them. To that end, the party has set up its own Internet television station, New Zealand First-dot-TV, to be launched on the 18th of August.
Which is probably something the parties of the left could band together to set up something similar.
Smart media idea on his part. Still, its not going to attract viewership anything like the TV networks. But far better than being extincted by non-coverage.
Winston has got to get back on his forward looking nationalistic drum beat if he has any hope. Looking backwards is going to get him caned.
He says he will replace it with a law that attacks brutal parents.
That’s strange, does he think we don’t have sufficient law for that already? S59 was only intended for borderline cases. I wonder what he’s going to attack brutal parents with.
Jesus – S59 was a section of the Crimes Act that gave parents a legal defence of ‘discipline’ when assaulting a child; the removal of S59 gave children the same level of protection as adults, livestock and domestic pets – nothing more, nothing less.
It was NEVER an anti-smacking bill!
What is Section 59?
Section 59 is part of a law (Crimes Act 1961) in Aotearoa New Zealand that states “Every parent or person in place of a parent of a child is justified in using force by way of correction towards a child if that force is reasonable in the circumstances.”
This law was a remnant of the male right to punish servants, wives and children.
It, in essence, was a property right.
First servants were removed, then wives and finally children.
Ask anyone who worked on the public service before the nineties. Many either enjoyed the laziness or left for something challenging.
I did, and you couldn’t be more wrong! I chose the Public Service, because I have (wisely) never really trusted private enterprise. There was no laziness except in your mind PG, and there was plenty of challenge unless you purposely avoided it.
It may depend on what part of the Public Service Vicky. It’s widely accepted that many parts of it were grossly overstaffed. Did you read Bassett’s account?
Overstaffed? What does that even mean. If we still had thousands of people working in the Ministry of Works, the Christchurch rebuild would be in full swing by now!
Instead we have 160,000 sitting unemployed rotting away on the scrap heap.
But thats not a problem, right?
We have money, we have unemployed, we have plenty of work which needs to be done in this country, what is the frakin problem. (Our current political economic system may have something to do with it).
I do. I started my time with NZED in 1972 and when I left in 1976 I joined the other 100 or so qualified (advanced trade certificate in fitting, turning and machining) tradesmen that the NZED delivered to the private sector that year.
If you included the bonded tertiary students every year government departments and local bodies delivered thousands of trained staff, Electrical engineers through to paper hangers and decorators, to the private sector who at the time had no reason to train their own staff.
And the only reason that there’s a trades skills shortage in 2011 is that following the gutting of the public service and with a lead-in time of a decade or more the private sector has never shown any interest in investing in training.
You need to read the responses from DoS and others, Pete.
Actually read them.
Everyone knows the public service was used to ensure (near) full employment.
The only disagreement is whether you think this was a good idea, or whether you prefer high levels of unemployment and all the ills that brings.
Many people who have watched whole generations of working class kids dumped on the dole – untrained, with zero work experience, left to drift into crime, addiction and mental illness – now realise that it wasn’t such a bad idea to give them something to do to earn a living in those important formative years.
Of course ideological extremists like Bassett will never get it as his motivation is to profit the individual, not the society. Hard to address societal problems when you fundamentally don’t believe in society.
Look beyond the pointless and parasitic profit motive and you’ll see that we have plenty of work to be done and plenty of hands to do it.
Why would I need to? Unlike Bassett I lived it, and worked (unlike you) for several different parts of the Public service, and for more than one year!)
Been staying in a few hotels overseas question: why do we not follow overseas trends of applying a tax per adult/ night stay to contribute to local infrastructure ? We see the hospitality industry always on the want for more e.g. Auckland waterfront development and yet they contribute no additional contributions to pay for them
Because that would be simple, as simple as taxing McD’s to pay for obesity and the amount of litter that ends up on the streets.
Try living in Rotorua, we pay rates to subsidise half empty flights from Sydney, because the moteliers wanted them!
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
What is Kiwi culture? Often people pushing anti-immigration claim we need to maintain this mythical simplicity.
The Herald looks at this in Editorial: Laying down law to Muslims
“What is Kiwi culture?”
Some parts of Kiwi culture I’d rather see the end of – our culture of violence, our culture of getting too pissed, our culture of getting too fat, our culture of exaggerating differences, and more.
A Kiwi culture I’d like to see more of is being able to “do our own thing” alongside each other.
The Economist again, on RWNJ’s. http://Econ.st/p0CLNv (Kal Cartoon)
Very good cartoon.
Try http://www.economist.com/node/21524951?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/kalscartoonjune28th
Sums the situation up brilliantly!
The ever excellent Bill Maher asks “are Americans closet socialists?”, challenges the myth that the wealthy “create jobs” and asks if things are better now than 30 years ago. His guests from the right seem to be lost for words for once.
His editorial this “overtime” section is responding to is not up yet unfortunately
Looks like Labour have been doing an excellent job of selling their brand in the Wairarapa.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5365493/Pre-teens-dream-of-kids-and-dole
So Burt
Explain why the number of (your view) scum dole bludgers have doubled since Key came into power?
Have you forgotten it was rising sharply through 2008? Sort of well on it’s way to doubling before Key came to power ?
Have you forgotten that unemployment steadily decreased under Labour until 2008 when the effects of the drought and the world financial crisis, matters beyond Labour’s control, caused the economy to worsen?
Right, party talking points. The decrease heading toward 2008 was the result of Labour’s prudent management but the last year of Labour govt when it all started to crash in horrible ways wasn’t their fault. What a loser – you buy that crap. Next you will be telling us NZ works best when we are heavily unionised. Wake up – your eye patch is starting to cover both eyes and now you only listen to your party talking points without even looking at the real world.
Hey burt time to send those Wairarapa kids off to National’s ever successful boot camps eh? Won’t do anything helpful but NATs core constituency can take pleasure out of young poor kids getting the boot in camp eh?
Frankly mate I don’t see any plans from National to deal with the issue of inter-generational welfare dependency.
Young NZers know pretty clearly that society doesn’t give a shit about them. The options we are giving them are unemployment, crappy jobs (that National want to cut their pay further on), the exciting combo of unemployment or crappy job WITH a massive sudent loan, leaving NZ for Australia, moving on to the benefit system, etc.
This combined with the consumer culture of wanting everything now without having to earn it.
New Zealand does work best when heavily unionised. Just compare the relative pay of workers over the years. Pay rates have dropped as the level of union membership has dropped.
As climate change and peak oil start to destroy our economy we are going to rediscover that its not the size of the economy that matters, its how well we share what we have.
The old right wing bullshit about growing the cake rather than distributing it is being well and truly exposed and the people who pushed are starting to look as silly as flat earthers.
Burt, first up remember i support no particular party and i am a member of none.
Let’s say it’s not National’s fault, OK. Got that. They are in Power though, people are losing work, left, right and center. Companies are relocating off shore, industries are being bought up by Foreign Corporations all over the place pushing wages down and work hours up.
SO what do you do? Is this really the environment that you shift a huge Tax burden onto the shoulders of those lest able to afford it in order to build a few roads no-one really needs at this time? Is this the best time to hike GST? Why, when retraining is the buzz word around the world do you remove Adult Education Classes, raise the costs of Early Childhood Education, and gut University and other Tertiary development.
With a growing number of people on diminishing incomes is it really the time to rip the heart out of a savings scheme that was producing regular income for the country. Is it really the time to hand out Industry contracts to every man and his dog except the families that live in your own backyard. Why in all that is sane and sensible would you take the Billions of cash reserves that were stable and producing income, then give it as tax cuts to a privilidged few who are generally only in that position because of an inter-generational advantadge that highlights the depths hidden by the canyons of opportunity most are stuck in the bottom of.
Why Burt Why ?
NATs decided to dump hundreds more defence staff, DoC staff and others on to the unemployment scrap heap.
Also, just shrugging their shoulders at those made unemployed by Christchurch. A couple of months grace and out you go.
Oh, and it’s not my view – I didn’t write the article. It’s interesting though because the chickens of increasing welfare for the benefit of political popularity are coming home to roost.
Over the years a lot of different people from different stripes have debated the effects of multiple generations on benefits. This is a small window and it’s an ugly view.
People would prefer to work if they could. There are no jobs.
National is adding to unemployment lines even as they put more money into their own mates’ pockets.
In the 80’s there was some very good research done in the UK about what happened to young people when there were no jobs.
All young people need a transition to adulthood. In many respects that was why many cultures had some sort of rite of passage.
When you take the role of moving from training to employment away then you don’t leave a hell of a lot other than disaffection for the males and becoming parents for the females.
The curse of no jobs – which the free market cannot always provide – ultimately disadvantages women first and foremost because not only do they have the least work options but they also end up with the responsibility of raising the children.
The need to ensure young people have a meaningful role in communities and make that transition to adulthood has been known throughout many cultures for many many generations.
The policies of the past in this country to ensure young people had jobs, and often apprenticeships, through the public sector and who then often moved into the private sector when the job market improved held us in good stead in the past. It ensured they didn’t become disaffected.
Even if we disregard the fact that there are not enough jobs Burt tell me what should happen to those who can’t compete for work in the private sector – those with significant disabilities, or intellectual problems and psychiatric conditions, or facial disfigurements.
Where do you draw the line on who is deserving of help and who isn’t?
At want point are you making a moral judgement rather than for instance a medical one?
One of the things about our welfare system is that the people administering it don’t have to make moral judgements – and I’m not sure we as a society would want them to.
The curse of no jobs – which the free market cannot always provide
Insufficient jobs is a curse – but the government cannot always provide either.
No but they can provide.
In the past all government departments had to take on some school leavers at the end of each year.
It’s called a commitment to youth employment.
They also employed people with disabilities – something else the private sector isn’t great at.
It’s never the whole solution – but it should be part of the solution.
Shit if the government can provide subsidies to multi-million dollar profit making companies like McDonalds surely it can commit to employing some young people as well.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/2557666/Jobless-scheme-gives-subsidy-to-McDonalds
If 100’s of thousands of dollars can be given to private providers to train people in crappy dive courses then surely a few million can be spent giving some on the job training in the public service – at least clerical skills are needed.
If 100′s of thousands of dollars can be given to private providers to train people in crappy dive courses then surely a few million can be spent giving some on the job training in the public service – at least clerical skills are needed.
Clerical job applicants already far exceed available positions.
The on the job training provided by the government in the past was often the opposite of what is required. My first career job after I left school was with the Post Office, and I found it stiflingly boring and uninspiring – it often involved trying to avoid doing jobs that didn’t need doing, and trying to avoid supervisors that hardly supervised anyway.
Seriously who gives a shit how YOU found your career training decades ago, at least you had something to go to in YOUR youth and got PAID for it.
Opportunities we are now depriving the CURRENT generation of young people while you pontificate all knowingly.
“I found it stiflingly boring and uninspiring”
Must explain why you come across as stiflingly boring and uninspiring.
Ironic really.
Maybe it wasn’t the job. Maybe it was actually you. Something to ponder anyway.
Ask anyone who worked on the public service before the nineties. Many either enjoyed the laziness or left for something challenging.
“Many either enjoyed the laziness or left for something challenging.”
What a load of crap.
I had family in both the public service and in private enterprise and there was and often is little difference between good and bad managers / jobs in both sectors.
Those who were in the public service worked for a fair days pay for a fair days work, often did shift work at unsociable hours and contributed much to their communities and work places over and above the hours they were paid for. All in all they also had a sense of commitment to their communities and to New Zealand.
After leaving school I worked in the freezing works, in the bush with a chainsaw and for several years in the banking industry.
If you want a boring job – banking was a pretty good bet. I’m sure waitressing, working in a car factory and working for a take away joint are pretty exciting jobs as well.
When you left school it wasn’t hard to get a job in the private sector yet somehow you ended up in the post office. How did that come about if you were so shit-hot and skilled?
In a modern context you would say that they were often overstaffed but remember there was a social commitment to employ young people and people with disabilities and intellectual and psychiatric problems – you know like the man who used to sweep the railway platform and keep it clean and tidy, or the alcoholic who used to go out and keep the blackberry from growing over the tracks along with others who had difficulty getting work.
$14,000 per year to do that or $12,000 a year on Invalids Benefit doing nothing – tell me which was better for him and the country. I know which I think was better.
I’ve always said a monkey could have made railways more efficient by simply laying all those people off – but efficiency was never the point nor the purpose. Government could have directly laid all those workers off without selling railways off. The point of the exercise was to asset strip.
Your denigration of public servants is unbecoming and without context.
What is evident however is that since the 90’s across both the public sector and the private there has been massive productivity gain but that workers in neither sector have particularly benefited from this.
Sure some areas of specialist skill have but the everyday, average workers has not.
PG is simply trolling. NZ private sector is rife with reports of lousy management, waste and awful (destructive or cowardly) team leadership.
Those who were in the public service worked for a fair days pay for a fair days work
Some did. Many didn’t. I “worked” as a technician trainee and there were far more of us than necessary. Much of the work we did (not a lot at times) was unnecessary and sometimes detrimental to performance of equipment.
Other parts of the public service were notoriously unproductive employment sops. The inspiration for Gliding On actually had some basis in real life.
Thanks for confirming you were an unproductive leach off the public tit. When can the Government expect a cheque refunding your wages Pete? Adjusted for inflation please.
Overstaffing was well known to be rife.
FFS lets keep celebrating putting people out of work shall we PG?
Few hundred defence staff here, few hundred DoC staff there, staffers from the Ministry of Research Science and Technology (no we didn’t need them for a high tech future, no sir-reee!)
And what shall we do with this loss ongoing of jobs and capabilities in NZ? Build brand new industries (i.e. McDonalds) that our future generations can work and train in?
Did you see this bit?
You see, that bit’s been true since about the 1960s. Our productivity is so high that we produce* far more than we need and, due to the structure of capitalism, hand it over to the very rich for no benefit whatsoever.
* Take from the environment
PS, BTW, dropping from 17,800 employees to 5,000 doesn’t mean that it became more efficient. In fact, considering the state that rail was in when the government bought it back, it would seem that it became less efficient.
I apologize. I can’t help myself.
Pete: how did your Career at the post office go? I bet you where the stamp licker, probably the only way of keep you quiet.
and Pete, as someone once said “only boring people get bored”
I left after a year because I preferred to actually work. I wasted a lot less time there than many.
I gave less than the required three months notice and that ruled out future public service employment. The Supervising Technician tried to talk me out of leaving and wanted me to talk to my parents about it (quaint) but I already had a far better job to go to.
I guess it’s an age thing – anyone that knows the era of the 60-80s knows how grossly over employed the public service was.
I’m surprised you either don’t know this history or are conveniently ignoring it.
You sort of miss the contextual point though although you also state it:
“Ministers used government departments as employment agencies.”
This was government policy to employ specifically young people and people with disabilities. That’s not being denied.
This involved a commitment to employing young people when the private sector couldn’t – not assigning them to the dole or the scrap heap.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a core of long term public servants who were committed and loyal.
The other context of course is that private enterprise was also grossly inefficient and had the same issues – hence the banking sector by way of comparison.
In general society saw employment and a decent wage as more important than return to shareholders and profit.
That is what has changed.
Sometime ago there was a graph published showing the change in GDP being paid out in wages vs profit.
Gone from 60:40 in favour of wages to the reverse. As a country we have not benefited from that change only those at the top have.
Even a return to 50:50 levels would be a vast improvement for the population as a whole.
hence the banking sector by way of comparison.
Not a good comparison – the banks had to deal with huge changes in technology, and moves from public to private banking.
Coincidentally, the job I left NZPO for included installing the first computer terminals in National Bank branches around Auckland.
And so Pete are you still living at home?
Nice parting crack Pete at the mighty, fare, loyal, under payed, honest New Zealand public service and servants that kindly ran you out of the post office for us, at the first chance they got. now look at it Pete.
Actually it’s a good comparison because you are talking about two sets of organisations that had a large workforce, branches all over the country, mainly males in management positions, both a backroom and front of house service, had significant bureaucracy to deal with, etc.
Comparing the public sector to the local bookshop would be totally non-nonsensical.
Recent news about two people being killed on one of those dive courses, made me have an attack of deja vu…. Am I right, has the same thing happened before, people killed on one of these dive courses? If that’s so, how is it that they still continue – and also, what good are they? How much demand is there for trained divers, in job terms?
Government can generate 25,000 jobs in the next 6 months, easy. And 25,000 in the 6 months after that. We have a city to be rebuilt, land to be reclaimed, environmental areas to be upgraded. Schools and hospitals to be fixed up, emergency housing to be built. And that’s for a start.
Except we have a laissez faire hands off free market govt who are quite happy to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few and let everyone else struggle.
Yes, of course Government can create as many jobs as it wants to, That doesn’t mean it (or more importantly we) can afford it.
How much more would you borrow ?
You don’t borrow lol, you tax and you self monetize.
Didn’t you learn basic budgeting? Basic budgeting is about priorities.
SCF investor bailout of $1.2B? Easily enough money there to provide 40,000 jobs and livelihoods.
But one was a priority to National, the other was not.
The money doesn’t just disappear into the ether. It gets recycled in exchange for goods, services and labour. Thats how the economy works. Whether the govt issues bonds, claims taxes or sells off assets, there still neds to be a basic level of structure for society to function (unless of course you want to live in Somalia).
We can afford it. That’s not difficult. We do, after all, have all the resources necessary to ensure people have a good living standard.
Really, the biggest problem is that we still expect everyone to work 40 hour weeks when there just isn’t enough actual work available to support that.
None. A government doesn’t need to borrow and should never do so because, as it’s the peoples administration, it can command the entire resources of the country.
@DOS Good points. Essential to responsible societal planners.
Yes it is a tragedy. Perhaps you could ask Basher Bennett how her Green Paper which has been three years in the making will help. Then ask English how he feels about NZ having the third lowest per capita spending on early childhood education in th OECD.
If you want to be taken seriously you can’t just keep taking cheap shots based on past events.
Under which? party have we always had the greatest numbers out of work??
Sounds very like the outcome of extreme right policies – the effects of policies as far back as Ruth Richardsons ‘Mother of all budgets.’
Burt, you may have missed this one http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/polls/5357111/Brain-drain-continues-for-National – the kids your article describes are the ones who have suffered from being in small town NZ, with all the disadvantages that brings. Shame you will be left to ‘pay’ for those kids, as all the talented ones will be overseas!
Q+A dealt with the awful problems in New Zealand with children – and what is clear is that all our child abuse/poverty/welfare problems are far more important than being bogged down with political rhetoric.
Gluckman and the Green Paper and Annette King and many others keep saying this should be dealt with cross party. The best possible way this issue can be made clearly above politics is for pledges:
– National should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Annette King the Social Welfare Ministry
– Labour should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Paula Bennett the Social Welfare Ministry
Then we’d know they are serious about raising this to a whole of country problem that needs everyone’s support and efforts.
It’s pretty pointless to have a ministerial portfolio if you don’t have the budget that you require to run it. Since we know full well that National is hell bent on stripping funding from social welfare I don’t see how a Labour minister in a Nat govt could do anything except be the scapegoat – unless you are suggesting that ministers should be able to override the finance minister or the rest of the party when it comes to funding, which is clearly unworkable. As for Paula Bennett, I personally don’t think she should be allowed near a ministerial portfolio ever again.
‘Cross party’ is an inclusive sounding slogan but it overlooks the glaring fact that while different parties may agree on the existence of a particular problem, their solutions to the problem will undoubtably be different. This is especially true when the issue requires addressing poverty and inequality, as it does in this case.
It seems glaringly obvious that there is little difference between the major parties on what the best approach to vulnerable children/parents should be, and there will be little difference on what sized budget is allocated.
The key thing is to use the available money as effectively as possible.
Just because a policy is deemed an efficient allocation, does not make it ‘effective’. You could argue that $2mill for a plastic waka is used efficiently but how effective is it likely to be?
National Bootcamps for one!
You are an ass PG.
You’ve picked out one very small initiative that seems to be of mixed value. I’m dubious about it. It’s possible it’s just an ineffective approach, but it can’t be easily determined in a short time frame.
Most things that will have long term benefits will take a long time to properly evaluate.
In the past National and Labour have continued similar policies with a few variations, I think it’s likely they would agree on most things once you strip away the political rhetoric.
Cutting night classes and reducing access to student loans?
National standards for two, selling state assets would be three
ECE cuts another.
Although in general terms I have no problems with Labour having more clearly distinguished (and left wing) policies from National.
Just trying to imagine the situation if Hana Harawira becomes leader of the Maori Womens Welfare League while Paula Bennett is Minister of DOSW Department of Social Woe.
PG taking the high ground again. Please mate, no.
Oh ffs.
Labour should pledge that if they win in November they will offer Paula Bennett the Social Welfare Ministry
Well apart from the fact she does not have a freakin idea about what is happening, that she is shallow and malicious, that her abilities are possibly up to her getting a job at McDonalds, that she has a track record of abusing beneficiaries for political gain and that she has been a total disaster in Government good idea Pete!
Is it April 1?
Paula useless, bennie bashing, Bennet. You must be joking.
My beagle would do a better job than Bennett; in fact he’d do a better job than the lot of them!
I note the Graphic of Parliament (polls) is still shown in the two party format, with a jumble of minor parties separating the major blocks.
Isn’t it about time that the colourings were arranged for the political spectrum, starting with the (depending which philosophy commands the treasury benches) most extreme parties being nearest the speaker and then spreading around to the opposition parties.
(The actual parliamentary seating does not appear to be arranged in order of list placing because the Prime Minister and Deputy appear to sit in front of the Speaker and not behind or beside that position.)
That way we could see the separation of the Greens and Act (seemingly at opposite ends of the political spectrum) into their rightful positions.
Mr I-will-go-with-whatever-party-Dunne could remain in his rightful position acting as the bridge (plank) for each to walk over.
In fact, is there any pre-ordained MMP parliamentiary seating arrangement?
Do you mean most extreme. NACT spreading around to the sensible parties like the Greens.
Anyone who wants radical failed policies, like tax cuts for the rich and asset stealing, could then be shown in their true colours.
Yep – The current parliament would have ACT occupying a few seats on the left hand side where Joyce usually sits. Then you would have the bulk of blue, then Dunne and the MP, then Labour and finally around by the speaker again, the Greens. But currently having the Greens next to ACT is laughable. As you say, having the likes of Douglas around by Lockwood would give a much stronger picture for JoBlo as to political leanings.
United Future and Peter Dunne-nothing do not belong in the centre – they belong in the past.
‘building a bridge’ using this outdated technology is doomed to fail.
vto made the following comment on The violent right thread
“Any similarities between the separatist politics of this madman Norwegian and the madman separatist politics of Hone Harawira you think?” and “The simiilarities are very real.”
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-violent-right/#comment-356434
This comment got some responses which were catagorised as
“all responses to the various points I have made here have been solely either attacks on me, or simple bare statements “you are wrong” in various forms. Not one person above has actually provided any facts or statements or evidence to refute. Not one.”
I dispute that because the thread has continued since then. Further, today on stuff they report
“Breivik also writes that white Europeans will flee to New Zealand in an apocalyptic war sparked by the “gradual Islamisation” of Europe.” and “He quotes German anti-Islamic columnist Henryk Broder urging young people get out and “move to Australia or New Zealand. That is the only option they have if they want to avoid the plagues that will turn the old continent uninhabitable”.
“Breivik says that after the civil war in Europe is won, and Islam expelled, a new “European Federation” would be created, which would include New Zealand.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/5365851/Mass-killer-sees-NZ-as-haven-in-Islam-conflict
My question vto is how does this fit into your ‘similarity theory’. The evidence you presented was your list which included “heavy discourse” and “showing some hatred” – it was subjective and reflected your own bias – I’d like to see actual evidence for your slur – just like I’m giving you here. The statements made by the murderer are fact and if others of his ilk come here what do you think they will think of the Mana Party, or māori like you? As i have said before I don’t have a problem if you hate Mana and Hone and everything they stand for – good for you. But you disrespect many by trying to connect the murderer and māori – you disrespect yourself.
Mr Mars, I did actually provide some evidence, copied below. But a couple of points first;
Why would you think I hate Mana and Hone? I don’t and that was your assumption. I applaud them and their politics, except the separatism component. You see Marty, assumptions such as that were repeated thru that thread by all and sundry. With zero basis.
What do I think any such immigrants would think of Mana and Hone? I suspect they would get on very well when it comes to dealing with new immigrants. Why wouldn’t they? They both suffer under a wave of colonisation for one thing. That is why I suggested that the indigenous people of Norway consider entering into a treaty similar to ours to cater for their own immigration wave. People struggling with immigration and colonisation is nothing new and most every people on the planet have at some time suffered such.
Anyways to the point… Lets check for similarities between the two scenarios (copied);
“to repeat … lets check for characteristics of terrorism with regard to Hone and his politics and similar followers within NZ;
1. Politics at the extreme end of the spectrum. (it is accepted that Mana’s sovereignty and other politics are right at one end of the spectrum. No?)
2. Politics advocating a form of separatism. (this is what Mana want, a form of separatism. This was one of the characteristic of the Norway terror. No?)
3. A discourse that is heavy. (read what the Norwegian murderer wrote and it is heavy. Similarly, two examples, so is ‘white mofos’ from an elected representative. And you may recall the call to maori convicts some years ago to ‘kill a whitey’. Heavy. No?)
4. A past that involves use or threatened use of weapons. (Hone some years ago referred to them in the north having guns and being prepared to use them. Similarly, recall Tame Iti shooting up a NZ flag recently? And we still have the Urewera ‘terrorists’. Weapons. No?)
”
(And where do the threats ladelled out to Maori Party members at the hui with the Mana Party up at Taipa (?) a while ago sit? What does Sue Bradford think of that given her anti-smacking law?)
I was asking the question and looking forward to seeing some answers. I then pushed it a little to stir (as is an unfortunate trait at times) by suggesting that the similarities were obvious. But if you follow the earlier thread you will see that there was no answer to the question, only put-downs. Please show where a proper answer was put.
What other traits are signatures for terrorism threat? Perhaps lonerism (are there any loners out there listening to Hone?). Others certainly.
What it led me to was that the separatism aspect of Mana, having looked at some facts, is hardcore right wing politics, jammed right hard up against left wing policies. And the headline of the post “The Violent Right” all fell into place.
I say Go Hone (except for the separatism and the intimidation and aggression).
edit: you are highly selective in what you quote from my posts which of course removes the context.
I think you have an extreme view of this so called ‘separatism’. Do you really think that our society can be separated? Do you think Mana or Hone think this? Self determination is actually about inclusivness and equality not the fear mongering of ‘separatism’.
I apologise for making assumptions about your view.
I replied to your points here
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-violent-right/#comment-358359
i still think your theory is in poor taste and completely wrong.
Ahaa I see your reply now (Tho it was only left late last night).
I would have thought we have some form of duty to see where the terrorism risks lie in our land. It clearly lies in certain quarters but questioning all risk quarters should be attended to. Asking such questions of Maori separatist politics has gone down like a cup of cold sick. I guess there are certain things that are not allowed to be questioned…
As for “do I think Mana think this (separatism)?” that is not the issue. Just looking for the trigger / risk points and their self-determination / separatism is one of them. And is self-determination not a form of separatism?
Clearly those trigger /risk points are a matter of degree but remember that it is not the people in public or party positions who are the risk it is the loner listening in the backblocks.
edit: one final: it was not ‘a theory of mine’ it was a question which has led to an answer which may well lead to a full blown theory at some later point. Or not.
I do not think Hone is into violence.
I do not think he wants to dispose of his Pakaha friends and family.
He is inclined to heated discussion about his beliefs.
As are many of us.
It does not make us terrorists.
At least in NZ (and Norway) we are, mostly, still talking to each other.
What do you mean by separatism vto? I’ve not been aware of Mana or Harawira talking about separatism in the way that you seem to mean. It would be good if you could clarify and maybe link to something Harawira has said as we can understand your points.
I think you are conflating a whole bunch of things to support your argument. AFAIK Hone Harawira didn’t tell Maori to kill a whitey. No terrorism charges have been brought against anyone arrested in the Tuhoe raids.
Been reading the sewers thread regarding the ‘pre-teens who want benefits’ and I’d like to know. who the fuck is Alison Sutherland . She says she works in Wairarapa schools with children who have behavioural problems but does’t tell us who she works for. Surely she would be receiving government funding and be subject to confidentiality clauses in her contract which would prevent her from disclosing anything about her clients.
Is Alison Sutherland a wannna be Linsay Mitchel?. Too posh to work with all the time in the world to gloat about the failings of others.
Assuming she is not the goat breeder that also pops up in google:
https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj37/37-the-relationship-between-school-and-youth-offending.html
http://www.infonews.co.nz/news.cfm?&id=33835
Thanks DoS.
Jon Stewart:In the Name of the Fodder.
Forget about the top 10% (this is about the top 1%)
I’ve had this nagging doubt for a while as to why we’ve been focusing on the wealth, income and political views of the “top 10%”. I for one know a lot of people who are in this group, (earn >$75K pa, own their own house, maybe a rental or two) and in the main they are good smart people, better informed than most, with high levels of concern for their community, families and the direction of the country. (There are always unpleasant exceptions of course, and there is no denying that the top 10% is far better off than the bottom 50% in society).
So in my comments I started focusing on the top 5% of income earners. To enter this bracket you have to be on incomes of between $90K pa and $100K pa. And yet, once you remove roughly $24K in income tax, the remaining sum (although very generous relative to most NZers) gives a lifestyle while comfortable and free of daily money worries is by no means luxurious. If you are raising children and paying off a sizeable AKL mortgage in 20 years, each months income is basically gone by the end of the month.
The following article, although US in origin, explains a different world quite well: the world of the top half of the top 1%. Although we do not yet have the massive income/wealth inequity of the States, we still have to put a laserlight focus on the top 1% here in NZ (earning well over $150K pa and above) because it is they who truly influence opinion, media, the formation of laws and regulations. They have privileged access to decision makers, politicians and regulators. They have the most generous funds to contribute to political movements and lobbying.
From the article (emphasis mine):
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/investment_manager.html
As my son would say “Lolwut?” $90 000 minus $24,000 = $66,000. I raised one and a half kids on circa $18,000 so you’ll pardon me if my heart is stony when it comes to people doing the same on nearly 4 times as much.
Just checking Colmar Brunton polls to see if they are indeed an australian owned company.
They are owned by Millward Brown who are a subsidary of Kantar. Kantar looks like a multnational research company or GROUP. I’m trying to load their website at Kantar.com which is taking forever. Not happening really. If someone with a better connection wants to give it a try please do.
So thats one of the polling companies looking a bit creepy to me at least. Time to check the rest I think.
http://millwardbrown.com/About/FastFacts.aspx
Fast Facts
Founded 1973
77 offices in 51 countries
Millward Brown is part of Kantar, the information and consultancy division of WPP
Millward Brown Specialist Practices:
BPRI Group
Dynamic Logic
MaPS
Millward Brown Optimor
Firefly Millward Brown
1,800 Dynamic Tracking studies currently running
65,000 Link™ copytests conducted
More than 5,300 BrandDynamics™ projects covering over 45,000 brands
Over 1,000 brand sales modeled
Over 4,400 separate BrandZ™ studies completed
BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Brands ranking released annually in April
11 years of Digital experience
6,000 campaigns measured across 27 digital platforms
300 CrossMedia Research studies completed
400 online creative pretests conducted using LinkSelect for Digital
100 mobile research studies conducted
115 filters in MarketNorms, the world’s largest online normative attitudinal database
Specialist practices for mobile, gaming and social media
OK WPP own Kantar and their web address is loading OK
http://www.wpp.com/wpp/companies/
KPP __ Kantar___Millward Brown___Colmar Brunton
The board of KPP are a really well connected lot i.e.with connections to the US govt.
So Colmar Brunton a supposed Australian company is really a part of pretty multinational. Why does this surprise me.
Philip Lader
Non-Executive chairman | Letter of appointment – Philip Lader
Philip Lader was appointed chairman in 2001. The US Ambassador to the Court of St James’s from 1997 to 2001, he previously served in several senior executive roles in the US Government, including as a Member of the President’s Cabinet and as White House Deputy Chief of Staff. Before entering government service, he was executive vice president of the company managing the late Sir James Goldsmith’s US holdings and president of both a prominent American real estate company and universities in the US and Australia. A lawyer, he is also a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley, a director of Marathon Oil, AES and Rusal Corporations, a trustee of the Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Atlantic Council and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
A full list of WPP comapnies worldwide
http://www.wpp.com/wpp/companies/company-list.htm
Gina: Please some up.
Seriously, I am interested and would like to know what you think about Colmar Brunton in your own words?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1107/S00341/training-review-timely.htm
so much for the third leg of the balanced stool of society – employee, employer, government
“Skills that are relevant are in short supply and employers consistently seek training relevant to their skill and productivity needs.”
Yeah note how private enterprise want the state to pay to train their staff – or worse the state to pay for private enterprise to train their staff.
Where’s Phil O’Reilly saying businesses should get their shit together and train people up. Oh that’s right training is a cost to business and therefore must be socialised.
One of these days I’m going to get tired of this scam.
Especially when the state pays to train up the young ‘uns, NZ businesses refuse to pay decent wages, so the young ‘uns all bugger off to work for Australia instead, giving Oz the benefit of our NZ tax payer funded training.
It’s slowly descending into farce.
NZ First to dump anti-smacking
Life must be so simple when you’re a populist politician. Just agree with whatever you think the majority of the population thinks they want.
He has set up a good idea though:
Which is probably something the parties of the left could band together to set up something similar.
Smart media idea on his part. Still, its not going to attract viewership anything like the TV networks. But far better than being extincted by non-coverage.
Winston has got to get back on his forward looking nationalistic drum beat if he has any hope. Looking backwards is going to get him caned.
So appealing to the anti smacking crowd and getting tough on crime, when all the time dog whistling to the left he won’t change the law, very smart.
Whine could get a cabinet post yet, he obviously has a few heads with him.
He says he will replace it with a law that attacks brutal parents.
That’s strange, does he think we don’t have sufficient law for that already? S59 was only intended for borderline cases. I wonder what he’s going to attack brutal parents with.
Jesus – S59 was a section of the Crimes Act that gave parents a legal defence of ‘discipline’ when assaulting a child; the removal of S59 gave children the same level of protection as adults, livestock and domestic pets – nothing more, nothing less.
It was NEVER an anti-smacking bill!
What is Section 59?
Section 59 is part of a law (Crimes Act 1961) in Aotearoa New Zealand that states “Every parent or person in place of a parent of a child is justified in using force by way of correction towards a child if that force is reasonable in the circumstances.”
This law was a remnant of the male right to punish servants, wives and children.
It, in essence, was a property right.
First servants were removed, then wives and finally children.
Makes perfect sense to me.
+1 – shame Family First can’t get this!
IMO, Family First want wives and servants put back onto the punishable list.
I did, and you couldn’t be more wrong! I chose the Public Service, because I have (wisely) never really trusted private enterprise. There was no laziness except in your mind PG, and there was plenty of challenge unless you purposely avoided it.
It may depend on what part of the Public Service Vicky. It’s widely accepted that many parts of it were grossly overstaffed. Did you read Bassett’s account?
Overstaffed? What does that even mean. If we still had thousands of people working in the Ministry of Works, the Christchurch rebuild would be in full swing by now!
Instead we have 160,000 sitting unemployed rotting away on the scrap heap.
But thats not a problem, right?
We have money, we have unemployed, we have plenty of work which needs to be done in this country, what is the frakin problem. (Our current political economic system may have something to do with it).
You have no idea what it was like, do you.
You have no idea of what it IS like, do you? 30 years of neoliberalism gutting this country’s core and here you are with reminiscing platitudes.
I do. I started my time with NZED in 1972 and when I left in 1976 I joined the other 100 or so qualified (advanced trade certificate in fitting, turning and machining) tradesmen that the NZED delivered to the private sector that year.
If you included the bonded tertiary students every year government departments and local bodies delivered thousands of trained staff, Electrical engineers through to paper hangers and decorators, to the private sector who at the time had no reason to train their own staff.
And the only reason that there’s a trades skills shortage in 2011 is that following the gutting of the public service and with a lead-in time of a decade or more the private sector has never shown any interest in investing in training.
You need to read the responses from DoS and others, Pete.
Actually read them.
Everyone knows the public service was used to ensure (near) full employment.
The only disagreement is whether you think this was a good idea, or whether you prefer high levels of unemployment and all the ills that brings.
Many people who have watched whole generations of working class kids dumped on the dole – untrained, with zero work experience, left to drift into crime, addiction and mental illness – now realise that it wasn’t such a bad idea to give them something to do to earn a living in those important formative years.
Of course ideological extremists like Bassett will never get it as his motivation is to profit the individual, not the society. Hard to address societal problems when you fundamentally don’t believe in society.
Look beyond the pointless and parasitic profit motive and you’ll see that we have plenty of work to be done and plenty of hands to do it.
Why would I need to? Unlike Bassett I lived it, and worked (unlike you) for several different parts of the Public service, and for more than one year!)
Bassett. lol.
Been staying in a few hotels overseas question: why do we not follow overseas trends of applying a tax per adult/ night stay to contribute to local infrastructure ? We see the hospitality industry always on the want for more e.g. Auckland waterfront development and yet they contribute no additional contributions to pay for them
Because that would be simple, as simple as taxing McD’s to pay for obesity and the amount of litter that ends up on the streets.
Try living in Rotorua, we pay rates to subsidise half empty flights from Sydney, because the moteliers wanted them!