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  • Coastal court action flies under the radar
    Graham Adams says NZ’s coastline may end up under iwi control. Former Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson is known for his forthright and sometimes combative language. In 2022, in discussing opposition to co-governance, he referred to “the sour right” and “the KKK brigade”. Last week, in ...
    Point of OrderBy gadams1000
    3 weeks ago
  • Does a Fiscal Debt Target Make Sense?
    Do we treat the government finances with the common sense that household’s manage theirs?It is a commonly held view that we should treat the government as if it is a prudent household. We don’t when it comes to its debt. Currently the government says it wants to constrain its net ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    3 weeks ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Why Shane Jones sunk the Kermadecs Marine Sanctuary
    Did vested interests prevent New Zealand from establishing a world-leading environmental marine reserve? There are strong signs that in killing off the proposal for a Kermadec Islands Marine Sanctuary, Shane Jones has been doing the bidding of several industries and groups that he’s closely connected with. As Oceans and Fisheries ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 weeks ago
  • Climate Change: Spite destroys success
    The clean car discount was a real policy success in pushing electrification of transport. It worked so well that EV adoption was running five years ahead of the Climate Commission's targets, giving us a real shot at decarbonising light transport. National killed it out of pure spite. And as expected, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 weeks ago
  • NCEA and truancy issues are high on the agenda for education ministers while progress is made in rep...
    Buzz from the Beehive The Minister of Education today advised us the Government is to “rephase” the NCEA Change Programme. The coalition Government is making “significant changes” to the NCEA Change Programme and will delay its implementation by two years. At a time of public service culling, we might ask ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 weeks ago
  • And can you tell me, was it worth it?
    1. How long did it take Mr. Fixit Steven Joyce to fix Novopay?a. One day, for $4000 plus GSTb. One week for $20,000 plus GSTc. At least a year, seemed more like three lold. In the end they just sort of fixed it themselves 2. What has been Steven Joyce’s greatest contribution ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 weeks ago
  • How is Luxon this out of touch?
    Recently, at about this time, I’ve rated the week and looked at what Mike Hosking had to say with ratings. But I don’t want to waste time writing about his heartless, entitled reckons - they just seem a bit much today.For those interested, the things he rated highly were the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 weeks ago
  • A malevolent authoritarian
    One of the fundamentals of the New Zealand government system is consultation. On a broad scale, policy proposals generally need to go through a consultation process with the public, or at least with key stakeholders. And within government, agencies are required to consult each other, with Cabinet requiring formal checks ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 weeks ago
  • Cuts will only scratch the surface
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – While this morning’s news heralded 134 job losses at the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Development has just announced their own plan to achieve the 6.5% savings requested by the new government: We will begin by offering people in some parts of ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 weeks ago
  • The affluent pathway to Parliament
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Increasingly the New Zealand Parliament is becoming a place for the affluent. New research out today on the socioeconomic and occupational backgrounds of those in the current Parliament shows that MPs are becoming more and more homogenous. Despite diversifying demographics in terms of gender, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 weeks ago
  • Support the climate strike
    Today is school strike 4 climate day. There will be protests around the country in support of climate action and a lower voting age, which are expected to attract over a hundred thousand people. There's still a pandemic on, so I can't go (curse the pandemic!). But if you feel ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 weeks ago
  • Weekly Roundup 5-April-2024
    It’s Friday again and here are some articles that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday we ran a post for April Fools that the government were banning walking. It seems it struck a nerve and is already our most viewed post – ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    3 weeks ago
  • Dawn Chorus for Friday, April 5
    Just as infrastructure funding is locked up even more, ASB economists warn of a looming infrastructure bill of $1 trillion over the next 30 years. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items of note for me in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy on Friday, April 5 included:Just as the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 weeks ago
  • The Worst Urban Myths Never Die
    Hi,I really appreciated what José Andrés wrote in the New York Times this week:“In the worst conditions, after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up. You cannot save the hostages by bombing every building in Gaza. You cannot win this ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 weeks ago
  • The Hoon around the week to April 5
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Confidence in the Government, as measured by Roy Morgan’s ‘Right Track/Wrong Track’ survey, collapsed in March by ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 weeks ago
  • The Song of Saqua: Volume VI
    Time for another D&D update, concerning my Dhampir Sorceror. Session XIII The party departed the tavern, somewhat hungover. Thence we travelled into a forest – home, apparently, of both a fortune-teller and various formidable creatures. Saqua’s experience with forests is of the kelp-variety, so this was all new ...
    3 weeks ago
  • Mr Peters goes to Washington
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters is now going to Washington next week for talks with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. He is currently in Brussels at a NATO summit. The visit, with programmes in New York and Washington D.C., will focus on major global and regional security challenges and includes ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 weeks ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #14 2024
    Open access notables We need a solid scientific basis for nature-based climate solutions in the United States, Novick et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (perspective): Ambitious NbCS [nature-based climate solutions] programs could deliver benefits for biodiversity, communities, and the climate. Unfortunately, a lack of evidence about specific benefits from specific ...
    3 weeks ago
  • The Treaty’s role in governance arrangements? Restoration of referendums on Māori wards will be h...
    Buzz from the Beehive There’s good news today for proponents of democracy, or democratic government.  That excludes every MP who voted for the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill, which enables the tribe’s rūnanga to appoint two councillors with full voting rights to the council. “Appoint” is the key word.  ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 weeks ago
  • Join us for the weekly Hoon on YouTube Live
    Photo by Anthony Duran on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 weeks ago
  • New oil and gas to quadruple by 2030, threatening climate goals
    By the end of the decade, the fossil fuel industry plans to almost quadruple the number of new developments (and the amount of oil and gas extracted) compared with 2023. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 weeks ago
  • Let me tell you how I feel about COVID
    Let me tell you how I feel about COVID which decked me three weeks ago and left me stuffed until just two days ago.Let me tell you how I feel about COVID, which has lately been leaving workplaces full of holes where their productive labour units should be.Let me tell ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 weeks ago
  • Climate Change: Making polluters pay
    Climate change threatens human civilization. It threatens to kill a billion people. The costs of stopping it, and of adapting to the damage already done - of moving people and infrastructure to protect them from sea-level rise, and of dealing with the resulting floods, droughts, cyclones, heat-waves, and other extreme ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 weeks ago
  • Too complex
    Max Salmon writes –  How complex is too complex? My new report for the New Zealand Initiative, Cabinet Congestion: The Growth of a Ministerial Maze, poses this question with respect to the executive branch of New Zealand’s Government. New Zealand’s executive is incredibly powerful. Its members control the levers ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 weeks ago
  • A Parliament of office workers
    Although there are now more farmers than teachers in the country’s 54th Parliament, office work, politics and humanities education are the dominant backgrounds of MPs.   Mark Blackham and Emily Mingins write –  Research released today by Blackland, a PR consultancy, finds that the six most popular ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 weeks ago
  • Watching Television.
    Some of you might’ve guessed what today’s song is already. As the top comment on YouTube says, “one of the most important records ever made by one of the most underrated bands of all time. Just as relevant today as it was when it was released.”I’d agree with that, I’ve ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 weeks ago
  • Confidence in Government collapses
    A new poll shows women see the country on the wrong track more dramatically than other cohorts, especially older men, and overall confidence collapsed in March. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items of note in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy on Thursday, April 4 included:A Roy Morgan poll ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 weeks ago
  • Bryce Edwards: The Affluent pathway to Parliament
    Increasingly the New Zealand Parliament is becoming a place for the affluent. New research out today on the socioeconomic and occupational backgrounds of those in the current Parliament shows that MPs are becoming more and more homogenous. Despite diversifying demographics in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality and so forth, our ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 weeks ago
  • How can I make my retirement plan climate-friendly?
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Barbara Grady If you’re worried that your retirement plan might include investments in fossil fuels, here’s what you can do. The first thing you’ll want to do is research what’s in your 401(k). Which stocks and bonds are in the mutual ...
    3 weeks ago
  • The Maddest March since COVID
    March is now over and so too is March Madness – though public transport will likely stay busy at least until school holidays in a few weeks. So how did PT perform in March …. pretty well it turned out. Just prior to March I wrote about how average weekday ...
    3 weeks ago
  • Mark Blackham and Emily Mingins: A Parliament of office workers
    Although there’s now more farmers than teachers in the in the 54th Parliament, office work, politics and humanities education are the dominant backgrounds of MPs. Research released today by Blackland, a PR consultancy, finds that the six most popular careers for MPs are (in descending order) managers, elected representatives, ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 weeks ago

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