Have to agree with her, I think the blame for the $1.2B wasted lies with both parties equally...
Although one could argue that labour's share was a failing in hindsight whereas National does seem a bit spiteful in undoing all this when their plan seems to have a lot of similarities with labour?

Quote:Eye watering wasteful spending that both the last Labour and current National governments take a share of the blame for.

Labour, for advancing contentious legislation without properly communicating it to the public and therefore failing to bring people with them or make amendments before the damage was well and truly done.

National, for repealing for the sake of repealing without finding a way to capitalise on what had already been spent or redirect funds to build on what Labour had started.

And both parties are to blame for choosing politics over consensus, for lacking foresight, for failing to put the needs of their constituents first.

All political parties agree there needs to be greater cross-party consensus across major infrastructure works - to stop the endless, time consuming, money wasting cycle of announce, repeal, announce, repeal that comes with every change of government.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/3501767...s-blow-out

I regularly buy these at PB tech, but was in there yesterday and they tell me they only had the Samsung EVO series available and that cruicial and kingston, etc are going out of producing them.
He said to me that NVME is replacing them and they are being phased out.
Now I think he might be telling me BS right here, as SATA is not going away any time soon, and lots of people are upgrading their working machines over to SSDs.
I looked on their website and appears they will be back in stock late march.
I expect its just a supply shortage or something?

I'm looking for recommendations for a provider/installer for a residential property in the Waikato.   From my initial research I get the impression that many are greedy hard-sell franchises, which I don't want to deal with.

We have very good local electricians - would it be feasible to employ them to obtain and install?   Or will we need a specialist installer?

I haven't obtained any quotes yet as I don't want to be hounded by salespeople.

I am running Windows 11 Pro with Office 2021. I have sent an email to an address. if I begin to type the recipient's name it automatically loads the full address. The recipient's name that appears is mis-spelt and now I want to remove that recipient. However, I cannot find a way to do this. The recipient does not appear in my list of email contacts, so it is somewhere stored in the Windows system.

Just now came across this organisation.  This isn't democracy; these people are seeking to destroy democracy & apparently want a return to the days of workhouses & orpahanages, or perhaps their intention is to take us even further back, to the days of serfdom.


https://www.badnewsletter.com/david-seym...TAi_1fKluo

To say "politicians lie" is like saying "fish swim." It's such an obvious truism that it's become a cliche ÔÇô and yet, the sheer audacity of some political lies can still be breathtaking.
Such is the scope of David Seymour's denial of his connection to the Atlas Network.
To recap, quickly: The Atlas Network is a "think tank that creates think tanks"; a global network of more than 500 right-wing think tanks and lobby groups. New Zealand members of Atlas include the Taxpayers' Union and the New Zealand Initiative (formed from a merger of two think tanks, one of which was the infamous Business Roundtable.)
Seymour's extraordinary denial came during a recording of Mata with Mihingarangi Forbes on RNZ, recorded and released on Waitangi Day, February 6 2024. The relevant parts of the transcript are excerpted below.


Forbes: And those indigenous Australians are now warning Māori that the same groups are behind this referendum. Are they, do you think?
Seymour: Well, if you're about to go into the new Pizzagate of the left conspiracy theory, then I'll be real disappointed.
Forbes: What's that, the Pizzagate?
Seymour: That's some crazy conspiracy theory that Trump has had in the US.
Forbes: The campaign in Australia had links to the Atlas network.
Seymour: Oh, here we go.
Forbes: A network of think tanks, which promote individual liberty and free enterprise. And it said that the network pushes opinion pieces in favour of free speech. Do the ACT Party have any links or connections to the Atlas group?
Seymour, very quietly: No.

That is a lie. David Seymour and the ACT Party have numerous links to the Atlas Network. Here are some of them.
After a 10 month stint as an electrical engineer ÔÇô his sole non-political, non-think tank job ÔÇô David Seymour worked for a Canadian think tank called the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, from 2007 to 2011. From January 2013 to February 2014, he worked for The Manning Foundation (now called the Canada Strong and Free Network). Both these think tanks┬áwere members of the Atlas Network at the time. (They possibly still are: the Atlas Network no longer discloses member organisations on its website.) Just in case there's any doubt, here is David Seymour in the┬áAtlas Year in Review, 2008. He is pictured composing a song about school choice to celebrate Milton Friedman Legacy Day, which is one of those sentences you never expect to find yourself writing."


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...as-network

"There are elements of fascism,┬áelements borrowed from the Chinese state┬áand elements that reflect ArgentinaÔÇÖs history of dictatorship. But most of the programme for government announced by┬áJavier Milei, the demagogic new Argentinian president, feels eerily familiar, here in the northern hemisphere.

A crash programme of massive cuts; demolishing public services; privatising public assets; centralising political power; sacking civil servants; sweeping away constraints on corporations and oligarchs; destroying regulations that protect workers, vulnerable people and the living world; supporting landlords against tenants; criminalising peaceful protest; restricting the right to strike. Anything ring a bell?

Milei is attempting, with┬áa vast ÔÇ£emergencyÔÇØ decree┬áand a monster ÔÇ£reform billÔÇØ, what the Conservatives have done in the UK over 45 years. The crash programme bears striking similarities to Liz TrussÔÇÖs ÔÇ£miniÔÇØ (maxi) budget, which trashed the prospects of many poor and middle-class people and exacerbated the turmoil that now dominates public life.


Coincidence? Not at all.┬áMileiÔÇÖs programme┬áwas┬áheavily influenced┬áby Argentinian neoliberal thinktanks belonging to something called the┬áAtlas Network, a global coordinating body that promotes broadly the same┬ápolitical and economic package┬áeverywhere it operates. It was founded in 1981 by a UK citizen, Antony Fisher. Fisher was also the founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), one of the first members of the Atlas Network.


The dark-money junktanks, and the Atlas Network, are a highly effective means of disguising and aggregating power. They are the channel through which billionaires and corporations influence politics without showing their hands, learn the most effective policies and tactics for overcoming resistance to their agenda, and then spread these policies and tactics around the world. This is how nominal democracies become new aristocracies.

They also seem to be adept at shaping public opinion. For example, around the world, neoliberal junktanks have not only lobbied for extreme anti-protest measures, but have successfully┬ádemonised environmental protesters┬áas ÔÇ£extremistsÔÇØ and ÔÇ£terroristsÔÇØ. This might help to explain why peaceful environmental campaigners blocking a road are routinely punched, kicked and spat upon, and in some places run over or threatened with guns, by other citizens, while farmers or truckers blocking a road are not. It might also explain why there is scarcely a murmur of media coverage or public concern when extreme penalties are imposed: such as the six-month prison sentence handed in December to the┬áclimate campaigner Stephen Gingell┬áfor slow-marching along a London street."

I suspect that many Israelis  wish they could remove their disgraceful govt. Its difficult to find any reason as to why both Hamas leaders & the Israeli govt shouldn't be tried for war crimes.


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ace-to-run

"The last refuge is no longer a refuge. Around half of GazaÔÇÖs 2.3 million people have found some kind of shelter in Rafah, often under canvas, raising the border cityÔÇÖs population fivefold. Now, though desperate, traumatised and exhausted, many are┬áreadying to flee again.
Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israeli troops will soon enter, despite warnings from Ant├│nio Guterres, the UN secretary general, that it would ÔÇ£increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequencesÔÇØ. Strikes on the city appeared to be intensifying on Thursday.



The UN has warned that a ground offensive┬ácould lead to war crimes. It is hard to see how devastating civilian casualties would not result, given what has happened in less crowded areas. Israel said in late January that it had┬ákilled only about 30% of Hamas fighters┬áÔÇô around 10,000, including 1,000 killed in the groupÔÇÖs murderous attack on 7 October, which claimed 1,200 mostly Israeli lives. The total death toll stands at 27,000 people, more than 11,000 of them children. Another 66,000 have been injured. A quarter of the population is starving.

Israel has reportedly told Egypt that it will allow people to leave Rafah before it moves in. But not everyone is capable of fleeing again, and there is nowhere safe to go. Some of those who have tried to leave the city in recent days have not been heard of since making the attempt. Fierce fighting continues in the Gazan city of Khan Younis. Overall, more than half of Gaza is still under evacuation orders, and Israel has said that fighting will continue in the north, where it had previously said operations were completed, due to the reappearance of Hamas combatants and officials.

Where fighting has ceased, a wasteland is left. Homes, schools, bakeries, hospitals, mosques, churches, sewage infrastructure, aid centres ÔÇô all erased from the earth. In┬áthe words of one witness: ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs like after an atomic bomb.ÔÇØ The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has also complained that it┬áhas not been able to deliver aid to the north┬áfor more than a fortnight. A major ground offensive in Rafah threatens to cut off GazaÔÇÖs lifeline completely, since aid comes via the cityÔÇÖs crossing with Egypt.

Meanwhile, each day of war increases the need for those deliveries."

Some good news for a change.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/...ast-escape


"A pod of orcas trapped by drift ice off the coast of Hokkaido, JapanÔÇÖs northernmost main island, have apparently safely escaped, officials have said.
The orcas, also known as killer whales, were initially spotted by a fisher who reported them to officials in the town of Rausu, on the north-east coast of Hokkaido, on Tuesday morning.



After environmental groups raised concerns, town officials travelled to the coast later on Tuesday and saw about a dozen orcas bobbing up and down in a tiny gap surrounded by drift ice about half a mile offshore.
They returned to the coast on Tuesday evening and saw that the pod had moved to the north, and it was gone when they returned again on Wednesday, said Masataka Shirayanagi, a Rausu official.
Officials said they believed the orcas were able to free themselves as gaps between the drift ice grew. Shirayanagi said: ÔÇ£We believe they were able to escape safely.ÔÇØ

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Not even sure whats so divisive about it, there is nothing in this bill that takes away rights from anyone.
If anything, it should be a good thing for Maori, as it for once will recognize the treaty at face value, rather than many of its many interpretations to suit different agendas over the years.
The treaty ensures equal treatment for everybody and thats what the point is of this bill.

ACT have now created a new website to address the concerns, due to the media spreading misinformation.

You can check it out here at www.treaty.nz

At least half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The images with the article are stunning.


https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68006607

"More than half of Gaza's buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Israel launched its retaliation for the Hamas attacks of 7 October, new analysis seen by the BBC reveals.
Detailed before-and-after imagery also shows how the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified since the start of December, with the city of Khan Younis bearing much of the brunt of Israel's military action.
Israel has repeatedly told Gazans to move south for their own safety.
Across Gaza, residential areas have been left ruined, previously busy shopping streets reduced to rubble, universities destroyed and farmlands churned up, with tent cities springing up on the southern border to house many thousands of people left homeless.
About 1.7 million people - more than 80% of Gaza's population - are displaced, with nearly half crammed in the far southern end of the strip, according to the United Nations.
Further analysis, by BBC Verify, reveals the scale of destruction of farmland, identifying multiple areas of extensive damage.



The IDF has repeatedly justified its actions by noting that Hamas deliberately embeds itself in civilian areas and explained destruction of buildings in the light of targeting fighters. But questions have been asked about destruction of buildings seemingly firmly in the control of the IDF.
One example was the Israa University, in northern Gaza - initially badly damaged shortly before being blown up completely in what looked like a massive controlled explosion. The video was widely shared on social media and the IDF says the approval process for the blast is now being investigated.
Mr Scher, one of the academics who worked on the Gaza damage assessment, said it stands out compared with other war zones he's analysed.
"We've done work over Ukraine, we've also looked at Aleppo and other cities, but the extent and the pace of damage is remarkable. I've never seen this much damage appear so quickly."