Government has for the last decade been pushing for as many government services as possible to be primarily accessed digitally rather than face-to face. Funnily enough, the one public service they forgot to push to digital is themselves. Now's the time Trevor. Since Parliament is…
Twelve months ago the unthinkable happened to Aotearoa New Zealand. A right wing extremist armed with weapons of mass destruction went on a rampage through a Christchurch mosque and killed 51 human beings and injured another 49. I can recall the day well. I had…
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This post is a place for positive discussion of the future. An Open Mike for ideas, solutions and the discussion of the possible. The Big Picture, rather than a snapshot of the day’s goings on. Topics rather than topical. We’d like to think it’s…
I always enjoy the The Juice Media videos for their unvarnished and deadly accurate satirical analysis of politics. This one on the essential facts about the spread of Covid-19 concentrates on the United States. Personally I'm picking that country, by the end of the year,…
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn writes: ____________________________________________________________________________ We have a homelessness problem in New Zealand. We also have 40,000 ghost homes in Auckland alone - properties deliberately left empty by hoarders, who just want to accumulate the tax-free capital gains. Writing in Newsroom, Cat MacLennan…
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So Coronavirus is working its way through the world. And put to one side the human misery the virus is causing, the effect on the world's economy is terrifying. Political leadership has not helped. In the United States within days Donald Trump has gone from…
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Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
2020 will now be the year that New Zealand will now rely on Auckland to get its shit together. Auckland has done it before when it took most of the hosting for the 2010 Rugby World Cup. There, it helped pull the Auckland region economy…
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Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Labour Minister Iain Lees Galloway has confirmed that the rise in the Adult Minimum Wage scheduled for April the 1st will go ahead. PM Jacinda Ardern had suggested it would happen earlier in the week. The new rate will lift wages for hundreds of thousands…
A few weeks ago I was busily slagging off the Chinese government for its response to the virus, and doing the standard leftie thing of presuming that authoritarian states could never be as good as democratic states in responding to a pandemic, because … them…
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In a few hours from now (if I'm getting my time zones right), Americans will hit the polling booths in another six primary states. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I reckon Bernie Sanders is fucked. If you're an outsider running…
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
Previous readers of this site will be aware that I'm not a particularly enthusiastic supporter of the police. I'm more in the order of regarding our current police of a necessary burden on society that could do with having considerable improvement. Much of the time…
Through a series of meetings that led all the way to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Head of the State Services Commission Peter Hughes, and the Police, the Islamic Women's Council repeatedly warned the highest levels of our civil service that…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
Daily review is also your post. This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Don’t forget to be kind to each other …
This post borrows heavily from my earlier post that I wrote last October. But just as National has recycled its policy I though I would recycle my post. What is something that Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Scott Morrison and Simon Bridges all have in common? …
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn writes: ____________________________________________________________________________ Stuff reports that Parliament is prepared for the pandemic, with face-masks, hand-sanitiser, and plans for fewer sittings and/or fewer MPs physically present in the chamber to reduce contagion risk. All of which is sensible, but then there's this…
As we approach the anniversary of the Christchurch massacre you would hope that our politicians had decided to put politics aside and settled on meaningful law changes so that the chances of a deranged shooter killing people on the basis of their religion was reduced.…
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Well? Would you? Update/Edit. Interesting that the definitive answers all ran in one direction. The rest read as a mix of inanity and insanity to me - ie, flailing shades of denial and fear. For those who think that giving up their current material life…
Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step up to the mike …
This post is a place for positive discussion of the future. An Open Mike for ideas, solutions and the discussion of the possible. The Big Picture, rather than a snapshot of the day’s goings on. Topics rather than topical. We’d like to think it’s…
The government is about to do some long overdue reform of the Residential Tenancies Act. Predictably, the more anti-social among the landlords are not happy. From Stuff, Landlords say they plan to sell their properties – or focus solely on the high end of the…