Te Reo Putake live blogs the visit of politicians to Rātana paa during the celebration of the life of founder Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana: It's a glorious day in the Whanganui region. Around 28 degrees, blue skies, a gentle breeze. We've been welcomed onto the marae…
This is a repost of a comment from Incognito on the Building Mass Movements post, with some editing. It's also linked to one of my points on the Fisiani Gets it Right post yesterday; how does the left with it's vital and diverse components achieve…
Tory spinners have a tactic called "the dead cat (h/t for the link to RedLogix). It's a monumental derail of the nation-wide conversation as soon as your opponent shows signs of gaining momentum, especially if that momentum is largely on the back of a single…
Reprinted from Cheekygames. Since National came to power after the 2008 election, it has become increasingly clear that John Key's government, unduly influenced, aided, and abetted by the bantamweight ACT party, intends to cleave mindlessly to the ideology that essential government services and functions must…
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Veteran Climate Science Denialist Bob Carter Dies of Heart Attack Bob Carter has died. To most members of the general public, the name of that Australian geologist and paleontologist will barely register a flicker of neurons in the temporal lobe. But to the global community…
Let’s get this straight. Fisiani's on-going sycophantic love-in with John Key may be nauseatingly embarrassing to read, but this does not make him necessarily wrong. Unforeseeable circumstances aside, John Key will see out five or six terms in office. He will then likely hand over…
No real surprise - Key sets eyes on a fourth term The Prime Minister is launching into 2016 with plans to stand for an historic fourth term. In a wide-ranging interview with the Weekend Herald about the year ahead, John Key confirmed his intention to…
This week has seen a lot of coverage of the news that 2015 has been confirmed as by far the hottest year on record. A post here at The Standard generated plenty of discussion (a lot of it driven by a couple of persistent climate…
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This policy proposal from Paula Bennett has had a fair bit of attention: Govt may give state tenants cash to move to regions The government is looking at cash incentives to get Auckland's state housing tenants to move to the regions. The offer would include…
Education is a public good. We all benefit, socially and economically, from a well educated populace. A couple of days I wrote about a disastrous fall in student numbers that is undermining tertiary education in NZ. It isn't the same data set, but this a…
You know how Paris and COP21 was meant to mark a new beginning, that climate change denial was dead and that man made anthropogenic change was now accepted to be real and that to address this most important of issues urgent action needed to be taken?…
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I had a dream in which media magnate Mark Weldon spoke to me. "TRP, me old son, the people don't like the news". "Which people?", I asked, naively. "The shareholders, of course", he replied with a look of contempt. "Now get a press release out…
So as expected 2015 has been confirmed as the hottest year on record, by far. Just to state the obvious: “Record shattering” NASA announcement indicates NZ faces extreme weather events Climate change disaster is biggest threat to global economy in 2016, say experts There are…
Hot on the heals of the (re)publication of Jamie White's nonsense (there is no poverty in NZ), yesterday we had right-wing "think-tank" (i.e. lobbyist group) The New Zealand Initiaitve burst into print with a more sophisticated attempt to minimise the significance of poverty: Truth on…
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In July last year I wrote a post pondering a hypothetical Sanders vs Trump American presidential election. It seemed pretty far fetched. Today, Sanders leads Clinton in New Hampshire and Iowa. The lead is growing: CNN/WMUR Poll: Sanders trouncing Clinton in New Hampshire Bernie Sanders'…
Johno Smith has appeared today in the Waitakere District Court charged with trespass after his climbing of the Paturoa Road Kauri in an effort to save it. He has pleaded guilty to the charge. He has released a press release that sets out his reasons why…
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Republished by request, and permission from Stephanie Rodgers at Boots Theory [Content note: mentions of transphobia, sexual violence and violence against people of colour] This was a line of thought which fell out of yesterday’s post, but that was getting quite long enough. The article…
The government's insistence on ramming through the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement is adversely affecting its relationship with Maori. From Te Karere: Ngāpuhi kaumātua and spokesperson for Te Tii Marae [Kingi Tairua] says the Government will not be welcome at Waitangi if a proposal to sign…
This statistic was doing the rounds everywhere yesterday: Richest 62 own equal wealth to poorest half of world The inequality gulf has widened to 62 of the wealthiest people owning all the wealth of the poorest 3.6 billion people combined. Astonishing. The latest inequality report…
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Depressing reading on falling enrollments in tertiary education in this piece in the Dom Post yesterday: Skill shortages tipped as student numbers plummet ... Data released to the Sunday Star-Times shows the number of people studying at tertiary level students has fallen 20 per cent…