Search Results
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Comment:Will consensus building paralyse Ardern?
Date published: 5:30 pm, October 21st, 2020OMG Red. I'd just go for a surfing metaphor. OMG OMG OMG THIS ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ Sooooo much THIS !!!
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Comment:Open mike 18/10/2020
Date published: 9:53 pm, October 18th, 2020Auckland -Lab- .... -Green- .... -L+G- ......... -Nat- .... -ACT- .... -N+A- .... -NZF- 48.8% ....... 7.6% ....... 56.4% .......... 29.7% .... 7.6% ......37.3% ...... 2.1% . Constituent Regions Central/City 49.5% ...... 14.0% ....... 63.5% ........ 23.7% ...
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Comment:Open mike 18/10/2020
Date published: 5:02 pm, October 18th, 2020. So ... Wellington Wellington (Greater) -Lab- .... -Green- .... -L+G- ........... -Nat- .... -ACT- .... -N+A- .... -NZF- 52.6% ....... 15.7% ...... 68.3% ............ 18.9% ..... 5.6% ...... 24.5% ...... 2.1% Constituent Regions City 48.5% ....... 22.6% ...
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Comment:Labour crushes election - now what?
Date published: 4:40 pm, October 18th, 2020Yeah, bit of both, I'd say.
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Comment:Open mike 18/10/2020
Date published: 2:16 pm, October 18th, 2020Cheers, M ... appreciate the help.
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Comment:Open mike 18/10/2020
Date published: 1:11 pm, October 18th, 2020. A few Questions for you avant-garde Auckland Types with your fancy Post-modern Hairdos (if you'd be so kind as to reply at your earliest convenience) I'm thinking of looking at the geography of the Vote (incl the swing). Amongst other things, I want to ...
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Comment:O Winston I love you
Date published: 1:06 pm, October 18th, 2020Interesting / Surprising that, back in the early-mid 80s, Colin James had Winston down as one of National's Drys (in the Ruth Richardson Camp).
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Comment:O Winston I love you
Date published: 12:54 pm, October 18th, 2020. First time I ever saw one Winston Raymond Peters was in National's 1978 Election Campaign ads ... he pretended to be a neutral journalist interviewing Muldoon ... and at the end turned to the camera, as if an objective observer who had clearly just been ...
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Comment:Labour crushes election - now what?
Date published: 12:24 pm, October 18th, 2020. A few Questions for you avant-garde Auckland Types with your fancy Post-modern Hairdos (if you'd be so kind as to reply at your earliest convenience) I'm thinking of looking at the geography of the Vote (incl the swing). Amongst other things, I want to ...
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Comment:Labour crushes election - now what?
Date published: 10:13 am, October 18th, 2020Advance Vote here https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/advance-votes.html Subtracted Advance Vote from Overall Vote to get Election Day Vote (obviously excludes Specials at this stage)
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Comment:Labour crushes election - now what?
Date published: 9:53 am, October 18th, 2020. Advance Vote ... Vs ... Election Day Vote Lab ...... 51.0% ................ 45.2% Green ... 8.1% .................. 6.4% (L+G) .... 59.1% ................ 51.6% Nat ...... 25.5% ................ 30.3% ACT ....... 7.5% ................... 9.3% (N+A) .... ...
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 11:34 pm, October 17th, 2020Specials might just push Labour back over 50% ... and the Nats below 26%.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 11:07 pm, October 17th, 2020There will be Blood https://twitter.com/henrycooke/status/1317405224944857089
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 11:00 pm, October 17th, 2020The farmers swinging to ACT ... The Townies swinging to Labour, I'll be bound. Easy to overestimate the % of Farmers in Rural Seats ... always far more townies than a lot of pundits realise.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 10:26 pm, October 17th, 2020Early on in the Night ... but I'm calling it for Labour. You heard it here first.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 10:14 pm, October 17th, 2020Yep ... same here .... clearly somewhat more Left-leaning Advance Vote counted early / came in first.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 10:12 pm, October 17th, 20202017 Specials saw Nat down 1.6 .... Lab up 1.1 .... Greens up 0.4. Should be more Special Votes this time ...
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 9:47 pm, October 17th, 2020Yep ... as the Election Day votes come in ... Labour & the Greens slowly dropping ... Nats & ACT slowly creeping up. But then Specials will no doubt move things back in a Leftward direction in a few weeks time.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 9:14 pm, October 17th, 2020Looks like the Nats may have suffered a somewhat milder version of 2002's last minute Death Spiral ... except this time the swing was to Labour rather than NZF, UF, ACT. (Most Nat-to-ACT swingers had obviously already decided weeks ago ... I'm speculating ...
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 9:05 pm, October 17th, 2020. Unless things change dramatically (highly unlikely) looks like it's gonna be a bad night for Colmar Brunton & Reid Research too. Final Polls ............. Lab ..... Nat CB ....... 46.0 ... 31.0 RR ....... 45.8 .... 31.1 UMR .... 50.0 .... 29.0 RM ..........
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:48 pm, October 17th, 2020Bishop Tamaki or Bishop Chris ?
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:47 pm, October 17th, 2020Nats 3rd in the Party-Vote in Auckland Central (that sort of thing only used to happen in Aro Valley).
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:41 pm, October 17th, 2020That notion of Green under-performance is part Myth / part Kernel of Truth. The Greens do usually underperform on their (temporarily inflated) Poll ratings during the final 3 weeks of the Election Campaign ... but more often than not they do a little ...
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:31 pm, October 17th, 2020Lab 6 points ahead in True Blue Bay of Plenty (Party-Vote) ... Lab + Green slightly ahead of Nat + ACT.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:23 pm, October 17th, 2020. You've all relentlessly been taking the piss out of Judith ... & now she's thoroughly redeemed herself ... I hope you'll all be eating humble pie.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 8:09 pm, October 17th, 2020Blimey ! .... Labour blitzing Nats by 9 points (Party-Vote) in True Blue Taranaki-King Country Lab + Green currently more than 600 Party-Votes ahead of Nat + ACT in this Blue as a New Tattoo Seat. Dairy farmers have gone Hippie ... All Peace & Love.
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Comment:Election Night 2020
Date published: 7:49 pm, October 17th, 2020. So ... with 14.9% counted nationwide. Lab 50.3% Nat 26.0% Green 8.0% ACT 7.7% NZF 2.3%
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Comment:Pollwatch: 2020 Pre-election rush
Date published: 11:57 pm, October 16th, 2020Juuuusst in the nick of time ! https://twitter.com/swordfish7774/status/1317055908648636417 Remember ... the preliminary Election Night result won't be precisely the same as Final tally.
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Comment:Daily review 16/10/2020
Date published: 10:05 pm, October 16th, 2020Which, of course, also means we can expect the Labour & Green % to end higher than the provisional Election Night result (& the Nats to fall a little further). Hopefully pundits of all stripes will bear that in mind tomorrow night.
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Comment:Jacinda or Judith?
Date published: 10:34 am, October 16th, 2020Dennis As with some other commentators, I'm half expecting the legendary late run by Winston to get NZF leaping the hurdle. Odds are still fairly heavily against ... but probably around a 20% chance they'll just manage to scrape the 5% threshold. If the ...
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Comment:Latest UMR Poll - National sinking
Date published: 2:34 pm, October 14th, 2020Artistic influences included: Red Dwarf: Kryten as Jake Bullet scene Seinfield: Library Cop scene with just the merest hint of: Monty Python: Architects slaughterhouse sketch
- Science at the movies: The new comet impact film
Disaster movies forever capture the public attention… but did you ever stop to think that the word disaster actually means bad star? That is, ‘dis’ implies a pejorative (as in disease, or disgust, or disrespect), while ‘aster’ comes from the Latin astrum, similarly the Greek astron. Asteroids are called that ...4 hours ago - The Adventures of Annalax: Volume XI
Yes, dinosaurs. Annalax would think of them as giant horned lizards. They were also terrified of us, what with Magni still being covered in spider goo, and hence smelling like a Leng Spider. The ... 5 hours ago - Priorities
Much of the political debate over the past few months – as we have grappled with the coronavirus pandemic – has centred on the question of whether it is the interests of business or the health of the community that should take priority in policy terms. Much has been made ...7 hours ago - Farmers earning their reputation again
New Zealand farmers routinely complain about the public viewing them as environmental vandals. At the same time, they're opposing basic environmental regulation: Federated Farmers has asked that a wide-ranging plan change setting water use rules for South Canterbury remove all references to the protection of “indigenous fish”. [...] ...10 hours ago - NZ Politics Daily – 22 October 2020
Labour-Greens talks, Labour govt Henry Cooke (Stuff): There is no evidence National voters backed Labour to keep the Greens out Audrey Young (Herald): Labour holds all the cards as Ardern’s talks with Greens get underway RNZ: Greens better off independent – Former Green MP Catherine Delahunty Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Greens would be ...15 hours ago - Geoffrey Miller: Stardust across the Middle East – how Arab media covered the New Zealand electionNews is not in short supply in the Middle East, and at the weekend, Arabic-language media remained firmly focused on the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Nevertheless, the New Zealand election – and above all Jacinda Ardern’s personal success – still received significant attention from Arabic-language TV news ...15 hours ago
- Geoffrey Miller: Stardust across the Middle East: How Arab media reported on NZ’s electionNews is not in short supply in the Middle East, and on Saturday, Arab media remained focused heavily on the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. Nevertheless, the New Zealand election – and especially Jacinda Ardern’s personal success – received significant attention from Arabic-language TV news channels, newspapers and ...15 hours ago
- It's Time For Some “Earnest Struggle”.
16 hours ago - Party Like It’s 1936: Songs for the Philologists
It’s the most obscure Tolkien book of all… so obscure that only fourteen copies exist: Songs for the Philologists, a 1936 collection of thirty humorous verses, by Tolkien (who wrote thirteen), E.V. Gordon, and ... 22 hours ago - Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup – National’s catastrophic collapse and fraught rebuildThe National Party’s defeat has been so comprehensive that few in the party seem optimistic they will recover anytime soon. Falling from 47% in 2017 to just 27% (which might drop as low as 25% once special votes are counted), is one of the most severe collapses in New Zealand’s ...1 day ago
- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #42, 2020
Dust-up at the Denial Corral, in "journal time" Way back in 2017 the Institute of Physics publication Environmental Research Letters (ERL) published a featured article, Assessing ExxonMobil's climate change communications (1977–2014), by Supran & Oreskes. The article reverberated widely as it exposed a documented a pattern of behavior arguably described as perfidious. The authors ...1 day ago - Now’s the time – expand ACC
Having ruled out Capital Gains Tax and Wealth Tax, the incoming Labour government must be looking for some significant progressive policies that they haven’t already ruled out. Expanding the ACC scheme fits that brief, and the Green Party have conveniently already proposed doing so. But, how to fund it? The accident/illness ...1 day ago - Managing to the targetNew Zealand's health system is chronicly underfunded, and so almost all DHBs run deficits. Last month, just before he bailed out Canterbury DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins was repeating the mantra that DHBs must live within their means and "have a credible plan to return to financial sustainability". But yesterday, ...1 day ago
- Solarise all the things!If we are to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, we need to decarbonise the economy and shift our energy supply completely to renewables. The good news is that the International Energy Agency thinks that that is going to happen. The reason? Interest rates have dropped. And this means that ...1 day ago
- New Zealand weighs up a nation-sized batteryIan Mason and Robert McLachlan Climate change was a small but perceptible part of the recent election. On climate change, Labour pointed proudly to their record of legislating for net zero emissions by 2050 (nicknamed the ‘Zero Carbon Act’), establishing a Climate Change Commission to set carbon budgets and advise ...1 day ago
- NZ Politics Daily – 21 October 2020Today’s content Election Jack Vowles (The Conversation): The 2020 NZ election saw record vote volatility — what does that mean for the next Labour government? Jason Walls and Chris Knox (Herald): 20 fascinating facts about the 2020 election you might have missed Stuff: Labour Day: A vote-by-vote analysis of New Zealand’s historic shift ...2 days ago
- Do Landslides Change the Landscape in the Long Run?
It was easy for election night commentators to use the ‘landslide’ trope to describe Labour’s winning of the 2020 election. But the historical record suggests that such landslides may not last long. In 1935, the First (Savage-Fraser) Labour Government won 53 seats in a parliament of 80; National ...2 days ago - The Debunking Handbook 2020: Prevent misinformation from sticking if you canThis blog post is part 2 of a series of excerpts from The Debunking Handbook 2020 which can be downloaded here. The list of references is available here. Prevent misinformation from sticking if you can Because misinformation is sticky, it’s best preempted. This can be achieved by explaining misleading or ...2 days ago
- Graeme Edgeler: Mandates are not mandatory, but they are also not meaninglessThere’s a lot of talk about what the Labour Government’s new mandate is. For a discussion of exactly what that might mean, Graeme Edgeler explores the murky logic of what they can and can’t do, pointing out that ultimately voters decide if this mandate was properly used in three years. ...2 days ago
- Hyping it up over fluoridation
In my time as a scientific researcher, honest scientists used to condemn colleagues who over-hyped their science. To our mind there should have been a special place in hell for scientists who misrepresented their ... 2 days ago - Don’t fall for the Covid contrariansAs life in Aotearoa gets back to some kind of normal after our latest Covid-19 outbreak, cases in the northern hemisphere are on the rise again and that puts us all at risk. Because no one is safe until we are all safe. This is a tricky virus. We now ...2 days ago
- Liam Hehir: Online abuse and the standard you walk byThere’s a lot of nastiness in the online public sphere, much of it tribal, petty and personal. Political commentator and Twitter enthusiast Liam Hehir has seen too much of it, and explains why he’s going to actively stand up against it. I did a radio interview a little while ...2 days ago
- Tanzania: elections, neoliberalism and economic diplomacy
Politics in New Zealand is the main focus of Redline, along with supporting liberation movements and anti-imperialist struggles. We have had little material from the African continent, so are pleased to print this submission from a Tanzanian writer on their pending elections. Tanzania will be going to the polls on ...3 days ago - Governing For All Of Us.3 days ago
- NZ Politics Daily – 20 October 2020Today’s content Coalition negotiations, shape of government Gordon Campbell: On why the Greens shouldn’t join the government Andrew Geddis (Pundit): What Sort Of Relationship Might Labour And The Greens Agree On? Audrey Young (Herald): Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holds preparatory talks with Greens but coalition looking unlikely Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Jacinda Ardern tight-lipped after ...3 days ago
- What sort of relationship might Labour and the Greens agree on?
Even without knowing the final election result (because, don’t forget there’s about 500,000 special votes still to count and they very likely will change Saturday’s results), we can say two things for certain about the next government. Jacinda Ardern will be its Prime Minister. And Labour will be at its core. But ...3 days ago - Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup – Leftwing euphoria meets realityThe political left has been euphoric since Saturday’s night historic landslide victory for Labour. But political commentators from across the spectrum are united in warning that the new Government isn’t about to be transformative. Instead, we will see more of a status quo administration grappling with a crisis, with very ...3 days ago
- Yes, a mandate for sure… but issues for NZ will be far, far more difficult now
With the NZ General Election and Referendums over for 2020, Jacinda Ardern is to form a Government over the next few weeks, “there are some areas we do want to crack on with, that we will need to expedite”, and talks will begin to form around what the voters ...3 days ago - Labour Party landslide – 2020 Election in review
Jacinda Ardern - Prime Minister of New ZealandThe 2020 General Election has been one of the most interesting in New Zealand’s political history. Not only did we have voters provide the Labour Party with a stratospheric 49.1% mandate to govern, the results also delivered National with a crushing 26.8% defeat ...3 days ago - Be careful what you wish for: Labour's difficult triumph
Labour’s overwhelming victory at the election has been greeted with rousing cheers on the left of New Zealand politics and the start of transformational demands. It’s a multi-generational win for Labour, out-polling the Kirk, Lange and Clark victories. You have to go back to 1938 for a bigger percentage (55.8%) ...3 days ago - A Skeptical Science member's path to an experiment on carbon sequestrationDuring what now seems like another era entirely- back in February of this long year- Skeptical Science regular RedBaron (aka Scott Strough) mentioned in a discussion thread here that he'd been working on an idea for no-till cultivation of vegetables, was seeking to quantify what appeared to be promising results. Scott ...3 days ago
- The Greens and LabourWith an absolute majority, Labour can govern in its own right, and doesn't need partners. But while unnecessary, they're a nice-to-have, both as backup and for PR reasons. Ardern has talked about "consensus", and there are obvious benefits for her of having government policy endorsed by as many parties as ...3 days ago
- Jacinda Will Keep Us Moving – To The Same Place.Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes? Not Likely: Though few New Zealanders would express it in such a fashion: Jacinda’s and Labour’s general handling of the Covid-19 crisis proved both to be highly effective defenders of the capitalist status quo. She, and they, kept the lights on. And that, in the absence of an alternative ...3 days ago
- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #42Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Earth has warmest September on record, and 2020 may clinch hottest year Record warmth in Europe and Asia overwhelms a ...4 days ago
- Josh Van Veen: The Vindication of Winston PetersAn egalitarian spirit is currently being revived in New Zealand, and we should thank Winston Peters for keeping alive that spirit. Josh Van Veen, who once worked with the NZ First leader, pays his tribute. With New Zealand First receiving less than 3% of the vote, critics are happily ...4 days ago
- The Hunt for Red October: Musings on Taieri
So New Zealand has had its general election. Jacinda Ardern has managed a single-party majority government, New Zealand’s first in twenty-six years, and its first since the adoption of proportional representation. I intend to do a comment on that further down the line – my feelings on the Sunday ...4 days ago - Lessons from the ElectionThis year’s general election has broken new ground – and not just in terms of its outcome, the seats won and votes cast, and – in an MMP environment – the margin of victory. It also suggests that something quite fundamental has changed in New Zealand politics. The outcome is ...4 days ago
- The unexpected resultThe people have spoken, and its a Labour majority government. This wasn't meant to happen under MMP, and in fact its exactly what the system was designed to prevent: no majority governments, no elected dictatorships, unless we really, really want it (which at the time seemed unlikely on 40 years ...4 days ago
- Schadenfreude is a dish best served blue
What started out as the largest party in parliament has ended election night scratching the back door of the house of irrelevance. ...5 days ago - 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #42A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Oct 11, 2020 through Sat, Oct 17, 2020 Editor's Choice A FIELD GUIDE TOTHE ELECTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE The presidential election is just weeks away, and climate change has broken ...5 days ago
- Legal Beagle: Election '20: The Special Votes
The 2020 General Election has a preliminary result. For reasons I am unable to really explain, we will not have even a preliminary result for the end of life choice and cannabis legalisation referendums for some weeks (I dropped the ball on that one when the referendum legislation was before ...5 days ago - National rejects tonight’s result as a ‘rogue poll’
National are dismissing tonight’s election result as an “obvious outlier” Half an hour into counting, National Party leader Judith Collins and deputy leader Gerry Brownlee are already dismissing tonight’s election result as a “rogue poll”, saying it’s an incomplete survey with shoddy methodology. Brownlee called an emergency media stand-up just ...5 days ago - Jacinda Ardern ran down four National supporters with her car this morning but due to electoral law ...Dr. Ashley Bloomfield reported at today’s 1pm health briefing that the Coronavirus turns out not to exist, but that information was also withheld on the same grounds. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern began her election morning by ruthlessly driving her car into a family of National supporters just blocks from her ...5 days ago
- Six weird animals that have nothing to do with the electionGet a load of these things! Some of these animals are just crazy. You wouldn’t want a single one of these animals anywhere near your kids. It could ruin them for life. Last thing you’d want is your kid growing up around any of these, and thinking that’s what animals ...5 days ago
- 1pm Covid Health Update for 17th October, 2020What follows is today’s 1pm health update from the Ministry of Health There are 12 new cases of Covid-19 today, six in managed isolation, three escaped, and three are wealthy foreigners so it’s fine. One of these cases is a man in his 50s who visited Auckland sex club Fisting ...5 days ago
- It's Election Day.6 days ago
- National caucus convening to elect new leader for final 2 hours of the campaignThis is a breaking news event, and further updates and clarifications may be forthcoming. With less than three hours to go in the election campaign, The National Party is holding an emergency meeting to elect a new leader, one they hope can turn things around in the final one and ...6 days ago
- Judith Collins asking for two week extension on election due dateCollins says she was “ever so close” to finishing everything up, but a family member died, her computer crashed, and she just needs “a little more time” to get things right. In a late move this evening, Judith Collins has written an urgent letter to the Electoral Commission requesting a ...6 days ago
- The Debunking Handbook 2020: Misinformation is damaging and stickyThis blog post is part 1 of a series of excerpts from The Debunking Handbook 2020. The list of references is available here. Misinformation can do damage Misinformation is false information that is spread either by mistake or with intent to mislead. When there is intent to mislead, it is ...6 days ago
- Not as a Christian, but as a New Zealander: Why I am voting against assisted suicide tomorrow.
I am no stranger to lost causes. And, while there is always hope, it does appear that David Seymour’s “End of Life Choice” law will receive the necessary endorsement of voters to finally legalise assisted suicide in this country. A significant minority of voters will dissent, however.I will be one ...6 days ago - Ardern reassures voters that Greens’ negotiating table will be a tiny, humiliating oneOn the eve of the election, the Prime Minister wants New Zealanders to know the Greens will be given a very small seat at the table, quite literally. In the final hours of the campaign, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made a forceful appeal to the electorate not to be ...6 days ago
- A Waste of Time: The Hundred “Best” Fantasy Books
Time Magazine has put out a list of the hundred best fantasy books of all time: https://time.com/collection/100-best-fantasy-books/ It is bad. Very bad. I get that this is clickbait nonsense, but… really. Time Magazine ought to be ashamed of themselves. Ostensibly, the selection process was as follows: ...6 days ago - Big changes do stickIn one of her last pre-election interviews, Jacinda Ardern tries to defend her policy of doing nothing while in government: Ardern reflected on large changes made by Helen Clark’s government – particularly in education and welfare – that were still part of the system now, saying they prove smaller ...6 days ago
- Polls show regret for not voting Green
I have looked at election polling for last four elections and have noticed a concerning pattern. The Green Party's polling leading up to each election is stronger than what they actually achieve, then the poll immediately afterwards is always considerably higher. For most parties the opposite is generally the case. ...6 days ago - Climate Change: Planning to failLast year, the government passed the Zero Carbon Act, setting short-term and long-term goals for carbon reduction. And they're already saying that they will fail to meet them: Environment Minister David Parker appears to have already given up on the country’s ability to meet the 2030 methane goal set ...6 days ago
- Another issue Labour is ignoring its voters overJacinda Ardern is trying to rule out even discussing a wealth tax if she gets re-elected. But if she gets re-elected, it will be by voters who support one. A Newshub poll shows that nearly half of all voters - and 60% of labour supporters - support a wealth tax: ...6 days ago
- Scholarship PhysicsIt’s that time of year when school students become seriously focused on exams. This year has been messy for student learning, and has affected some students more than others, but the NCEA external assessments and the Scholarship exams are going ahead pretty-much as normal. I’ve taken some interest in the ...7 days ago
- “Fitz” On Cannabis."I Like It!" “Shall I tell you the real reason to legalise cannabis? Because all the stuff I’ve told you, while true, isn’t enough. You should legalise cannabis because you’d like it. No, actually, you’d love it! Cannabis makes food taste better. It turns music into magic. It suppresses pain and nausea ...7 days ago
- Crusher fails to resonate1 week ago
- A flaw in our electoral transparency regime IILast month, we learned there was a flaw in our electoral transparency regime, with the New Zealand Public Party receiving a quarter of a million dollars in donations which will never have to be decalred. And now its got worse,as it turns out they're also explicitly soliciting donations from rich ...1 week ago
- “Entirely separate”When two people whose identities we all know but cannot say publicly due to name suppression were charged with "Obtaining by Deception" over routing donations to NZ First through the NZ First Foundation, Winston Peters claimed his party had been exonerated because "The Foundation is an entirely separate entity from ...1 week ago
- Judith Collins' little green liesNew Zealand is not the United States, thank goodness. We don't have the same level of political partisanship nor public media outlets that blatantly display political bias. However, during the closing weeks of this campaign I do feel an infection of trumpism is evident. Judith Collins and her National Party ...1 week ago
- Which ‘milk’ is best for the environment? We compared dairy, nut, soy, hemp and grain milksMaking eco-conscious choices at the shops can be tricky when we’re presented with so many options, especially when it comes to milk. Should we buy plant-based milk, or dairy? We’ve looked at the evidence to help you choose. Dora Marinova, Curtin University and Diana Bogueva, Curtin University Dairy has the ...1 week ago
- Josh Van Veen: The Psychology of ArdernismJacinda Ardern has made New Zealanders feel safe. Josh Van Veen looks at psychological understandings of leadership to help explain the ongoing success of Labour in this election campaign. Simon Bridges could have been the Prime Minister. Opinion polls in February suggested a close election, with Colmar Brunton giving the ...1 week ago
- Let's Make Jacinda Break Her Promises.1 week ago
- Two days to go, 12 questions still worth asking
One last lap. One last crack. One last chance to boost your own policies or knock down your opponents. Tonight TVNZ hosts the final leaders’ debate and although over a million New Zealanders have voted and much of the policy debate seems to have stagnated around negative attacks, there are ...1 week ago - Possible inter-satellite collision on FridayTwo objects in low-Earth orbit may collide with each other on Friday, in a hyper-velocity impact which would lead to millions of fragments being left on-orbit, each potentially-lethal to functioning satellites. Fingers crossed (not that I am superstitious) that it is a miss, rather than a hit. One local ...1 week ago
- Do Elections Deliver What We Want?
MMP may deliver a parliament which reflects us, but frequently the government does not. At the heart of my recent history of New Zealand, Not in Narrow Seas, is the interaction between economic and social change. I could measure economic change via the – far from comprehensive – ...1 week ago - Flailing last grasps bring lasting gasps in the NZ General Election…
The last week of the 2020 election here in New Zealand has been an increasingly torrid and venal affair has it not? Many expect the last week of any Election campaign to get considerably more tetchy, everyone is hurrying to nail the last voter down after all. But this ...1 week ago - Skeptical Science New Research for Week #41, 2020Zika follows climate Sadie Ryan and coauthors combine what we know about the Zika virus and its preferred regime with modeling to show the pathogen will greatly expand its range during the next few decades. We do have some remaining control over the situation. From the abstract: "In the ...1 week ago
- Does a delay in COP26 climate talks hit our efforts to reduce carbon emissions?Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Will the delay of the COP26 UN climate negotiations impact ...1 week ago
- Where do the parties stand on open government?The election is in less than a week, so I thought I'd take a quick look at where the parties stand on open government, freedom of information, and the OIA. The short answer is that most of them don't. While Andrew Little has "promised" to rewrite the OIA, there's no ...1 week ago
- The Second Time As Farce: National's Election Campaign Falls Apart.1 week ago
- National's Little Helpers have A Cunning Plan.Keep Your hands Off Of My Stash: Viewed from the perspective of the 2020 General Election as a whole, the intervention of the Taxpayers’ Union against the Greens' Wealth Tax confirms the Right’s growing sense of desperation that the campaign is slipping away from them. With hundreds of thousands of ...1 week ago
- Covid-19: A planetary diseaseLouise Delany* This blog focuses on the underlying environmental causes of Covid-19 (Covid) and the role of international law in tackling both Covid and other planetary crises. I argue that major changes to our relationship with our planet and its creatures are needed and these changes must be supported by ...1 week ago
- WATCH LIVE: Election Night 2020
...5 days ago - Election Night Speech – Marama Davidson
Kia ora tātou kātoa. Ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou Te Roopu Kakariki, ngā kaitautoko, e aroha ana I te kaupapa mo te taiao me te mokopuna. No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa. I am so proud to be standing here tonight, at the end of an ...5 days ago - Election Night Speech – James ShawOn Election Night three years ago I stood up in front of you to say, “We are still here!” Well, tonight, not only are we still here, we are the first support party in MMP history to have started and finished a term in government above the 5% threshold. We ...5 days ago
- Greens only party with plan to meet scale of climate challengeA new report showing that the effects of climate change are already being felt in Aotearoa New Zealand shows the importance of the Green Party pushing for urgent action in the next Government. ...1 week ago
- Green Party commits to stronger urban tree protection and no new mines on public conservation landThe Green Party is the only party in Parliament which is explicitly committing to protecting public conservation land and the indigenous plants and wildlife which live there, from destructive mining. ...1 week ago
- Vote still undecided? Watch this.As of today, over 1.4 million New Zealanders have already cast their votes in this year’s election. While this shows that a huge number of people have already made up their minds about who they want to lead our country, there are many who are still undecided. ...1 week ago
- Labour's 2020 Election ManifestoThe Labour Party understands how important continuity, stability and clarity are for New Zealanders in these uncertain times. That’s why, in our 2020 Election Manifesto, we’re setting out how we will continue to invest in people, jobs, small businesses, infrastructure, and global trade, to set New Zealand up for the ...1 week ago
- Green Party releases tourism policyToday the Green Party’s conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage went kayaking on Akaroa Harbour to highlight the greater protection achieved for Hector’s and Maui dolphins this term and the Greens’ election commitment to supporting sustainable tourism. ...1 week ago
- National’s false ‘wealth tax’ claims: The “last roll of the misinformation dice”“Collins has warned voters to expect a wealth tax. This is despite the fact Labour has ruled this out a number of times.” – Jason Walls, NZ Herald. “The Labour Party has ruled out implementing the Green Party's wealth tax.” – Henry Cooke, Stuff. “Labour has time and time again ...1 week ago
- Week that was: Counting down to Election DayIt’s getting incredibly close to Election Day now – and over a million people have already cast their vote! ...2 weeks ago
- Jacinda Ardern's Wellington Rally SpeechJacinda Ardern delivers a rally speech at Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre. ...2 weeks ago
- Grant Robertson's Wellington Rally SpeechGrant Robertson delivers a rally speech at Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre. ...2 weeks ago
- Building a vibrant creative sector The Green Party will push for better conditions, more certainty, and greater opportunities for New Zealand’s artists and creatives as part of the next Government, Co-leader of the Green Party, James Shaw said today. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens promise continued action to reduce mental health waiting timesThe Green Party is committed to reduce the waiting times people in mental distress have to put up with before they receive attention and get treatment. ...2 weeks ago
- Early voting is openDid you know that early voting is open? That means you can go out and cast your vote right now - whether you've already enrolled or not. Almost 600,000 Kiwis have already voted, and you can join them! ...2 weeks ago
- Greens would go further and faster for kauri protectionThe Green Party says Labour’s commitment to protecting kauri is a good start, but the Greens would go further and faster to keep our kauri standing. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens would bring urban food farms to Auckland CityThe Green Party will invest funding in community agriculture and urban food gardens in places like Auckland city centre. ...2 weeks ago
- Our next steps on climate changeWe’re proud of our record on climate change. Since coming to Government we’ve put climate and the environment at the heart of all of our policies, as they are inextricable from issues like housing, agriculture, waste, energy and transport. ...2 weeks ago
- 10 days out: 10 reasons to vote LabourWith only ten days to go until Election Day, we’re counting down the top ten reasons you should vote Labour this October. Already voted? Share this list with friends and family who haven’t voted yet to encourage them to give two ticks to Labour! ...2 weeks ago
- Greens welcome Labour’s climate commitments, will push for more action to match the scale of the c...The Green Party welcomes Labour’s commitment to reduce climate emissions in the next term of Government, but would go further and faster to address the true scale of the crisis. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens call for independent review of PharmacThe Green Party is calling for an independent review of Pharmac to ensure that there is proper equity around funding for medication for sick New Zealanders. ...2 weeks ago
- Labour’s record on Christchurch and CanterburyFrom investing in health and education to getting key projects built, we’re proud of our record in Canterbury. We know there’s still more to do, but we’ve made a good start, and we’re committed to supporting the region as together, we respond to COVID-19. ...2 weeks ago
- Investing in the South IslandAs part of our COVID recovery plan, we’re investing in shovel-ready infrastructure projects that not only create jobs across the South Island, but also help us build back better. From tackling climate change to strengthening our health system, we’re taking on the long-term challenges while keeping our economy moving. ...2 weeks ago
- National versus Labour: Our record on ChristchurchThe past decade has been tough for our second largest city. Unlike National, Labour’s backing the people of Christchurch so together, we can make it through COVID-19 and build back better. Here’s how National’s record on Christchurch compares to our progress so far. ...2 weeks ago
- National’s economic plan a cruel blow for those on low incomesThe Green Party says National’s economic plan would devastate those earning the least, and further entrench poverty across our communities. ...2 weeks ago
- Greens welcome Labour’s commitment to ban conversion therapy, but want Office for Rainbow Communit...The Green Party is pleased to see Labour commit to a long-standing Green stance of banning gay conversion therapy, as part of its Rainbow policy released today. ...2 weeks ago
- Green Party announces plan for net zero energy buildingsIf re-elected, the Green Party would work towards net zero energy new buildings by 2030 in order to accelerate the transition to a low carbon future for Aotearoa and a cleaner, safer planet for our kids and grandkids. ...3 weeks ago
- Greens commit to protecting KauriIf re-elected, the Green Party will focus $50 million of the existing Jobs for Nature package to keep Aotearoa’s iconic kauri forests standing. “Kauri are an incredibly important taonga for Aotearoa and the Greens want to go further and faster to keep them healthy and standing,” said Green Party ...3 weeks ago
- Week that was: Health, housing and early votingIt was a big week of policy announcements as Jacinda and the Labour team hit the road to let New Zealanders know about our plan to keep New Zealand moving. From snow down south to our day of action, here are this week’s highlights from the campaign trail. ...3 weeks ago
- NZ announces a third P-3 deployment in support of UN sanctions
The Government has deployed a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea, announced Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “New Zealand has long supported ...3 days ago - Pacific trade and development agreement a realityPacific regional trade and development agreement PACER Plus will enter into force in 60 days now that the required eight countries have ratified it. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker welcomed the announcement that the Cook Islands is the eighth nation to ratify this landmark agreement. “The agreement represents ...1 week ago
- Securing a pipeline of teachersThe Government is changing its approach to teacher recruitment as COVID-19 travel restrictions continue, by boosting a range of initiatives to get more Kiwis into teaching. “When we came into Government, we were faced with a teacher supply crisis,” Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “Over the past three years, we ...1 week ago
- Border exceptions for a small number of international students with visasThe Government has established a new category that will allow 250 international PhD and postgraduate students to enter New Zealand and continue their studies, in the latest set of border exceptions. “The health, safety and wellbeing of people in New Zealand remains the Government’s top priority. Tight border restrictions remain ...1 week ago
- First COVID-19 vaccine purchase agreement signedThe Government has signed an agreement to purchase 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines – enough for 750,000 people – from Pfizer and BioNTech, subject to the vaccine successfully completing all clinical trials and passing regulatory approvals in New Zealand, say Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods and Health Minister Chris Hipkins. ...1 week ago
- International statement – End-to-end encryption and public safetyWe, the undersigned, support strong encryption, which plays a crucial role in protecting personal data, privacy, intellectual property, trade secrets and cyber security. It also serves a vital purpose in repressive states to protect journalists, human rights defenders and other vulnerable people, as stated in the 2017 resolution of the ...1 week ago
- Ministry of Defence Biodefence Assessment releasedThe Ministry of Defence has today released a Defence Assessment examining Defence’s role across the spectrum of biological hazards and threats facing New Zealand. Biodefence: Preparing for a New Era of Biological Hazards and Threats looks at how the NZDF supports other agencies’ biodefence activities, and considers the context of ...1 week ago
- New Approaches to Economic Challenges: Confronting Planetary Emergencies: OECD 9 October 2020New Approaches to Economic Challenges: Confronting Planetary Emergencies: OECD 9 October 2020 Hon David Parker’s response following Thomas Piketty and Esther Duflo. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, wherever in the world you might be. I first acknowledge the excellent thought provoking speeches of Thomas Piketty and Esther ...2 weeks ago
- Kaipara Moana restoration takes next stepA Memorandum of Understanding has been signed today at Waihāua Marae between the Crown, local iwi and councils to protect, restore and enhance the mauri of Kaipara Moana in Northland. Environment Minister David Parker signed the document on behalf of the Crown along with representatives from Ngā Maunga Whakahī, Ngāti ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand and Uruguay unite on reducing livestock production emissionsAgriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and Uruguayan Minister of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries Carlos María Uriarte have welcomed the launch of a three-year project that will underpin sustainable livestock production in Uruguay, Argentina, and Costa Rica. The project called ‘Innovation for pasture management’ is led by Uruguay’s National Institute of Agricultural ...2 weeks ago
- 3100 jobs created through marae upgradesHundreds of marae throughout the country will be upgraded through investments from the Provincial Growth Fund’s refocused post COVID-19 funding to create jobs and put money into the pockets of local tradespeople and businesses, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta have announced. “A total ...2 weeks ago
- Health volunteers recognised in annual awardsHealth Minister Chris Hipkins has announced 9 teams and 14 individuals are the recipients of this year’s Minister of Health Volunteer Awards. “The health volunteer awards celebrate and recognise the thousands of dedicated health sector volunteers who give many hours of their time to help other New Zealanders,” Mr Hipkins ...2 weeks ago
- Community COVID-19 Fund supports Pacific recoveryThe Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio says a total of 264 groups and individuals have successfully applied for the Pacific Aotearoa Community COVID-19 Recovery Fund, that will support Pacific communities drive their own COVID-19 recovery strategies, initiatives, and actions. “I am keen to see this Fund support Pacific ...2 weeks ago
- Community benefits from Māori apprenticeshipsUp to 50 Māori apprentices in Wellington will receive paid training to build houses for their local communities, thanks to a $2.75 million investment from the Māori Trades and Training Fund, announced Employment Minister Willie Jackson today. “This funding will enable Ngāti Toa Rangatira Incorporated to provide its Ngā Kaimahi ...2 weeks ago
- Training fund supports Māori jobseekersRapidly growing sectors will benefit from a $990,000 Māori Trades and Training Fund investment which will see Wellington jobseekers supported into work, announced Employment Minister Willie Jackson today. “This funding will enable Sapphire Consultants Ltd. to help up to 45 Māori jobseekers into paid training initiatives over two years through ...2 weeks ago
- Ruakura Inland Port development vital infrastructure for WaikatoThe Government is investing $40 million to develop an inland port at Ruakura which will become a freight super-hub and a future business, research and residential development for the Waikato, Urban Development and Transport Minister Phil Twyford, and Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The funding has been has ...2 weeks ago
- Appointments made to Defence Expert Review GroupDefence Minister Ron Mark announced today the establishment of an Expert Review Group to review a number of aspects of the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF) structure, information management and record-keeping processes. The Expert Review Group’s work arises out of the first recommendation from the Report of the Government’s Inquiry ...2 weeks ago
- No active community cases of COVID-19There are no active community cases of COVID-19 remaining in the country after the last people from the recent outbreak have recovered from the virus, Health Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “This is a big milestone. New Zealanders have once again through their collective actions squashed the virus. The systems ...2 weeks ago
- Clean energy upgrade for more public buildingsMore public buildings will be supported by the Government to upgrade to run on clean energy, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. Minister Shaw announced that Lincoln and Auckland universities will receive support through the Clean-Powered Public Service Fund to replace fossil fuel boilers. Southern, Taranaki, and ...2 weeks ago
- Schools back donations scheme for the second yearMore schools have opted in to the donations scheme for 2021, compared to 2020 when the scheme was introduced. “The families of more than 447,000 students will be better off next year, with 94% of eligible schools and kura opting into the scheme,” Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This is ...3 weeks ago
- Ruapehu cycle trails gets PGF boostThe spectacular Mountains to Sea cycle trail in Ruapehu District will receive $4.6 million in funding from the Provincial Growth Fund for two additional trails, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is an exciting development for the local community, and one that will provide significant economic opportunities ...3 weeks ago
- Grattan on Friday: Morrison’s promised integrity commission can’t hide behind COVID much longer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The government can act super-fast on integrity issues when it wants. On Thursday a Senate estimates committee was told the government-owned Australia Post bought Cartier watches worth $3,000 each for four senior employees as rewards. ...11 mins ago - Does the new Parliament look like us?
Analysis - After the election, Parliament will be much more representative than it has been - but it still doesn't fully represent NZ's population, writes Paul Spoonley. ...1 hour ago - Misinformation, complacency to blame for low Waiariki turnout – Labour electorate committee ch...Preliminary election results show only 71 percent of East Coast and 54 percent of Waiariki enrolled voters turned out to vote. The nationwide average was 82.5 percent. ...3 hours ago
- Skegg warns against ‘complacency, slackness’ over Auckland covid fearsBy RNZ News Epidemiologist Sir David Skegg is concerned at the level of complacency the public and government is showing towards covid-19 since the country reverted to alert level 1. It comes following the revelations that an unknowingly infectious person visited an Auckland pub on Friday 16 October, as well ...4 hours ago
- Gaming the board: Crown Resorts shows you just can’t bet on ‘independent’ directorsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Elms, Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology What’s the difference between an independent and non-independent director? This question lies at the heart of the scandal embroiling Crown Resorts, Australia’s largest gaming company, which owns casinos in Melbourne and Perth, and is seeking ...5 hours ago
- How Kami is improving digital learning for millions worldwideBusiness is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Hengjie Wang and Alliv Samson, co-founders of Kami.If you have any school-aged kids ...5 hours ago
- E-prescriptions are coming. But what are they? And is this the end of paper ones?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Bartlett, Associate Lecturer Pharmacy Practice, University of Sydney Electronic prescriptions (or e-prescriptions) are being rolled out in stages across Australia after being used in Victoria during the pandemic. E-prescriptions have been common in countries such as the United States and Sweden ...5 hours ago
- It’s time to talk about anxiety and depression in new dads
Men find it hard to seek help when they experience perinatal distress. Simon Day shares his story of postnatal anxiety and talks to parenting advocates about what fathers need to do when they’re feeling down. In late December 2019, our twin boys arrived two weeks earlier than expected. They were happy ...6 hours ago - How do we know statistics can be trusted? We talked to the humans behind the numbers to find outSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Vilkins, PhD candidate, Australian National University In April, as the coronavirus pandemic was gathering force around the world, reporters asked Brendan Murphy, then Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, about international case numbers. In his answer, he made an interesting comment: The ...6 hours ago
- To The Judge, If I Get Murdered; Please Let Me Keep My Humanity
The Defense said it was her fault, Grace Millane asked for it, rough sex was all it was. He televised her sexual history and the fact that she had requested an ex-boyfriend to choke her once. They acted like she did this to herself, it was crucifixion, she ...6 hours ago - Bob Brown is right – it’s time environmentalists talked about the population problemSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Colin D. Butler, Honorary Professor, Australian National University In all the talk of tackling environmental problems such as climate change, the problem of population growth often escapes attention. Politicians don’t like talking about it. By and large, neither do environmentalists – but ...6 hours ago
- Housing a sense of self: for migrant communities, bilingual school programs are about more than lear...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Ngo, Honorary Fellow, Deakin University Footscray Primary School in Victoria decided earlier this year to abolish its long-running Vietnamese bilingual program — where classes are taught in both English and Vietnamese. It will replace it with an Italian bilingual program. Vietnamese ...6 hours ago
- Water Cremations One Answer To Growing Pressure On Cemeteries...7 hours ago
- 600 Million Children Miss Out On Desperately Needed Support During Covid-19Save the Children NZ calls on new government to extend Best Start payments in light of global research as more families feel impact of COVID-19 A new report released by Save the Children is recommending governments commit to and implement universal ...7 hours ago
- The Internet of Things is connecting our world so we can make better decisionsIoT is everywhere – we’ve just got to know where to look. Ben Fahy got a lesson on how to find it.Spark’s Tony Agar has a lot of explaining to do, which comes with the territory when you specialise in the Internet of Things. “I’ve had to explain to my kids ...7 hours ago
- The power of the grand final crowd recalls ancient timesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Macquarie University The year has been a strange one for sports lovers. We’ve seen athlete protests here and around the world. Where big gatherings have been permitted in the US, ...7 hours ago
- Animals Will Be At Risk Of Injury Or Death During Rodeo Opening WeekendThe annual rodeo season opens this weekend with the Winchester Rodeo on Saturday, and the Methven Rodeo on Sunday. Like last year, animals will be at risk of injury or death. Two animals died last rodeo season, both at the ‘Mad Bull’ rodeo in ...8 hours ago
- The cost-cutting consultants cashing in at The WarehouseWith hundreds of jobs slashed and stores shuttered nationwide, BusinessDesk‘s Rebecca Stevenson looks into the controversial restructuring programme at New Zealand’s largest retailer.I still recall as an employee of the former Fairfax Media business seeing a report in The Australian in 2013 which filled me, a junior reporter with an ...8 hours ago
- Queensland’s LNP wants a curfew for kids, but evidence suggests this won’t reduce crimeSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia One can always sense an election is looming when law and order becomes headline news. As Queenslanders head towards election day on October 31, the state’s opposition leader Deb ...9 hours ago
- A tale of two minor parties: Lessons for 2023 for TOP and the New ConservativesThey may be poles apart ideologically, but for TOP and the New Conservatives, the election campaign featured some remarkably similar successes as well as failures. On an ideological level, it doesn’t make sense to put The Opportunities Party (TOP) and the New Conservatives in the same category. But their electoral vote ...9 hours ago
- We can no longer ignore the threats facing the Pacific — we need to support more migration to Aust...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane McAdam, Scientia Professor and Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW The effects of a warming planet are no longer far away in time or distance. We are witnessing transformed landscapes, mass extinctions and people on the move, ...9 hours ago
- Explainer: why the government can’t simply cancel its pandemic debt by printing more moneySource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ananish Chaudhuri, Professor of Behavioural and Experimental Economics, University of Auckland With the government borrowing heavily to fund its pandemic response and recovery, it has been suggested it could simply cancel its debt by printing more money. That sounds like an attractive ...10 hours ago
- New Demand To End The Private Sale And Use Of FireworksWith the fireworks season about to start and the Cabinet about to be announced, there is a new demand on the government to end the private sale and use of fireworks in New Zealand. Auckland Councillors Cathy Casey and Fa’anana Efeso Collins have ...10 hours ago
- Five successful New Zealand women on how they deal with imposter syndromeA governor general, a microbiologist, a New Zealander of the Year, an Oscar-nominated producer and a comedian walk into a bar. The punchline? They all struggle with imposter syndrome despite being extremely cool and successful women. “I’m the governor general, I have to accept that I’ve done some things right – ...11 hours ago
- Russian fishing crew not feeling too unwell, says Sealord bossBy RNZ News Hundreds of Russian fishing crew at a New Zealand covid isolation hotel in Christchurch are said to be in good spirits and those who have the virus are doing well. Eighteen of the 237 foreign workers at the Sudima Hotel are infected with covid-19. They will all ...11 hours ago
- LIVE: A View from Afar – With Paul Buchanan + Selwyn Manning: New Zealand and Bolivia Elections ...Welcome to Evening Report’s A View from Afar As always, we are joined by political scientist Paul Buchanan and this week we will discuss: In these weeks leading up to the United States elections… there have been a number of countries around the world that have seen voters swing ...11 hours ago
- Here’s hoping our new govt gets the message about intelligence from GSCB’s role in exposing Russ...
Three cheers for the GSCB. It has been lauded by the US FBI and intelligence agencies for its role in uncovering Russian covert intelligence activities around the world. The Minister in Charge of the intelligence services, Andrew Little, expressed surprise we had been named – but this is a wake-up ...12 hours ago - PNG auditor calls for ‘sanctions’ in private probe over medicines rowBy Clifford Faiparik in Port Moresby Papua New Guinea’s Auditor-General has questioned who approved a US-based international auditing firm to audit the awarding of contracts by the Health Department to pharmaceutical companies. Acting Auditor-General Gordon Kega said his office should “sanction” the involvement of any private firm in the auditing ...12 hours ago
- International Media Hails New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Re-electionTom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 21 October 2020, original url: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/21/nzel-o21.html The world’s corporate media has responded to the re-election of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government for a second term with a wave of adulation. ...12 hours ago
- When officials dance on the head of a pin
As the Royal Commission into abuse in state care continues its hearings, Aaron Smale outlines one graphic set of denials by officials which turned out to be false and misleading. Sometimes the work of a journalist is to convert technical information into something the average intelligent reader can understand. Sometimes ...12 hours ago - New Parliament Demonstrates That Māori Seats Should GoNew Parliament demonstrates that Māori seats should go ...13 hours ago
- Low interest rates are killing the home ownership dream for many – even John Key is concernedSuper-low interest rates are a blessing to those already on the housing ladder. For those still renting and without a deposit, it is yet another nail in the long-sealed coffin of potential home ownership.Last week, when Heartland Bank became the first lender in New Zealand history to offer a home ...13 hours ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – October 22 2020Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Today’s content Labour-Greens talks, Labour govt Henry Cooke (Stuff): There is no evidence National voters backed Labour to keep the Greens out Audrey Young (Herald): Labour holds all the cards ...13 hours ago
- Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: National’s catastrophic collapse and fraught rebuild13 hours ago
- Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Election Day DemographicsAnalysis by Keith Rankin. Auckland electorates have lower populations, on average. Chart by Keith Rankin. This week’s first chart shows the average numbers of votes cast – on and before election day – in New Zealand’s different regions. In principle, all electorates have the same population, with electorate boundaries drawn ...14 hours ago
- Review: Rose Matafeo will make you laugh and make you cry in Baby DoneThe comedian stars opposite Matthew Lewis, the artist formerly known as Neville Longbottom, in a charming new New Zealand comedy about a pregnant woman completely losing her shit. Recently I watched all of series one of Duchess, the semi-biographical Netflix vehicle of comedian Katherine Ryan, based on her life as an ...14 hours ago
- Dunne Speaks: Just Being The Anti-Labour Party Will Not Work For NationalBy any measure the National Party has been the most successful New Zealand political party of recent times. After all, it has won 16 of the last 25 elections, governing for 47 years since first winning office in 1949, almost twice as long as the Labour ...14 hours ago
- How Many Malt Patrons Used COVID Tracer App On Friday?“Confusion is reigning after patrons at a pub may have been exposed to COVID, and the problem is a total failure of the Government’s NZ COVID Tracer app,” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The Prime Minister’s ‘team of 5 million’ ...15 hours ago
- Over 1 million mail-in ballots could be rejected in the US election — and the rules are changing b...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah John, College of Business, Government and Law, Flinders University In the US election next month, record-breaking numbers of voters will cast their ballots by mail for the first time. Millions of these ballots will be processed by local election administrations inexperienced ...15 hours ago
- Thinking of ditching private health insurance in the pandemic? Here’s how to calculate if it’s w...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yuting Zhang, Professor of Health Economics, University of Melbourne Almost all private health insurers increased their premiums in October, and have scheduled another price rise for April 2021. As many people struggle financially amid the pandemic, you may be wondering whether you ...15 hours ago
- School of fish: how we involved Indigenous students in our investigation of a 65,000-year-old siteSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Morgan Disspain, Adjunct Researcher, Southern Cross University A recent program for school kids in Kakadu and West Arnhem Land, incorporating traditional knowledge and Western science, is a model for teaching Indigenous children on Country. The Djenj Project (djenj means “fish” in the ...15 hours ago
- At the heart of the broken model for funding aged care is broken trust. Here’s how to fix itSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rafal Chomik, Senior Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), UNSW This article is part of our series on the future of aged care. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety will hold its final ...15 hours ago
- Why philosophers say solitude can be helpful (even if you didn’t choose it)Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sharpe, Associate Professor in Philosophy, Deakin University Over the past seven months, many of us have got closer to experiencing the kind of solitude long sought by monks, nuns, philosophers and misanthropes. For some, this has brought loneliness. Nevertheless, like religions ...15 hours ago
- Live updates, October 22: ‘Contract tracing system working’ – HipkinsWelcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for October 22. All the latest New Zealand news, updated throughout the day. Reach me on stewart@thespinoff.co.nz7.45am: ‘Contract tracing system working’ – HipkinsThe health minister does not believe there’s any reason for Auckland’s alert level to change, following news an infectious Covid-19 case visited ...15 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Everyone’s got an opinion for the GreensGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over how Greens should approach Labour relationship, Auckland pub patrons told to self-isolate, and highly leveraged investors send house prices higher.How lucky is the Green party, to have so many people giving advice and suggestions right now? As talks continue ...16 hours ago
- Business & Investing: NZX and European exchange in ETS service
NZX will help develop Emissions Trading Scheme auction platform, plus Kiwis have way less debt on their credit cards ...16 hours ago - Labour's final online ad push: $24 a minute
In the final week of election campaigning the Labour Party was spending $24 every minute on Facebook and Google advertising It was a huge finish. Not only did Labour win by a landslide on election night, it outspent competitors in the last week of campaigning online. In a seven day period the ...16 hours ago - Book of the Week: Jesse Mulligan on Chelsea Winter
Food critic Jesse Mulligan cooks his way through Supergood by Chelsea Winter Dad might have been the only person in Hamilton who truly bought Playboy for the articles. If he knew there were naked ladies in there too well, it never came up, and when he occasionally passed me a ...16 hours ago - Police reviewing mysterious death in Gore
Police are reviewing the case at the centre of a Newsroom video investigation which revealed a substandard inquiry into the death of a three-year-old Southland boy. Melanie Reid and Bonnie Sumner report WATCH: Melanie Reid's video investigation Police have confirmed they are conducting a review into the case relating to ...17 hours ago - 1980 Moscow boycott still hurts Kiwi gymnast
When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were postponed, those who would have known just how the New Zealand team felt were the athletes selected for the 1980 Moscow Games. Their dreams were shattered 40 years earlier by a boycott - and 34 of those Kiwi athletes never got the chance to compete ...17 hours ago - Who the hell is Gideon Rozner, anyway?
Cindy Baxter looks into the background and associations of the author of a stark attack on re-elected Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern As I read the outrage at the negative outlier of an article about Jacinda Ardern’s victory in The Australian, I thought it was worth putting this piece into ...17 hours ago - Lion linked to Myanmar human rights abuses
The parent company of NZ’s largest beverage provider has been implicated in the funding of genocide. ...17 hours ago - Aussies stand by to fly on over
Australians are queuing up to go on a safe overseas holiday. Ross Stitt argues that New Zealand is missing out on a potential bonanza if it doesn't join the travel bubble. The much-anticipated Trans-Tasman ‘travel bubble’ has finally arrived. Sort of … Travellers from New Zealand are now allowed quarantine-free ...17 hours ago - Why New Plymouth voters went for Labour
After the Government announced a surprise ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration in 2018, the New Plymouth electorate looked like a sure thing for National. What changed? ...17 hours ago - W R Peters loans $60k to NZ First
As New Zealand First tried to fight off electoral oblivion, a W R Peters put his money where Winston's mouth was, Sam Sachdeva reports New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, or someone with the identical initials and home base, appears to have lent the party $60,000 in the dying days of the ...17 hours ago - Be fearless: Sandra Lee’s advice for Chlöe Swarbrick, 27 years after she stormed Auckland CentralThe woman who won Auckland Central for the Alliance in 1993 had some words of wisdom for the Green Party’s Chlöe Swarbrick on Sunday’s post-election episode of Gone By Lunchtime.“I always thought you could do it,” former cabinet minister Sandra Lee told Chlöe Swarbrick the morning after a dramatic election ...18 hours ago
- Siouxsie Wiles & Toby Morris: Covid-19 and the Swiss cheese systemThe effort to defeat the coronavirus relies on many layers of defence. Or, let’s call them, slices of cheese.One thing that has really irked me during Covid-19 has been the labelling of any mistake in our systems or any unexpected transmission of the virus as a failure. Yes, I understand ...18 hours ago
- Auckland's cone zone
Construction of Auckland's City Rail Link is well underway and don't local retailers know it. It's killing the heart of the city, with the sound of construction replacing the ringing of tills. The country's largest infrastructure project, the $4 billion Auckland City Rail Link, is touted as long awaited solution ...18 hours ago - Taskmaster NZ proves we can do panel comedy as well as the BritsNew Zealanders love Taskmaster UK. But will they warm to the homegrown version? Guy Williams is doing his best to amp up the crowd, while Angella Dravid sits quietly alongside with her usual look of both discomfort and amusement. Leigh Hart has that wry smirk on his face that viewers of ...1 day ago
- At the highwater mark with little wriggle room
This Government’s work, its future successes and its failures, will now all sit fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the Labour Party. ...1 day ago - The US is taking on Google in a huge antitrust case. It could change the face of online searchSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharine Kemp, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UNSW, and Academic Lead, UNSW Grand Challenge on Trust, UNSW The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for unlawful monopolisation. The department says Google’s conduct harms competition and consumers, ...1 day ago
- Wāhine grab chance to have voice at the council tableLocal government in Wairarapa is no longer the "pale, stale male" environment it once was, according to a recent survey. ...1 day ago
- NSW wants to change rules on suspending and expelling students. How does it compare to other states?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Sullivan, Associate Professor of Education, University of South Australia The disability royal commission heard from experts last week on the disproportionate number of students with a disability who have been suspended or expelled from school for “problem behaviour”. The commission’s public ...1 day ago
- Greater needs, but poorer access to services: why COVID mental health measures must target disadvant...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Graham Meadows, Professor of Adult Psychiatry, Monash University COVID-19 outbreaks and the resulting lockdowns, particularly in Victoria, have adversely affected many people’s mental health. Social isolation, financial stress, and anxiety about contracting COVID-19 can all contribute to psychological distress. For some people, ...1 day ago
- NSW needs to prohibit religious discrimination, but not like thisSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, University of Western Australia It has long been a glaring problem that the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act (ADA) does not prohibit religious discrimination. One Nation’s Mark Latham recently proposed a new Religious Discrimination Bill. ...1 day ago
- The redemption of Hine-nui-te-pōAn extract from Witi Ihimaera’s new book Navigating the Stars: Māori creation myths.This is an abridged passage of a deeply empathetic section analysing the life story of Hine-nui-te-pō, who crushed Māui to death with her vulva. At the end of the book, Ihimaera argues that Hine-nui-te-pō should be instated to ...1 day ago
- Green Party: 'Fruitful discussions … further discussions to have'The Green Party says there is a negotiation going on with the Labour Party, but there are more discussions to be had. ...1 day ago
- The online support club that helps the newly redundant through a scary timeCovid-19 has shoved New Zealand’s economy into recession, prompting a whole lot of businesses to downsize and slash their workforce. That’s why a support club has been formed to help the newly unemployed to get back on their feet.Redundancy can hit like a ton of bricks. The shock, uncertainty, the ...1 day ago
- Police Continue To Ignore Their Own Pursuits PolicyA police crash during a pursuit in Masterton in the early hours of Wednesday morning suggests the police are simply ignoring their own pursuits policy, says the car review website dogandlemon.com . Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety ...1 day ago
- Green Party provide update after election resultsThe Green Party is speaking to media amid speculation over possible negotiations about a coalition deal. ...1 day ago
- Houses (and their prohibitive prices) will be high in Ardern’s considerations as she appoints her ...
One of the strange outcomes of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the surge in house prices, not just in Auckland but through the rest of the country. It’s a phenomenon that runs contrary to past experience when the economy has slipped into recession. Many authorities say booming house prices are ...1 day ago - Calls for Labour to fast-track child poverty mandateAnti-poverty campaigners are urging Labour to move fast and use its massive electoral support to forcefully tackle inequality. ...1 day ago
- Indigenous leadership presents a new way of looking at the changed worldDon Rowe meets the post-graduate students putting tikanga and kaupapa Māori at the centre of learning how to lead. The planet is in trouble. Since the time of the industrial revolution, the Western world has become increasingly enthralled and enchanted by the pursuit of economic and individualistic success. Power, prestige, and ...1 day ago
- The tale of ‘habitual criminal’ William King: a Black life in Victoria’s white justice systemSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alana Piper, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Technology Sydney The Black Lives Matters movement in the United States and Australia has drawn welcome attention to Black deaths in the criminal justice system. Such fatalities are extreme manifestations of a long history of ...1 day ago
- Review: The Vow takes a deep dive into the cesspit of the NXIVM cultJust a few years ago, few people had heard of the self-help group/cult of personality known as NXIVM. Now the dark story has gone global, thanks to an eight-part docuseries that debuts on Neon today. This review contains mild spoilers for The Vow.What is it that white people love so ...1 day ago
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