We may think that we now live in more enlightened times where the scourge of racism is finally being dealt to and racist behaviour by politicians is no longer considered acceptable.
But recent events suggest to me that racist memes are still being used by the calculating to stir up political support from the bewildered.
Admittedly it is not as bad as previous embodiments of racist activity. People are not regularly being killed or their houses or churches burned, at least by the politicians saying these things. But there are an awful lot of people out there that seem to get fired up by this sort of stimulation …
A classic example of race baiting has occurred recently in Australia. Victoria, which currently has a State Labor government, has an election later on in the year. Clearly the Liberals would love to win back power. So the Turnbull Government has made a big thing about gangs of young Africans causing problems in Melbourne and how Melbournians are afraid to go out at night. Peter Dutton, whose level of odiousness almost matches that of Trump, has front footed the attack. And things have been egged on by Rupert Murdoch owned papers.
Dutton chose to use the right wing playbook. He attacked the Andrews Government for appointing “weak” judges and suggested that the non existing law and order problem was all because of liberals (small l).
There is a problem with some of the judges and magistrates [Premier] Daniel Andrews has appointed and some of the bail decisions that have been made, been criticised even by Daniel Andrews’ own ministers,” Mr Dutton told Adelaide radio yesterday.
“It is not a problem in Adelaide, not in Brisbane, not in Sydney. It’s a problem concentrated in Victoria.”
Victoria is having a debate about gangs. Specifically, it is debating whether it is appropriate to call groups of young people who are predominantly from African backgrounds a “gang” and, so named, what should be done about it.
It’s also having a debate about race, which is being waged in the comment sections of front-page articles on gang violence, and on social media, where comments like “stop immigration until this mess is sorted” populate Victoria police’s official Facebook page.
Both debates are linked to a perceived increase in large-scale violent offences committed by young people of African appearance, most of whom have been linked to Melbourne’s Sudanese migrant community.
Media coverage of the issue, led by the News Corp tabloid the Herald Sun, has dubbed Victoria “a state of fear” and reported that it could undermine the incumbent Labor government’s chances in the November state election.
On Monday the prime minister weighed in, saying at a press conference in Sydney that “growing gang violence and lawlessness in Victoria” was “a failure of the Andrews government”.
However, police say that crime from African “street gangs” is an ongoing, not growing, problem, and also that calling these groups “gangs” might be overstating the issue.
The Murdoch media have been complicit in what has happened and embarrassingly for them were caught out trying to create an incident involving Sudanese youth so they could report it. From the Guardian:
A scuffle described by the media last week as “the latest gang flare-up” involving African teenagers was in fact entirely provoked by the journalists who reported it, according to Victoria police.
The article, published by the Daily Mail on 3 January, was billed as an exclusive and headlined “Police SPAT ON and abused as officers arrest African teenagers outside a shopping centre in Melbourne’s west in broad daylight – in latest gang flare up”.
According to Victoria police, there was no “gang” involved and no “flare-up” until the aggressive behaviour of the Daily Mail photographer provoked a group of teenagers who were innocently socialising at the shopping centre.
Two days after the article was published, the Victoria police executive director of media and corporate communications, Merita Tabain, wrote a confidential email to the editors of Melbourne’s main media outlets expressing concern that aggressive behaviour by journalists might “exacerbate the current tensions”. She gave the incident at the Tarneit Central shopping centre as an example.
Tabain wrote that the incident had been provoked by the photographer’s decision to “move in to take closeup photos of a group of African teenagers socialising”.
Is there an actual problem? Sudanese offending is believed to comprise 1.5% of total offending. Although this is bigger than the actual proportion of the Sudanese community of the total population the overall amount is small.
And socio economic reasons may be the cause for any spike in offending. A disproportionate number of Sudanese youth are unemployed, the Sudanese community has a much younger average age, are generally poorer and suffer from an enhanced lack of engagement in work and school. These factors may explain the enhanced level of Sudanese involvement in reported crime. But the claim of out of control Sudanese youth gangs is, in the words of Victoria Chief of Police Graeme Ashton complete and utter garbage.
So the overwhelming effect I get from the allegations is “Meh”. But this has not stopped the idiots from sparking up.
Can I recommend that you go to the #AfricanGangs hashtag on twitter. The tweets are almost overwhelmingly a celebration of Africans living in Australia who are achieving great things, just like the early settlers of other cultures moving to a foreign nation.
And I can’t help but wonder if the activity is timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Bourke Street incident where six people were killed after Dimitrious Gargasoulas allegedly intentionally drove into them. Gargasoulas was Australian born of Greek Tongan descent who had been granted bail a few days earlier after an allegation of speeding and failing to stop. From the Wikipedia description he was clearly unwell. But mix in race and a cry for law and order and a claim that the judiciary are soft and time it so it will be topical just before the anniversary of a really sad event. Does Peter Dutton have no depth that he will sink to?
But just when you thought that no politician could sink lower than Dutton Donald Trump describes most of the developing countries as Shithole. Put aside his misogynist views, his lack of understanding, his overt belligerence, his anti environmental crusade, his attack on the poor and support for the rich and the threat he poses to world peace these comments should result in his removal from office. In a properly functioning democracy …
But this is a weakness of the democratic system. Pedalling lies and threatening racial tolerance for political gain should result in automatic failure, every time. That it does not, and that it is seen to be a legitimate political tool by the right means that we have a problem.
These contemptible human beings (they are not worthy of being called people) are being emboldened all around the world by this “shithole”, Donald Trump.
Decades ago my late Dad used to say… when America starts to go downhill, they’ll take the rest of us down with them. And that is exactly what is happening.
My daughter had a knife held to her throat and was threatened with death while a Sudanese 16 year old youth groped her in Central Melbourne during daylight work hours, while she was carrying our her job. i have NO SYMPATHY for these assholes. The aggression against the Sudanese is because of their fucked up religious views of women amongst other things. An no those views are not to be tolerated in a modern society.They do not give a rats arse about western values. And no Australia and NZ do not need these fucking people . Now out will come all the dearly deluded members of NZ’s oh so tolerant left telling me what a racist I am. I am an atheist and an old fashioned working class feminist . Fuck these people we don’t need em!
The Sudenese in Australia are generally young, sometimes with parents but very few grandparents. It’s not surprising that their crime rate is high because the young are more likely to be in trouble with the law. On top of that, many are refugees that have had horrific experiences in country to country war and in civil war that has left them troubled.
Accepting what you say at face value do you accept Shona there are assholes in all cultures and to concentrate on the ethnic background of an attacker distorts the picture? After all Australians are the largest group of people involve in Australian crime followed by kiwis …
The problem is one of what your expectations of migrants are once they arrive.
Until the 1970s migrants mostly arrived by ship and had little to no expectation of return to or regular contact with their native countries and cultures. Since the advent of cheap passengers flights and the internet, immigrants can form self-imposed ghettos of permanent first-generation migrants, Somali or Sudanese or whatever who never integrate and indeed, are told by white-guilt liberals they have every right to continue living just like they did in their shithole wasteland Sudan in nice, verdant Sandringham, or whatever.
When you have a self-imposed ghetto full of people whose antediluvian religious views (and I don’t give a shit if they are ultra-orthodox Jews who won’t pay tax or slut-shaming Amish who beat their children or misogynistic Muslims from Sudan) are in direct conflict with the values and social mores of their host society you are going to get serious problems. Nation states are historically meant to be heavily racially homogeneous groups with a shared culture and even a cursory glance at history shows what a terrible job they do at being multi-racial and multi-cultural (Just ask an Austro-Hungarian, or a Yugoslav, or a Transylvanian or a Czech or a Hutu…).
We spend a large amount of time condemning colonialism for creating unstable African nations containing religious and ethnic groups who hate each other, yet somehow we think it is bad to say to migrants from countries with polar opposite cultural and social views they must conform to and assimilate our values or be deported/barred from ever coming here. It is an exercise in liberal schizophrenia that is tearing societies apart, not making new migrants welcome.
Shona, that was a shocking thing to happen to your daughter. You have a right to be angry and bitter. In your shoes, I would want them cut up into bits and fed to the pigs. But I don’t think mickysavage was referring to such human animals. His concern – and mine – is related to institutionalised racism for political gain as practiced by Donald Trump… and being copied elsewhere in the world.The last time that happened in the 1930s and 1940s millions lost their loves.
If the post is about the overall behaviour of certain people, one or a few anecdotes indicate that they have some people in their group who will commit good, or bad things, violence, fraud etc. But the individual anecdote has a place at the side of the main analysis, not taken as a central point, otherwise there is no overview and no tentative judgment can be made.
A cousin of mine was raped at knife point in the South of USA by a couple of whites.
Am I now meant to think that all white Americans are like that due to their race, nationality, religion? I mean look at the fundamentalist, racist, sexists, class hating people in the USA. (And that includes so many in power.)
And my son was stabbed fourteen times by a NZ born white crohn’s disease sufferer who was unemployed and is now in jail. I’m unaware of any religious or misogynist views held by this asshole but obviously he’s from a group that is also not needed in this country (using your logic).
Agreed it is why i don’t consider myself part of the modern left anymore and if the standard are going to start bleating on like the rest then i will cut them out of my news cycle.
Because as always diversity hits the working class the hardest and its not just the “white” working class complaining. Local aborigines say the Sudanese young are behaving like ingrates turning their community into the same kind of place they fled from yet no one seems to even care what they have to say.
My daughter is regularly harassed, and even ‘touched up’ whilst heading home to her apartment off Cuba St. Usually by bar patrons-supposedly drinking in a sophisticated kind of way….’cos ya know-they really can handle their piss.
They’re predominantly white males-and usually fugly specimens at that.
Just as well that because of surf lifesaving and rowing, she is capable of totally flooring most of them.
“Flooring people” is harder than it sounds, and without training she might break her hand.
Far better to develop some innate abilities through practice and diligence, like any other sport. There are great Wing Chun and Taijiquan teachers in Wellington. Not some “self-defense” class, either: seek out a master.
I have no time for Peter Dutton and his ilk, but New Zealand citizens put in the same situation should support their own communities and support the Police. There’s a few towns in New Zealand that for example are dominated by crime and it’s really hard to organize against them. That would be whether they were immigrants or not.
Ad, the story you linked to is for members only. What was it about?
I do have a bit of a problem with your suggestion that people should involve themselves in direct action to support each other and the police. While in some circumstances this might be justified, the fact is that it’s easy to misjudge the dynamics of an event, especially if you only witness part of it or hear one side of it, and especially if the wider framing includes media demonising or dehumanising of one group of people while consistently portraying another group as victims. The people who assume that any group young people who are of African descent is a “gang”, for example, could easily intervene based on this assumption and actually be part of the problem. There’s a fine line between this kind of citizens’ direct action and vigilantism.
It was about Melbourne Police arrests of the Apex gang and a core of about 60 individuals. Here’s a quick explainer from an open site on gangs in Melbourne:
I am not proposing direct action. But I get pretty tired of activists on the left decrying the Police in New Zealand. We might want to look at extracting the log in our own eye in Kaitaia and other gang-dominated small towns for example before trying to wash the dust off someone else’s face.
“Pedalling lies and threatening racial tolerance for political gain should result in automatic failure, every time. That it does not, and that it is seen to be a legitimate political tool by the right means that we have a problem”
This type of Intolerance extends beyond racism to target various groups (generally poor people) – and in my view is designed to create division within populations – because while we’re hating each other, the Trumps of the world and our political leaders get to do what they will and we all get to forget who is causing the problems and blame each other instead.
Sadly in New Zealand “pedalling lies” is a tool that has been used by the right and left for decades – And actually I fail to see who the ‘left’ actually are these days, they’re much of a sameness and all implicated in promoting lies to justify and force harmful policy on disadvantaged groups – usually poor and brown people – maybe we overlook racism in our own backyard too?
Australia has a problem. The same one New Zealand does: racists. We need to get into their homes and communities, identify the instigators, and get them out of Parliament.
Start with anyone who bleats about political correctness. It’s simple code that means: “I am a racist.”
That sounds like you would use any lame excuse to label someone a racist.
Intolerance of and attacks on people with different views to your own can be as dirty as any racist (who typically are intolerant and attack or ostracise people they don’t like).
I so agree. I get very beady eyed about people who start bleating about society being ‘too pc’. They seem to me to have the pip because their favourite sexist/racist/etc meme which they have used to justify rotten behaviour has come under the spotlight and has been identified and described for what it is
To an extent but I think you’re over-generalising.
Confronting sexist/racist/whateverist language is important, but there’s also a danger of oversanitising language, and shutting down reasonable discussion using -ists as justification.
I think the BSA was right to dismiss the complaints for Hosking saying ‘for God’s sake’ (during an election debate), and for someone else saying ‘for Christ’s sake’.
Beautifully said Fairy Godmother and JanM above !
For a long time now I’ve thought that anti-PC is in reality the new PC……subscribed to by ignorant/lazy pricks as a distraction from their shame about their manifest inadequacies.
How could we think that racism was vanishing. We live in a culture of neo liberalism that has brought back classism, raised materialism above religion and consciousness of others worth, and the need to serve one another for their benefit, mutual benefit and the good of the whole community. It has wiped away equality-oriented policies and thoughts, replacing them with competitiveness. Push yourself, advocate for yourself and your superiority over all others. This link shows the epitome of the modern
educated go-ahead person focussed on business advantage, they have no time for consideration of real life and racism and how others are being treated. (Everybusinessvideoever)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZjtnGqvDM8
You want to get more than you have? Get to and use other people around you or far; stand on their shoulders if need be. Don’t bother about gratitude or reciprocation for good acts.
Neo lib teaches the simple psychology, as a tenet of its beliefs, that everyone does something to satisfy themselves, some innate urge. So no need to consider others, they are all following their own path in life. Concentrate on yourself, use your advantages, slide into line before others in the queue – say, hey look over there – and get in. Leave the others standing, if they have problems because of race, that gives you an advantage, seize it. /sarc
Does Peter Dutton have no depth that he will sink to?
Apparently not but we shouldn’t be surprised by the actions of this RWNJ. It’s pretty much their MO as we learned here from Dirty Politics.
Pedalling lies and threatening racial tolerance for political gain should result in automatic failure, every time. That it does not, and that it is seen to be a legitimate political tool by the right means that we have a problem.
It should do but our system has been designed from the top to protect those at the top.
+1000 Draco T Bastard the system have been designed by the top to protect the top and that has to change. I still say that the word race should be wiped from our minds books and Computers and we use culture instead to identify all the beautiful unique people on Papatuanukue. I readed work from good writers and the use culture instead of race its the Ass holes of the World that use race to divide US the 99% of the world so they can carry on ripping US off. Ka kite ano
It’s pleasing that we don’t have any racist slurs flung around by our MPs.
Imagine if we had someone like the bigot mentioned in this story, who claimed that housing in his country was being all bought up by Chinese who weren’t residents.
His method of deciding they were Chinese was that the had “Chinese sounding names”. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/twyford-s-racist-cynical-chinese-property-buyer-statistics-de-bunked-q00964
Lucky that none of our New Zealand MPs are like that isn’t it?
Meh – both Australia and Canada have found significant impacts from Chinese buyers on their housing markets. We have increasing numbers of Chinese speaking real estate agents, and Chinese language real estate adverts. NZ real estate companies are now advertising in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. No controls on foreign buyers are in evidence.
Given these indicators it would be frankly extraordinary if the NZ market were not feeling the impact of a rise in Chinese buying. But by all means repeat the Gnat attack meme – their sudden false concern about racism certainly trumps ordinary NZer’s legitimate expectations of housing availability.
I think I’m going to generate a post about why OECD-country conservative movements are crushing the left with immigration policies and immigration discourse, and what if anything the left can do about it. Just needs an NZ immigration policy announcement to hang it off.
I’m waiting for it Ad. Recall also my comment on the Jim Anderton post re MoBIE.
I hope and pray for a better approach, and so far the signs are looking slightly better.
That’ll be the tricky part, because the typical left-wing response to people unhappy about mass immigration from completely foreign cultures is “Your bigotry is unacceptable.” The accused bigots then vote for people not declaring them to be bigots. I’m detecting a Gordian knot here…
So why aren’t there any good stats on whom was buying house in Auckland. Buying and selling houses in NZ is easy money. Iv seen a house brought and sold 3 times in 12 months with everyone getting a mark up. Why are there no stats on this subject well national was covering this up. It is not wise to let the foreigns buy up all OUR Assets. 15 years ago I read a article that pridicted New Zealand would become the Dairy farm of the world and The holiday home for the rich and famous .lf New Zealand became the holiday home for the rich and famous most of the people will be put on the bread line as everything will become to expensive for the 99% I say foreign should only be able to lease land. And can only buy land after being a resident for 10 years Ka kite ano
Totally agree with Shona. New Zealand should be for New Zealanders, not refugees from the world’s many shithole dumps. National lost votes because of their daft mass immigration policy (including mine), and Labour and co will do so also, if they insist on importing masses from all and sundry. FFS, we have an almost country wide housing crisis, huge unemployment, groaning cities, crowded schools and resources, but we want to bring in more and more? National didn’t listen and Labour won’t ever. Tone deaf when it comes to what kiwis want. No Islam here, pulease. Multi cultural simply means loss of our way of life, and death by one thousand cuts. Our pollies are UN sellouts, both sides, including Winnie.
In the 1870s recent immigrants were criticised by those who been original European immigrants from the 1840s and 1850s now living in North Canterbury. They were described as ‘sweepings from the gutters of European cities.” My ancestor was one of these. He stood up in a public meeting in Loburn and defended these people saying he was one of them. He was chaired from the meeting.
Documented history. I am so proud of this ancestor. A son of his was a champion dog-trialist, a grandson of his was a great wartime hero, another grandson a Shield winning Rugby coach, and so on, and so on. Descendants of one who had to borrow the money to emigrate away from the unemployment of 1860/70s rural England.
As the Statue of Liberty says, “Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
His descendants married into families of English, Irish, Scottish, Indian, Japanese, Maori descent. Canterbury always was a little mono-cultural…………
Tanz, you were out-of-date and indeed plain wrong, even 150 years ago.
NZ IS a shit-hol dump for many people and you Tanz with your skewed attitudes are an enabler of this. Anyone who is for the present economic practices at present in NZ, must take responsibility for helping bring this about. The fact that you and all the other RWs and fellow travellers of National won’t take responsibility is a sad observation that lefties must take on board.
Labour must ameliorate the conditions but wouldn’t be able to change them greatly in three years. One of the things they need to do is to try and limit immigration of rich foreigners to this country by ensuring that money invested here has taxed profits, and that investments made here are not just on land and buildings to absentee landlords.
Controlling immigration should also include NZ companies and the government not allowing the poor people from overseas shitholes to be fleeced by either their own people who have set up business in hypocritical, lying NZ presenting itself as a great and good country, but with a dark underbelly of sharp practices, or actually fleeced by NZ government and NZ business.
If you could bring yourself to actually think around and behind the problems you see Tanz rather than take soapbox stands shouting out your pre-programmed messages it would be worth your time to write here and ours to read what you have to say.
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
‘a programme to combat racism’
The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
‘theories of racism’
On this definition i don’t believe Trump to be racist but then I’ve also never met the guy so i don’t know what hes like
But when it came to shooting the suspects, police officers were more likely to fire without having first been attacked if the suspects were white. Additionally, the study learned that black and white civilians in the shootings were equally likely to be carrying a weapon.
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As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Professors Janet Hoek and Richard Edwards, Emeritus Professor Phil Gendall, Jude Ball, Dr Judith McCool, Anaru Waa, Dr Becky FreemanRecent media reports have presented conflicting evidence on youth vaping in NZ. While some NZ school principals report concerns about increasing vaping on school grounds and confiscating vapes, ASH Year ...
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...
Within quick succession, Countdown maths wizard and twitterer Rachel Riley, alleged comedian David Baddiel and prominent lawyer Andrew Julius have all expressed very similar opinions / ideas:
These #3billboards are going round London today, organised by ex-Labour people, horrified by what their party has become. Their principles haven’t changed, they’re ...
So, there have been a bunch of bad polls out for Labour, and even the Leftie's friend, Survation, have recently given the Conservatives a rip-snorting 11% lead. You Gov's much vaunted MRP poll - which pretty much nailed the result in 2015 - is currently predicting a comfortable majority for ...
The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed ...
Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
Samoa are experiencing a devastating measles epidemic. It is possible that 2-3% of the population will ultimately be infected by the time it is over. Hopefully the mass immunisation campaign currently under way can mitigate some of this, for many it is too late. The first question many people ask ...
Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
By Pallab GhoshThere’s value in covering new research advances, even when the underlying science is unsettled. But there are also risks.The recent announcement that scientists discovered water on the planet K2-18b, 110 light years away, prompted a media swoon. News stories, including a piece written by me, billed ...
I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzHow much does our use of air travel contribute to the ...
Minor planet/asteroid (2309) Mr. Spock is named not for the character in Star Trek, but for a cat that was itself imperturbable, logical, intelligent and had pointed ears. In a preceding blog post I introduced one of my favourite asteroids, (2472) Bradman, and also mentioned (6581) Sobers amongst a few ...
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
Anti-fluoride activists are rubbing their hands in glee over what they claim is “yet another study” showing fluoride harms the brains of children. But their promotion relies on IQ relationships which the paper’s authors acknowledge disappearing when outliers or other factors are considered. And they completely ignore other relationships ...
The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that New Zealand's Cook Islands High Commissioner, Tessa Temata, has died over the weekend. Ms Temata, 52, died in Palmerston North and had returned to New Zealand for medical treatment. She was the first New Zealand High Commissioner to the Cook Islands of Cook Island ...
A new defence report has mapped out how New Zealand's soldiers will navigate rising seas, and a year after the Defence Force announced its need to prepare for climate change. In the “Responding to the Climate Crisis” report, the Force restates its operational plan and sets goals to tackle climate ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
The Government is lifting capital investment to the highest level in more than 20 years as it takes the next step to future-proof New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced $12 billion of new investment, with $8 billion for specific capital projects and $4 billion to be added to ...
The Government is forecast to run $12 billion worth of surpluses across the four years to 2023/24 as the economy continues to grow. The surpluses will help fund day-to-day capital requirements each year. These include fixing leaky hospitals, building new classrooms to cover population growth and take pressure off class ...
Budget 2020 will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also investing to future-proof the economy. When the Government took office in 2017 it was left with crumbling infrastructure, severe underinvestment in public services, degraded rivers and lakes, a housing crisis and rising ...
The Minister responsible for the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 (te Takutai Moana Act 2011), Andrew Little has welcomed the launch of an online geospatial tool that provides data-rich, dynamic coastline maps that will significantly boost research and evidence-gathering under the Act. Te Kete Kōrero a Te ...
The Chief Victims Advisor to Government Dr Kim McGregor, QSO, has been reappointed in her role for a further two years. Dr McGregor has held the role since it was established in November 2015. She provides independent advice to government on how to improve the criminal justice system for victims. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare have today announced the deployment of a network of DART (Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami) buoys. “New Zealand and the Pacific region are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. It is vital we have adequate warning systems in place,” ...
DART Buoys Announcement Aotea Wharf, 9.30am 11 December 2019 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements to Minister for Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare also here today. White Island It is with regret that this event shadows the tragic natural disaster two days ago. The volcanic eruptions on White Island have claimed 5 lives, ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the first reading of the Racing Industry Bill in parliament today. This is the second of two Bills that have been introduced this year to revitalise New Zealand’s racing industry. “Our domestic racing industry has been in serious decline. The Government is committed to ...
Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni, is pleased to announce that $291,321 is to be awarded to national and local community initiatives to maintain and promote the use of New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL). “New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world where Sign Language is an ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has announced today the Coalition Government’s initial response to work completed by the independent statutory body, the Veterans’ Advisory Board. “When Professor Ron Paterson completed his review of the Veterans’ Support Act in 2018, he made a number of recommendations, including one which I referred ...
The Government will fund the bulk of the cost of a rural water supply for the Ohakea community affected by PFAS contamination, Environment Minister David Parker announced today at a meeting of local residents. This new water scheme will provide a reliable and clean source of drinking water to the ...
I have had the opportunity to be briefed on the details of the volcanic eruption of Whakaari/White Island, off the coast of Whakatane in the Bay of Plenty. The eruption happened at 2.11pm today. It continues to be an evolving situation. We know that there were a number of tourists ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare have today confirmed initial Government support of $100,000 for communities affected by the severe weather that swept across the South Island and lower North Island over the weekend. The contribution will be made to Mayoral relief funds across the ...
New Zealand's High Commissioner to the Cook Islands, Tessa Temata, died in Palmerston North over the weekend, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today. Ms Temata, 52, had recently returned to New Zealand for medical treatment. "On behalf of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we extend ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today announced construction is underway on Wellington commuter rail upgrades which will mean more frequent services and fewer breakdowns. The upgrades include converting the Trentham to Upper Hutt single track section to a double track, with a new signalling system, upgraded stations and level crossings, and ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark and Minister for Climate Change James Shaw have announced the release of a Defence Climate Change Implementation Work Plan, titled Responding to the Climate Crisis: An Implementation Plan. The plan sets out a series of recommendations based on the 2018 New Zealand Defence Assessment, The ...
A medium-scale adverse event has been declared for the South Canterbury district, which will see up to $50,000 in funding made available to support farming communities which have been significantly affected by recent heavy rain and flooding in the area, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two weeks of solid rain ...
Thank you Professor Juliet Gerrard and your team for the comprehensive and extremely helpful report and recommendations. Thank you too to all the stakeholders and interested parties who have contributed ideas and thinking to it. “Making best practice, standard practice” is a great framework for change and the action plan ...
The Government will phase out more single-use plastics following the success of its single-use plastic bag ban earlier this year and the release today of a pivotal report for dealing with waste. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has welcomed the Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealandreport, released by her Chief Science Advisor ...
International education continues to thrive as the Government focuses on quality over quantity, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. The tuition revenue from international education increased to $1.16 billion last year with the average tuition fee per student increasing by $960. The total number of international students enrolled in New Zealand ...
I want to talk about one of the most pressing issues in our national life: the housing crisis and the poor performance of our cities. The argument I want to make to you is that generations of urban land use policy have lacked a decent grounding in economics. The consequences ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Ethnic communities will be able to plan and deliver more community initiatives thanks to an increase in Government funding, Minister for Ethnic Communities Hon Jenny Salesa said today. “Ensuring Aotearoa New Zealand is a place we can all be proud to call home has been a key priority of our ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
Responding to the Minister of Finance’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update , which includes a $900 million deficit for the next financial year, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “At at time of high commodity ...
The Maniapoto Māori Trust Board (MMTB) is pleased the Waitangi Tribunal’s report has agreed that the Crown was correct to recognise it as the appropriate body to hold the settlement mandate for Maniapoto. ...
Government books are now expected to go into the red this financial year with a forecast deficit of $900 million, down from a Budget forecast surplus of $1.3 billion. ...
Government books are now expected to go into the red this financial year with a forecast deficit of $900 million, down from a Budget forecast surplus of $1.3 billion. ...
In this hard-hitting episode of current affairs show OTR 24/7, lady journalist Leonie Hayden comes face to face with one of society’s most elusive figures.“Hey baby, show us ya [insert weird word for body part here]!”To many women and non-binary folks this is a common greeting, usually delivered with great ...
Last year, we published the anonymous account of a Koru Club member who was denied their mandated birthright entry into the Koru Club. This Koru Club member returns to give us their harrowing, haunting account of the day the Koru Lounge went dry.“Bye, bye miss American Pie. Drove the Chevy ...
A Labour MP’s private members bill which allowed for bereavement leave for a miscarriage has been withdrawn and resubmitted , in seemingly a deliberate attempt to exclude post-abortive women who may also be suffering grief and loss. It will receive its ...
The police are not ruling out starting the recovery operation today for eight people missing after the Whakaari / White Island eruption but say safety comes first ...
Power Play - The latest report on moving the bulk of Auckland's port operations to Northport will be released tomorrow, but Jane Patterson asks whether it will be possible for Cabinet to press ahead prior to next year's election. ...
Toby Manhire gazes back at the last almost-10 years in New Zealand politics, leadership and tragedy.When I returned to New Zealand after 11 years away in 2010, John Key had been prime minister for a couple of years and it felt like he’d been prime minister forever. He was a ...
The Chief Ombudsman is launching a new inquiry into whether central government agencies have addressed any weaknesses identified in a landmark investigation five years ago. ...
Op-Ed by Kaveh Zahedi and Van NguyenKaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary for Sustainable Development, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).“The 2030 Agenda is coming to life”, declared the Secretary General at the opening of the first SDG Summit, a quadrennial event for ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Whakaari/White Island eruption Gordon Campbell: On the Whakaari/White Island eruption MIchael Lueck (Stuff): Should NZ look again at risky adventure tourism? Brook ...
The senior doctors’ union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, is welcoming a report from the Medical Protection Society which provides further evidence of doctor burnout and high workload pressures. ...
Responding to reports of New Plymouth District Council’s $1.6 million rates surplus, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says: “A rates surplus means the Council has taken more from the people of New Plymouth than it needs. It ...
The fatal eruption on Whakaari on Monday may force the tourism industry to review its current rules, writes tourism professor Michael Lueck.The official death toll is six and eight people are still missing, presumed to have died, in Monday’s volcanic eruption at Whakaari/White Island. The people on the island were ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is calling out Police for stepping up their intimidation campaign of licenced firearms owners as the deadline for firearms compensation draws near. ...
Belong Aotearoa alongside leading organisations working in the resettlement (refugee background) sector is calling on the New Zealand Government to play a greater role in responding to the international refugee crisis, ahead of the Global Refugee Forum ...
Protest groups and human rights supporters are preparing to “unwelcome” bulk carrying cargo ship ‘Federal Crimson’ as it arrives in Dunedin on Wednesday. The ship has carried over 50,000 tonnes of ‘conflict phosphate’ from the non-self ...
Tower boss quits after turning around $6.3m loss with risk-based insurance pricing strategy; and Prime Minister meets with rescuers of Whakaari / White Island survivors. ...
Should we modify the process of government formation to ensure no future incoming PM has the authority and mana of their office compromised from the outset? ...
A petition to Government that would see e-scooters and other personal transport devices banned from New Zealand footpaths is to be presented to the Honorable Tracey Martin, Minister for Children and Seniors on Thursday, 12th December, at 1.00 pm on the steps ...
All eyes today will be on Treasury and Finance Minister Grant Robertson when he releases his "significant infrastructure spending package" at 1pm today. ...
The Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group Incorporated (ARFGI) is marking today’s International Human Rights Day to draw attention to the NZ Government’s discriminatory policy of only supporting selective Pacific Island languages. ...
Western Australia’s move to legalise voluntary assisted dying continues a worldwide trend supported by a clear majority of New Zealanders, the End-of-Life Choice Society’s President, Dr Mary Panko, said on Wednesday. ...
School support staff have voted to accept collective agreement offers from the Ministry of Education, with the Living Wage of $21.15 as the new minimum pay rate. ...
Our pop culture superfans at The Real Pod look back at the local celebrities who defined the last decade in Aotearoa.If there’s any group of people we can turn to in these uncertain times, it’s celebrities. And lucky for us, New Zealand suddenly seems to have heaps of them. The ...
Wellington’s newest local body political party, the Wellington Party , welcomes the news that if returned to Government, the National Party will accelerate the construction work on the proposed duplicate Mt Victoria tunnel. Party President, David Lloyd, ...
Sweeping law changes proposed by an official inquiry into last year's election and foreign interference have taken too long to be of use for next year's election. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cameron Webb, Clinical Lecturer and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney Mosquito-borne disease is a concern for health authorities around Australia. Each year, thousands fall ill to Ross River virus disease caused by mosquito bites. Tracking mosquito populations can help us respond ...
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A collective of former refugee leaders, resettlement, human rights, faith-based and humanitarian organisations have signed and sent an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The letter asks the Government ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chari Larsson, Lecturer of art history, Griffith University Review: Water, GOMA, Brisbane. As I write these lines, bushfires rage through the ancient forests of New South Wales and our cities are choked with smoke. The severity of these fires is fuelled by ...
Parliament's Justice Select Committee has released its results of its inquiry into the 2017 General and 2016 Local elections and it covers issues around combating foreign interference in elections. ...
Questions remain over who had the power to stop tour companies visiting Whakaari / White Island after the volcanic alert level was raised in recent weeks. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: How the Whakaari eruption will be investigated, Greens ditch Budget Responsibility Rules, and more controversy for Crimson Education.There has been a lot of confusion about what investigations will take place after the Whakaari eruption, and what they will focus on. As ...
The issue of moving Auckland's port goes beyond party politics - it is an idea whose time has come for commercial, practical and cultural purposes, writes Shane Te Pou. ...
A decade of austerity and four elections in five years have scarred rather than soothed Britain. John Morgan wonders if the electoral barometer might yet swing to change. ...
Through the dark clouds of injury woes, pole vaulting star Eliza McCartney saw a chance to turn her focus to making a cleaner, healthier New Zealand ...
While New Zealand struggles with the volcano tragedy, Australia too, is in the grip of its own disaster. Bushfires in New South Wales have killed 6 people and destroyed nearly 700 homes. Newsroom’s Mark Jennings is currently in Sydney which is blanketed in thick grey smoke. ...
By providing food boxes to those who have requested food grants, Work and Income is fundamentally misunderstanding how to meet a basic human right, writes Rebekah Graham. Over the past few months, Work and Income has provided Auckland-based beneficiaries who have requested a food grant with a Bargain Box food kit ...
As controversy including a $10m lawsuit and ‘ghost’ offices continues to swirl around Jamie Beaton, his fellow Rhodes scholars have slammed him for trying to recruit them.Those who gain a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship must display “truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and ...
With the Labour party making a late surge in the opinion polls and getting some good headlines, some pundits are wondering if Britain’s general election on Thursday will end in a repeat of 2017’s hung parliament.Never say never, but this time feels quite different to 2017.That election took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Lueck, Professor of Tourism, Auckland University of Technology The official death toll remains at five, and eight people are still missing, presumed to have died in yesterday’s volcanic eruption at Whakaari/White Island. The people on the island were tourists and tour ...
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Police Minister Stuart Nash has defended the police decision not to mount a rescue operation at Whakaari / White Island and says he's confident they did everything they could. ...
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Hū ana te whenua, ngārue ana te moana. He aituā! He aituā! E tangi ana i āhua o te parekura i Whakaari inanahi. E aroha ana ki te whānau pani me ngā iwi e honohono kau ana ki te tipua maunga kei te Moana-a-Toi. “The Māori Party expresses its ...
The Prime Minister has sent a message to the family and friends of those overseas tourists caught up in the Whakaari / White Island eruption that New Zealand will hold their loved one close. ...
In the first instalment of our new pop-up podcast, The Spinoff Book Out Loud, Madeleine Chapman reads her poignant, hilarious response to the response to her scandalous ranking of New Zealand chips.In late March 2019, Madeleine Chapman spied her Everest, and she climbed it. “All 123 chip flavours in New ...
We were in the middle of drawing up this list when Potton & Burton quietly dropped a new book – it is optimistic and surprising and all kinds of wonderful, and here is our wee rave about it. Plus, in no particular order, here are the other nine best children’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lachlan Warner, Australian Catholic University Last week Britain’s Turner Prize for visual art was announced. For the first time, the award went to a collective instead of the usual singular winner. The four finalists – Helen Cammock, Oscar Murillo, Tai Shani and ...
Racist dog whistling 
Back in 2015, then Ombudsman Beverley Wakem conducted a review of the OIA, Not a game of hide and seek. The "review" was a whitewash, which found no need for legislative change, and instead criticised the media and requesters - which destroyed Wakem's reputation, and undermined that of the Office ...1 hour ago
So, You Gov's MRP poll - the weird one that tries to reflect what will happen at a constituency level and which pretty much nailed the hung parliament in 2017 - is not looking too good for Labour:
Sheer Loopiness: Many of those expressing bemusement at the antics of these #turnardern effacers, were convinced that they were yet another expression of the National Party’s increasingly spiteful anti-government propaganda campaign. They marvelled at the oddness of the perpetrators’ mindset and questioned the common-sense of allowing the rest of New Zealand ...3 hours ago
Brad Scott, GNS Science VolcanologistThis post was originally published by GeoNet. Following the 9 December devastating eruption at Whakaari/White Island we have put together some information about the island. New Zealand’s most active volcano Whakaari/White Island is currently New Zealand’s most active volcano, it has been since an eruptive episode ...21 hours ago
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These contemptible human beings (they are not worthy of being called people) are being emboldened all around the world by this “shithole”, Donald Trump.
Decades ago my late Dad used to say… when America starts to go downhill, they’ll take the rest of us down with them. And that is exactly what is happening.
My daughter had a knife held to her throat and was threatened with death while a Sudanese 16 year old youth groped her in Central Melbourne during daylight work hours, while she was carrying our her job. i have NO SYMPATHY for these assholes. The aggression against the Sudanese is because of their fucked up religious views of women amongst other things. An no those views are not to be tolerated in a modern society.They do not give a rats arse about western values. And no Australia and NZ do not need these fucking people . Now out will come all the dearly deluded members of NZ’s oh so tolerant left telling me what a racist I am. I am an atheist and an old fashioned working class feminist . Fuck these people we don’t need em!
Well said Shona.
That sounds like an awful experience for your daughter.
I know other women have experienced such behaviour by men from other ethnic groups, including pakeha/white/European men, etc.
The stats reported in the post do indicate that a very small percentage of overall offending is carried out by Sudanese young people in Melbourne.
The Sudenese in Australia are generally young, sometimes with parents but very few grandparents. It’s not surprising that their crime rate is high because the young are more likely to be in trouble with the law. On top of that, many are refugees that have had horrific experiences in country to country war and in civil war that has left them troubled.
FWIW I thought this show was pretty enlightening plus it has Melanie Lynskey in it.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/sunshine
Accepting what you say at face value do you accept Shona there are assholes in all cultures and to concentrate on the ethnic background of an attacker distorts the picture? After all Australians are the largest group of people involve in Australian crime followed by kiwis …
The problem is one of what your expectations of migrants are once they arrive.
Until the 1970s migrants mostly arrived by ship and had little to no expectation of return to or regular contact with their native countries and cultures. Since the advent of cheap passengers flights and the internet, immigrants can form self-imposed ghettos of permanent first-generation migrants, Somali or Sudanese or whatever who never integrate and indeed, are told by white-guilt liberals they have every right to continue living just like they did in their shithole wasteland Sudan in nice, verdant Sandringham, or whatever.
When you have a self-imposed ghetto full of people whose antediluvian religious views (and I don’t give a shit if they are ultra-orthodox Jews who won’t pay tax or slut-shaming Amish who beat their children or misogynistic Muslims from Sudan) are in direct conflict with the values and social mores of their host society you are going to get serious problems. Nation states are historically meant to be heavily racially homogeneous groups with a shared culture and even a cursory glance at history shows what a terrible job they do at being multi-racial and multi-cultural (Just ask an Austro-Hungarian, or a Yugoslav, or a Transylvanian or a Czech or a Hutu…).
We spend a large amount of time condemning colonialism for creating unstable African nations containing religious and ethnic groups who hate each other, yet somehow we think it is bad to say to migrants from countries with polar opposite cultural and social views they must conform to and assimilate our values or be deported/barred from ever coming here. It is an exercise in liberal schizophrenia that is tearing societies apart, not making new migrants welcome.
I expect them to behave like human beings. After all, that’s what the racists are doing.
Shona, that was a shocking thing to happen to your daughter. You have a right to be angry and bitter. In your shoes, I would want them cut up into bits and fed to the pigs. But I don’t think mickysavage was referring to such human animals. His concern – and mine – is related to institutionalised racism for political gain as practiced by Donald Trump… and being copied elsewhere in the world.The last time that happened in the 1930s and 1940s millions lost their loves.
If the post is about the overall behaviour of certain people, one or a few anecdotes indicate that they have some people in their group who will commit good, or bad things, violence, fraud etc. But the individual anecdote has a place at the side of the main analysis, not taken as a central point, otherwise there is no overview and no tentative judgment can be made.
A cousin of mine was raped at knife point in the South of USA by a couple of whites.
Am I now meant to think that all white Americans are like that due to their race, nationality, religion? I mean look at the fundamentalist, racist, sexists, class hating people in the USA. (And that includes so many in power.)
“Fuck these people we don’t need them(?)”
+111
And my son was stabbed fourteen times by a NZ born white crohn’s disease sufferer who was unemployed and is now in jail. I’m unaware of any religious or misogynist views held by this asshole but obviously he’s from a group that is also not needed in this country (using your logic).
Agreed it is why i don’t consider myself part of the modern left anymore and if the standard are going to start bleating on like the rest then i will cut them out of my news cycle.
Will you be ok, snowflake?
Will you?
Why do you say that RC?
The post acknowledges offending but opposes the racist dog whistle being used by the right because it is not backed up by reality.
Because as always diversity hits the working class the hardest and its not just the “white” working class complaining. Local aborigines say the Sudanese young are behaving like ingrates turning their community into the same kind of place they fled from yet no one seems to even care what they have to say.
My daughter is regularly harassed, and even ‘touched up’ whilst heading home to her apartment off Cuba St. Usually by bar patrons-supposedly drinking in a sophisticated kind of way….’cos ya know-they really can handle their piss.
They’re predominantly white males-and usually fugly specimens at that.
Just as well that because of surf lifesaving and rowing, she is capable of totally flooring most of them.
“Flooring people” is harder than it sounds, and without training she might break her hand.
Far better to develop some innate abilities through practice and diligence, like any other sport. There are great Wing Chun and Taijiquan teachers in Wellington. Not some “self-defense” class, either: seek out a master.
On the one hand we have Bill writing “You cowed?” decrying the unwillingness of citizens to protect each other.
On the other hand we have Mickey saying that we should worry more about the media framing and the reactions when violence goes down on the street.
May not be huge but it’s a dangerous gang that needs eradicating:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/gang-violence-in-melbourne-new-intel-on-core-apex-members/news-story/9873f9e18ac0a9c611601885b453e69d
I have no time for Peter Dutton and his ilk, but New Zealand citizens put in the same situation should support their own communities and support the Police. There’s a few towns in New Zealand that for example are dominated by crime and it’s really hard to organize against them. That would be whether they were immigrants or not.
Ad, the story you linked to is for members only. What was it about?
I do have a bit of a problem with your suggestion that people should involve themselves in direct action to support each other and the police. While in some circumstances this might be justified, the fact is that it’s easy to misjudge the dynamics of an event, especially if you only witness part of it or hear one side of it, and especially if the wider framing includes media demonising or dehumanising of one group of people while consistently portraying another group as victims. The people who assume that any group young people who are of African descent is a “gang”, for example, could easily intervene based on this assumption and actually be part of the problem. There’s a fine line between this kind of citizens’ direct action and vigilantism.
It was about Melbourne Police arrests of the Apex gang and a core of about 60 individuals. Here’s a quick explainer from an open site on gangs in Melbourne:
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/explainer-does-melbourne-have-a-street-gang-problem-20180102-h0cku6.html
I am not proposing direct action. But I get pretty tired of activists on the left decrying the Police in New Zealand. We might want to look at extracting the log in our own eye in Kaitaia and other gang-dominated small towns for example before trying to wash the dust off someone else’s face.
“Pedalling lies and threatening racial tolerance for political gain should result in automatic failure, every time. That it does not, and that it is seen to be a legitimate political tool by the right means that we have a problem”
This type of Intolerance extends beyond racism to target various groups (generally poor people) – and in my view is designed to create division within populations – because while we’re hating each other, the Trumps of the world and our political leaders get to do what they will and we all get to forget who is causing the problems and blame each other instead.
Sadly in New Zealand “pedalling lies” is a tool that has been used by the right and left for decades – And actually I fail to see who the ‘left’ actually are these days, they’re much of a sameness and all implicated in promoting lies to justify and force harmful policy on disadvantaged groups – usually poor and brown people – maybe we overlook racism in our own backyard too?
Australia has a problem. The same one New Zealand does: racists. We need to get into their homes and communities, identify the instigators, and get them out of Parliament.
Start with anyone who bleats about political correctness. It’s simple code that means: “I am a racist.”
That sounds like you would use any lame excuse to label someone a racist.
Intolerance of and attacks on people with different views to your own can be as dirty as any racist (who typically are intolerant and attack or ostracise people they don’t like).
It seems as though you would use any lame excuse.
Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.
Albert Einstein.
🙄
People’s views go to their character as human beings, and if contemptible justify contempt, and if Nazi then any “attack” is pre-emptive self defense.
People’s ethnicity has nothing to do with their character. Did you not know that, Pete?
I agree with you about pc. I interpret it as polite and considerate and on the odd occasion have asked people if they prefer to be rude.
I so agree. I get very beady eyed about people who start bleating about society being ‘too pc’. They seem to me to have the pip because their favourite sexist/racist/etc meme which they have used to justify rotten behaviour has come under the spotlight and has been identified and described for what it is
To an extent but I think you’re over-generalising.
Confronting sexist/racist/whateverist language is important, but there’s also a danger of oversanitising language, and shutting down reasonable discussion using -ists as justification.
And there’s also a problem with being oversensitive to common and fairly harmless language as highlighted here: Hosking’s outburst deemed not offensive
I think the BSA was right to dismiss the complaints for Hosking saying ‘for God’s sake’ (during an election debate), and for someone else saying ‘for Christ’s sake’.
🙄
Equates racism to invoking the gods.
Calls out people for over-generalising about people who use the term “pc”.
Very meta.
Beautifully said Fairy Godmother and JanM above !
For a long time now I’ve thought that anti-PC is in reality the new PC……subscribed to by ignorant/lazy pricks as a distraction from their shame about their manifest inadequacies.
How could we think that racism was vanishing. We live in a culture of neo liberalism that has brought back classism, raised materialism above religion and consciousness of others worth, and the need to serve one another for their benefit, mutual benefit and the good of the whole community. It has wiped away equality-oriented policies and thoughts, replacing them with competitiveness. Push yourself, advocate for yourself and your superiority over all others. This link shows the epitome of the modern
educated go-ahead person focussed on business advantage, they have no time for consideration of real life and racism and how others are being treated. (Everybusinessvideoever)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZjtnGqvDM8
You want to get more than you have? Get to and use other people around you or far; stand on their shoulders if need be. Don’t bother about gratitude or reciprocation for good acts.
Neo lib teaches the simple psychology, as a tenet of its beliefs, that everyone does something to satisfy themselves, some innate urge. So no need to consider others, they are all following their own path in life. Concentrate on yourself, use your advantages, slide into line before others in the queue – say, hey look over there – and get in. Leave the others standing, if they have problems because of race, that gives you an advantage, seize it. /sarc
Apparently not but we shouldn’t be surprised by the actions of this RWNJ. It’s pretty much their MO as we learned here from Dirty Politics.
It should do but our system has been designed from the top to protect those at the top.
+1000 Draco T Bastard the system have been designed by the top to protect the top and that has to change. I still say that the word race should be wiped from our minds books and Computers and we use culture instead to identify all the beautiful unique people on Papatuanukue. I readed work from good writers and the use culture instead of race its the Ass holes of the World that use race to divide US the 99% of the world so they can carry on ripping US off. Ka kite ano
It’s pleasing that we don’t have any racist slurs flung around by our MPs.
Imagine if we had someone like the bigot mentioned in this story, who claimed that housing in his country was being all bought up by Chinese who weren’t residents.
His method of deciding they were Chinese was that the had “Chinese sounding names”.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/twyford-s-racist-cynical-chinese-property-buyer-statistics-de-bunked-q00964
Lucky that none of our New Zealand MPs are like that isn’t it?
I doubt he’ll make party leader. Unlike Don Brash, John Banks, and
John Key.
Lockie ‘small hands’ Smith, Melissa ‘crims will drive Lee, Paul ‘you’re Indian’ Goldsmith……
That wasn’t racist in any way. Just the data available and data simply isn’t racist.
Meh – both Australia and Canada have found significant impacts from Chinese buyers on their housing markets. We have increasing numbers of Chinese speaking real estate agents, and Chinese language real estate adverts. NZ real estate companies are now advertising in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. No controls on foreign buyers are in evidence.
Given these indicators it would be frankly extraordinary if the NZ market were not feeling the impact of a rise in Chinese buying. But by all means repeat the Gnat attack meme – their sudden false concern about racism certainly trumps ordinary NZer’s legitimate expectations of housing availability.
I think I’m going to generate a post about why OECD-country conservative movements are crushing the left with immigration policies and immigration discourse, and what if anything the left can do about it. Just needs an NZ immigration policy announcement to hang it off.
I’m waiting for it Ad. Recall also my comment on the Jim Anderton post re MoBIE.
I hope and pray for a better approach, and so far the signs are looking slightly better.
I’m sure you are.
Can’t recall what you said, but great to hear about your signs.
…and what if anything the left can do about it.
That’ll be the tricky part, because the typical left-wing response to people unhappy about mass immigration from completely foreign cultures is “Your bigotry is unacceptable.” The accused bigots then vote for people not declaring them to be bigots. I’m detecting a Gordian knot here…
So why aren’t there any good stats on whom was buying house in Auckland. Buying and selling houses in NZ is easy money. Iv seen a house brought and sold 3 times in 12 months with everyone getting a mark up. Why are there no stats on this subject well national was covering this up. It is not wise to let the foreigns buy up all OUR Assets. 15 years ago I read a article that pridicted New Zealand would become the Dairy farm of the world and The holiday home for the rich and famous .lf New Zealand became the holiday home for the rich and famous most of the people will be put on the bread line as everything will become to expensive for the 99% I say foreign should only be able to lease land. And can only buy land after being a resident for 10 years Ka kite ano
Totally agree with Shona. New Zealand should be for New Zealanders, not refugees from the world’s many shithole dumps. National lost votes because of their daft mass immigration policy (including mine), and Labour and co will do so also, if they insist on importing masses from all and sundry. FFS, we have an almost country wide housing crisis, huge unemployment, groaning cities, crowded schools and resources, but we want to bring in more and more? National didn’t listen and Labour won’t ever. Tone deaf when it comes to what kiwis want. No Islam here, pulease. Multi cultural simply means loss of our way of life, and death by one thousand cuts. Our pollies are UN sellouts, both sides, including Winnie.
He aha te mea nui o te ao?
Islam is an idea, which has been here for as long as Europeans have (if not before).
The first Muslims in New Zealand were an Indian family who settled in Cashmere, Christchurch, in the 1850s
Wikipedia.
You’re a bigot because you’re stupid and ignorant, but not all stupid ignorant people are bigots.
PS: I don’t want your slavish vile child-abusing Christianity here.
Who did you vote for?
I was convinced from previous posts you were a strong Nat fan.
New Zealand should be for New Zealanders, not refugees from the world’s many shithole dumps.
One could argue that a few hundred years ago it was, but that horse has long since bolted. Racists wouldn’t argue that, though, because racism.
he he – ‘you took the words right out of my mouth’
[my italics]
Idiot is incapable of complaining about multiculturalism in NZ without using East Asian cultural references.
Looks a bit like iron.
😆
In the 1870s recent immigrants were criticised by those who been original European immigrants from the 1840s and 1850s now living in North Canterbury. They were described as ‘sweepings from the gutters of European cities.” My ancestor was one of these. He stood up in a public meeting in Loburn and defended these people saying he was one of them. He was chaired from the meeting.
Documented history. I am so proud of this ancestor. A son of his was a champion dog-trialist, a grandson of his was a great wartime hero, another grandson a Shield winning Rugby coach, and so on, and so on. Descendants of one who had to borrow the money to emigrate away from the unemployment of 1860/70s rural England.
As the Statue of Liberty says, “Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
His descendants married into families of English, Irish, Scottish, Indian, Japanese, Maori descent. Canterbury always was a little mono-cultural…………
Tanz, you were out-of-date and indeed plain wrong, even 150 years ago.
NZ IS a shit-hol dump for many people and you Tanz with your skewed attitudes are an enabler of this. Anyone who is for the present economic practices at present in NZ, must take responsibility for helping bring this about. The fact that you and all the other RWs and fellow travellers of National won’t take responsibility is a sad observation that lefties must take on board.
Labour must ameliorate the conditions but wouldn’t be able to change them greatly in three years. One of the things they need to do is to try and limit immigration of rich foreigners to this country by ensuring that money invested here has taxed profits, and that investments made here are not just on land and buildings to absentee landlords.
Controlling immigration should also include NZ companies and the government not allowing the poor people from overseas shitholes to be fleeced by either their own people who have set up business in hypocritical, lying NZ presenting itself as a great and good country, but with a dark underbelly of sharp practices, or actually fleeced by NZ government and NZ business.
If you could bring yourself to actually think around and behind the problems you see Tanz rather than take soapbox stands shouting out your pre-programmed messages it would be worth your time to write here and ours to read what you have to say.
Racist is a term that should be considered carefully before being bandied about:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11888053
Your Dear White Supremacist Leader is a racist. Own it.
Are you trying to say Trump is not racist??
I’m saying that calling something racist doesn’t make it so
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/70225493/Could-the-Chinese-sounding-names-stunt-be-Labours-Orewa
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/94543321/Peters-warns-of-consequences-after-Green-co-leader-calls-his-policy-racist
I’ll ask the question in a straightforward way.
Do you think Trump is a racist?
It’s a yes/ no question.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/racism
Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.
‘a programme to combat racism’
The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
‘theories of racism’
On this definition i don’t believe Trump to be racist but then I’ve also never met the guy so i don’t know what hes like
“People are not regularly being killed…”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-map-us-police-killings
Given the Police are overseen by Politicians, then to my mind, people are being killed on a racist basis by their elected leaders.
Meantime in NZ we know that Maori are more at risk of something going wrong in their treatment in hospital than non-Maori
http://salient.org.nz/2009/07/discrimination-and-maori-health/
http://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/test-9
But when it came to shooting the suspects, police officers were more likely to fire without having first been attacked if the suspects were white. Additionally, the study learned that black and white civilians in the shootings were equally likely to be carrying a weapon.
And while zeroing in on the police department in Houston to get a more detailed picture, Mr. Fryer found that in situations of justifiable use of force, when, for instance, the officer is being attacked by the suspect, officers were 20% less likely to shoot at a black suspect. Accounting for other control factors in tense situations, Mr. Fryer saw similar results that there was either no difference between how blacks and whites were treated or that blacks were less likely to be shot.