Seriously though, the consultation paper is 190 pages long, and a cursory scan indicates that prefab housing might just gain well deserved credibility and that the extortionate cost of building materials is not on the list of issues needing sorting.
Shub breathlessly reports that there might be a coup against Bridges, either immediately or in a few months, in caucus or behind closed doors (hang on, do they hold their caucus meetings in a field?), and the “anonymous” leakers from the Nat caucus seem to be fixated on Madame Collins. Hmmm.
“Collins is good at media. She can be scathing, she doesn’t equivocate and she’s able to laugh at herself.” Um, perhaps chuckle? Ever so briefly?
Manhire uses Richard Harman as his springboard: “a leadership spill in the National caucus is growing ever likelier. On his site Politik, Harman wrote that “even now, multiple sources say, [Collins] has the support of just over half the caucus to take the leadership”. Figures in the caucus and wider party had been asking, he said, “questions about Bridges’ political judgement and the judgments of his inner circle”.”
Gulp. Will be the reaction from Bridges when his staffers report it to him tomorrow (no, of course I don’t rate the technical possibility that they were sufficiently on the ball to get the news to him today).
Toby ends with this hypothetical: “what if a Collins leadership were to provide an amicable catalyst for a future coalition partner, especially if might in the process sink NZ First?” That kite won’t fly long in current winds. Any such brainstorming would have had to be done last year, and the kite would be flying more decisively already awhile. Timing of any challenge is their huge problem…
Collins is a far better choice for leader than Bridges by so many degrees it’s not funny
1-Takes the women card off the table.
2-Can criticise Ardern without all the women in NZ thinking “He’s only saying bad
things about her because she’s a woman!”
3- Splits the female vote which is heavily in favour of Ardern
4- First proper Female National leader
5- Signals that National isn’t run by a group of private boys only school feltchers who consider woman nothing more than baby factories and people who organize dinner parties
Lots of win there for National if they can get past their ingrained misogyny.
It will be interesting once JC is installed because she is almost opposite in personality and approach to JA. Still I think JC doesn’t have the capacity to lead. Guess we will see.
She had to stab Bolger in the back to get a shot at the top job.
It doesn’t really count, Collins getting selected by caucus and winning the election would be a first for National.
That would be the start of a new National party.
I am certain there are males who post sneeringly about the ‘girl’ they see as an incapable leader. The idea of having a ‘young’ woman at the top is what really upsets them.
They’ll be delighted to have Judith as ‘mum’ in charge. They’ll love the high leather boots, the whip, and her bossing them around. The toughies can’t handle Jacinda.
She’s as popular in her caucus as Cunliffe was in his, and we know how that worked out for him.
Only a matter of time before the open disloyalty is on show, but as already noted, I don’t think anyone will want to take it on against JA this term.
Talking to a friend living in a caravan who is really sick. Needs an actual home but hasn’t been able to get one for over a year. Come to think of it she hasn’t had a real home for over five years.
When I think of those people trashing HNZ houses it annoys me that my friend, and others are literally left in the cold because of the current “no consequence” policy. Time to admit this was a mistake?
My Parents are in their late 80s, they own their house (which they’ve lived in for more than 55 years !) … it’s part of a two-house unit … the other unit (on other side of dividing wall) still being a State House.
For almost 50 years, they had very nice, quiet elderly / late middle age neighbours. The last 2 neighbouring Tenants, however, (& particularly the current one, by a significant margin) have been absolutely fucking horrendous.
My Parents are the sort of people who never ever moan or complain about things … they are extremely reasonable, caring & empathetic, they put up with an enormous amount & are always going out of their way to help everyone else … so when they both spontaneously (albeit reluctantly & almost apologetically) mention what they’ve had to put up with on a daily / nightly basis … I immediately knew something really fucking major was happening.
I won’t go into the details at this point … but HNZ are placing an extremely violent, anti-social, out-of-control element of the Underclass next to Elderly people … who should have a basic bloody right to continue to live in their own home without having to deal with the constant threat of violence, intimidation, enforced chronic sleep deprivation (relentless loud, aggressive, often violent noise throughout the early hours until dawn) and day-in / day-out extreme stress (from both the tenant’s constant aggression / explosions of violence & from the relentless full-on noise of his kids – who are dumped there by his former partner as often as she can get away with it. All in the context of a neighbouring unit with appalling echo-chamber acoustics … and a dividing wall that isn’t even remotely soundproof). It’s a bloody horrendous predicament for them to be forced into,
The violence & intimidation are clearly the most shocking things (on two occassions my Parents have been forced to seek refuge with neighbours across the road … and on other occasions it’s been a close run thing … the guy’s just inherently violent, seems to have a criminal record, with local Police keeping a close eye on him) … but I can tell you the stress they suffer on an almost daily / nightly basis from the relentless running, banging, slamming, screaming of the kids is really bad … it’s right in their face often all day until very late at night … I mean my Mother’s a former childcare teacher … but even for her it’s just mega-stressful.
My Partner & I don’t live too far away … so I’ve been monitoring the situation and I can tell you it’s just fucking incomprehensible to me that such an intolerable set up is allowed to exist. Feels like the systematic Use & Abuse of Elderly People. Thrown to the wolves (and by the Party they’ve devoted so much of their lives to).
Something as mindnumbingly cruel as a No Eviction policy (or close enough to it) for extremely anti-social / violent tenants … can only happen when socially-detached Upper Middle-Class Professionals & Intersectionals – from often highly privileged backgrounds – take over both the activist core and elite parliamentary wings of the Labour Party. It’s an ignorant (& really quite callous) Luvvie Paternalism.
But then I should realise that the historic role of the Left is no longer to take a universalist approach to human rights and social justice, endeavouring to make everyone’s life better … rather it’s simply to help a small group of remarkably privileged former Woodford House girls wrest power & control from a small group of remarkably privileged former Christ College boys.
Knowing your voice here for many years I’m convinced of the seriousness of this situation. The system will not you help for all the reasons you so accurately outline. Don’t waste your energy on it.
As a family you’re going to have to make a plan to get them out of there; if you don’t it will wear your parents down and kill them prematurely. Sorry to be blunt but this is where your attention needs to be.
The government should have plans for dealing with people who are entirely anti-social. Soppy emotional response to hard problems is unsatisfactory and don’t stop perpetrators’ bad behaviour; containment should be available, and for the worst it may be necessary to have borstals again, with basic standards, an ordered life, some work and skills earned and they be offered an attempt at habilitation; it is something that can’t be forced.
Luvvie paternalism could work in this case – doing the only thing that one
can do with those who have abandoned themselves, lost their souls, stewed their brains, and who are habitually violent, angry with no self-control.
Shoving them in houses privately provided under leasing schemes appears a way out for government to abrogate responsibility. People at unskilled and semi-skilled levto be el have been left dangling with their jobs have crushed by imports from overseas, or a lack of training, or promise of work for those who get a reasonable level of schooling. So they fill time in smoking, drinking and drugging to fill in their days between the irregular jobs without hope for better and just turn nasty. People can deteriorate like meat left in the sun,till it is so unpleasant that nobody wants it.
I have just started reading Lynley Hood’s concentrated analysis of the case against Peter Ellis in Christchurch years ago. It seemed clear when looked at dispassionately, that the Judges had been bent out of shape by a sort of Luvvie Paternalism. The precedents that they had once for checking for factual and practical aspects of evidence had been put aside on the basis that children hadn’t been treated fairly and properly when it came to evidence; having been dismissed as unreliable too often. Now, it appeared there was credence for everything they said.
From one extreme to another the practice had gone, without regard of consequences. It showed a lack of balance, and dropped standards.
These were abandoned in favour of understanding and making up for past wrongs. There seems a lack of willingness to get real and face the people who have problems that the public purse becomes forced to remedy when
people have almost gone too far. If only the experts and academics with practical ideas got listened to when the parents and children are all young, and the older people who understand them could guide them with the proper aid and respect of government for those who were successful in this.
After 55 years, they are very wedded to the place (particularly my Mother … my Father's an Aussie who, deep down, always wanted to return to the Lucky Country but has slowly reconciled himself to remaining in "the Shaky Isles"). They also have a wider support network of neighbours & friends in the area (their long-term neighbours across the road have been brilliant & have called the police on their behalf on several occasions).
And it's by no means a depressing or unattractive suburb. Hills/Beaches/Sea … arguably one of the more attractive & liveable lower income areas in the Country. Their street is very well established, most houses have trees / a lot of greenery in front yard and so on … about 80% Privately-owned / 20% pepper-potted Social housing … and they have beautiful sea views out to the South Island. So they've been very happy there … until very recently.
And, of course, as Age Concern chief executive Stephanie Clare emphasised in the Listener a few weeks back,
Older people have the right to stay in the home they have grown into and to be cared for in the homes they love
In the same article, Ruth Nichol cited a range of scholarly literature to argue that elderly people who continue to live in their own house generally have much happier and healthier outcomes (all in line with the Country's Positive Ageing Strategy).
So, you know, I don't give up without a fight. When this violent, sadistic, malevolent little prick was being born in the early 90s, my Parents would've already been living there for about 30 years … I'll be fucked if I'm just going to allow him to turn up, make their life hell, and force them out. It's not right (quite apart from the question of just who is going to buy a house with that kind of in-your-face noise and malevolent atmosphere nextdoor … Maybe HNZ has some sort of cunning Baldrick-like plan to buy up private neighbouring units at bargain basement prices ?)
So, I really feel like publicising this and putting as much pressure as possible on HNZ (& MSD) to do the right thing. Sunlight as the best disinfectant. I might start by laying out some of the more shocking details on my Blog, then move on to contacting local Media. Local City Councillors, Age Concern, Retirement Commission … I'm not against shaming a few hypocrites who need to be shamed.
But I hear what you're saying: essentially hopeless cause / naive to think otherwise / just prolonging the agony.
I'll just have to try and get it sorted as quickly as poss … if worst comes to worst, I'll encourage them to move. Can't force them though and don't want to. It'll have to be their decision … they're not too far off 90 … but still as mentally alert as ever.
Pisses me off so much. Both of them still grieving over the death of my older brother in 2016, both have undergone major surgery for bowel cancer in the last 5 years … then just callously thrown to the wolves.
I had all those thoughts too, we lived just up the road in Tawa for many years and I know the area you indicate well. Every reason not to want to move, and if you're going to into battle for them I absolutely wish you the best with it.
Still if you're going to do that, make sure you have a solid Plan B and a clear cut idea of what the threshold of tolerable is. That will give everyone a sense of control and the sense that you are doing things on your terms not theirs.
Sound advice. Thanks, Red. Always appreciate your very solid, feet-on-the-ground approach … anchored in realism and universalism – rather than the highly selective morality / ethics / empathy of some. Cheers.
My mother was in a similar situation in West Auckland. Same thing, HNZ unit through the wall and all good, actually really good, up until 10 years ago. Over 3 or 4 years and a succession of tenants it got to a point where Mum’s health, physical and mental, was in a very bad place. HNZ had no interest at all, your problem.
Fortunately we were able to get mum out of there and build a unit on our property for her, wasn’t easy, but Mum’s come out of it really well. The town planning side of building the unit was tricky, but a logical argument to council got a non-compliant application through quite easily and with out consultants.
Thanks, Graeme. Sounds very similar … almost identical situation … and pretty similar timing.
Glad to hear your mother's recovered from what sounds like an awful ordeal. But it must still be a bit upsetting for her to have been (for all practical purposes) forced out of her home through absolutely no fault of her own. Some anti-social little shit just gets to come in, take over, and destroy her quality of life. It's so fucking wrong that this is allowed to even remotely happen. Really rough-as-guts, out of control people who have absolutely no boundaries or social norms, treat 3am as if it's 3pm, innately violent impulses … get to just suddenly turn up, call the shots and ride roughshod at will. They have 100% of the rights, zero consequences, your Parent(s) have no rights at all.
I mean reasonable sleep, safety from violence & relaxation in your own home … especially for older people … should be a fundamental human right. HNZ Tenancies need to be contingent on tenants respecting those basic rights of their neighbours … and if they don't over a prolonged period then OUT.
I certainly wouldn't be opposed to the State forcing one or two prominent, well-healed, Intersectionals on the 'Left' (increasingly, I'm thinking this particular faction comprises an elitist, self-interested Faux Left) to live in the sort of intolerable situation your / my Parent(s) have had to endure … maybe every day & night for a year or two … might just lead to a little less ostentatious virtue-signalling, less paternalistic romanticisation / sacralization of particular demographics, less of a tendency to adopt the role of heroic Rescuer in a housing context & social situation that they're completely bloody ignorant of … and, who knows, maybe even a little less obsessive focus on 'microaggression' and a little more focus on the rather more pressing MACROaggression
TRP …… Anyone can use google …. but I have trouble searching The Standard site and could not find the Link that The Al1en was selectively misrepresenting, … and James was tag teaming him with …. with ‘ rape apologist’ insults at me.
While I was Abused, discredited …. and goaded …. I note you never provided the link either …. yet TRP asks me for an apology ? …. For something I summarized ( I had no link ), and the Al1en pretended I’d quoted ver-batum
You’ll note when I paraphrased your / TRP s, ‘ You were rude to me ‘, statement I did not use direct quotation marks …. this is because I could not find the thread.
The Al1en however did use exact quote marks” ” …. claiming I was quoting you ver batum. ….. was he being dishonest? … probably .
But ‘ you were rude / rude to me ‘ was exactly your message …. and excuse,,, to set The Al1ens dishonest and survivor / victim abuse stand .
” [Given that you’d normally be banned for calling an author an arsehole, I think you should take the same charitable approach to al1en’s reply.”
I’m very disappointed you’ve let victim denial and abuse go unchecked against me in your thread ….. and then expect I should apologized to you.
You’ve got as much as an apology as you will ever get out of me ……
Bollocks to “selectively misrepresenting”.
All quotes I made can all be found in the very old thread, and whatever you wrote the other day.
Lying is just sad, as it trying to get out of it.
Give it up.
To get it to link directly to the comment you need to embed the link. Instructions are on the FAQ page, then click the link for How do I put links in comments cleanly. There’s the whole palaver of a href= and you have to have the quote marks and stuff (and just one space) but it works in the end.
Well I might have to use it because the allegation that “The Al1en however did use exact quote marks” ” …. claiming I was quoting you ver batum. ….. was he being dishonest? … probably .” is just more bull shit.
In the recent thread, any instance of ” ‘Yup … you were rude to me.” has been from a quote from that days thread, such as…
The Al1en …
14 April 2019 at 3:41 pm
“I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.”
I’ve directly quoted from the posts in that thread. Nowhere in the exchange did TRP ever write ‘Yup … you were rude to me.
That’s a lie, isn’t it?
The Al1en …
14 April 2019 at 4:14 pm
I’ve quoted directly from the thread. No argument from me. It’s black and white.
“I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.”
That was never posted in the whole exchange. Link to it.
The Al1en 3.1.4.2.1.1
14 April 2019 at 5:02 pm
Find your own thread. I did. Maybe you can too. But I can tell you for sure there’s no “I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.” in there.
As for all the ban crap, Since last July I’ve had exchanges with reason. At no time has this been mentioned before. 🙄
Yeah, but definitely not the same one Shane Jones had. Eeeewww
But seriously, what should I do? What’s the consensus here?
Should I rebut the reaching lies from reason, or just ignore it and accept it for what it is – Another internet troll with a grudge?
After a while, shit gets circular, and reason is to incoherent to actually provide any laughs by contradicting themself or suddenly not understanding basic English. Just my opinion.
I suspect that reason feels aggrieved because double quotes got put around what they originally used single quotes for, but frankly their summary (“yup” etc) is so far off the mark of what the mod note said as to be a damned lie anyway.
But “lie” implies that they don’t have an honest delusion that what they thought they remembered reading is actually what was on the screen in the first place.
I hear you, though as the quotes above show, With that ‘yup’ line, I was quoting from the recent thread and at no time put quote marks around reason’s ‘yup’ summary. Aggrieved, or not, it’s totally misplaced in this case, and yes, far off what was actually said as to be a damn lie.
The point about it being a lie and delusion, is after I posted in this thread, where all the info was available, reason reposted the same crud in the recent assange topic. It’s like it didn’t happen.
I call that completely untruthful and malicious in intent.
In that thread I wrote my conscience is clear, and it still is.
‘what should I do.?’
Since you asked.
reason said they were sexually abused.
You could show some compassion and empathy and back away.
Stop trying to be right and do the correct thing.
When the Prime Minister asks for kindness, it’s not just for people you like.
Phil’s a long time commenter on NZ blogs with a thing for ellipses.
But I don’t think it is Phil because despite his ellipses and weird AF syntax, Phil’s screeds make sense.
Y’know, we all missed a very important detail in Barr’s 4 page whitewash of Mueller’s report. In particular, in Mueller’s line ‘[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’
[T]he???? What exactly was the word that came before that [T]he? Perhaps it was ‘Although’ ?
“As the environmental crisis accelerates, and as protest movements like YouthStrike4Climate and Extinction Rebellion make it harder not to see what we face, people discover more inventive means of shutting their eyes and shedding responsibility. Underlying these excuses is a deep-rooted belief that if we really are in trouble, someone somewhere will come to our rescue: “they” won’t let it happen. But there is no they, just us.”
“This is less daunting than we might imagine. As Erica Chenoweth’s historical research reveals, for a peaceful mass movement to succeed, a maximum of 3.5% of the population needs to mobilise. Humans are ultra-social mammals, constantly if subliminally aware of shifting social currents. Once we perceive that the status quo has changed, we flip suddenly from support for one state of being to support for another. When a committed and vocal 3.5% unites behind the demand for a new system, the social avalanche that follows becomes irresistible.”
Only 3.5%….I thought it was 15%, and that always made me realise how precarious our ordered lives were
Good stuff, here’s the guts: “I collected data on all major nonviolent and violent campaigns for the overthrow of a government or territorial liberation since 1900. The data cover the entire world and include every known campaign that consists of at least a thousand observed participants, which constitutes hundreds of cases.”
“Then I analyzed the data, and the results blew me away. From 1900 to 2006, nonviolent campaigns worldwide were twice as likely to succeed outright as violent insurgencies. And there’s more. This trend has been increasing over time—in the last fifty years civil resistance has become increasingly frequent and effective, whereas violent insurgencies have become increasingly rare and unsuccessful. This is true even in extremely repressive, authoritarian conditions where we might expect nonviolent resistance to fail.”
“In fact, no campaigns failed once they’d achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5% of the population—and lots of them succeeded with far less than that”. Keywords are “active and sustained”.
Teams are active and sustained while playing. Task-forces are active and sustained until they produce the output designed for. Forget political parties – few members are ever able to sustain activity. Only one way for a mass movement to succeed in making the world a better place: ensure that it forms more than 3.5% of global population, and contract those members to sustain their collaborative endeavour until their goal is achieved.
Trying to fill a hall over something that deserves consideration but hasn’t reached enough people’s anxiety trigger point or pocket indicates that a relatively small number of determined people in NZ with good planning and strategies could do much.
How many men to spread the unsettling word around that the NZ$ was to be devalued which started the capital flight?
John Roughan’s 2005 NZ Herald backgrounder: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-roughan/news/article.cfm?a_id=5&objectid=3576219 In 1984 David Lange’s … theme – ironically, it would turn out – was about “bringing the country together”, dispelling the nastiness of the Muldoon years and returning to the politics of consensus.
It was a message borrowed wholesale from the Australian Labor Party’s successful campaign the previous year. Like Bob Hawke, Lange was carefully dressed in authoritative dark suits and Labour promised nothing more than to copy the ALP’s “economic summit conference”.
But behind the warm rhetoric, something else was happening. Word was around the business world that Labour’s finance spokesman, Roger Douglas, favoured devaluing the dollar, as the ALP had done.
The more likely Labour’s victory became, the more dollars were sold. And since the currency had to be traded at a fixed rate through the Reserve Bank, the flight from the dollar rapidly depleted the bank’s foreign currency reserves….
Before the day was out Muldoon capitulated. The dollar was devalued by 20 per cent and the exchange re-opened. But the dye was cast. The fourth Labour Government had been hijacked by the crisis.
And far more importantly, the extraordinary sequence of events had given the public a sharpened sense of the economy’s fragility, creating a climate receptive as never before to drastic change…
There were advocates of those [neoliberal economic] policies within the conservative governments of New Zealand and Australia in the early 1980s. Derek Quigley, Ian McLean, George Gair, Hugh Templeton and Jim McLay were among those doing what they could to liberalise the economy in the Muldoon years, and they had some achievements.
How many in a Labour government ostensibly with goodwill towards the ordinary working man and woman?
Tim Shadbolt in 2015 names the few men who gained the most notoriety and set smugly enjoying some element of leadership in the eyes of the pragrmatic and comfortably off: https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/73077140/null But lurking in the shadows, behind the euphoria of our Kiwi Spring,
was Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble, Michael Bassett, Mike Moore and almost the entire Auckland University, Princess St branch of the New Zealand Labour Party who were about 200km to the right of the National Party. They called themselves “the fish and chip brigade”. A name that sounded working class but was yet another disguise for this bunch of ruthless, well-educated right wing revolutionaries.
Gummy Bear posting involves the tactic to keep pushing your argument while ignoring personal attacks …. even ones abusing and calling you dishonest over your sexual abuse survivor / victims status ……….. Like The Al1en does ,,,, and TRP allows him to
With The L1ar AL1en …. If it was anyone other poster in the world apart from Phil Ure ….
Would he not have called them a spreader of fucking lies … and Faux Bullshit ?
Really ??
I may think the L1ar Al1en is standing on liquid ground ….
Anyway back to more evidence …. and discrediting the political use of rape allegations against wikileaks
James ….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy….
Women posters and authors left this site over that … and roast busters … and other bits of NZ culture … that james usually joined in and posted in a rapey way in
Own it Jair James
David Cameron 20 mins to 25 mins in the Frankie Boyle vid 🙂
funny stuff 🙂 ;0 🙂
[You were put on notice the other day to show some restraint in your comments. You’ve ignored that advice. Banned till May 1. TRP]
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It’s being explained as an “inadvertent error”. However, National MP David MacLeod’s excuse for failing to disclose $178,000 in donations for his election campaign last year is not necessarily enough to prevent some serious consequences. A Police investigation is now likely, and the result of his non-disclosure could even see ...
The relentless drone coming out of the Prime Minister and his deputy for a million days now has been that the last government was just hosing money all over the show and now at last the grownups are in charge and shutting that drunken sailor stuff down. There is a word ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to riot-torn New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. Today’s flight will carry around 50 passengers with the most ...
Precious declaration saysYours is yours and mine you leave alone nowPrecious declaration saysI believe all hope is dead no longerTick tick tick Boom!Unexploded ordnance. A veritable minefield. A National caucus with a large number of unknowns, candidates who perhaps received little in the way of vetting as the party jumped ...
Rex Ahdar writes – The Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, likes to trace his political lineage back to the pioneers of parliamentary Maoridom. I will refer to these as the ‘big four’ or better still, the Four Knights. Just as ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper ...
That is the only way to describe an MP "forgetting" to declare $178,000 in donations. The amount of money involved - more than five times the candidate spending cap, and two and a half times the median income - is boggling. How do you just "forget" that amount of money? ...
In this week’s “A View from Afar” podcast Selwyn Manning and spoke about the upcoming US elections and what the possibility of another Trump presidency means for the US role in world affairs. We also spoke about the problems Joe … Continue reading → ...
Hi,Two years ago I briefly featured in Justin Pemberton’s Web of Chaos documentary, which touched on things like QAnon during the pandemic.I mostly prattled on about how intertwined conspiracy narratives are with Evangelical Christian thinking, something Webworm’s explored in the past.(The doc is available on TVNZ+, if you’re not in ...
The Government is leaving the entire construction sector and the community housing sector in limbo. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government released the long-awaited Bill English-led review of Kāinga Ora yesterday, but delayed key decisions on its build plan and how to help community housing providers (CHPs) build ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Farmers who can’t sleep, worrying they’ll lose everything amid increasing drought. Youth struggling with depression over a future that feels hopeless. Indigenous people grief-stricken over devastated ecosystems. For all these people and more, climate change is taking a clear toll ...
New Zealand’s relationship with China is becoming harder to define, and with that comes a worry that a deteriorating political relationship could spill over into the economic relationship. It is about more than whether New Zealand will join Pillar Two of Aukus, though the Chinese Ambassador, more or less, suggested ...
Been hoping we would see something like this from Sir Geoffrey Palmer. This is excellent.The present Bill goes further than the National Development Act 1979 in stripping away procedures designed to ensure that environmental issues are properly considered. The 1979 approach was not acceptable then and this present approach is ...
He’s Got The Moxie: Only Willie Jackson possesses the credentials to meld together a new Labour message that is, at one and the same moment, staunchly working-class, union-friendly, and which speaks to the hundreds-of-thousands of urban Māori untethered to the neo-tribal capitalist elites of the Iwi Leaders Forum.IT’S ONE OF THE ...
Tree-huggers may well accuse the Government of giving them the fingers, after Energy Minister Simeon Brown announced new measures to protect powerlines from trees, rather than measures to protect trees from powerlines. It can be no coincidence, surely, that this has been announced at the same as Fisheries Minister Shane Jones ...
Willie Jackson will participate in the prestigious Oxford Union debate on Thursday, following in David Lange’s footsteps. Coincidentally, Jackson has also followed Lange’s footsteps by living in his old home in South Auckland. And like Lange, Jackson might be the sort of loud-mouth scrapper who could take over the Labour ...
Barrister Gary Judd KC’s complaint to the Regulatory Review Committee has sparked a fierce debate about the place of tikanga Māori – or Māori customs, values and spiritual beliefs – in the law.Judd opposes the New Zealand Council of Legal Education’s plans to make teaching tikanga compulsory in the legal curriculum.AUT ...
Alwyn Poole writes – In New Zealand we have approximately 460 high schools. The gaps between the schools that produce the best results for students and those at the other end of the spectrum are enormous.In terms of the data for their leavers, the top 30 schools have ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be ...
Brian Eastonwrites – The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am ...
The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open. ...
On Thursday 17 May, the Mayoral Proposal for Auckland’s Long Term Plan 2024-2034 was passed by Auckland Council, 20 to 1. It is set to be formally adopted by the Governing Body at its June 27th meeting. The entire process took 8 hours, with the vast majority of that time ...
Pakanga o muaTukua, ka ngaroPuritia taku ringaNgaro ana te ara ki pae rauThere's a battle aheadMany battles are lostBut you'll never see the end of the roadWhile you're travelling with meLate yesterday morning I headed to Wynyard Quarter to see Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick give their pre-budget State of ...
Maybe the Prime Minister and his Finance Minister expected the worst, so they mounted a stout defence of the Budget tax cuts to their party faithful at a party conference over the weekend. In turn, they were greeted with applause, which, though it may have been less than wildly enthusiastic, ...
A listing of 34 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, May 12, 2024 thru Sat, May 18, 2024. Story of the week “The legislation I signed today [will] keep windmills off our beaches, gas in our tanks, and ...
TL;DR: Here’s six links that stood out to me in the last day in Aotearoa’s political economy to 6:06am on Sunday, May 19:Aotearoa-NZ is the seventh worst in the OECD’s homelessness rankings, just behind the United States and just ahead of Australia. BlackRock thinks rate hikes actually worsen inflation because ...
Halfway up a historic tower in York, we are neither up nor down. At the top you will have views of a city steeped in antiquity, made and remade by Romans, Normans, Vikings, Tescos. Below, you will find a retired minister happy to tell you all about this most astonishing ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Does breathing contribute to CO2 ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: KiwiRail’s seemingly endless requests for more money is damning. At one point, KiwiRail assured Robertson when he was the Finance Minister that the worst-case scenario would be an extra $300 million before requesting $1.2 billion a few months later. Not what most people ...
No one knows what it's likeTo be the bad manTo be the sad manBehind blue eyesNo one knows what it's likeTo be hatedTo be fatedTo telling only liesHave you ever wondered what life must be like for Mike Hosking? Seeing things in black and white through blue tinted specs? In ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past two week’s editions.Share More Than A FeildingBike bling, London Read more ...
Hi,I think we all made it through another week — congratulations. I’ve been digesting the new Arab Strap record, which is astonishing. In other news, I’m going to be doing a Webworm popup in Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday July 13. I’ll bring a bunch of merch, and some other ...
The Fast-Track Approvals Bill enables cabinet ministers to circumvent key environmental planning and protection processes for infrastructure projects. Its difficulties have been well canvassed. This column suggests a different way of thinking about the proposal. I am going to explore the Bill from the perspective of its proponents with their ...
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has become the best advertisement against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill. In selling the radical new resource consenting processes, in which ministers can green light any mine, dam, or other major development, Jones seems to be shooting the proposal in the foot. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Associate Education Minister David Seymour is urging the PostPrimary Teachers Association to put learning ahead of ideology. He wants the union leaders to call off their teachers meetings around the country where they hope to muster the strength to undo the government’s plans to establish several ...
What are police for? "Fighting crime" is the obvious answer. If there's a burglary, they should show up and investigate. Ditto if there's a murder or sexual assault. Speeding or drunk or dangerous driving is a crime, so obviously they should respond to that. And obviously, they should respond to ...
Michael Reddell writes – I got curious yesterday about how the Australia/New Zealand real exchange rate had changed over the last decade, and so dug out the data on the changes in the two countries’ CPIs. Over the 10 years from March 2014 to March 2024, New Zealand’s ...
Graham Adams writes that 20 years after the land march, judges are quietly awarding a swathe of coastal rights to iwi. Early this month, an hour-long documentary was released by TVNZ to mark the 20th anniversary of the land-rights march to oppose Helen Clark’s Foreshore and Seabed Act. The account ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: Suspended Green MP Darleen Tana has passed an unpleasant milestone: she has now been absent for as many parliamentary sitting days as she has been present for this year. Tana is on full pay while she is suspended, and will benefit from a ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is no coincidence that two Labour should-have-been MPs are making the most noise about public sector cuts. As assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Fleur Fitzsimons has been at the forefront of revealing where the next round of state sector job ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a ...
This is one of the (extra) weekly columns on music or movies. Plenty of solid analyses of Possession exist online and most of them – inevitably – contain spoilers. This column is more in the way of a first-timer’s aid to getting your initial bearings. You don’t need to have ...
I am painting in oil, a portrait of a manWho has taken all the heart aches,And all the pain he can stand.I am using all the colors of blue,I have here on my stand.I am painting in oil, a portrait of a man.This has been an interesting week for me. ...
Helen Clark joins the Hoon as a special guest talking whether Aotearoa should join Aukus II, and her views on the fast track legislation and how Luxon and the new Government are performing. File Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts ...
With an election due in less than nine months, Britain’s embattled PM, Rishi Sunak, gave a useful speech earlier this week. He made a substantial case for his government, perhaps as compelling as is possible in the current environment. Quite an achievement. His overall theme was security, first pulling ...
Open access notablesPublicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions, Pearson et al., Climatic Change:We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate ...
Photo by Marino Linic 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 ...
Following a horrific case of stalking that ended in tragedy, Labour’s police spokesperson Ginny Andersen has drafted a bill that would add stalking to the Crimes Act. ...
The Rt Hon Winston Peters, joined by Mike King, has announced $24 million over four years for the ‘I Am Hope Foundation’, and will provide young people aged between 5 to 25 years with free mental health counselling services. This funding will help I Am Hope’s ‘Gumboot Friday’ initiative give ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The coalition Government’s legislation to restore the rights of communities to determine whether to introduce Māori wards has passed its first reading in Parliament, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says. “Divisive changes introduced by the previous government denied local communities the ability to determine whether to establish Māori wards.” The ...
The coalition Government has today introduced legislation to slash the tangle of red and green tape throttling some of New Zealand’s key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the Government is committed to unlocking development and investment while ensuring the environment is ...
Kia ora, Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kātoa Tāmaki Herenga Waka, Tāmaki Herenga tangata Ngā mihi ki ngā mana whenua o tēnei rohe Ngāti Whātua ō Ōrākei me nga iwi kātoa kua tae mai. Mauriora. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the EMA for hosting this event. Let me acknowledge ...
The coalition Government is investing in social housing for New Zealanders who are most in need of a warm dry home, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. Budget 2024 will allocate $140 million in new funding for 1,500 new social housing places to be provided by Community Housing Providers (CHPs), not ...
Thousands more young New Zealanders will have better access to mental health services as the Government delivers on its commitment to fund the Gumboot Friday initiative, says Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey. “Budget 2024 will provide $24 million over four years to contract the ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The energy debate has ramped up, with government and opposition trading blows over their respective plans to secure Australia’s energy future. The budget announced big tax incentives for green energy projects. Earlier the government ...
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki says the mining strategy launched at Blackball on the West Coast today by Minister Shane Jones is a huge risk to the environment and a disingenuous promotion of the alleged benefits of mining. “The focus of the launch ...
The Government’s war on nature enters its next phase today with the tabling of the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Englezos, Lecturer, Griffith Law School, Griffith University OpenAI will be removing access to one of its ChatGPT voices, following objections by actor Scarlett Johansson that it sounds “eerily similar” to her own. Earlier this week, the company said it was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney Panga Media/Shutterstock Globalisation is on shaky ground. As China rises, the United States and its allies are moving to reduce their reliance on the world’s factory. The rivalry between the US ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says recognition of Palestine as a state is a matter of when, not if - but NZ would need to see a Palestinian election first. ...
By Adam Gifford of Waatea News A New Zealand Kanak woman, Jesse Ounei, says young people in New Caledonia feel a sense of anger and betrayal at the way France is attempting to “snuff out” any prospect of independence for its Pacific territory. France invaded New Caledonia in 1853 and ...
The Ministry of Social Development's workforce is set to drop by more than 700 now, and the Department of Conservation has confirmed it's cutting 124 jobs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Furger, Graduate Researcher and Teaching Fellow in International Law, The University of Melbourne This week, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for three Hamas leaders, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister ...
Getting by in a cost of living crisis is easier than you think. Just open a mine (plus five other brilliant ideas). Like all times, it’s a bad time to be poor. Food is expensive.Rents continue to rise. My local second-hand stores are now selling Anko clothing for more ...
In a rarity for the international franchise, the first season of Married at First Sight NZ saw contestants legally wed to a stranger. Seven years later, Alex Casey talks to one groom who only just finalised his divorce. The man behind the counter at the courthouse was combing through the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Debates about infrastructure often turn around money – with good reason. It’s estimated New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit – the amount we would need to spend to ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist French president Emmanuel Macron has landed in Nouméa. The French Ambassador to the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan was on the flight. “The unrest in New Caledonia is absolutely unacceptable,” Roger-Lacan told RNZ Pacific in an interview. She had just arrived back from Caracas where she ...
The finance minister says Whaikaha is in line for a funding boost, but disabled people won’t be holding their breath, writes Robyn Hunt. The mother of all budgets in 1991 was the last time I remember feeling pessimistic, or anything much, about a budget announcement. Disabled people are used to ...
The price signalling that ETS auction floor and CCR settings might be lowered is redolent of economic, political, legal and climate risks. Minister of Finance and Associate Minister of Climate Change, Nicola Willis, appears oblivious to all these. ...
The price signalling that ETS auction floor and CCR settings might be lowered is redolent of economic, political, legal and climate risks. Minister of Finance and Associate Minister of Climate Change, Nicola Willis, appears oblivious to all these. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robin van der Sanden, Postdoctoral Fellow, Public Health, SHORE & Whāriki Research Centre, Massey University Marco Piunti/Getty Images Social media and messaging apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Messenger are increasingly used to buy and sell drugs in many countries. ...
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Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 23 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Released today….Building System Legislative Reform Programme public consultation
https://www.mbie.govt.nz/have-your-say/building-system-legislative-reform-programme-public-consultation
And if reading is not your thing….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=rvX7MitT1kc
Seriously though, the consultation paper is 190 pages long, and a cursory scan indicates that prefab housing might just gain well deserved credibility and that the extortionate cost of building materials is not on the list of issues needing sorting.
MOBIs levy is being reduced.
site appears unavailable
Shub breathlessly reports that there might be a coup against Bridges, either immediately or in a few months, in caucus or behind closed doors (hang on, do they hold their caucus meetings in a field?), and the “anonymous” leakers from the Nat caucus seem to be fixated on Madame Collins. Hmmm.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/04/national-mps-speaking-out-against-leader-simon-bridges.html
No smoke without fire. Well, not usually. Since Toby Manhire thought it worth a look, could be there’s a flame a-flickering in caucus: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/16-04-2019/why-judith-collins-should-be-made-national-leader-and-why-she-shouldnt/
“Collins is good at media. She can be scathing, she doesn’t equivocate and she’s able to laugh at herself.” Um, perhaps chuckle? Ever so briefly?
Manhire uses Richard Harman as his springboard: “a leadership spill in the National caucus is growing ever likelier. On his site Politik, Harman wrote that “even now, multiple sources say, [Collins] has the support of just over half the caucus to take the leadership”. Figures in the caucus and wider party had been asking, he said, “questions about Bridges’ political judgement and the judgments of his inner circle”.”
Gulp. Will be the reaction from Bridges when his staffers report it to him tomorrow (no, of course I don’t rate the technical possibility that they were sufficiently on the ball to get the news to him today).
Toby ends with this hypothetical: “what if a Collins leadership were to provide an amicable catalyst for a future coalition partner, especially if might in the process sink NZ First?” That kite won’t fly long in current winds. Any such brainstorming would have had to be done last year, and the kite would be flying more decisively already awhile. Timing of any challenge is their huge problem…
Smart writer, that man. I like this:
“FOR: The risk of schism”
Not that its important but shes also saucier than a direct hit on a Heinz tomato sauce factory
Never underestimate the power of unbridaled, raw sex appeal
Ah but he knows the score
Yeah he knows it
And Jude can’t hide it anymore
She can’t hide it anymore
Collins is a far better choice for leader than Bridges by so many degrees it’s not funny
1-Takes the women card off the table.
2-Can criticise Ardern without all the women in NZ thinking “He’s only saying bad
things about her because she’s a woman!”
3- Splits the female vote which is heavily in favour of Ardern
4- First proper Female National leader
5- Signals that National isn’t run by a group of private boys only school feltchers who consider woman nothing more than baby factories and people who organize dinner parties
Lots of win there for National if they can get past their ingrained misogyny.
WTH? Shipley was a proper female leader!
It will be interesting once JC is installed because she is almost opposite in personality and approach to JA. Still I think JC doesn’t have the capacity to lead. Guess we will see.
She had to stab Bolger in the back to get a shot at the top job.
It doesn’t really count, Collins getting selected by caucus and winning the election would be a first for National.
That would be the start of a new National party.
Yes! Yes! Make Judith Collins the Leader of the National Party!
“Splits the female vote which is heavily in favour of Ardern”
You seriously think women will vote based on the two figureheads being women?
Yes, not all women but a fair chunk.
It’s just the way females tend to be hard-wired, the default setting is pack animal.
FIFY
BM.
“It’s just the way females tend to be hard wired, the default setting is pack animal…..
Ridiculous unscientific comment.
I am certain there are males who post sneeringly about the ‘girl’ they see as an incapable leader. The idea of having a ‘young’ woman at the top is what really upsets them.
They’ll be delighted to have Judith as ‘mum’ in charge. They’ll love the high leather boots, the whip, and her bossing them around. The toughies can’t handle Jacinda.
Awww yeah!
“Signals that National isn’t run by a group of private boys only school feltchers”
—
What is it with you right wingers and your fascination for mens arses?
Boarding schools.
If the answer is Judith Collins, what the hell was the question?
She’s as popular in her caucus as Cunliffe was in his, and we know how that worked out for him.
Only a matter of time before the open disloyalty is on show, but as already noted, I don’t think anyone will want to take it on against JA this term.
Which MPs sex appeal and beauty is surpassed only by their intelligence, capability and empathy
Pretty obvious really 🙂
Talking to a friend living in a caravan who is really sick. Needs an actual home but hasn’t been able to get one for over a year. Come to think of it she hasn’t had a real home for over five years.
When I think of those people trashing HNZ houses it annoys me that my friend, and others are literally left in the cold because of the current “no consequence” policy. Time to admit this was a mistake?
Entirely Agree.
My Parents are in their late 80s, they own their house (which they’ve lived in for more than 55 years !) … it’s part of a two-house unit … the other unit (on other side of dividing wall) still being a State House.
For almost 50 years, they had very nice, quiet elderly / late middle age neighbours. The last 2 neighbouring Tenants, however, (& particularly the current one, by a significant margin) have been absolutely fucking horrendous.
My Parents are the sort of people who never ever moan or complain about things … they are extremely reasonable, caring & empathetic, they put up with an enormous amount & are always going out of their way to help everyone else … so when they both spontaneously (albeit reluctantly & almost apologetically) mention what they’ve had to put up with on a daily / nightly basis … I immediately knew something really fucking major was happening.
I won’t go into the details at this point … but HNZ are placing an extremely violent, anti-social, out-of-control element of the Underclass next to Elderly people … who should have a basic bloody right to continue to live in their own home without having to deal with the constant threat of violence, intimidation, enforced chronic sleep deprivation (relentless loud, aggressive, often violent noise throughout the early hours until dawn) and day-in / day-out extreme stress (from both the tenant’s constant aggression / explosions of violence & from the relentless full-on noise of his kids – who are dumped there by his former partner as often as she can get away with it. All in the context of a neighbouring unit with appalling echo-chamber acoustics … and a dividing wall that isn’t even remotely soundproof). It’s a bloody horrendous predicament for them to be forced into,
The violence & intimidation are clearly the most shocking things (on two occassions my Parents have been forced to seek refuge with neighbours across the road … and on other occasions it’s been a close run thing … the guy’s just inherently violent, seems to have a criminal record, with local Police keeping a close eye on him) … but I can tell you the stress they suffer on an almost daily / nightly basis from the relentless running, banging, slamming, screaming of the kids is really bad … it’s right in their face often all day until very late at night … I mean my Mother’s a former childcare teacher … but even for her it’s just mega-stressful.
My Partner & I don’t live too far away … so I’ve been monitoring the situation and I can tell you it’s just fucking incomprehensible to me that such an intolerable set up is allowed to exist. Feels like the systematic Use & Abuse of Elderly People. Thrown to the wolves (and by the Party they’ve devoted so much of their lives to).
Something as mindnumbingly cruel as a No Eviction policy (or close enough to it) for extremely anti-social / violent tenants … can only happen when socially-detached Upper Middle-Class Professionals & Intersectionals – from often highly privileged backgrounds – take over both the activist core and elite parliamentary wings of the Labour Party. It’s an ignorant (& really quite callous) Luvvie Paternalism.
But then I should realise that the historic role of the Left is no longer to take a universalist approach to human rights and social justice, endeavouring to make everyone’s life better … rather it’s simply to help a small group of remarkably privileged former Woodford House girls wrest power & control from a small group of remarkably privileged former Christ College boys.
Knowing your voice here for many years I’m convinced of the seriousness of this situation. The system will not you help for all the reasons you so accurately outline. Don’t waste your energy on it.
As a family you’re going to have to make a plan to get them out of there; if you don’t it will wear your parents down and kill them prematurely. Sorry to be blunt but this is where your attention needs to be.
The government should have plans for dealing with people who are entirely anti-social. Soppy emotional response to hard problems is unsatisfactory and don’t stop perpetrators’ bad behaviour; containment should be available, and for the worst it may be necessary to have borstals again, with basic standards, an ordered life, some work and skills earned and they be offered an attempt at habilitation; it is something that can’t be forced.
Luvvie paternalism could work in this case – doing the only thing that one
can do with those who have abandoned themselves, lost their souls, stewed their brains, and who are habitually violent, angry with no self-control.
Shoving them in houses privately provided under leasing schemes appears a way out for government to abrogate responsibility. People at unskilled and semi-skilled levto be el have been left dangling with their jobs have crushed by imports from overseas, or a lack of training, or promise of work for those who get a reasonable level of schooling. So they fill time in smoking, drinking and drugging to fill in their days between the irregular jobs without hope for better and just turn nasty. People can deteriorate like meat left in the sun,till it is so unpleasant that nobody wants it.
I have just started reading Lynley Hood’s concentrated analysis of the case against Peter Ellis in Christchurch years ago. It seemed clear when looked at dispassionately, that the Judges had been bent out of shape by a sort of Luvvie Paternalism. The precedents that they had once for checking for factual and practical aspects of evidence had been put aside on the basis that children hadn’t been treated fairly and properly when it came to evidence; having been dismissed as unreliable too often. Now, it appeared there was credence for everything they said.
From one extreme to another the practice had gone, without regard of consequences. It showed a lack of balance, and dropped standards.
These were abandoned in favour of understanding and making up for past wrongs. There seems a lack of willingness to get real and face the people who have problems that the public purse becomes forced to remedy when
people have almost gone too far. If only the experts and academics with practical ideas got listened to when the parents and children are all young, and the older people who understand them could guide them with the proper aid and respect of government for those who were successful in this.
Thanks, Red. I really appreciate that.
After 55 years, they are very wedded to the place (particularly my Mother … my Father's an Aussie who, deep down, always wanted to return to the Lucky Country but has slowly reconciled himself to remaining in "the Shaky Isles"). They also have a wider support network of neighbours & friends in the area (their long-term neighbours across the road have been brilliant & have called the police on their behalf on several occasions).
And it's by no means a depressing or unattractive suburb. Hills/Beaches/Sea … arguably one of the more attractive & liveable lower income areas in the Country. Their street is very well established, most houses have trees / a lot of greenery in front yard and so on … about 80% Privately-owned / 20% pepper-potted Social housing … and they have beautiful sea views out to the South Island. So they've been very happy there … until very recently.
And, of course, as Age Concern chief executive Stephanie Clare emphasised in the Listener a few weeks back,
In the same article, Ruth Nichol cited a range of scholarly literature to argue that elderly people who continue to live in their own house generally have much happier and healthier outcomes (all in line with the Country's Positive Ageing Strategy).
So, you know, I don't give up without a fight. When this violent, sadistic, malevolent little prick was being born in the early 90s, my Parents would've already been living there for about 30 years … I'll be fucked if I'm just going to allow him to turn up, make their life hell, and force them out. It's not right (quite apart from the question of just who is going to buy a house with that kind of in-your-face noise and malevolent atmosphere nextdoor … Maybe HNZ has some sort of cunning Baldrick-like plan to buy up private neighbouring units at bargain basement prices ?)
So, I really feel like publicising this and putting as much pressure as possible on HNZ (& MSD) to do the right thing. Sunlight as the best disinfectant. I might start by laying out some of the more shocking details on my Blog, then move on to contacting local Media. Local City Councillors, Age Concern, Retirement Commission … I'm not against shaming a few hypocrites who need to be shamed.
But I hear what you're saying: essentially hopeless cause / naive to think otherwise / just prolonging the agony.
I'll just have to try and get it sorted as quickly as poss … if worst comes to worst, I'll encourage them to move. Can't force them though and don't want to. It'll have to be their decision … they're not too far off 90 … but still as mentally alert as ever.
Pisses me off so much. Both of them still grieving over the death of my older brother in 2016, both have undergone major surgery for bowel cancer in the last 5 years … then just callously thrown to the wolves.
I had all those thoughts too, we lived just up the road in Tawa for many years and I know the area you indicate well. Every reason not to want to move, and if you're going to into battle for them I absolutely wish you the best with it.
Still if you're going to do that, make sure you have a solid Plan B and a clear cut idea of what the threshold of tolerable is. That will give everyone a sense of control and the sense that you are doing things on your terms not theirs.
Sound advice. Thanks, Red. Always appreciate your very solid, feet-on-the-ground approach … anchored in realism and universalism – rather than the highly selective morality / ethics / empathy of some. Cheers.
My mother was in a similar situation in West Auckland. Same thing, HNZ unit through the wall and all good, actually really good, up until 10 years ago. Over 3 or 4 years and a succession of tenants it got to a point where Mum’s health, physical and mental, was in a very bad place. HNZ had no interest at all, your problem.
Fortunately we were able to get mum out of there and build a unit on our property for her, wasn’t easy, but Mum’s come out of it really well. The town planning side of building the unit was tricky, but a logical argument to council got a non-compliant application through quite easily and with out consultants.
Thanks, Graeme. Sounds very similar … almost identical situation … and pretty similar timing.
Glad to hear your mother's recovered from what sounds like an awful ordeal. But it must still be a bit upsetting for her to have been (for all practical purposes) forced out of her home through absolutely no fault of her own. Some anti-social little shit just gets to come in, take over, and destroy her quality of life. It's so fucking wrong that this is allowed to even remotely happen. Really rough-as-guts, out of control people who have absolutely no boundaries or social norms, treat 3am as if it's 3pm, innately violent impulses … get to just suddenly turn up, call the shots and ride roughshod at will. They have 100% of the rights, zero consequences, your Parent(s) have no rights at all.
I mean reasonable sleep, safety from violence & relaxation in your own home … especially for older people … should be a fundamental human right. HNZ Tenancies need to be contingent on tenants respecting those basic rights of their neighbours … and if they don't over a prolonged period then OUT.
I certainly wouldn't be opposed to the State forcing one or two prominent, well-healed, Intersectionals on the 'Left' (increasingly, I'm thinking this particular faction comprises an elitist, self-interested Faux Left) to live in the sort of intolerable situation your / my Parent(s) have had to endure … maybe every day & night for a year or two … might just lead to a little less ostentatious virtue-signalling, less paternalistic romanticisation / sacralization of particular demographics, less of a tendency to adopt the role of heroic Rescuer in a housing context & social situation that they're completely bloody ignorant of … and, who knows, maybe even a little less obsessive focus on 'microaggression' and a little more focus on the rather more pressing MACROaggression
“an ignorant (& really quite callous) Luvvie Paternalism”
Good description. Sorry to hear about your folks.
Cheers, Sacha … appreciate your support.
I wish I could have written your last two paragraphs.
Born of anger
What’s going on here?
Did Bob Jones lift his skeletal frame out of the lazy-boy in order to tear down tax fairness?
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/112077063/billboard-promoting-tax-fairness-removed-without-permission
TRP …… Anyone can use google …. but I have trouble searching The Standard site and could not find the Link that The Al1en was selectively misrepresenting, … and James was tag teaming him with …. with ‘ rape apologist’ insults at me.
I found it now https://thestandard.org.nz/julian-assange-journeys-end/#comment-1505841
While I was Abused, discredited …. and goaded …. I note you never provided the link either …. yet TRP asks me for an apology ? …. For something I summarized ( I had no link ), and the Al1en pretended I’d quoted ver-batum
You’ll note when I paraphrased your / TRP s, ‘ You were rude to me ‘, statement I did not use direct quotation marks …. this is because I could not find the thread.
The Al1en however did use exact quote marks” ” …. claiming I was quoting you ver batum. ….. was he being dishonest? … probably .
But ‘ you were rude / rude to me ‘ was exactly your message …. and excuse,,, to set The Al1ens dishonest and survivor / victim abuse stand .
” [Given that you’d normally be banned for calling an author an arsehole, I think you should take the same charitable approach to al1en’s reply.”
I’m very disappointed you’ve let victim denial and abuse go unchecked against me in your thread ….. and then expect I should apologized to you.
You’ve got as much as an apology as you will ever get out of me ……
In the post of mine …. you used to ban me with.
Bollocks to “selectively misrepresenting”.
All quotes I made can all be found in the very old thread, and whatever you wrote the other day.
Lying is just sad, as it trying to get out of it.
Give it up.
https://thestandard.org.nz/julian-assange-journeys-end/
To get it to link directly to the comment you need to embed the link. Instructions are on the FAQ page, then click the link for How do I put links in comments cleanly. There’s the whole palaver of a href= and you have to have the quote marks and stuff (and just one space) but it works in the end.
Thanks, but it’ll do as it is. Good to note for future ref.
Looking at (un)reason’s rant, it might also work if the link is part of a sentence like this https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-16-04-2019/#comment-1608499 instead of separating it with an enter like it’s a new paragraph.
edit: yup, seems to be leaving the link complete instead of deleting the hash and comment number after it.
Well I might have to use it because the allegation that “The Al1en however did use exact quote marks” ” …. claiming I was quoting you ver batum. ….. was he being dishonest? … probably .” is just more bull shit.
In the recent thread, any instance of ” ‘Yup … you were rude to me.” has been from a quote from that days thread, such as…
The Al1en …
14 April 2019 at 3:41 pm
“I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.”
I’ve directly quoted from the posts in that thread. Nowhere in the exchange did TRP ever write ‘Yup … you were rude to me.
That’s a lie, isn’t it?
The Al1en …
14 April 2019 at 4:14 pm
I’ve quoted directly from the thread. No argument from me. It’s black and white.
“I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.”
That was never posted in the whole exchange. Link to it.
The Al1en 3.1.4.2.1.1
14 April 2019 at 5:02 pm
Find your own thread. I did. Maybe you can too. But I can tell you for sure there’s no “I asked TRP if he was going to let that stand …… his reply ‘Yup … you were rude to me.” in there.
As for all the ban crap, Since last July I’ve had exchanges with reason. At no time has this been mentioned before. 🙄
Get a room, you two. This is boring.
Yeah, but definitely not the same one Shane Jones had. Eeeewww
But seriously, what should I do? What’s the consensus here?
Should I rebut the reaching lies from reason, or just ignore it and accept it for what it is – Another internet troll with a grudge?
After a while, shit gets circular, and reason is to incoherent to actually provide any laughs by contradicting themself or suddenly not understanding basic English. Just my opinion.
I suspect that reason feels aggrieved because double quotes got put around what they originally used single quotes for, but frankly their summary (“yup” etc) is so far off the mark of what the mod note said as to be a damned lie anyway.
But “lie” implies that they don’t have an honest delusion that what they thought they remembered reading is actually what was on the screen in the first place.
I hear you, though as the quotes above show, With that ‘yup’ line, I was quoting from the recent thread and at no time put quote marks around reason’s ‘yup’ summary. Aggrieved, or not, it’s totally misplaced in this case, and yes, far off what was actually said as to be a damn lie.
The point about it being a lie and delusion, is after I posted in this thread, where all the info was available, reason reposted the same crud in the recent assange topic. It’s like it didn’t happen.
I call that completely untruthful and malicious in intent.
In that thread I wrote my conscience is clear, and it still is.
I think I’ll just leave it. It’s all out there.
No worries. Cray-cray be cray-cray, in the patois of the street 😉
Thing is, if he’s not Phil, then I really would apologise for last July. That’s a terrible insult for anyone. 😉
Maybe it’s more that there is a timeless ur-phil that naturally populates pols blogs, rather than a single phil ure 🙂
Scary thought, but probably true.
‘what should I do.?’
Since you asked.
reason said they were sexually abused.
You could show some compassion and empathy and back away.
Stop trying to be right and do the correct thing.
When the Prime Minister asks for kindness, it’s not just for people you like.
Jesus, Phil get a fucking grip.
if there’s one stand out reason why weed shouldn’t be legalised, it’s YOU.
Who is Phil?
Phil’s a long time commenter on NZ blogs with a thing for ellipses.
But I don’t think it is Phil because despite his ellipses and weird AF syntax, Phil’s screeds make sense.
Y’know, we all missed a very important detail in Barr’s 4 page whitewash of Mueller’s report. In particular, in Mueller’s line ‘[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’
[T]he???? What exactly was the word that came before that [T]he? Perhaps it was ‘Although’ ?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-conway-william-barr-mueller-report_n_5cb3f09be4b098b9a2d5a0ef
“It would be ridiculous to claim that t[he] …”
Wingnut fight!
https://twitter.com/gatewaypundit/status/1117907874519240704
“As the environmental crisis accelerates, and as protest movements like YouthStrike4Climate and Extinction Rebellion make it harder not to see what we face, people discover more inventive means of shutting their eyes and shedding responsibility. Underlying these excuses is a deep-rooted belief that if we really are in trouble, someone somewhere will come to our rescue: “they” won’t let it happen. But there is no they, just us.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/15/rebellion-prevent-ecological-apocalypse-civil-disobedience
“This is less daunting than we might imagine. As Erica Chenoweth’s historical research reveals, for a peaceful mass movement to succeed, a maximum of 3.5% of the population needs to mobilise. Humans are ultra-social mammals, constantly if subliminally aware of shifting social currents. Once we perceive that the status quo has changed, we flip suddenly from support for one state of being to support for another. When a committed and vocal 3.5% unites behind the demand for a new system, the social avalanche that follows becomes irresistible.”
Only 3.5%….I thought it was 15%, and that always made me realise how precarious our ordered lives were
Good stuff, here’s the guts: “I collected data on all major nonviolent and violent campaigns for the overthrow of a government or territorial liberation since 1900. The data cover the entire world and include every known campaign that consists of at least a thousand observed participants, which constitutes hundreds of cases.”
“Then I analyzed the data, and the results blew me away. From 1900 to 2006, nonviolent campaigns worldwide were twice as likely to succeed outright as violent insurgencies. And there’s more. This trend has been increasing over time—in the last fifty years civil resistance has become increasingly frequent and effective, whereas violent insurgencies have become increasingly rare and unsuccessful. This is true even in extremely repressive, authoritarian conditions where we might expect nonviolent resistance to fail.”
“In fact, no campaigns failed once they’d achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5% of the population—and lots of them succeeded with far less than that”. Keywords are “active and sustained”.
Teams are active and sustained while playing. Task-forces are active and sustained until they produce the output designed for. Forget political parties – few members are ever able to sustain activity. Only one way for a mass movement to succeed in making the world a better place: ensure that it forms more than 3.5% of global population, and contract those members to sustain their collaborative endeavour until their goal is achieved.
175000 New Zealanders…not so many
Trying to fill a hall over something that deserves consideration but hasn’t reached enough people’s anxiety trigger point or pocket indicates that a relatively small number of determined people in NZ with good planning and strategies could do much.
How many men to spread the unsettling word around that the NZ$ was to be devalued which started the capital flight?
John Roughan’s 2005 NZ Herald backgrounder:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-roughan/news/article.cfm?a_id=5&objectid=3576219
In 1984 David Lange’s … theme – ironically, it would turn out – was about “bringing the country together”, dispelling the nastiness of the Muldoon years and returning to the politics of consensus.
It was a message borrowed wholesale from the Australian Labor Party’s successful campaign the previous year. Like Bob Hawke, Lange was carefully dressed in authoritative dark suits and Labour promised nothing more than to copy the ALP’s “economic summit conference”.
But behind the warm rhetoric, something else was happening. Word was around the business world that Labour’s finance spokesman, Roger Douglas, favoured devaluing the dollar, as the ALP had done.
The more likely Labour’s victory became, the more dollars were sold. And since the currency had to be traded at a fixed rate through the Reserve Bank, the flight from the dollar rapidly depleted the bank’s foreign currency reserves….
Before the day was out Muldoon capitulated. The dollar was devalued by 20 per cent and the exchange re-opened. But the dye was cast. The fourth Labour Government had been hijacked by the crisis.
And far more importantly, the extraordinary sequence of events had given the public a sharpened sense of the economy’s fragility, creating a climate receptive as never before to drastic change…
There were advocates of those [neoliberal economic] policies within the conservative governments of New Zealand and Australia in the early 1980s. Derek Quigley, Ian McLean, George Gair, Hugh Templeton and Jim McLay were among those doing what they could to liberalise the economy in the Muldoon years, and they had some achievements.
How many in a Labour government ostensibly with goodwill towards the ordinary working man and woman?
Tim Shadbolt in 2015 names the few men who gained the most notoriety and set smugly enjoying some element of leadership in the eyes of the pragrmatic and comfortably off:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/opinion/73077140/null
But lurking in the shadows, behind the euphoria of our Kiwi Spring,
was Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble, Michael Bassett, Mike Moore and almost the entire Auckland University, Princess St branch of the New Zealand Labour Party who were about 200km to the right of the National Party. They called themselves “the fish and chip brigade”. A name that sounded working class but was yet another disguise for this bunch of ruthless, well-educated right wing revolutionaries.
Here s the thing ….
Gummy Bear posting involves the tactic to keep pushing your argument while ignoring personal attacks …. even ones abusing and calling you dishonest over your sexual abuse survivor / victims status ……….. Like The Al1en does ,,,, and TRP allows him to
With The L1ar AL1en …. If it was anyone other poster in the world apart from Phil Ure ….
Would he not have called them a spreader of fucking lies … and Faux Bullshit ?
Really ??
I may think the L1ar Al1en is standing on liquid ground ….
Anyway back to more evidence …. and discrediting the political use of rape allegations against wikileaks
Gummy bear styles 🙂
https://thestandard.org.nz/julian-assange-journeys-end/#comment-1505777
If you want people to stop thinking of you as a rape apologist- stop making excuses for a rapist.
He is accused of doing the crime by real victims they deserve their day in court.
….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy.
….Who uses and advocates for the lawless rapey company ‘uber’.
….who advocated for public toilet sex … he did this when defending some other over-sexed rugby player.
….who thought it fair enough Oxfam should lose funding ……… for two sacked workers who allegedly used prostitutes
….He who who called right wing Brazilian leader and rape celebrator Jair Bolsonaro “charismatic”
James ….Who ran around with glee …. trying to smear Labour as ‘rape apologists’ …. over a drunk committing assults at a Labour youth event …
And has run around the Assange thread.. trying to label everyone ‘rape apologists’…
lets have a laugh at the Tory party and bbc James …. David cameron 5 mins 😉
nothing You posted takes away the fact you are a rape apologist.
Own it reason.
James ….Who used sleazy rape culture posts to diminish the woman involved in the waikato cheifs sexual assault controversy….
Women posters and authors left this site over that … and roast busters … and other bits of NZ culture … that james usually joined in and posted in a rapey way in
Own it Jair James
David Cameron 20 mins to 25 mins in the Frankie Boyle vid 🙂
funny stuff 🙂 ;0 🙂
[You were put on notice the other day to show some restraint in your comments. You’ve ignored that advice. Banned till May 1. TRP]
To be fair James has delighted in poking the bear continuously and will now be crowing over his days of deliberate provocation.
You could do a far better job, or is this the controversy TS seeks – listening to James shit talk, followed by people saying, you talk shit.
Stunning media.
In fairness I was ignoring reasons post /incoherent rants until they started writing comments about me and I had nothing to do with it.
“I may think the L1ar Al1en is standing on liquid ground ….”
lol