Passing the buck on Gaza

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 pm, October 25th, 2023 - 22 comments
Categories: aid, Diplomacy, FiveEyes, israel, Palestine, Peace, United Nations - Tags:

The new government is leaving it to the old government to carry the ball on Gaza. Both governments have dropped it. The 5Eyes formula of “Israel’s right to defend itself” does not extend any right to the indiscriminate bombing, and refusal to allow any water, food or fuel to innocents in Gaza.

Mealy-mouthed exhortations from Luxon, Hipkins and MFAT to Israel to follow international law do not cut it, and have been spurned. At least the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has now called it more like it is.

While condemning Hamas and calling for the release of hostages, he said:

It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.

The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.

But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

Bombing campaigns on cities, the preferred method of the west, have never been the road to peace; instead they have meant loss of innocent lives in the millions, furious and long-lasting resentment, homelessness and mass migration. Israel will not bomb Hamas into submission, and the prospect of wider conflagration is seriously frightening.

The US vetoed a Brazilian-led resolution in the UN Security Council last week calling for a ‘”humanitarian pause.”

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield explained her country’s veto in the Council chamber saying “this resolution did not mention Israel’s right of self-defence.”

We should be saying “stop the bombing, start the negotiating.” Instead we are also using the language of the bombers.

22 comments on “Passing the buck on Gaza ”

  1. SPC 1

    A UN statement was made in consultation with the National Party by New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the UN Carolyn Schwalger.

    "New Zealand joins calls for a humanitarian pause to provide neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian organisations an opportunity to provide assistance and protection to those in Gaza who desperately need it"

    Schwalger also called for the establishment of designated safe areas that are "strictly off limits as targets, or for military use, and also call for humanitarian corridors to ensure the vital assistance reaches where it is most needed".

    She said New Zealand expected both Israel and Hamas to act in accordance with international law, and that Israel needed to provide basic needs for civilians in Gaza.

    "These legal obligations cannot be dispensed with in times of conflict. New Zealand urges all parties, including Israel and Egypt, to rapidly facilitate access for the delivery of urgent humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, through the Rafah border crossing. The volume of aid arriving in Gaza must significantly increase from recent levels."

    This was done to support others making the same call (at the UN) for international aid and secure supply routes and safe passage for civilians.

    In a separate statement to press, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins reiterated these comments, saying all parties must follow international law and "demonstrate basic humanity".

    "We are appalled by Hamas's brutality, their targeting of civilians, and the taking of hostages, which are in clear violations of international law. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages."

    This presumably in support of those nations that have citizens held as hostages.

    The Foreign Minister said

    Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said it was "intolerable to see civilians continue to suffer disproportionately as innocent victims of this conflict".

    Presumably the part objected to is here

    "New Zealand supports the right of Israel to defend itself against Hamas's terrorist attacks, but the way it does so matters. It must abide by international law, exercise restraint, and prioritise the protection of civilians. Ultimately there is no military solution that will bring about a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians."

    because there was no statement objecting to "self defence" (bombing is a prelude to on the ground invasion), just the means used.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/10/israel-hamas-conflict-new-zealand-calls-for-humanitarian-pause-in-gaza-chris-hipkins-says-all-parties-must-demonstrate-basic-humanity.html

    Bombing campaigns on cities, the preferred method of the west, have never been the road to peace; instead they have meant loss of innocent lives in the millions, furious and long-lasting resentment, homelessness and mass migration.

    There has certainly been a lot by Russia in Chechnya, Syria and Ukraine. And terrorist bombings (including suicide bombers) have been practiced for decades in the ME. And there was a lot by the West against Islamic State "militants" in both northern Iraq and North Eastern Syria (cleaning up the mess caused by the earlier regime change).

    Israel will not bomb Hamas into submission, and the prospect of wider conflagration is seriously frightening.

    That is not the intent – they want Hamas out and replaced as governing agency there. Peace is better than war, but appeasement (of Iran) does not guarantee peace – which is why Saudi Arabia was prepared to buy American security, by doing a deal with Israel (despite the nature of its current government).

    • lprent 1.1

      because there was no statement objecting to "self defence" (bombing is a prelude to on the ground invasion), just the means used.

      Based on the current results and regardless of any possible inaccuracies in numbers, what is going on in Gaza with the 'prelude' it is hard to see see any military value against Hamas. There have been at least 5000 civilian fatalities, and probably about 60,000 people injured as a result of the 'prelude' bombardment.

      To me and probably to most observers looks like a very indiscriminate attack against unarmed civilians with a deliberate intent of displacement. It has been noticeable that I haven't seen a single credible military observer outside of the IDF commenting favourably on the military value of 'prelude' bombardment.

      That is not the intent – they want Hamas out and replaced as governing agency there.

      It is impossible to see a scenario of how the current campaign is designed to achieve that. Previous bombing campaigns just drove the Hamas structure underground. There has been a notable lack of detail about how this campaign has done anything apart from creating a great urban landscape for insurgent warfare. No images of bunker busters caving in tunnels.

      This just looks like a collective punishment for Gaza residents voting Hamas into power 17 years ago in the last election.

      Basically your arguments make as much military sense as the IDF's proclamations about their strategy – none at all. Unless of course the intent is to just keep killing civilians whilst staying away from getting shot at.

      Peace is better than war, but appeasement (of Iran) does not guarantee peace, – which is why Saudi Arabia was prepared to buy American security, by doing a deal with Israel…

      The problem with this bit of sanctimonious bullshit is that Saudi Arabia sits directly across a relatively gulf from Iran. Whereas Gaza is about 1100km from the nearest Iranian border.

      The only reason that there isn't peace in Gaza is because the idiot citizens of Israel and its governments haven't dealt with the internal problems of the areas that they occupy or have blockaded for generations.

      Your thinking is just as lazy as that of Israelis. Why exactly haven’t they dealt with helping the displaced Palestinians since 1995 to not want to be susceptible to being involved with fanatic groups like Hamas. It appears from the outside to be that it was easier to placate the fanatics like the settlement nut bars and religious fanatics inside Israel instead – that is after all how Likud keeps getting into government.

      • SPC 1.1.1

        My reply was made to inform people as to the detail of our (apparently bi-partisan – National and Labour) diplomatic response.

        Your thinking is just as lazy as that of Israelis.

        I presume that is what passes for a "collective" dismissal of other … . Accusing people of being lazy in their thinking, is as risible as talking about tax cuts for hardworking New Zealanders – it is of that ilk.

        Given the only opine I offered was this

        That is not the intent – they want Hamas out and replaced as governing agency there.

        Peace is better than war, but appeasement (of Iran) does not guarantee peace – which is why Saudi Arabia was prepared to buy American security, by doing a deal with Israel (despite the nature of its current government).

        most of your response was a manufacturing of a strawman. So it's a bit pointless for me to respond to any of it – given your current predilection to look for someone to fight on the issue.

        The international community should get directly involved in enforcing a solution

        Like in the Ukraine and Kashmir (contested between Pakistan and India and now direct Indian rule to manage the local Moslem majority) or West Papua? Or in nations where the indigenous people ask for their UN recognised rights?

        The opportunity for the international community to get involved will come soon enough. The Israelis want either the UN or the PA to run Gaza (which will require a rebuild).

      • lprent 1.1.2

        Just to give a point to how stupid the current Israeli government is being at present.

        1. Their avowed intent is remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
        2. They do so not to occupy it in the longer term, but to withdraw and close the border completely – in violation of their international obligations as occupier and their insistence of maintaining a blockade of air, seas, and even land routes.
        3. Presumably if Israel is not going to murder all of the residents of Gaza, there will be some form of government required for Gaza.
        4. Currently the only realistic alternative would be the Palestinian Authority (PA) who purportedly govern the West Bank.
        5. At present the Israeli government is also withholding the taxes that they collect on behalf of the PA, to the PA.
        6. Which means that the PA will not be able to pay their own security staff, releasing a large number of well armed and trained young staff of military potential probably with weapons into the West Bank with more of a grudge against both the Israeli government and PA.

        This article from The Economist says it all "Can the Palestinian Authority control Gaza if Hamas is ousted? It may be lucky to keep control of the West Bank by the end of this war"

        As israeli troops prepare to invade Gaza, one question keeps coming up: who should take control of it after they have rooted out Hamas—if, indeed, they are able to do so? Many, especially Israel’s allies, are looking to the Palestinian Authority (pa), which was thrown out of Gaza by Hamas almost two years after Israel withdrew its troops and dismantled its settlements there in 2005. But the pa seems to be in no position to take charge of the coastal enclave. In fact there are no guarantees that by the end of this war it will even be in control of Ramallah, the de facto capital city of the West Bank.

        Partly because it has been unable to protect Palestinian civilians on the West Bank from attacks by Israeli settlers or halt the expansion of Israeli settlements, the pa has lost control of security in swathes of the West Bank to militant groups such as Kata’ib Jenin and the Lions’ Den in Nablus in recent years. The slaughter of 1,400 Israelis by Hamas on October 7th, Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Hamas in Gaza, and a sharp increase in attacks by settlers have all pushed it into an even more precarious position.

        What has been noticeable in these attacks is that either the IDF has lost control of its soldiers in the West Bank or that IDF is complicit in some kind of ethnic cleaning policy. Most of the reported examples have IDF soldiers either standing aside as armed settlers unlawfully attack unarmed civilians to push them off land, or the soldiers actually assist.

        As the war in Gaza goes on, along with the flow of pictures coming out of the enclave that show civilians killed by Israel’s bombing, Hamas’s popularity appears to be increasing, while the pa’s seems to be plummeting. When news broke of an explosion at Gaza’s Ahli Arab hospital, furious crowds thronged into the streets of the West Bank. Their anger was not, however, directed at Israel, which most Palestinians believe bombed the hospital. (A more likely explanation for the blast, according to independent analysts and Western intelligence agencies, is that it was caused by a misfired rocket launched from Gaza by Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group.) Instead anger was directed at the pa. Hundreds marched on Mr Abbas’s presidential compound in Ramallah. In an echo of the protests that rocked Arab countries and toppled governments in 2011, many chanted: “The people want the fall of the president.”

        The pa’s legitimacy crisis is being intensified by a financial one. Although the pa has not been able to evolve into an independent Palestinian state, many Palestinians accept it simply as a source of salaries and public-sector work. Yet it seems it may not be able to provide even these. In the next few weeks the pa is scheduled to pay public-sector salaries, including the wages of 34,000 members of the Palestinian Security Forces. But it can afford to pay less than 50% of this month’s wage bill, according to one senior pa official, who added that, even before the current war in Gaza, Israel was withholding customs revenues which it is obliged to hand over. This cash crunch is likely to become more acute as a result of the war because Israel has closed its borders to the thousands of West Bank Palestinians who usually work in Israel and pay income taxes to the pa.

        Members of pa’s security forces are already accused by friends and family of being proxies for Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. In many cases, the only thing that keeps them from leaving their posts is their monthly pay-cheque. The pa has weathered previous financial storms and paid salaries late, or been unable to pay them in full, in the past. But the latest projected pay cut is far larger. If it goes ahead, tens of thousands of young men in the pa’s police and national security forces may not show up to work. Some would be ripe recruits for other armed groups in the West Bank including Hamas and Islamist Jihad, the group that may have been responsible for the hospital blast in Gaza. In any case, it is hard to see how unpopular and unpaid security forces will stand their ground if Palestinians try to sack the presidential palace. “The Palestinian public is reaching a boiling point and an explosion against the authority,” says Amjad Bashqar, a Hamas official in Nablus. “The only thing delaying it is our focus on the resistance [against Israel]”.

        What are those complete fuckwits in the Israeli 'war cabinet' thinking? If they are thinking at all.

        It sounds like they are deliberately trying to make sure that the Fatah who run the PA get replaced by groups who are more extreme than Hamas. That both Gaza and the West Bank will be uncontrollable without considerable indiscriminate targeting of civilians.

        I can't see that they have any interest in 'peace'.

  2. lprent 2

    Agreed.

    Quite simply Israel and the international community generally have screwed up badly since 1990s about the Palestine. Once Israel's military and diplomatic borders were reasonably secure, then there was simply no remaining excuse not to deal with the displaced results of previous ethnic cleansing.

    Either the two state solution should have been implemented properly with clear boundaries and absolutely no Israeli settlement in Gaza and the West Bank, or the state of Israel should have formally annexed the occupied territories and made full citizens of the Palestinians and their diaspora.

    Either solution would have been hard for the citizens of Israel who were wedded to the concept of Jewish religious / ethnic state. But it would have been less of an security and economic risk than running their current occupations, border issues against irregulars, regular bombing campaigns against civilians in Gaza, fostering fanatics and the risk of a massacre as happened a few weeks ago.

    The reason and responsibility for the Hamas raid can primarily be laid directly at the feet of Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu. As a person and as a party since before 1995 and the assassination of Rabin, they have deliberately used the plight and danger from the continued stateless dispossession of Palestinians as a wedge issue in Israeli politics. In particular with their support of seizures of the remaining West Bank land that was meant to form the basis of a two state solution.

    The short-sighted citizens of Israel, who kept voting for the Likud policy of having no resolution of this fundamental problem in the Palestine, carry much of the blame for the inevitable massacre of their fellow citizens. So do the nations like the US, UK, Aussie, us, and others for allowing this idiotic state of affairs to continue.

    Killing the civilians and their homes in Gaza (as the IDF is currently doing with aircraft, missiles and artillery), arresting and imprisoning West Bank children, or starving the population of Gaza in over-sized concentration camp / ghetto does absolutely nothing to reduce the probability of future massacres on either side.

    The international community should get directly involved in enforcing a solution for the Palestine. It caused the problem with the unfortunate experiment of the UN decisions of 1948 and subsequent dithering. It isn't getting any better. It is likely to get a lot worse as Israel's citizens vote for more of their governments solutions that they are currently applying – apartheid, collective punishment, the use of concentration camps, ghettos, and a quite apparent tendency to viewing their subjected Palestinian (and Arab citizens) as being sub-humans.

    To me it is really starting to get hard see the differences between Israeli and Nazi regimes. Their current attack on Gaza looks it was learnt from the Nazi attack on the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. All it lacks is a Treblinka and the "final solution" – but I am sure that Likud and the religous right in Israel have ideas in that direction.

    • Tiger Mountain 2.1

      Eloquently, and humanely put lprent.

      Someone surely in the international community has to attempt to breach the Gaza blockade and deliver fuel at least to get hospitals and desalination running again. ICU patients and babies in incubators are dying. No pain relief, no bandages, no chance of surgery for injured now–simply horrific.

      How much more blood does the Israeli State and Military want? Rare is the day that I agree 100% with lprent, but today is that day!

      • lprent 2.1.1

        Someone surely in the international community has to attempt to breach the Gaza blockade and deliver fuel at least to get hospitals and desalination running again.

        There is no realistic way to do that unless the US Navy gets involved in holding off the continued airspace violations from IDF air force and missiles, and probably the missiles launched from Gaza at Israel.

        Plus it'd need to issues warnings to or attacks Israeli navy operations in Gaza waters maintaining their decades old sea blockade.

        No-one else in the region has the technical capability to prevent assured destruction of aircraft and sinking or capture of vessels.

        The IDF has been attacked around the southern roads since Hamas launched their attack, and increasingly more since. Which is a bit weird logically since they issued orders to Gaza civilians to move to the south, and then started to increase their bombardment in that region. I haven't seen any particular IDF explanation (or excuse) for that strategic decision.

        Egypt has (rightly) been constraining the trucks from going through the border unless the road is passable and that the Israeli's aren't in the process of bombarding south Gaza. They also inspect all cargo going in either at the Rafah crossing for weapons as they have done for at least a decade with an agreement with Israel after they pulled out of Gaza. The alternative would be that Israel would close the roads by bombardment.

        Currently they are also checking for fuel as well which is logical as many weapons can be made with any fuel. The problem is that the fuel is also needed for water pumps and desalination, power generation, and especially for hospitals. When the fuel inside Gaza is exhausted then the supply operation gets a lot more complex and larger because water will have to be trucked in.

        The 54 trucks that have gone through so far have been explained as being a trial with the Red Crescent to test procedures. The numbers are meant to increase, however so far there appears to be no signs that is happening.

        If you read the Israeli online propaganda 'news', they report Israeli spokes person assurances that there is plenty of food and water in (presumably) southern Gaza. Which is not what is being reported by anyone in Gaza that I can see from social media, aid agencies or credible social media accounts.

        It sounds like the massive Israeli ordered population shift from north to south Gaza has left south Gaza as extremely limited on both food and water. The UN estimates that at least a 100 trucks a day are required. Currently the trucks seem to be averaging less than 10 a day. Which means that any existing food and water stocks are getting depleted rapidly even when you don't consider the supply chain disruptions from the IDF attempting to hit Hamas position in the south and causing destruction and casualties over wider areas.

        • Belladonna 2.1.1.1

          There is no realistic way to do that unless the US Navy gets involved in holding off the continued airspace violations from IDF air force and missiles, and probably the missiles launched from Gaza at Israel.

          I believe that there is zero chance of the US militarily intervening in Gaza.

          There is just no win for them in this. And their military policy has been to disengage from the Middle East. They've also got very tired of being the world's policemen, while gaining opprobrium from the Western liberal elites for doing so.

          The exception would be to retrieve American hostages. A limited goal, involving intelligence operations to pinpoint hostages, and marine forces on the ground to extract them.

          • SPC 2.1.1.1.1

            Over half of the hostages in Gaza are foreigners.

            • Belladonna 2.1.1.1.1.1

              I'd only seen around 20 or so Americans reported

              https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-do-we-now-about-hamas-hostages-2023-10-19/

              US only care about American hostages. I mean, they'd rescue others if they were in the same compound, but wouldn't go looking for them. They might act on behalf of their alliance buddies (especially UK and Australia) – if they were officially requested to do so. Still a pinpoint security operation, rather than a military intervention.

              ATM, the US have tasked 2 carrier groups to the Middle East – but mostly as a deterrent (ensuring other countries don't take the opportunity to expand the war).
              They've also moved (or are in the process of moving) 3 marine carriers – which are equipped for air or amphibious landings – into easy 'on call' positions.

              I'd say this is in preparation for intelligence on the location of hostages – ready for a limited-objective retrieval operation.

              https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-militarys-moves-including-2000-marines-play-israel/story?id=104047399

              While they might hope for a diplomatically negotiated release of hostages – they’re preparing for this to fall over.

    • Dennis Frank 2.2

      “The international community should get directly involved in enforcing a solution for the Palestine.”

      Yeah, but how? A peace conference would be a novel way of proceeding, inasmuch as it has been a unused method for so long. Everyone defaults to Biden when the UN chief seems incapable, yet his support of Israel makes him unable to triangulate credibly. Peacemaking is an art so why would anyone expect establishment leaders to demonstrate competence?

      Zionism presumes the right of dispossessed ethnicity, yet implementation denied that right to the Palestinians, so either that right isn't recognised in international law or such law is unenforceable. Peaceful co-existence requires mutually-recognised habitation rights for both Israelis and Palestinians – regardless of boundaries.

      So a peace conference would have to include international law experts as advisors, and identify a consensual basis upon which to proceed, and articulate that in its final agreement as a proposal for UN adoption. Indigenous rights advocates seem worth including but I would direct them to create a generic formulation first. General principles are usually required to clarify complexity.

      Alexander the Great whacked the Gordian Knot, and complex situations do require a similar decisive cut through.

      • Belladonna 2.2.1

        Peaceful co-existence requires mutually-recognised habitation rights for both Israelis and Palestinians – regardless of boundaries.

        And there's the rub. At least one side (arguably both sides) does not regard the other as having habitation rights.

        Until you can shift that – I don't see any peace process involving a two state solution having a chance of working.

        It doesn't matter how many international lawyers and experts are involved, if the people on the ground don't agree with them.

        BTW I really don't think that you're recommending Alexander's solution to problems (invade everyone, kill off the local leadership, die young and leave a legacy of civil war)

        • lprent 2.2.1.1

          Until you can shift that – I don't see any peace process involving a two state solution having a chance of working.

          Yep. That is why I think that the two-state solution just isn't viable. No-one will accept it – especially on the side with most of the weapons – Israel. The settler movement and religious orientated think that they own it by right of previous occupation about 2000 years ago. Which is simply insane.

          By comparison the Palestinian insurgency is way more rational regardless how much it upsets the Israeli government who seem to be intent on the bully philosophy of ‘we won, you lost, could you please stop fighting’ that seems to guide their continual violations of any peace settlements.

          Make it a single state with a more rational political system like MMP. Put an occupation force in (thankless duty) to control all of the nut bars and to control the internal security forces. Let them work it out for a couple of decades via the courts and politics, and see if that works out in civilising the place.

          Looking back, there was less of an issue when the British occupied the place back in the 1940s. Maybe that will stop this pissant region continuously disrupting the rest of the world with conflicts that keep overflowing their borders.

          • Belladonna 2.2.1.1.1

            Put an occupation force in (thankless duty) to control all of the nut bars and to control the internal security forces.

            Heaven's yes – a truly thankless task. I'm assuming you're thinking of forces under the UN Peacekeeping mandate.

            I seriously doubt that any of the major players are going to sign up for it. Especially when both sides (Israel during the British administration, and Hamas now) have an extensive history of attacking what they see as occupying forces.

            • lprent 2.2.1.1.1.1

              Especially when both sides (Israel during the British administration, and Hamas now) have an extensive history of attacking what they see as occupying forces.

              Palestinians (or Arabs) as they were referred to at the time, also made a sport of attacking the British occupation from the time of the mandate. They just did it less often and as flamboyantly than the Irgun et al.

              the UN Peacekeeping mandate.

              Peacekeeping with a full mandate to defend, a full load out of weapons and munitions, right to pursue, and right to imprison. More akin to the British occupation in the troubles but with less of a partisan bias. In other words with means to force peace.

              Attacking an occupation is, in my view, a more healthy activity than the bickering and inept strategies that both sides have been using for the last 70 odd years. But mostly it would be preferable to both sides spreading their stupid conflict all over the damn place. Besides getting shot at when provoked by an occupation force armed to the teeth will be a healthy for both sides. They may even find a common cause.

              • Belladonna

                Tough on the common cause being shot at. I doubt there would be many volunteers.

                I’m also less-than-confident that the UN would be able to get those elements written into the peacekeeping force mandate. Too many states would be worried that it could be deployed against them.

                • lprent

                  Yeah. The alternative is to have Israel continue working towards whatever their final solution is – which is likely to be whatever the settlers want. Those people are really bat shit crazy.

                  Meanwhile have Hamas (or whatever replaces them and the Fatah) keep doing attacks. Meanwhile Palestinian kids throw rocks and get imprisoned for years to provide the shock troops for a later cycle.

                  Been watching it for most of my life. In a lot of ways a more humane solution to remove the dispute is probably to kick everyone out into a diaspora and seed the whole area with long-life radioactive dust.

                  Be tough on the people who are actually religious and understand and read their religious philosophy. But they can visit in radiation proof suits.

  3. SPC 3

    Russia and China vetoed on Wednesday a U.S.-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution on the war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

    The draft aimed to address a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling for pauses the violence to allow aid access. The United Arab Emirates also voted no, while 10 members voted in favor and two abstained.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-china-veto-us-push-un-action-israel-gaza-2023-10-25/

    • lprent 3.1

      Interesting that you to quote just one of the resolutions. So very very selective and hypocritical of you.

      https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25/what-to-know-about-un-draft-resolutions-on-the-israel-hamas-war-so-far

      The Russians put one up on the 16th. The UK, US, France and Jaapn voted against. The resolution did not name or condemn Hamas.

      Brazilians put up one on 18th. It passed but the the US vetoed – reason was that the resolution did not mention Israel’s right of self-defence.

      The US resolution was not for a ceasefire, just for a pause. Which I suspect that was the main reason that got vetoed.

      Interestingly it calls for a inherent right for self-defence. Which is kind of weird. Gaza is probably still legally held by Israel by its effective occupation of Gaza. Gaza isn't technically part of any recognised state – the status of Palestine being rather ambiguous, and the status of Gaza being even more ambiguous.

      Israel is legally claiming that occupation right when it maintains a effective air, sea and land control of all imports and exports of the Gaza strip.

      In effect the US resolution was claiming a right of self-defence by Israel against part of the area that Israel also claims to effectively occupies and controls. It is a logically flawed concept.

      A second resolution was put up by the Russians which

      Russian draft #UNSC resolution on #Gaza and #Israel is quite cunningly designed to look like a compromise text (adapting paras from Brazil and U.S. drafts) while including one word "ceasefire" that the U.S. has explicitly rejected.

      It didn't get enough votes to pass, but would have been vetoed anyway because the US and UK (both security council members) both voted against.

      • SPC 3.1.1

        So very very selective and hypocritical of you.

        It was the one related to our own diplomatic position, which is called being on thread topic.

        At least you are being consistent, making personal attacks against others on this topic.

        • lprent 3.1.1.1

          I always make personal attacks on bad behaviour. It was meant as a educational barb. I find that there is way less repeated behaviour when the objection to it is personal.

          You'll no doubt be aware that I really have a irritated thing about selective quoting. It also applies to selective linking on wider topic. That is because it is a such a dumbarse classic misinformation tactic. I get irritated when I have to dig into the net to write a clear and substantive counter comment.

          I also have a habit of writing pretty exhaustive comments that clearly distinguish between my opinions, what I think of are facts (and why), and links and quotes that illustrate why.

          I'm also used to people whining like a child that they are victim when they are called out . Also people who avoid actually dealing with the substance of my long replies by playing the victim. I tend to view that as a symptom of someone who is too lazy to argue their point, or who simply doesn't have a valid point.

          I guess that is you huh?

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  • Willis fails a taxing app-titude test but govt supporters will cheer moves on Te Pukenga and the Hum...
    Buzz from the Beehive The Minister of Defence has returned from Noumea to announce New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting and (wearing another ministerial hat) to condemn malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government. A bigger cheer from people who voted for the Luxon ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • ELIZABETH RATA: In defence of the liberal university and against indigenisation
    The suppression of individual thought in our universities spills over into society, threatening free speech everywhere. Elizabeth Rata writes –  Indigenising New Zealand’s universities is well underway, presumably with the agreement of University Councils and despite the absence of public discussion. Indigenising, under the broader umbrella of decolonisation, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the skewed media coverage of Gaza
    Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website. If he did, Peters would find MFAT celebrating the 25th anniversary of how New Zealand alerted the rest of the world to the genocide developing in Rwanda. Quote: New Zealand played an important role ...
    2 days ago
  • “Your Circus, Your Clowns.”
    It must have been a hard first couple of weeks for National voters, since the coalition was announced. Seeing their party make so many concessions to New Zealand First and ACT that there seems little remains of their own policies, other than the dwindling dream of tax cuts and the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 8-December-2023
    It’s Friday again and Christmas is fast approaching. Here’s some of the stories that caught our attention. This week in Greater Auckland On Tuesday Matt covered some of the recent talk around the costs, benefits and challenges with the City Rail Link. On Thursday Matt looked at how ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago
  • End-of-week escapism
    Amsterdam to Hong Kong William McCartney16,000 kilometres41 days18 trains13 countries11 currencies6 long-distance taxis4 taxi apps4 buses3 sim cards2 ferries1 tram0 medical events (surprisingly)Episode 4Whether the Sofia-Istanbul Express really qualifies to be called an express is debatable, but it’s another one of those likeably old and slow trains tha… ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Dec 8
    Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro arrives for the State Opening of Parliament (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)TL;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:New Finance Minister Nicola Willis set herself a ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • New Zealand’s Witchcraft Laws: 1840/1858-1961/1962
    Sometimes one gets morbidly curious about the oddities of one’s own legal system. Sometimes one writes entire essays on New Zealand’s experience with Blasphemous Libel: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/blasphemous-libel-new-zealand-politics/ And sometimes one follows up the exact historical status of witchcraft law in New Zealand. As one does, of course. ...
    2 days ago
  • No surprises
    Don’t expect any fiscal shocks or surprises when the books are opened on December 20 with the unveiling of the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). That was the message yesterday from Westpac in an economic commentary. But the bank’s analysis did not include any changes to capital ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #49 2023
    113 articles in 48 journals by 674 contributing authors Physical science of climate change, effects Diversity of Lagged Relationships in Global Means of Surface Temperatures and Radiative Budgets for CMIP6 piControl Simulations, Tsuchida et al., Journal of Climate 10.1175/jcli-d-23-0045.1 Do abrupt cryosphere events in High Mountain Asia indicate earlier tipping ...
    2 days ago
  • Phone calls at Kia Kaha primary
    It is quiet reading time in Room 13! It is so quiet you can hear the Tui outside. It is so quiet you can hear the Fulton Hogan crew.It is so quiet you can hear old Mr Grant and old Mr Bradbury standing by the roadworks and counting the conesand going on ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • A question of confidence is raised by the Minister of Police, but he had to be questioned by RNZ to ...
    It looks like the new ministerial press secretaries have quickly learned the art of camouflaging exactly what their ministers are saying – or, at least, of keeping the hard news  out of the headlines and/or the opening sentences of the statements they post on the home page of the governments ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago
  • Xmas  good  cheer  for the dairy industry  as Fonterra lifts its forecast
    The big dairy co-op Fonterra  had  some Christmas  cheer to offer  its farmers this week, increasing its forecast farmgate milk price and earnings guidance for  the year after what it calls a strong start to the year. The forecast  midpoint for the 2023/24 season is up 25cs to $7.50 per ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • MICHAEL BASSETT: Modern Maori myths
    Michael Bassett writes – Many of the comments about the Coalition’s determination to wind back the dramatic Maorification of New Zealand of the last three years would have you believe the new government is engaged in a full-scale attack on Maori. In reality, all that is happening ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago
  • Dreams of eternal sunshine at a spotless COP28
    Mary Robinson asked Al Jaber a series of very simple, direct and highly pertinent questions and he responded with a high-octane public meltdown. Photos: Getty Images / montage: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR The hygiene effects of direct sunshine are making some inroads, perhaps for the very first time, on the normalised ‘deficit ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • LINDSAY MITCHELL: Oh, the irony
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – Appointed by new Labour PM Jacinda Ardern in 2018, Cindy Kiro headed the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) tasked with reviewing and recommending reforms to the welfare system. Kiro had been Children’s Commissioner during Helen Clark’s Labour government but returned to academia subsequently. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Transport Agencies don’t want Harbour Tunnels
    It seems even our transport agencies don’t want Labour’s harbour crossing plans. In August the previous government and Waka Kotahi announced their absurd preferred option the new harbour crossing that at the time was estimated to cost $35-45 billion. It included both road tunnels and a wiggly light rail tunnel ...
    3 days ago
  • Webworm Presents: Jurassic Park on 35mm
    Hi,Paying Webworm members such as yourself keep this thing running, so as 2023 draws to close, I wanted to do two things to say a giant, loud “THANKS”. Firstly — I’m giving away 10 Mister Organ blu-rays in New Zealand, and another 10 in America. More details down below.Secondly — ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 days ago
  • The Prime Minister's Dream.
    Yesterday saw the State Opening of Parliament, the Speech from the Throne, and then Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s dream for Aotearoa in his first address. But first the pomp and ceremony, the arrival of the Governor General.Dame Cindy Kiro arrived on the forecourt outside of parliament to a Māori welcome. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • National’s new MP; the proud part-Maori boy raised in a state house
    Probably not since 1975 have we seen a government take office up against such a wall of protest and complaint. That was highlighted yesterday, the day that the new Parliament was sworn in, with news that King Tuheitia has called a national hui for late January to develop a ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • Climate Adam: Battlefield Earth – How War Fuels Climate Catastrophe
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). War, conflict and climate change are tearing apart lives across the world. But these aren't separate harms - they're intricately connected. ...
    3 days ago
  • They do not speak for us, and they do not speak for the future
    These dire woeful and intolerant people have been so determinedly going about their small and petulant business, it’s hard to keep up. At the end of the new government’s first woeful week, Audrey Young took the time to count off its various acts of denigration of Te Ao Māori:Review the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Another attack on te reo
    The new white supremacist government made attacking te reo a key part of its platform, promising to rename government agencies and force them to "communicate primarily in English" (which they already do). But today they've gone further, by trying to cut the pay of public servants who speak te reo: ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • For the record, the Beehive buzz can now be regarded as “official”
    Buzz from the Beehive The biggest buzz we bring you from the Beehive today is that the government’s official website is up and going after being out of action for more than a week. The latest press statement came  from  Education Minister  Eric Stanford, who seized on the 2022 PISA ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Climate Change: Failed again
    There was another ETS auction this morning. and like all the other ones this year, it failed to clear - meaning that 23 million tons of carbon (15 million ordinary units plus 8 million in the cost containment reserve) went up in smoke. Or rather, they didn't. Being unsold at ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Assault On Maori
    This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, Audrey Young has compiled a useful list of the many, many ways that ...
    3 days ago
  • Rising costs hit farmers hard, but  there’s more  positive news  for  them this  week 
    New Zealand’s dairy industry, the mainstay of the country’s export trade, has  been under  pressure  from rising  costs. Down on the  farm, this  has  been  hitting  hard. But there  was more positive news this week,  first   from the latest Fonterra GDT auction where  prices  rose,  and  then from  a  report ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    3 days ago
  • ROB MacCULLOCH:  Newshub and NZ Herald report misleading garbage about ACT’s van Veldon not follo...
    Rob MacCulloch writes –  In their rush to discredit the new government (which our MainStream Media regard as illegitimate and having no right to enact the democratic will of voters) the NZ Herald and Newshub are arguing ACT’s Deputy Leader Brooke van Veldon is not following Treasury advice ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Top 10 for Wednesday, December 6
    Even many young people who smoke support smokefree policies, fitting in with previous research showing the large majority of people who smoke regret starting and most want to quit. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Wednesday, December ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Eleven years of work.
    Well it didn’t take six months, but the leaks have begun. Yes the good ship Coalition has inadvertently released a confidential cabinet paper into the public domain, discussing their axing of Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs).Oops.Just when you were admiring how smoothly things were going for the new government, they’ve had ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Why we're missing out on sharply lower inflation
    A wave of new and higher fees, rates and charges will ripple out over the economy in the next 18 months as mayors, councillors, heads of department and price-setters for utilities such as gas, electricity, water and parking ramp up charges. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Just when most ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did We Get Here?
    Hi,Kiwis — keep the evening of December 22nd free. I have a meetup planned, and will send out an invite over the next day or so. This sounds sort of crazy to write, but today will be Tony Stamp’s final Totally Normal column of 2023. Somehow we’ve made it to ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    4 days ago
  • At a glance – Has the greenhouse effect been falsified?
    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 ...
    4 days ago
  • New Zealaders  have  high expectations of  new  government:  now let’s see if it can deliver?
    The electorate has high expectations of the  new  government.  The question is: can  it  deliver?    Some  might  say  the  signs are not  promising. Protestors   are  already marching in the streets. The  new  Prime Minister has had  little experience of managing  very diverse politicians  in coalition. The economy he  ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    4 days ago
  • You won't believe some of the numbers you have to pull when you're a Finance Minister
    Nicola of Marsden:Yo, normies! We will fix your cost of living worries by giving you a tax cut of 150 dollars. 150! Cash money! Vote National.Various people who can read and count:Actually that's 150 over a fortnight. Not a week, which is how you usually express these things.And actually, it looks ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Pushback
    When this government came to power, it did so on an explicitly white supremacist platform. Undermining the Waitangi Tribunal, removing Māori representation in local government, over-riding the courts which had tried to make their foreshore and seabed legislation work, eradicating te reo from public life, and ultimately trying to repudiate ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Defence ministerial meeting meant Collins missed the Maori Party’s mischief-making capers in Parli...
    Buzz from the Beehive Maybe this is not the best time for our Minister of Defence to have gone overseas. Not when the Maori Party is inviting (or should that be inciting?) its followers to join a revolution in a post which promoted its protest plans with a picture of ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • Threats of war have been followed by an invitation to join the revolution – now let’s see how th...
     A Maori Party post on Instagram invited party followers to ….  Tangata Whenua, Tangata Tiriti, Join the REVOLUTION! & make a stand!  Nationwide Action Day, All details in tiles swipe to see locations.  • This is our 1st hit out and tomorrow Tuesday the 5th is the opening ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Top 10 for Tuesday, December 4
    The RBNZ governor is citing high net migration and profit-led inflation as factors in the bank’s hawkish stance. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere on the morning of Tuesday, December 5, including:Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says high net migration and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Nicola Willis' 'show me the money' moment
    Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can't make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises. Photo montage: Lynn ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • CRL costs money but also provides huge benefits
    The City Rail Link has been in the headlines a bit recently so I thought I’d look at some of them. First up, yesterday the NZ Herald ran this piece about the ongoing costs of the CRL. Auckland ratepayers will be saddled with an estimated bill of $220 million each ...
    5 days ago
  • And I don't want the world to see us.
    Is this the most shambolic government in the history of New Zealand? Given that parliament hasn’t even opened they’ve managed quite a list of achievements to date.The Smokefree debacle trading lives for tax cuts, the Trumpian claims of bribery in the Media, an International award for indifference, and today the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Cooking the books
    Finance Minister Nicola Willis late yesterday stopped only slightly short of accusing her predecessor Grant Robertson of cooking the books. She complained that the Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), due to be made public on December 20, would show “fiscal cliffs” that would amount to “billions of ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Most people don’t realize how much progress we’ve made on climate change
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The year was 2015. ‘Uptown Funk’ with Bruno Mars was at the top of the music charts. Jurassic World was the most popular new movie in theaters. And decades of futility in international climate negotiations was about to come to an end in ...
    5 days ago
  • Of Parliamentary Oaths and Clive Boonham
    As a heads-up, I am not one of those people who stay awake at night thinking about weird Culture War nonsense. At least so far as the current Maori/Constitutional arrangements go. In fact, I actually consider it the least important issue facing the day to day lives of New ...
    5 days ago
  • Bearing True Allegiance?
    Strong Words: “We do not consent, we do not surrender, we do not cede, we do not submit; we, the indigenous, are rising. We do not buy into the colonial fictions this House is built upon. Te Pāti Māori pledges allegiance to our mokopuna, our whenua, and Te Tiriti o ...
    5 days ago
  • You cannot be serious
    Some days it feels like the only thing to say is: Seriously? No, really. Seriously?OneSomeone has used their health department access to share data about vaccinations and patients, and inform the world that New Zealanders have been dying in their hundreds of thousands from the evil vaccine. This of course is pure ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • A promise kept: govt pulls the plug on Lake Onslow scheme – but this saving of $16bn is denounced...
    Buzz from the Beehive After $21.8 million was spent on investigations, the plug has been pulled on the Lake Onslow pumped-hydro electricity scheme, The scheme –  that technically could have solved New Zealand’s looming energy shortage, according to its champions – was a key part of the defeated Labour government’s ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • CHRIS TROTTER: The Maori Party and Oath of Allegiance
    If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?   Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • BRIAN EASTON:  Forward to 2017
    The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies. Brian Easton writes The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Climate Change: Fossils
    When the new government promised to allow new offshore oil and gas exploration, they were warned that there would be international criticism and reputational damage. Naturally, they arrogantly denied any possibility that that would happen. And then they finally turned up at COP, to criticism from Palau, and a "fossil ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • GEOFFREY MILLER:  NZ’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the government’s smokefree laws debacle
    The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
    6 days ago
  • Top 10 links at 10 am for Monday, December 4
    As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Be Honest.
    Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s foreign policy resets on AUKUS, Gaza and Ukraine
    New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    6 days ago
  • Auckland rail tunnel the world’s most expensive
    Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • First big test coming
    The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago
  • The Song of Saqua: Volume III
    Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
    6 days ago
  • Chris Bishop: Smokin’
    Yes. Correct. It was an election result. And now we are the elected government. ...
    My ThinksBy boonman
    6 days ago
  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #48
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate change Daily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
    6 days ago
  • Affirmative Action.
    Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago
  • 100 days of something
    It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago
  • Look who’s stepped up to champion Winston
    There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today  – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago
  • What's The Story?
    Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • The longest of weeks
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • Suggested sessions of EGU24 to submit abstracts to
    Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
    1 week ago
  • Under New Management
    1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • While we wait patiently, our new Minister of Education is up and going with a 100-day action plan
    Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenance Beehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • Ministers visit Hawke’s Bay to grasp recovery needs
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, to meet leaders of cyclone and flood-affected regions in the Hawke’s Bay. The visit reinforced the coalition Government’s commitment to support the region and better understand its ongoing requirements, Mr Mitchell says.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • New Zealand condemns malicious cyber activity
    New Zealand has joined the UK and other partners in condemning malicious cyber activity conducted by the Russian Government, Minister Responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau Judith Collins says. The statement follows the UK’s attribution today of malicious cyber activity impacting its domestic democratic institutions and processes, as well ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Disestablishment of Te Pūkenga begins
    The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says.  “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Climate Change Minister to attend COP28 in Dubai
    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • New Zealand to host 2024 Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Study shows need to remove distractions in class
    The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.   The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Minister sets expectations of Commissioner
    Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • New Zealand needs a strong and stable ETS
    New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says.  At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • PISA results show urgent need to teach the basics
    With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids.  The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Collins leaves for Pacific defence meeting
    Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Working for Families gets cost of living boost
    Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Post-Cabinet press conference
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