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Time For Health Minister To Step Up On Workforce Crisis
Wednesday, 3 April 2024, 8:17 am | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses why and how new health minister Shane Reti needs to step up over resolving the health system’s workforce crisis. More >>
The Young Woman Who Fired Joe Biden
Tuesday, 2 April 2024, 4:36 pm | Eugene Doyle
So, what can we lesser mortals do when confronted, as we are, with the crime of crime – genocide – being committed with the active support of our governments? More >>
On The Death Of Library Browsing
Tuesday, 2 April 2024, 4:28 pm | Gordon Campbell
Increasingly, libraries are being under-funded and seen as unnecessary in the digital age. With good reason, many people are worried that the library space devoted to books is shrinking, the ability to browse is vanishing, and the social and communal ... More >>
The Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Conspiracy As Mother’s Milk
Tuesday, 2 April 2024, 3:25 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The Singaporean-flagged MV Dali container ship lost power on March 26 and collided with the bridge in the early morning, causing the dramatic destruction of the bridge and the deaths of six construction workers who fell into the Patapsco River. More >>
On Kuffiyehs And Watermelon - Revealing The Meaning Of Palestinian Symbols
Tuesday, 2 April 2024, 7:27 am | Romana Rubeo and Ramzy Baroud
And, while Palestinian symbols reflect the desire of Palestinians to return to the land of their ancestors, and to reclaim the rights and justice which they have been long denied, Israeli symbols seem to merely lay claims - ancient, religious, unverifiable. More >>
Kategate: From Conspiracy To Contrition Extraction
Tuesday, 2 April 2024, 7:19 am | Binoy Kampmark
Cancer is a stomping bugger of a disease. It seeks the worm-ridden end, a thief finding its way into your body unasked and willingly helping itself. This cellular mass army will, in a most tribal way, make off with your remains chance permitting. ... More >>
Katya Rivas' Passion Of Christ (2024)
Sunday, 31 March 2024, 2:50 pm | Katya Rivas
A serialisation of Katya Rivas’s “The Passion”. More >>
Function Versus Form: Public Service Cuts
Saturday, 30 March 2024, 7:00 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the public service staffing cuts being pushed by the new government in the context of the relationship between function and form along with process improvement. More >>
Starvation In Gaza: The World Court’s Latest Intervention
Saturday, 30 March 2024, 6:54 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In this, the Court points to the possible, and increasingly plausible nexus, between starvation, famine and deprivation of necessaries as state policies with the intent to injure and kill members of a protected group. More >>
Imperial Fruit: Bananas, Costs And Climate Change
Friday, 29 March 2024, 6:03 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There is good reason then to take a rather withering view of the banana trade. It has become the feature fruit of monstrous monopolies, a brutal currency of exchange. More >>
Complicit In Genocide: Where Israel Gets Its Weapons From
Thursday, 28 March 2024, 2:05 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Over 9,000 Palestinian women have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. Mothers have been the largest share of Israeli killings, at an average of 37 mothers per day since October 7. The numbers above, from the Palestinian ... More >>
On The US Opposition To Mortgage Interest Deductibility For Landlords
Thursday, 28 March 2024, 9:58 am | Gordon Campbell
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don't think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government ... More >>
Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council On Gaza Passes
Thursday, 28 March 2024, 7:12 am | Binoy Kampmark
The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power in the international system. More >>
Purgatorial Torments: Assange And The UK High Court
Wednesday, 27 March 2024, 2:53 pm | Binoy Kampmark
What is it about British justice that has a certain rankness to it, notably when it comes to dealing with political charges? The record is not good, and the ongoing sadistic carnival that is the prosecution (and persecution) of Julian Assange continues ... More >>
How AI Art Reshapes Perspectives
Wednesday, 27 March 2024, 9:57 am | Hugh Grant
Last year, generative artificial intelligence created waves in the art community. It created a lot of controversy, with human artists claiming that AI was infringing on their intellectual property rights. There’s still a lot of debate around this ... More >>
World War Two: Baddies And Goodies
Tuesday, 26 March 2024, 3:30 pm | Keith Rankin
My earlier article – Can 'Good' be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil framing of international conflicts makes it difficult for participants – especially those who are convinced they are ... More >>
On Labour’s Fear Of Commitment
Tuesday, 26 March 2024, 11:59 am | Gordon Campbell
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a ... More >>
The AUKUS Cash Cow: Robbing The Australian Taxpayer
Tuesday, 26 March 2024, 11:16 am | Binoy Kampmark
Two British ministers, the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, paid a recent visit to Australia recently as part of the AUKMIN (Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial Consultations) talks. It showed, yet again, that Australia’s ... More >>
Can 'Good' Be The Greater Evil?
Tuesday, 26 March 2024, 10:27 am | Keith Rankin
Much of our conflict in the world has been (at least at the time it was happening) framed as Good versus Evil, and with Good therefore having a moral imperative to prevail 'at any cost'. Once upon a time – and in my lifetime – many of us regarded ... More >>
US-imposed Austerity In Cuba
Monday, 25 March 2024, 2:19 pm | Mike Treen
Over the last few weeks, the Western news media has been full of stories of “unrest” in Cuba including protests over food and fuel shortages. From Western media reports, you would think that the Government of Cuba was neglectful and unresponsive to the ... More >>
Capitation Should Not Be Decapitated
Sunday, 24 March 2024, 8:03 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the importance of not allowing the system of funding general practices (capitation) from being decapitated by eroding neglect. More >>
Julian Assange And The Plea Nibble
Saturday, 23 March 2024, 8:34 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The current process is one of gradual judicial & penal assassination, conducted through prolonged proceedings that continue to assail the publisher’s health even as he is confined to Belmarsh Prison More >>
Download Weekly: Mobile phone market bounces back
Saturday, 23 March 2024, 6:25 pm | Digitl
Upmarket phones lead handset market recovery. Bubbles in the frame as US government launches Apple antitrust case. Chorus expands edge racks after Mount Eden pilot sellout. More >>
Orcas Are Very Smart, But They Don’t Construct Separate Selves
Friday, 22 March 2024, 11:51 am | Martin LeFevre - Meditations
Orcas, projectively called Killer Whales, are the top predators of the sea. Different “cultures” of orcas use different strategies to hunt everything from manta rays to Great White sharks. There is no recorded instance of orcas killing a human in ... More >>
Censors Celebrated: Misinformation And Disinformation Down Under
Friday, 22 March 2024, 6:03 am | Binoy Kampmark
The proposed bill on assessing, parcelling and dictating information (mis-, dis-, mal-) is a nasty little experiment in censoring communication and discussion. More >>
From Overcoming ‘Bonkers’ To A Political Pickle
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 7:32 pm | Ian Powell
Ian Powell discusses the political pickle that New Zealand finds itself between an increasingly unpopular new government and a deeply unpopular former government. More >>
Why Artificial Intelligence Must Be Stopped Now
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 9:57 am | Richard Heinberg
Those advocating for artificial intelligence tout the huge benefits of using this technology. For instance, an article in CNN points out how AI is helping Princeton scientists solve “a key problem” with fusion energy . AI that can translate text ... More >>
On The Attack Of The Tax Cut Zombies, And A Music Playlist
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 9:48 am | Gordon Campbell
As long ago as 2007, New Zealanders were telling pollsters that while they wanted tax cuts, a majority of the public opposed tax cuts if the funding for them required cuts to social services. Seventeen years later, we’re still in the same boat. Almost ... More >>
“You Could Hear A Frog Piss On Cotton”
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 9:46 am | Eugene Doyle
Anyone who remembers the Black September attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics or the various protests, boycotts and expulsions of recent games may, in the shadow of today's Gaza, wonder whether Paris 2024 could be a long hot Summer Games. Moments when sport ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Media Dance On Peters' String
Thursday, 21 March 2024, 9:30 am | Peter Dunne
Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister ... More >>
Economic Performance: New Zealand versus Japan
Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 4:28 pm | Keith Rankin
Tomorrow we will see the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data for New Zealand. It's worth looking today, however, at what the situation is before that data release (with its revisions as well as new data). And in context by comparing New Zealand ... More >>
Complicity In Gaza: Holding US Foreign Policy Legally Accountable
Tuesday, 19 March 2024, 3:01 pm | Binoy Kampmark
On March 15, the next stage of an intriguing legal process seeking to hold the Biden administration accountable for its failure to prevent, as well as being complicit in, alleged acts of genocide taking place in Gaza, was taken. It all stems from a ... More >>
Predictable Outcomes: Australia, The National Security Committee, And Invading Iraq
Tuesday, 19 March 2024, 6:31 am | Binoy Kampmark
The latest documents from the NSC are more sleet than snow. They do confirm that the parliamentary system, more than ever, should be involved in reining in the wild impulses of war makers. More >>
Starlink’s fixed wireless challenge
Monday, 18 March 2024, 6:32 pm | Digitl
SpaceX’s Starlink deprioritised plan challenges rural fixed wireless broadband. Spark job cuts. More >>
On Dune 2, And Images Of Islam
Monday, 18 March 2024, 11:29 am | Gordon Campbell
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and ... More >>
Five Years Since The Christchurch Terror Attack, Many Unanswered Questions Remain
Monday, 18 March 2024, 10:00 am | Socialist Equality Group
By Tom Peters March 15 marked five years since fascist terrorist Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 men, women and children, and injured 40 other people, in mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The 2019 terror attack was the country’s ... More >>
We Need A Plan For The Transition To Renewable Energy
Friday, 15 March 2024, 9:26 am | Independent Media Institute
The transition to renewable energy is inevitable given the current climate crisis and the fact that fossil fuels are a finite resource. To make the shift, a detailed plan is required to indicate the first steps and anticipate challenges in allocating ... More >>
Words Vs. Action: A Supplication For Gaza, And Humanity
Thursday, 14 March 2024, 2:14 pm | Ramzy Baroud
‘All we can do for Gaza is just offer our Du’a.” This is an oft-repeated statement by enraged Arabs and Muslims who feel helpless before the Israeli genocide in Gaza. But is it true that only invocations and supplications are possible, as tens of thousands ... More >>
Prejudicial Bans: Congress Tosses Over TikTok
Thursday, 14 March 2024, 1:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
How delicious is political hypocrisy. Abundant and rich, it manifests in the corridors of power with regularity. Of late, there is much of it in the US Congress, evident over debates on whether the platform TikTok should be banned in the United States. ... More >>
On National’s Fantasy Trip To La La Landlord Land
Thursday, 14 March 2024, 11:39 am | Gordon Campbell
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast ... More >>
Winning Director Compares Gaza To Auschwitz
Wednesday, 13 March 2024, 9:45 am | Eugene Doyle
At the Oscars this week Jonathan Glazer went nuclear. The director of Zone of Interest, the Best Foreign Film, directly compared the Auschwitz death camp to what is happening in Gaza. I have to admit that until I heard his speech I had no intention of watching ... More >>
Matters Of Revenue: Meta Abandons Australia’s Media Stable
Tuesday, 12 March 2024, 12:55 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was praised to the heavens as a work of negotiated and practical genius when it was struck. The then Australian treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, had finally gotten those titans of Big Tech into line on how revenue would be shared with media outlets ... More >>
On Luxon’s Landlord Myths, And The Needless Nightmare Of High Interest Rates
Tuesday, 12 March 2024, 11:05 am | Gordon Campbell
During the PM’s post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Christopher Luxon claimed that renters will be feeling “grateful” for the way the government is putting “downward pressure“ on rents. Really. Allegedly, the coalition government is ... More >>
Road Ambulance Service Cuts Highlight Vulnerability Of Ownership Model
Monday, 11 March 2024, 7:08 pm | Ian Powell
The vulnerability of Aotearoa New Zealand’s road ambulance service was highlighted by the announcement last month than the largest ambulance (Hato Hone St John) was looking to pull ambulances off the road because of rising fiscal deficits. It raised ... More >>
Empty Rentals And 'Investor'-friendly Taxes
Monday, 11 March 2024, 4:27 pm | Keith Rankin
This morning on RNZ's Morning Report, Revenue Minister Simon Watts admitted that it was a legitimate option for 'landlords' to leave their houses empty. (Refer Revenue Minister on mortgage tax deductions for landlords , RNZ 11 March 2024.) The official ... More >>
Academic Witch-hunted For Criticising Military Boot Camps For Young Offenders
Monday, 11 March 2024, 10:28 am | Socialist Equality Group
By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group New Zealand’s far-right government and sections of the media this week launched a furious witch-hunt against an academic who criticised plans to cut spending on school lunches and to establish military ... More >>
The Campaign to Free Assange: Reflections on Night Falls
Sunday, 10 March 2024, 6:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The town hall meeting is the last throbbing reminder of the authentic demos. People gather; debates held. Views converge; others diverge. Speakers are invited to stir the invitees, provoke the grey cells. Till artificial intelligence banishes such ... More >>
On The Government’s Fast Track To Trashing The Environment
Friday, 8 March 2024, 11:27 am | Gordon Campbell
With Shane Jones as the watchdog, who needs predators? Mining on DOC land now seems to be a fait accompli. Plainly, New Zealand‘s conservation estate is now open for business, regardless of the impact on the environment and on the endangered species ... More >>
Download Weekly: Call for firmer data leak action
Friday, 8 March 2024, 10:14 am | Digitl
Kordia's annual survey finds businesses are losing patience with poor data protection, Spark wants email customers to pay for the service, Mobile World Congress looks at 5G evolution. More >>
On Solidarity And Kushner’s Shame: How Gaza Defeated US Stratagem, Again
Thursday, 7 March 2024, 3:07 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Jared Kushner, a former US official whose relationship to power is that he married the wealthy daughter of a man who was later to become the US president, once attempted to teach Palestinians how to handle their own struggle for freedom. In 2020, he advised ... More >>
Interest Costs, The Cost-of-Living, And The Cost-of-Government
Thursday, 7 March 2024, 3:01 pm | Keith Rankin
In Question Time in Parliament, yesterday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis was asked a question about the extent of the cost of government debt-servicing. The answer, in short, was 'a lot'; and she mentioned that the cost had been assessed on an interest-only ... More >>
Christchurch Terrorist Foreshadowed Mosque Attacks Online Over A Year Before
Thursday, 7 March 2024, 12:35 pm | Socialist Equality Group
By John Braddock According to a report from the Conversation , republished in the Guardian on February 20, Christchurch fascist gunman Brenton Tarrant posted about his intentions on the website 4chan at least a year before his 2019 deadly ... More >>
Aiding Those We Kill: US Humanitarianism In Gaza
Thursday, 7 March 2024, 12:29 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The spectacle, if it did not say it all, said much of it. Planes dropping humanitarian aid to a starving, famine-threatened populace of Gaza (the United Nations warns that 576,000 are “one step from famine”), with parachuted packages veering off course, ... More >>
A Wishful Gamble: Rugby League In Las Vegas
Wednesday, 6 March 2024, 2:42 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The history of such experiments is not promising. Why would those in the US like the game of rugby league, when an established code of superficial similarity already exists? Fundamental differences, for one thing, abound. The US NFL Superbowl tries ... More >>
On The Supreme Court’s Collusion With Trump
Wednesday, 6 March 2024, 11:49 am | Gordon Campbell
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. In the week preceding the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, a US Supreme Court stacked with Trump appointees obligingly handed the former President a couple of huge victories. First, the Court helped Trump ... More >>
Wary Of Sinophobia: Anwar Ibrahim At The ASEAN Summit
Tuesday, 5 March 2024, 1:46 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It can take much bruising, much ridicule, and much castigation to eventually reach the plateau of wisdom. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who took office in November 2022, is one such character. Like a hero anointed by the gods for grand ... More >>
Child Palliative Care: A Sad But Avoidable Plight
Monday, 4 March 2024, 5:54 pm | Ian Powell
On 21 February the NZ Herald published a compelling article by its Wellington-based journalist Vita Molyneux on the state of child palliative care in Aotearoa New Zealand: Health system failing terminally ill children . The ... More >>
Mistakes, Misfiring And Trident: Britain’s Flawed Nuclear Deterrence
Monday, 4 March 2024, 4:36 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear weapons are considered the strategic silverware of nation states. Occasionally, they are given a cleaning and polishing. From time to time, they go missing, fail to work, and suffer misplacement. Of late, the UK Royal Navy has not been doing so ... More >>
On The Flaws In Anti-gang Laws
Monday, 4 March 2024, 11:34 am | Gordon Campbell
Google “Christopher Luxon“ and “mojo” and you get nearly 60,000 matching responses. Over the past 18 months – here and here and again, here – Luxon has claimed that New Zealanders have either lost their mojo and/or are in the process ... More >>
Download Weekly: Aue to succeed Rousselot at Chorus
Friday, 1 March 2024, 5:56 pm | Digitl
Aue to take over at Chorus as Rousselot moves on. Mobile shows strength in Spark first half. Crown Infrastructure update as Rural Broadband programme nears completion More >>
