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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, July 17th, 2025 - 31 comments
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Today's Posts (updated through the day):
You Can’t Kill A Rainbow
GCSB & NZSIS warn ACT Bill risks NZ’s National Security
New Posts up:
You Can’t Kill A Rainbow
GCSB & NZSIS warn ACT Bill risks NZ’s National Security
BISHOP'S BANANA REPUBLIC
Bishop said yesterday that all existing Plan Changes in the country (except Private Plan Changes from the COC's mates) will be stopped next month; no new Plan Changes will be allowed.
“Plan reviews and changes will be stopped through an Amendment Paper to the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill, which is expected to become law next month."
“Councils will be required to withdraw plan reviews and changes that have not started hearings as soon as possible and within 90 days of the law coming into effect. Any rules that have immediate legal effect will continue to apply until the plan review or plan change is withdrawn by councils and then those rules will no longer apply. We will also stop new plan changes and reviews from being notified, except where there is good reason for them to continue."
This is a complete disaster.
The COC has realised that it will take until 2027 to replace the RMA with its own pro-development planning law (which may never become law as it may well lose the election) so it has decided to wreck the RMA to satisfy its rapacious developer mates.
The election gave the COC a mandate to replace the RMA-it didn't give them a mandate to wreck existing planning law and leave nothing in its place for at least two years until its new planning acts become law.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-stop-council-plan-changes
In the Queenstown Lakes District (where I live) there are plan changes in process that are almost complete that contain excellent information and planning provisions prepared by experts. These are already scheduled for Council hearings. These will now be unceremoniously dumped without a scintilla of justification. Madness.
Council's across the country should collectively challenge this.
So. After going on endlessly about "Labour taking away local democracy" before the election. The Coalition of Cockups is going to take away local democracy
Surely Bishop means Bill(s), not Act(s) – Regulatory Standards need not apply?!!
Anyone else note the RNZ commentary yesterday that Macquarrie is seeking interest from potential buyers of Kiwibank?
As a Kiwibank customer who joined because it was a kiwi bank, and an asset that a Labour government created, I'd be pretty angry at this.
They also formed my Kiwisaver.
But what could I do about it?
I don,t know if its relevant for you but I joined the COOP bank. Take out an account and become a shareholder automatically
Yea and they score pretty high with Consumer (An organisation I rate highly ). I really liked Kiwibank when they first started. Our NZ bank. I still like them..but they do seem to have drifted..a bit. IMO of course.
Didn’t note it on RNZ and can’t find anything there, but this link might do as well: https://lawnews.nz/misc/potential-buyers-being-targeted-for-kiwibank/.
It's seems weird that the sale just seems to be accepted by media ,and opposition political parties,
Seeking $500M of capital is not a sale.
As for the IPO, that would be dependent on its size and the determination of allowed bidders.
Ownership History
The NZSF and ACC might buy back in and someone like Infratil
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360760339/judith-collins-taken-hospital-nasty-bout-vertigo
I'm pleased for her that it wasn't anything worse- because I'm capable of empathy, even towards people I despise- but:
Being very familiar with that hospital ED, I can safely assume that a Minister of the crown will NOT be left for hours on a trolley in the hallway due to lack of space, and more than likely seen a lot quicker.
I can also safely assume that her experience of the Public hospital system (you know, in an emergency situation situation where private health insurance is not going to help you) will do nothing to stop the health cuts she votes for, nor will it provide more government funding for WFA and St. Johns. I only hope she will have the decency to make a large donation to WFA.
Had what Judith had 10 days ago. 7hrs in A&E, didn't mind the wait as I thought I'd had a stroke. Others there in greater need than I.
No problem with the triage system, that's always how it should be. But there are plenty of people who can deteriorate while waiting in a corridor as well, because deterioration can be easily missed. Or they just give up and leave.
The point of my comment being, I can't imagine a Minister of the Crown left on a trolley in the corridor, or waiting room for hours, no matter their triage status. Perhaps security reasons will be cited?
Which comes back to extreme demand, not enough space, and not enough staff. I can remember back to the days before the 'new' current ED when it was this cramped little space in the original front building, now long demolished. The norm was it wasn't overrun on a daily basis, maybe because it was possible to easily access a GP back then, and the hospital wasn't on frequent code reds from having no spare beds on the wards?
And yes, vertigo is a dreadful thing, I've had it too, extremely terrifying if you don't know what it is. I hope you've recovered from it.
I agree with all your points, and yes thank you, recovery has been quick. Still a bit dizzy at times 19 days later but nausea gone, appetite back.
I was driving when out of the blue, terror while it felt as if the road was dissolving beneath me. Luckily I didn't lose control.
My partner had the same a couple of years ago. Dizzy and vomiting. Waited 5 hours for an ambulance. Gave up about midnight as she had found a position she could lie in which reduced the nausea. Went to the local Dr the next day. Some sort of inner ear problem.
BPPV, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, myself & millions of others suffer. There is nothing a Dr can do about it, or ED, even though you feel like you want to die & end the suffering, it is probably hard for anyone who hasn't suffered BPPV to understand how dreadful it feels. It is also likely to come back. Some people can suffer for months! i only seem to suffer 3-4 hours but have a feeling now & again of it returning & start freaking out (PTSD?). Symptoms are extreme dizzyness, utter nausea, vomiting (everytime I move), passing out/deep sleep, sweating because I feel so hot. Terrible. Like seasickness but many levels worse.
There are excercises & positions to try but there is no cure, no drugs, nothing a Dr can do but sympathise (when I first got it diagnosed the Dr sat well away from me because of the vomit). Next time I have it hopefully I'll be at home & I told my GF to just give me a blanket & I'll camp out on the toilet floor & wait it out.
& yes if I went to ED with it they would recognise what it is & I certainly would not be given priority or a room, I'd be sent home & told to rest up with maybe a photocopy of some excercises to try (first time I made an appointment at my Drs). But I understand, you just want it to be fixed & you really do feel like you're dying, it is terrifying the first time. I joined a Reddit group & there are some sad & scary stories of people who can no longer work or live normal lives because they have it for long periods of time.
It could also be the start of meunière’s disease (unsure of correct spelling) it causes hearing loss and tinnitus. It’s pretty horrible. It starts with vertigo and then a fullness of the inner ear (like when an airplane descends) not life threatening though.
I'm not sure about the no cure/likely to come back, although I do wonder if getting it once makes one predisposed to more episodes.
https://healthify.nz/health-a-z/b/benign-paroxysmal-positional-vertigo-bppv\
I've had this done 3x over several years and it was a massive relief at the time. Obviously not a cure, but certainly useful as a treatment. It doesn't stop the eternal fear of it coming back though.
Sure one thing might work for someone, but not for all, or it'll stop being effective, who knows. It's a broad & vague term really. & yes the fear of it coming back yikes, sometimes when I stand up & have a little light head I have a tiny panic. More people suffer from it than is probably counted as most won't even know they have it.
I had a similar experience 5 years ago (at the beginning of the first Covid lockdown. I had sat down to watch an episode or two of Grace and Frankie on TV when I started to feel really weird – which rapidly progressed to the room going around and I finally staggered my way to the toilet with the onset of nausea. After vomiting a couple of times, I did what my late dad did when he was diagnosed with Menniere's Disease many years ago now, took myself to bed (it was late evening), darkened the room, shut my eyes and lay quite still. I eventually fell asleep and woke up the next morning feeling OK. I did phone our medical centre and was prescribed some anti nausea pills, which I still have! I did wonder for a while whether I had inherited my dad's condition, but was assured that I probably hadn't. I still don't really know how/why my bout started, perhaps it's something to do with the vestibular nerve. I do have the odd migraine, which have diminished over the years and perhaps I did have a vestibular migraine by way of a change! Fortunately I haven't had a recurrence of that evening, though I sometimes get the sensation of my balance going a bit haywire, so it's lie down time till it passes. It's probably the most unpleasant 'illness' I have had to cope with, up until my cancer diagnosis last year, but that's another story (with a good ending – touch wood). Like aj, I did briefly wonder if I was having a stroke, but had complete use of my arms, no facial distortions and I could still talk, and knew what was happening around me.
I had a couple of bouts of vertigo a year or two apart. The first one around the early years of Covid. It came in clusters lasting several weeks. At first did think it was a stroke. It was pretty awful. They included some nausea and vomiting, like I have experienced in my younger days with migraines.
At the end of the first week of it, I went to the GP. A couple of years later, after various tests and scans the specialist decided it was migraine related, or an atypical kind of migraine. She said my experiences fit the pattern of migraines with headaches etc in my younger days and vertigo when older.
Earlier there had been one specialist who floated the idea it could be there was some movement of the crystals in my inner ear.
I also had asked one specialist if it could be Menieres' disease as I had a few years ago sudden unexplained loss of some of the hearing in one ear. The specialist said most of my symptoms fit the pattern but I would have experienced noticeable ringing in my ear just before the onset of vertigo, which I didn't.
At the interface between ecology and politics, we get the manosphere:
Given that these spherical young dudes are unlikely to ever vote Dem, the mass disillusionment will work indirectly – via turn-out at the mid-terms…
Not sure it's a surprise. Younger men sympathetic to Trump have been the main push in online conspiracy theories around sex trafficking of children. And it's not hard to see how they would baulk at economic policy that makes rick fucks richer while removing money from working people.
I'm also noting the two different quotes in the CNN piece with the word 'insane'. Well done CNN.
Outreach is a good way of using network theory in geopolitics: foreign policy devolves into foreign relations at any operational interface. You get a natural consonance between operator and context, catalysing social alchemy between cultures. The Nats appear to have stumbled upon this gnosis:
The concept of masterclass is vital: you must induce a sense of potential mastery in anyone you are training to operate at the top level. Control system 1.01! Faced with such endemic elitism, Labour usually defaults to `me too', but Hipkins will prefer to keep their trad collusion down in tacit awareness lest voters wise up.
More publicity from the aggrieved Ian Taylor, whose lifestyle was impacted during COVID.
He says we should not be compared to nations in Europe but to places that could have border closures, but he still does not get it.
Oz did not try his methods there, why was that? It was run by the Liberal government at the time.
And he mentions Auckland, without reference to their Victoria lockdowns.
And once again how is this related to Ardern's child poverty record, man with a grudge?
If he rated the child poverty cause he would have voted for a party that regarded the goal as one to continue with. He did not.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360759166/ian-taylor-what-shocked-me-most-about-fallout-over-criticising-jacinda-ardern
Look Ian is a well respected self publicist amongst those who set fires to kids play grounds and shit in their own campground. Honest, hardworking Kiwis.
That'll kill the conspiracy theories.
.
Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and is former FBI Director James Comey’s daughter, was fired Wednesday from her job in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/16/maurene-comey-fired-doj-00458921
Masculinity changes:
"Sonny just came up to me and said he wants to have a coffee man to man, and I'll honour that," he [Gallen] said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360761145/paul-gallen-reveals-what-was-said-heated-post-fight-exchange-after-controversial-win-over-sonny-bill
Shades of Key/Banks. Or Cunliffe being asked how he’d take Key on ‘man to man’. Over a coffee seems to be the answer.
Different to the days of shagging models in the toilet stalls, eh?