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
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Questioning the number of district health boards in New Zealand has got to the extent that “too many DHBs” has become a perceived truth requiring no further elaboration. It is rarely challenged by policy advisers, academics, and journalists. But when one drills down further it becomes clear that the number ...
The emergence of a new National party leader, seemingly out of nowhere, has – not surprisingly – raised a number of questions as to who Todd Mulller actually is and what makes him tick. He has been an MP for some time but seems to have hidden his light under ...
Costa Rica has become the first country in Central America to recognise same-sex marriage: The first same-sex weddings have taken place in Costa Rica, the first Central American country to equalise its marriage legislation. A lesbian couple became the first to tie the knot in a ceremony that took ...
There's a new twist in the Winston Peters secret donation story. It appears that a significant chunk of NZ First's secret laundered donations goes straight into the pockets of the people administering the scheme: Tens of thousands in donor's funds given to the New Zealand First Foundation were spent paying ...
Is Todd Muller the Ned Flanders of the National Party? This is how he’s been characterised by political commentator Gordon Campbell, who suggests the change in leadership is, in Simpsons terms, akin to swapping the scary and cruel Monty Burns for Homer Simpson’s compassionate but conservative neighbour. There’s almost a ...
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...
Let's Roll! The easy victory over a Bridges-led National Party which the Left had every cause to anticipate just a few days ago is no longer in the offing. Our enemy’s position has changed. His numbers are swelling. A rapid thrust to the left, followed by an audacious outflanking manoeuvre ...
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...
It was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...
Watching Todd Muller make his first speech as the newly minted Leader of the Opposition after Simon Bridges’ defenestration on Friday brought to mind a headmaster addressing a school assembly. He showed no particular desire to ingratiate himself with his audience although the occasional flash of self-deprecating humour indicated a ...
The government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...
The Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...
age credit:Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*)This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the PandemicExtreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...
Todd Muller has made a good start to his leadership, though it would obviously be pretty stupid to extrapolate too much from the first couple of days. Nevertheless, as a matter of speculation, it is interesting to think what success on his part might say about the preferences of the ...
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020Editor's ChoiceMore than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areasA man salvages items from ...
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...
The media treat budgets as bit of a circus: lots of theatre and soon forgotten. For a serious economist they show how a team of economists is thinking about the wider economy. The 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) was the most difficult forecasting exercise in the history of ...
Air NZ shed 1,300 workers, Fletchers about to sack 1000. Economists Strateg.Ease predict over 12,400 jobs gone by March next year in central Auckland alone. Here’s Don Franks during the 2008 election campaign when he stood for the Workers Party. He’s talking about fightback strategies, ideas that he believes are ...
One of these MPs is the new leader of the National party. Can you pick which? (Source: Office of the Clerk/Parliamentary Service) National has chosen its new leader, and as expected, it is an old bald white man. Totally representative of modern New Zealand, then. But its not ...
Five years ago, Know Your Stuff didn't have a name. They were just a group of people from the festival community who began testing party drugs onsite because they'd seen the consequences of people taking substances they couldn't identify or didn't understand. They didn't want to see people in their ...
Last week, an article on Newsroom made it clear how the funder / provider split - a core part of our public service - was used to enable underfunding. The government holds the purse strings, but dumps responsibility for its decisions on providers, so they get the blame for poor ...
Dr Jaijus Pallippadan-Johny1, Dr John McDermott2, Rodney Jones1 and Michael Duddin1 (1 Wigram Capital Advisors, Auckland; 2Motu Economic and Policy Research, Wellington)In this blog, we introduce our modelling approach to estimating the transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate the usefulness of ...
The Illusions Of Power: Does Jacinda Ardern, like Abraham Lincoln, wake in the dark watches of the night still enveloped in the terrors of life-and-death decision-making? Maybe – maybe not. She’s a twenty-first century prime minister, not so susceptible, perhaps, to the deep religious feeling and romanticism that was such ...
Well, that seals it. The supposedly more National sympathetic One News-Colmar Brunton poll has tonight delivered Simon Bridges’ National Party a worst result than the Newshub-Reid Research three days agoi.On tonight’s numbers Labour sits at an “unprecedented” 59 percent, while National has slumped 17 percent to 29 percent. Anything in ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First is disappointed that the removal of the spousal deductions has had to be delayed by the Ministry fo Social Development, due to COVID19 workload pressures. “New Zealand First has always stood for fairness when it comes to superannuation ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First On the steps of Parliament today the Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters received a petition from registered nurse Anna Maria Coervers, requesting an amendment to the Protection for First Responders Bill which will ensure the legislation also include registered ...
It's been a busy seven days as we start to rebuild New Zealand together. From delivering extra support for small businesses, to investing in our artists and arts organisations, to cutting red tape on home DIY projects, we're rolling out our plan to get the economy and New Zealand moving ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says alert level 2 restrictions have to be discussed during today's Cabinet meeting. Thousands gathered across the country, including at Parliament, yesterday forBlack Lives Matter marcheswhere social distancing and mass gathering rules were flouted. Mr Peters said the breaching of Alert Level 2 rules at ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State Owned Enterprises KiwiRail’s Northland rail upgrade steps up another gear today and will help Northland recover from the impacts of COVID-19, State Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters says. The Government is investing $204.5 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to ...
“Today and every day we stand in solidarity with George Floyd’s family, friends and community who feel pain and fear about his untimely death at the hands of Minneapolis police”, said Green Party Co-leader and Māori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson. ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation The West Coast forests of Mount Te Kinga at Kotuku Whakaoho/Lake Brunner are the latest predator free project to receive Government funding, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
The Green Party says major freshwater reforms announced today provide the strongest ever protections of our waterways, to help ensure the next generation can swim in the rivers of Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party has begun the process for a Select Committee inquiry into student accommodation, which has been exposed during COVID-19 as an under-regulated sector that straddles students with unfair debt. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again.Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...
The Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...
The Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...
This year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...
Speaking to Stuff's Coronavirus NZ podcast, Foreign Minister Winston Peters revealed China tried to dissuade New Zealand from going into lockdown.“Without speaking out of turn, they wanted a discussion as to why we were doing it, because they thought it was an overreaction,” Mr Peters told Stuff’s Coronavirus NZ podcast.He also ...
The Coalition Government is making changes to the Overseas Investment Act to ensure New Zealand assets don't fall into the hands of foreign ownership in the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associate Minister of Finance David Parker announced the Act will be amended to bring forward a national interest ...
A quick start to a trans-Tasman bubble could see the tourism industry make a swift recovery, according to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. "I believe tourism will turn around dramatically faster than people think," Mr Peters told reporters after Thursday's Budget. "Why? Because I think the Tasman bubble is [going ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Please check against deliveryhttps://vimeo.com/418303651 Budget 2020: Jobs, Business and Balance Introduction Acknowledgements to all Cabinet colleagues, and party ministers Tracey Martin, Shane Jones and Ron Mark, Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau and to caucus colleagues. Thank you for your support, your ...
The 2020 Budget includes significant support to stabilise New Zealand’s family violence services, whose work has been shown to be so essential throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. ...
The Green Party says huge new investment in public and transitional housing will get thousands more families into the warm, safe homes they deserve. ...
The Green Party says the $1.1 billion environmental investment in this year’s budget to create thousands of green jobs will help jump start a sustainable recovery from the COVID crisis. ...
The deadline for landlords to include detailed information in their tenancy agreements about how their property meets the Healthy Homes Standards, so tenants can see the home they are renting is compliant, has been extended from 1 July 2020 to 1 December 2020. The Healthy Homes Standards became law on 1 July 2019. The Standards are ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little today announced details of further appointments to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. “I am pleased to announce Paula Rose QSO OStJ as Deputy Chief Commissioner for a term of five years commencing on 15 June 2020,” said Andrew Little. “I am also pleased to announce the ...
The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will pay costs of learners of all ages to undertake vocational education and training The fund will target support for areas of study and training that will give learners better employment prospects as New Zealand recovers from COVID-19 Apprentices working in all industries ...
The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will finally start to cut New Zealand’s greenhouse gas pollution as it was originally intended to, because of changes announced today by the Minister for Climate Change, James Shaw. The changes include a limit on the total emissions allowed within the ETS, rules to ensure ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List provides an abundance of examples that Pacific people’s leadership capability is unquestionable in Aotearoa. “The work and the individuals we acknowledge this year highlights the kind of visionary examples and dedicated community leadership that we need ...
The Government is backing a new $27 million project aimed at boosting sustainable horticulture production and New Zealand’s COVID-19 recovery efforts, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Our horticulture sector has long been one of New Zealand’s export star performers, contributing around $6 billion a year to our economy. During and ...
Applications have opened for 2021 Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships, which will support more Māori and women to pursue careers in forestry science, says Forestry Minister Shane Jones. “I’m delighted Te Uru Rākau is offering Ngā Karahipi Uru Rākau – Forestry Scholarships for the third year running. These ...
The Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List once again highlights the dedication by many to looking after our native plants and wildlife, including incredible work to restore the populations of critically endangered birds says Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. Anne Richardson of Hororata has been made an Officer of the New ...
The Government will invest $10 million from the One Billion Trees Fund for large-scale planting to provide jobs in communities and improve the environment, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Forestry Minister Shane Jones have announced. New, more flexible funding criteria for applications will help up to 10 catchment groups plant ...
Organisations that support women are invited to apply to a new $1,000,000 fund as part of the Government’s COVID-19 response. “We know women, and organisations that support women, have been affected by COVID-19. This new money will ensure funding for groups that support women and women’s rights,” said Minister for ...
Healthier waterways are front and centre in a new project involving more than 300 King Country sheep, beef and dairy farmers. The Government is investing $844,000 in King Country River Care, a group that helps farmers to lift freshwater quality and farming practice, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Yesterday ...
A major funding package for libraries will allow them to play a far greater role in supporting their communities and people seeking jobs as part of the economic recovery from COVID-19. “Budget 2020 contains over $60 million of funding to protect library services and to protect jobs,” says Internal Affairs ...
A jobseekers programme for the creative sector and four new funds have been set up by the Government to help our arts and music industry recover from the blow of COVID-19. Thousands of jobs will be supported through today’s $175 million package in a crucial economic boost to support the ...
Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has welcomed the First Reading of a Bill that will make legislative changes to further improve the veterans’ support system. The Veterans’ Support Amendment Bill No 2, which will amend the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, passed First Reading today. The bill addresses a number of ...
Views sought on Order in Council to help fast track the reinstatement of the Christ Church Cathedral The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Hon Poto Williams, will be seeking public written comment, following Cabinet approving the drafting of an Order in Council aimed at fast-tracking the reinstatement of the ...
The law setting out New Zealanders’ basic civil and human rights is today one step towards being strengthened following the first reading of a Bill that requires Parliament to take action if a court says a statute undermines those rights. At present, a senior court can issue a ‘declaration of ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today reiterated the deep concern of the New Zealand Government following confirmation by China’s National People’s Congress of national security legislation relating to Hong Kong. “New Zealand shares the international community’s significant and long-standing stake in Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand ...
Thousands of artists and creatives at hundreds of cultural and heritage organisations have been given much-needed support to recover from the impact of COVID-19, Prime Minister and Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Jacinda Ardern announced today. “The cultural sector was amongst the worst hit by the global pandemic,” Jacinda ...
Key New Zealand assets will be better protected from being sold to overseas owners in a way contrary to the national interest, with the passage of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Bill. The Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament today, also cuts unnecessary red tape to help attract ...
Setting higher health standards at swimming spots Requiring urban waterways to be cleaned up and new protections for urban streams Putting controls on higher-risk farm practices such as winter grazing and feed lots Setting stricter controls on nitrogen pollution and new bottom lines on other measures of waterway health Ensuring ...
The Government is on the verge of reaching its target of state sector boards and committees made up of at least 50 percent women, says Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter and Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa. For the first time, the Government stocktake measures the number of Māori, ...
The Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister, Kris Faafoi, has today announced the appointment of Tristan Gilbertson as the new Telecommunications Commissioner and member of the Commerce Commission. “Mr Gilbertson has considerable experience in the telecommunications industry and a strong reputation amongst his peers,” ...
The Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa have agreed to settle the pay equity claim for teacher aides, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This will see more than 22,000 teacher aides, mostly women, being valued and paid fairly for the work they do. “Teacher aides are frontline ...
Subcontractors will have greater certainty, more cashflow support and job security with new changes to retention payments under the Construction Contracts Act says Minister for Building and Construction, Jenny Salesa. A recent review of the retentions money regime showed that most of the building and construction sector is complying with ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have marked the first anniversary of the New Zealand-Singapore Enhanced Partnership with a virtual Leaders’ Meeting today. The Enhanced Partnership, signed on 17 May 2019, provides the framework for cooperation across the four main areas of trade, defence and ...
On 17 May 2019, New Zealand and Singapore established an Enhanced Partnership to elevate our relations. The Enhanced Partnership – based on the four pillars of trade and economics, security and defence, science, technology and innovation, and people-to-people links – has seen the long-standing relationship between our countries strengthen over the ...
State-Owned Enterprises Minister Winston Peters has welcomed KiwiRail’s announcement that it is seeking a preferred shipyard to build two new rail-enabled ferries for the Cook Strait crossing. “This Government is committed to restoring rail to its rightful place in New Zealand. Bigger, better ships, with new technology are yet another ...
Better protection for seabirds is being put in place with a new National Plan of Action to reduce fishing-related captures, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The National Plan of Action for Seabirds 2020 outlines our commitment to reduce fishing-related captures and associated seabird ...
Almost $1 billion in interest-free loans for small businesses More than 55,000 businesses have applied; 95% approved Average loan approx. $17,300 90% of applications from firms with ten or fewer staff A wide cross-section of businesses have applied, the most common are the construction industry, accommodation providers, professional firms, and ...
Thousands of children will have healthier lungs after the Government’s ban on smoking in cars with kids becomes law, says Associate Minister of Health Jenny Salesa. This comes after the third reading of Smoke-free Environments (Prohibiting Smoking in Motor Vehicles Carrying Children) Amendment Bill earlier today. “This law makes it ...
The special Epidemic Response Committee (ERC) has successfully concluded its role, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins said today. The committee was set up on 25 March by the agreement of Parliament to scrutinise the Government and its actions while keeping people safe during levels 4 and 3 of lockdown. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...
New Zealanders will be better protected from online harm through a Bill introduced to Parliament today, says Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin. “The internet brings many benefits to society but can also be used as a weapon to spread harmful and illegal content and that is what this legislation targets,” ...
New Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...
Further support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...
Government exempts some home improvements from costly consents Homeowners, builders and DIYers will soon have an easier time making basic home improvements as the Government scraps the need for consents for low-risk building work such as sleep-outs, sheds and carports – allowing the construction sector to fire back up quicker ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has reacted with concern at the introduction of legislation in China’s National People’s Congress relating to national security in Hong Kong. “We have a strong interest in seeing confidence maintained in the ‘one country, two systems’ principle under which Hong ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, says the theme for the 2020 Samoa Language Week is a perfect fit for helping our Pacific communities cope with the unfolding COVID-19 crisis, and to prepare now for the journey ahead as New Zealand focuses on recovery plans and rebuilding New ...
A nearly 40-year programme to protect one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered birds is paying off, with a record number of adult kakī/black stilt recently recorded living in the wild, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “Thanks to the team effort involved in the Department of Conservation’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wayne Hope, Professor of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology How many media analysts predicted it? In 2018 Australia’s Nine Entertainment absorbed Fairfax Media and its New Zealand subsidiary Stuff. Just under two years later chief executive Sinead Boucher bought Stuff from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abby Mellick Lopes, Associate Professor, Design Studies, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney Home cooks have been trying out their skills during isolation. But the way food tastes depends on more than your ability to follow a recipe. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan on Monday night denied suggestions the government subsidises Australia’s fossil fuel industry. The comments prompted a swift response from some social media users, who cited evidence to the contrary. Canavan ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ralph Sims, Professor, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University CC BY-NDClimate 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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Marshman, Honorary Principal Fellow, Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne Most of Australia’s universities have adequate cash and investment reserves to deal with the immediate impact of a downturn in international student revenue in 2020. But ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sameer Hasija, Associate Professor of Technology and Operations Management, INSEAD “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away.”– WHO executive director Mike Ryan, May 13 Vaccine or not, we have to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Assistant Professor, School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra Later today we’ll know what the bushfires and the coronavirus did to the economy in the three months to March: whether gross domestic product grew (as is usual) or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dawson, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, University of Melbourne June, 1980, Laibach was formed. Soon, they became the musical wing of the Slovenian arts collective Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK), or New Slovenian Art. Comprising visual artists, theatre companies and a unit ...
"George Floyd was not the first, nor will he be the last, to have been denied his human rights as the police officers murdered him. Their names, overseas and in New Zealand are so many, over so many years, and their stories are all so different ...
The National Party is surprised New Zealand immigration officials didn't consult their Australian counterparts before granting a visa to refugee author Behrouz Boochani. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Strotz, Professor, Northwest University, Xi’an The COVID-19 outbreak has put into stark relief the disruption parasites can cause, both in human society and ecosystems. Researchers have long sought to better understand the evolutionary importance of parasites, to help lessen their impact. ...
More than half of a $30 million emergency welfare fund has been spent in just over a month, and many of those in need are foreigners and migrant workers who can't get a home. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Significant new support announced for trainees and apprenticeships, more level one detail coming, and long-delayed changes made to ETS.Significant new support has been announced for trainees and apprentices, with thousands of dollars worth of costs being removed for each student. The ...
A Government okay for foreign crews to come here to train is likely shortly, Auckland's Mayor says America's Cup teams' hopes of winning border exemptions to get their crews to Auckland to prepare for next summer's big event should be met soon - with applications under consideration by officials and ...
Can anything stave off 'highly undesirable' cuts to services and projects in Auckland caused by the economic crisis? Will Wellington step in? Tim Murphy reports. For the second time in a year, Auckland Council needs to find half a billion dollars in a hurry to meet its financial commitments. After ...
Sewage fungus, bad smells and insinuations of ignored good faith clauses swirl in a dairy processing wastewater consent application heard in Hamilton last week New Zealand’s second largest dairy processor wants to discharge wastewater into the polluted Waitoa River, including during summer when flows are low. Open Country Dairy’s application for ...
Bubbles, tails, embers, mountains: The PM's deft use of metaphors has helped guide us in the battle to eradicate Covid-19 New Zealand’s success at containing the coronavirus has benefitted from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s clear communication during her daily media briefings. One aspect of what made this effective was her ...
Medical scientist Anona Pak won't let coronavirus wipe out her chances of playing badminton at the Tokyo Olympics, and an innovative national league will keep her on her toes. Two years ago, Anona Pak was playing badminton purely for the love of the game. The thought of representing New Zealand at ...
Former Woman’s Weekly editor Jenny Lynch on the Bauer-exterminated magazine that may yet rise again. It was born in 1932 at the height of the Depression and laid to rest in 2020 the middle of a global pandemic. In the intervening years the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly became a national ...
The country’s coronavirus restrictions might be coming to an end sooner than you think. Justin Giovannetti looks at what level one rules mean for you.Crowded stadiums and restaurants filled to capacity could be reality in New Zealand as soon as next Wednesday as the government eyes an early move to ...
Waitomo is a town built on tourism. But as overseas visitors, who have been flocking to its spectacular network of glow-worm caves for over a century, dry up, the future looks uncertain.More than 130 years ago, the eruption of Mount Tarawera killed an estimated 153 people and buried Te Otukapuarangi ...
Our Prime Minister is lauded overseas for her compassion, but her Cabinet is refusing to properly support tens of thousands of jobless migrants and beneficiaries struggling through the Covid-19 crisis, Bernard Hickey argues Over the last year since the March 15 attacks, our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has become a paragon of virtue for many ...
There's the law; then there's what's right. Our national carrier has been battered with complaints that it's hanging on to customer cash for flights it grounded. Jon Duffy's first week as head of Consumer New Zealand is a memorable one - the consumer watchdog was swamped with complaints from Air ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards The latest opinion poll is out, and it’s more bad news for the National Party, with Roy Morgan putting them on only 26.5% support, against Labour’s 56.5%. You can see the details here: Roy Morgan May opinion poll. Roy Morgan is regarded as less accurate than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University The death of African-American man George Floyd at the hands of police has sparked protests across the United States and inspired many people to reflect on our own ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney I can’t breathe, please! Let me up, please! I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! These words are not the words of George Floyd or Eric Garner. They weren’t uttered on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Roberto Musotto, Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre Postdoctoral Fellow, Edith Cowan University Alongside growing concerns over a possible resurgence of the coronavirus during winter, the pandemic is now creating even more victims as cybercriminals aim to capitalise on the economic upheaval. According ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison has asked the Australian embassy to investigate the assault by police of an Australian Channel 7 news crew during the Washington demonstrations. The embassy, which is headed by ambassador Arthur Sinodinos, is to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shalini Arunogiri, Addiction Psychiatrist, Senior Lecturer, Monash University COVID-19 has significantly affected our collective mental health. For many people, social disconnection, financial strain, increased obligations in the home and ongoing uncertainty have created distress – and with it, a need for new ...
After the arrest on live television of a CNN crew covering protests in Minneapolis on May 29, tensions erupted further against media reporting on protests taking place in at least 30 cities across the US, which were continuing as of May 31. The protests were triggered by the killing by Minneapolis ...
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is pushing back at accusations from the opposition that the government is "completely fractured and entirely divergent" in its response to Covid-19. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacinta Koolmatrie, Lecturer in Archaeology, Flinders University A day before Reconciliation Week and the day Australia was meant to be acknowledging and remembering the Stolen Generations, news came of something that seemed to put Australia back a few decades in their journey ...
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Greg Daniels (The Office US) and Steve Carell’s successful return to TV? If only. Sam Brooks reviews the abysmal first season of Netflix’s Space Force.It’s pretty much indisputable: The Office is one of the most beloved television shows of its generation, and perhaps one of the most beloved shows of ...
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Thousands of New Zealanders took to the streets on the Queen’s Birthday holiday yesterday to express solidarity with the US response to the killing of George Floyd. Here’s what went down. Despite it being announced with less than 24 hours’ notice, huge crowds gathered at Auckland’s Aotea Square on Queen’s Birthday ...
Is the US inching towards the horrifying race riots of the 1960s? Yes, but with a significant and important qualification. Back then, with real justification, it was African-Americans versus the white establishment represented by crude and unreconstructed police forces whose administrations had barely moved past the civil war era. For ...
The US president has warned he could to send thousands of ‘heavily armed soldiers’ into the streets. Can he do that, and what will it mean if it happens?What’s all this then? Protests have been raging across the US for almost a week now, after the suffocation of Minneapolis man George ...
The fury in US cities is rooted in a long history of racist policing, violence and inequality The protests that have engulfed American cities in the past week are rooted in decades of frustrations. Racist policing, legal and extra-legal discrimination, exclusion from the major avenues of wealth creation and vicious stereotyping ...
Showing National’s new leader what his front bench should look like, if only he shared Labour’s ideas of a politically agreeable gender and ethnic mix, wouldn’t have been the objective of the Queen’s Birthday honours list. The list would have been prepared long before the place of Maori in Todd ...
Amy McDaid works as a neonatal intensive care nurse at Starship. Her first novel is about loss that erodes and the kindness that – eventually – comes after. The accumulation of daily disappointments is a tragedy in itself; a series of pleasures consistently denied, joy deferred and kindness deflected. All the ...
How does a small provincial and rural council, understated in demeanour, conservative in many areas including financial risk and investment, and humble in its dealings internally and externally, deliver industry best practice in key areas of leadership ...
By RNZ News Thousands of New Zealanders have joined large numbers of Americans in protesting following the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd. In Auckland, Aotea Square overflowed yesterday with people before thousands marched down Queen Street towards the US consulate building. Organisers said the aim was simple,”we want to ...
Age Concern New Zealand is raising awareness of elder abuse during Elder Abuse Awareness Week from 15-22 June 2020 which begins on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day on 15 June 2020. FACT: 81% of alleged abusers are family members. "We need to face the ...
Kiwis need the same kind of unified, non-partisan leadership for climate change that we achieved dealing the pandemic, says Aotearoa Climate Emergency (ACE) network. “Zero new cases today is excellent,” says Phil Saxby. “We need the same kind ...
Monina Hernandez Monina Hernandez has been selected to contest East Coast Bays for the Labour Party in the 2020 general election. “I am an infection control nurse specialist and have been an advocate for the general public and health workers during ...
Debt has been a bad word in Wellington for decades. All of a sudden the government is planning to spend billions of dollars we don’t have because of Covid-19. Justin Giovannetti on the new appetite for debt, and how it compares with the rest of the world.New Zealand is about ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassandra Steer, Lecturer, ANU Center for International and Public Law; Mission Specialist, ANU Institute for Space, Australian National University At the weekend, Elon Musk’s commercial giant SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts in a spacecraft named Crew Dragon which, from the inside, looked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Blair Williams, Political Scientist, Australian National University The Conversation is running a series of pieces on key figures in Australian political history, examining how they changed the country and political debate. When Julia Gillard was sworn into office as Australia’s first female ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Deakin University The protests that have engulfed American cities in the past week are rooted in decades of frustrations. Racist policing, legal and extra-legal discrimination, exclusion from the major avenues of wealth creation and vicious stereotyping have long ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Dehm, Lecturer, La Trobe University The Federal Court last week ruled that VicForests – a timber company owned by the Victorian government – breached environmental laws when they razed the habitat of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum and the vulnerable greater ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Tucker, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, University of Newcastle As we’ve been living more closely with families and house mates through COVID-19, the more intensive ways we’ve used our houses has perhaps exposed some of their shortcomings. Households have had relative freedom ...
The Prime Minister made a commitment after the 2017 election that New Zealand would have the most accountable and transparent government we have ever seen. However this Labour led government has proven to be one of the most unaccountable and nontransparent ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Thousands of NZers join solidarity protests, increasing questions about alert level move, and Muller pushes hiring bonus policy.Protests have taken place in New Zealand cities in solidarity with the Black Lives matter movement in the US. All up thousands of people ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. ...
For a generation rebuilding after war and the Great Depression, modernist architects offered a utopian vision for a new and exciting way of living. So why are we now demolishing their buildings? And will what we build to replace them actually be any better? Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s self-professed favourite ...
Racist dog whistling 
by The Spark “The system is broken”—the words of a young black man in Minneapolis watching flames destroy a police precinct demonstrators had torched. Broken? Yes, it is! What else could you say about a system whose police for nine minutes casually knelt on a black man’s neck, watching until ...9 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.