Issue 1 – Karen Chhour vs Oranga Tamariki’s 7AA vs Waitangi Tribunal – how are children in State care going to be safer?
Issue 2 – 3 Strikes and new sex education guidelines – culture war revenge fantasies or serious social policy?
Issue 3 – IPSOS poll showing deep distrust in the fabric of NZ society – is it the end of there world as we know it?
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In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land
08:00, 24 April until 08:00, 25 April 2024
[Source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group]
Air strikes: Heavy aerial bombardment on buildings, homes and many facilities.
Attacks: All over Gaza, there are air strikes, heavy gunfire, tank and artillery shelling, as well as missiles fired from Israeli forces and military occupation, especially in Khan Yunis. The Israeli Navycontinues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the shoreline of the whole of Gaza.
Victims: 43 people killed in Gaza brings the total number of deaths since 7 October to at least 34,305. With another 64 wounded, that figure has risen to 77,293.
The OCHA oPt Flash Update is published three times a week, with an update on the West Bank included once a week on Wednesdays. The next update will be issued on 26 April.
Key Highlights
Palestinian Civil Defence teams have recovered 324 dead bodies at Nasser Hospital as of 24 April; the UN Human Rights Chief calls for independent investigations into these deaths.
Dire shortages of medications and basic supplies are endangering the lives of patients with blood diseases and genetic disorders, warns a Palestinian NGO.
Israeli forces’ operation in Nur Shams Refugee Camp resulted in 14 people killed, 50 injured, at least 11 households displaced, and an estimated 4,000 people currently affected by water and electricity supply cut-offs.
Gaza Strip Updates
Israeli bombardment from the air, land, and sea continues to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure. On 22 April, at about 10:20, Israeli authorities reportedly released 34 Palestinians, including a woman and four elderly people, who had been detained from various locations across Gaza, at Kerem Shalom Crossing.
Between the afternoons of 22 and 24 April, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 111 Palestinians were killed and 145 injured, including 79 killed and 86 injured in the last 24 hours. Between 7 October 2023 and 13:30 on 24 April 2024, at least 34,262 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 77,229 Palestinians were injured, according to MoH in Gaza.
On 21 April, at about 14:50, seven Palestinian men were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in western An Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in Deir al Balah. Others reportedly remain under rubble.
On 22 April, at about 9:30, three Palestinians were reportedly killed and 11 injured when a group of people were hit near Abu Salim Mosque in Deir al Balah.
On 22 April, at about noon, six Palestinians were reportedly killed and others injured when a house was hit in Al Bureij Refugee Camp in Deir al Balah.
On 22 April, at about 15:30, a Palestinian girl was reportedly killed when a house was hit in Deir al Balah.
Between the afternoons of 22 and 24 April, one Israeli soldier was reported killed in Gaza. As of 24 April, 260 soldiers have been killed and 1,584 soldiers have been injured in Gaza since the beginning of the ground operation, according to the Israeli military. In addition, over 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 33 children, have been killed in Israel, the vast majority on 7 October. As of 24 April, Israeli authorities estimate that 133 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including fatalities whose bodies are withheld.
On 23 April, the Israeli military announced an order for residents of seven blocs in Beit Lahiya, in North Gaza governorate, to evacuate to two adjacent blocs. The seven blocs, with an area of 1.85 square kilometres, were home to 18,300 Palestinians before 7 October. The two blocs to which residents were ordered to evacuate have an estimated area of 0.85 square kilometres and currently encompass three schools, including one UNRWA school, and the Indonesian Hospital, which reportedly host internally displaced persons (IDPs). Since 7 October 2023, 246 square kilometres, which amount to 67 per cent of the Gaza Strip, have been placed under evacuation orders; this includes all areas north of Wadi Gaza, whose residents were ordered to evacuate in late October, as well as specific areas south of Wadi Gaza slated for evacuation by the Israeli military since 1 December.
Efforts to recover dead bodies in Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis continue; on 24 April, the Palestinian Civil Defense announced that 324 bodies, including women, elderly persons and patients, have been recovered since 19 April, of whom only few were identified. The Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza said on 22 April that some bodies were reportedly found with their hands-cuffed and stripped of their clothes. GMO added that the whereabouts of about 2,000 people believed to have been present at the hospital, when it was raided by the Israeli military on 14 February, remain unknown. Earlier this month, the Gaza Civil Defense reported that 381 bodies had been recovered from the area surrounding Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza city, and 10 bodies were reportedly discovered in front of the hospital’s surgery building on 15 April. On 23 April, UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, decried the “harrowing killings” of mainly women and children in a series of recent Israeli strikes on Rafah. He also said he was “horrified by the destruction” at Shifa and Nasser hospitals and “the reported discovery of mass graves” in and around these locations. Calling for independent, effective and transparent investigations into the deaths, Türk added: “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, detainees, and others who are hors de combat is a war crime.”
On 22 April, a wastewater pump was reportedly hit in western Beit Hanun, in North Gaza governorate, compounding the already dire water and sanitation crisis. In eastern Gaza city, two schools and a medical clinic sheltering IDPs in the Ash Shuja’iyeh neighbourhood were also purportedly struck in separate incidents on 22 April, injuring an unconfirmed number of Palestinians. In Deir al Balah, the fifth floor and roof of the administration building of Al Awda Hospital were reportedly hit on 22 April, disrupting the solar energy system that supplies the hospital with electricity and causing damage to water and fuel tanks. Highlighting that 31 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza have sustained damage since October 2023, WHO warned that “access to healthcare continues shrinking every day due to attacks, hostilities and the lack of sustained deconfliction making it extremely challenging to resupply hospitals to strengthen and restore services.” An analysis by Save the Children based on WHO data concludes that, since the onset of the hostilities, 73 attacks on healthcare have been recorded on average every month in Gaza, a rate “higher than in any other conflict globally since 2018.”
According to the Health Cluster, as of 24 April, only 54 per cent of cases for which medical evacuations were requested have been approved by Israeli authorities (5,263 out of 9,817). Out of all approved patients, 82 per cent have been evacuated outside Gaza (4,325). The remaining 18 per cent could not yet be evacuated due to movement restrictions or limitations on individuals who may accompany them. These limitations span from age restrictions, which have at times prevented essential evacuations of newborn babies, to the requirement for companions to have passports, in a context in which an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of people in Gaza have lost their identification documents during displacement, according to the Protection Cluster. The criteria for selecting patients who may be evacuated also remain unclear, with only eight per cent of male patients aged 19 to 60 years approved for evacuation, compared to 74 per cent of women of the same age range. The overwhelming number of conflict-related injuries has also strained evacuation resources, resulting in injuries being prioritized over chronic illnesses like kidney failure and heart diseases. This has led to tragic consequences; the Health Cluster reports that nine children who urgently required kidney dialysis died in February 2024, while waiting for evacuation.
The remaining health facilities have shortages of personnel and basic supplies. On 18 April, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) stressed that doctors are now forced to “re-use medical equipment that is designed for single use,” citing instances in which external fixators, which hold together fractured bones, were removed from deceased individuals and re-used on living patients. In addition, shortages of strong pain relief medications, steroid creams and antibiotic ointments are hampering the treatment of simple diseases and forcing children to endure limb salvage surgeries with inadequate pain relief, reported Save the Children. The lack of food is also rendering patients too weak to heal properly or fight infections. On 17 April, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) shed light on the plight of patients with blood diseases and genetic disorders amid a critical shortage of medications. According to PCHR, over 300 people suffering from thalassemia, including 80 children, lack the needed medicines and are at risk of developing hemochromatosis, an iron overload in body organs. PCHR noted that 18 thalassemia patients have already died since the onset of hostilities and another ten are in critical condition. The lack of medications, therapeutic milk formulas, and vitamins has also endangered the lives of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis; 23 patients have died since October, and only six of about 20 critical patients referred for treatment abroad have so far been medically evacuated, added PCHR.
Access constraints continue to hamper the scaling up of critical aid to health facilities. WHO reports that, due to severe delays at checkpoints and ongoing fighting, a planned mission by WHO and its partners to Kamal Adwan and Al Awda hospitals on 20 April was only partially completed; the mission team evacuated four patients and their caregivers from Kamal Adwan, including a nine-year-old boy suffering from a head tumor and hydrocephalus, for medical evacuation abroad. However, fuel and medical supplies could not be delivered to Kamal Adwan hospital for the second consecutive time in seven days and needs assessments to help restore services could not be undertaken at Al Awda Hospital. In total, between 13 and 20 April, WHO and the NGO CADUS evacuated 13 patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the International Medical Corps (IMC) field hospital in Rafah and the European Government Hospital (EGH) in Khan Younis.
On 24 April, the two Israeli military checkpoints on both Salah El Din and Al-Rasheed roads leading to northern Gaza were closed by the Israeli army due to troop movements. As a result, humanitarian missions and other movements to northern Gaza were halted as of the time of reporting. Between 1 and 24 April, 57 per cent (39 out of 69) of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were facilitated by Israeli authorities, 35 per cent (24) were denied or impeded, 7 per cent were cancelled (5) due to logistical constraints, and one remains pending as of the time of reporting. During the same period, out of 160 humanitarian aid missions to areas in southern Gaza that require coordination, 78 per cent (125) were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 13 per cent (20) were denied or impeded, and nine per cent (15) were cancelled due to logistical constraints.
West Bank Update, 16-22 April
Latest development: In the early morning hours of 23 April, Israeli forces shot and killed a 44-year-old Palestinian man during a search-and-arrest operation in Aqbet Jaber Refugee Camp in Jericho. The man was reportedly standing in front of his house and no clashes were taking place at the time of the incident.
Between 18 and 22 April, 18 Palestinians, including three children, were killed in the West Bank, including 14 killed by Israeli forces in Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarm governorate. In addition, during the reporting period, 75 Palestinians, ten Israeli soldiers, and one Israeli settler were injured in the West Bank and two Israelis were injured in West Jerusalem.
Between 18 and 21 April, Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians, including three children, injured at least 50 (including 17 by live ammunition), and arrested over 20, in a large-scale operation that lasted about 55 hours in Nur Shams Refugee Camp. Ten Israeli soldiers were also wounded, according to Israeli military sources cited in the Israeli media. During the operation, heavy sounds of exchanges of fire and explosions were reported, and Israeli forces besieged the camp, preventing entry and exit of at least 65,000 people who reside in the camp and the surrounding area of Tulkarm city. Medical teams were also denied access; the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that the Israeli army prevented their ambulances from reaching the wounded and sick people for several hours to transport them to hospitals, one PRCS volunteer was shot and injured by live ammunition inside the camp, and an emergency medical team was detained for about half an hour.
The initial findings of an inter-cluster assessment conducted in Nur Shams Refugee Camp following the withdrawal of the Israeli army show that at least 11 households comprising 55 people, including 16 children, were displaced when their homes were rendered uninhabitable by bulldozers or explosives. Eight additional homes sustained severe damage, but their residents had already been displaced in previous operations by Israeli forces in the camp. In addition, about 500 homes sustained minor to moderate damage and multiple livelihood and commercial structures were destroyed. The UNRWA camp office, the disability rehabilitation centre, and the women’s association had also been raided and sustained minor damage. The operation entailed massive bulldozing of several vital road sections inside the camp and those leading to Tulkarm city, causing severe damage to water, sewage, electricity, and telecommunication networks. Water and electricity supplies were cut off, initially affecting the majority of the camp’s residents and currently affecting some 4,000 people, or about 30 per cent of nearly 14,000 people who live in the camp.
On 20 April, a 49-year-old Palestinian paramedic and driver of a Red Crescent ambulance was shot and killed in a settler violence incident in As Sawiya village in Nablus governorate while transporting two Palestinians wounded either by Israeli forces or settlers when they raided the village.
In two separate incidents, Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinians in attacks or alleged attacks on Israeli forces in the West Bank. These include a 43-year-old woman, a mother of four, who was shot at Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley on 19 April, after she reportedly carried out a stabbing attack. Her body is being withheld by Israeli authorities. Moreover, two men, aged 18 and 19 years, were killed at Beit Einun military gate near Hebron city on 21 April after Israeli forces suspected that they were planning to attack them. According to Israeli forces, one of the assailants had a locally made gun in his possession.
On 21 April, an Israeli settler was injured by explosives when he tried to remove a Palestinian flag off Road 458 in the Ramallah governorate. In West Jerusalem, two Israelis were injured on 22 April in a car-ramming attack carried out by two Palestinian boys from Hebron (both aged 17 years). The boys fled the scene but were subsequently arrested by Israeli forces, along with six members of their families.
On 21 April, six Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces or settlers when about 100 settlers, protected by Israeli forces, raided the village of Burqa in Ramallah governorate and set fire to an animal pen that shelters at least 200 sheep, killing at least four sheep. There were six other incidents of stone-throwing by settlers at Palestinian vehicles and physical assault of Palestinians across the West Bank. Since 7 October 2023, OCHA has recorded 794 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians that resulted in Palestinian casualties (82 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (622 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (90 incidents).
During the reporting period, Israeli forces injured 12 Palestinians in search-and-arrest operations across the West Bank, of whom three (including two women) while driving their vehicle in Halhoul village in Hebron governorate and three others in clashes in Beita village in Nablus governorate. Based on Israeli military sources, in one of the operations in Duma village in Nablus governorate, Israeli forces arrested a 21-year-old Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli settler boy on 12 April near Al Mughayyir village in Ramallah governorate.
Since 7 October, 469 Palestinians have been killed and 4,974 injured in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with at least one third of the injuries sustained by live ammunition (1,660). Fatalities include 452 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, ten by Israeli settlers, and seven where the responsible parties—whether Israeli forces or settlers—have not been determined. About 38 per cent of the fatalities (176) took place in 16 refugee camps. Nine Israelis have also been killed and 104 were injured in the West Bank; these include five members of Israeli forces killed and 69 injured. Since the beginning of 2024, 160 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed across the West Bank, compared to 95 Palestinians and 16 Israelis in the same period of 2023.
On 16 April, 12 Palestinians, including six children, were displaced due to the demolition of two houses in Bani Na’im town in Hebron governorate; the houses belonged to two Palestinians who had been arrested after perpetrating a stabbing and ramming attack in Ra’anana, Israel, on 15 January 2024, which resulted in the killing of an Israeli woman. On the same day, four Palestinians were affected by the punitive demolition of a house in Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem that belonged to a man who was shot and killed by Israeli forces on 6 November 2023 while shooting at Israeli forces stationed at one of the gates leading to the Old City of Jerusalem. The house had been sealed off immediately following the event and an Israeli court ordered the evacuation of its residents in February 2024. In addition, on 16 and 17 April, five livelihood and agricultural structures were demolished by their owners or sealed off by Israeli authorities in East Jerusalem, affecting 20 people. Since 7 October, over 1,760 Palestinians have been displaced due to the demolition of their homes by Israeli authorities, of which 37 per cent were displaced because their homes lacked difficult-to-obtain building permits from Israeli authorities, nine per cent on punitive grounds, and 54 per cent within the context of operations by Israeli forces.
West Bank
[Palestinian Monitoring Group]
Israeli Army attack – 1 youngster killed – home demolition order: Ramallah – 02:00–07:25, Israeli Occupation forces, storming into Ramallah, killed a 16-year-old youth, Khaled Raed Suleiman Arouq, and issued a demolition order against a family member, Dr Ayser Barghouthi‘s, home.
Israeli Army attack – 1 wounded – 1 taken prisoner: Nablus – 00:55-02:15, Israeli forces raided Beit Furik, wounding one person and taking prisoner another.
Israeli Army attack – 1 woman shot dead: Hebron – 11:10, Israeli troops, opened fire on, and killed, a woman, Maymouna Abdel Hamid Harahsheh, near the Beit Einoun village roundabout.
Home invasions: Qalqiliya – 03:10–07:00, raiding Occupation forces invaded and searched two homes.
Home invasions: Nablus – 00:55–04:20, Israeli Occupation forces raided the village of Beit Dajan and searched a number of homes.
Home invasion: Salfit – 18:05, the Israeli Army raided Deir Ballut and searched a house.
Home invasion by settlers: Jericho – Israeli settlers raided the Bedouin community, in the Ras Ein al-Auja area, and invaded a home, taking pictures of the house as well as the owner’s livestock.
Israeli Army abducts child: Jerusalem – 15:00, the Israeli Army, in Hizma, abducted a 15-year-old boy: Nour Fathi Kanaan Al-Khatib.
Israeli police and settlers’ mosque violation: Jerusalem – 08:00, Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli police, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.
Israeli Army and settlers’ mosque violation: Hebron – Israeli Occupation forces closed the Ibrahimi Mosque, in order to enable settlers to celebrate Passover there.
Occupation settler stoning: Tulkarem – 14:20, Israeli Occupation settlers stoned passing vehicles, near the entrance to Beit Lid.
Occupation settler agricultural sabotage – plunder and land threat: Salfit – Israeli settlers uprooted and plundered around 70 olive trees, as well as many grapevines and almond trees, in the Khallet Abu Zeid area of Qarawat Bani Hassan. The settlers then removed the land’s barbed–wire fencing before departing.
Occupation settler stoning: Jericho – 18:35, Israeli settlers stoned passing vehicles, on the al-Ma’arjat Road between Jericho and Ramallah.
Raids: Ramallah – 13:25–15:35, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled the village of Kafr Malek.
Raid: Ramallah – 14:20, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of Kharbatha Bani Harith.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 18:55-21:30, the Israeli Army raided the village of Nabi Saleh, taking prisoner one person.
Raid: Jenin – 23:00, Israeli troops raided and patrolled Ya’bad.
Raid – beatings-up and hospitalisations: Tulkarem – 04:30–08:00, the Israeli military raided the city, severely beating-up and hospitalising a child, Abdullah Imad Jayousi, as well as another resident, Samir Radi Abu Salah. Seven other people were taken prisoner.
Raid: Nablus – 20:05–23:20, Israeli soldiers raided Burqa village.
Raid – population–control: Salfit – 13:55, Israeli Occupation forces raided Deir Ballut and ordered work to cease at a carpentry workshop.
Raid: Salfit – 01:25–02:30, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of Rafat.
Raid: Hebron – the Israeli Army raided and patrolled al-Samou as well as the village of Tabqa.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Hebron – dawn, Israeli troops raided Dura, taking prisoner one person.
In today’s world you can win an argument simply by ‘feeling’ it more.
Because objective truth, logic and rational debate are all heteronormative white cis male privileges, ‘FEELINGS’ are all that matter now and once the middle class woke activists triggered that new threshold for truth, the feral anti vaxxers and Incels and redneck racists and Groundswell astroturf protests have done exactly the same!
This is the new politics of the neoliberal subjective!
We have too many fucking feelings and we have allowed a culture where feelings trump rational objective logic because the ‘lived experience’ of victims, racists, rednecks, Incels, feral antivaxers and woke middle class activists all replace reality, objective truth and class solidarity.
The only people who should give a fuck about your ‘feelings’ are you, your family and close friends.
Outside of that, fuck your feelings.
Your feelings ain’t my problem.
If your self-esteem is hurt by my thoughts, the clue is in the ‘self’ part of word, ‘self-esteem’.
You decide how you feel about shit, it ain’t no one else’s problem OR responsibility!
We have replaced feelings for rational debates.
We have replaced feelings for objective truth.
We have replaced feelings for wider context.
The Woke started this in 2016 with their social media Lynch mobs, the feral Right have now perfected it.
Everything we are seeing right now from this far right racist Government is ‘feelings’ based, not evidence based!
This Government is passing conspiracy theories into social policy because deranged antivaxxers ‘feel’ angry about a vaccination.
This Government will cut public funding to Community Sports if they have a Trans player because their angry anti-Trans voters ‘feel’ angry!
This Government is bashing beneficiaries, prisoners, renters, Māori, the environment and workers because the right wing voters ‘feel’ angry no matter how counterproductive those culture war revenge fantasies are!
FFS – we are seriously going to go against all the science and just raise the speed limits on roads because people feel angry at not being able to rush home!
Fuck! Your! Feelings!
The Right have perfected the Woke’s outrage olympics and all politics is now your ‘feelings’!
This is the new politics of the neoliberal subjective and our News media are attempting to adapt to a citizenship who want feelings and not thinkings to determine their news!
The new politics of the neoliberal subjective have robbed us of a unity based on rational logic and argument and replaced it with the sandcastles of feelings.
This cultural and economic dependence on donations means Corporate and State Media are telling the donors what they want to hear rather than what the news is.
Sure, blame the media for their corporate interests, petty bigotry and woke social engineering, but the truth is the vast majority of us have become emotional slaves to social media hate algorithm echo chambers that are dopamine rewarding us for doom scrolling and outrage olympics.
We have chosen to feed our emotions and feelings rather than engage our rational objective minds.
We are all burning the library while complaining the library doesn’t have the books we like.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
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Let’s be very clear up front.
I don’t give a shit about ideology when it comes to the material well being and safety of children held in State care.
Our focus here should not be politics or ideology, it should be theesafety and well being of our most vulnerable kids being held in our collective care.
Nothing else matters.
The bullshit triumphalism by the right wing Trolls at the announcement that The Minister for Children can not be compelled to explain her rational to the Waitangi Tribunal for repealing Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act is shallow and ignorant.
Our colonised past has seen the same mistakes many colonised country’s have made when uplifting indigenous babies into State care.
7AA is an attempt to redress that social mutilation.
Instead of uplifting Māori babies into a State care system that abuses and damages them, 7AA forces Oranga Tamariki to work with Māori Community Groups and uplifts Māori children to those groups rather than State care so as to keep Māori kids culturally anchored in their identity while providing on going wider whanau support.
THAT was what 7AA was supposed to facilitate.
Māori children, uplifted by the State, would go to these Māori Community organisations and (most crucially) the funding for that child follows that child to the Māori Community Organisation.
This was going to be a means to fund Māori Community Support and provide material resourcing, this was an actual solution and a way to get the abusive State out of the picture.
Now.
Do I think Oranga Tamariki was infected with the woke virus and that they absurdly used critical race theory madness in their definition of 7AA?
Fuck yes!
The reverse uplift saga that OT embarked upon and Newsroom bravely reported on saw OT define 7AA as ‘no white foster family could raise a Māori child’!
OT didn’t start sending newly uplifted Māori children to these Community Groups, they started taking the Māori children who had already been placed with white foster families back to whanau!
These Māori children had been told that were in a forever home, and that they would be living with these foster parents forever.
These children had enormous jumps in physical well being, emotional well being and material well being.
The child psychologists were clear that removing these Māori children from their white foster families would be traumatic and damaging.
OT did it anyway.
Not only did they do it, they did it with the zeal of the woke.
Staff members lied to the white foster families about what they needed to do to retain cultural competency of the Māori children in their care.
Staff members deceived the white foster families, and Staff members falsified reports to fail them.
All of this came out in Court remember, and what did OT do once the scope of their falsehoods and manipulations were outed in open Court?
OT then privately went to friendly Judges and asked them to speak to the judge hearing the case in an attempt to sway Judicial Independence.
FFS!
The reason OT was willing to go as far as illegally influencing a Judge was because their woke critical race theory dogma had become established policy and they had done this 16 other times!
Now.
While we can righteously damn OT for the manner in which they defined 7AA, repealing 7AA would be throwing the baby out with the Marae.
OT policy towards Māori children being uplifted should be Whanau First not Whanau Always.
Any Māori uplift should go to Māori Community Organisations alongside the funding.
This needs to be established and established now because the dreaded Social Investment Model is coming!
The Social Investment Model uses big data algorithms to pinpoint when a child needs uplifting. For it to work properly and deliver the savings downstream to the State, the uplift must be as soon as Orac tells the State to uplift.
When they switch it on, it is going to generate an enormous tsunami of uplifts.
Removing 7AA removes the requirement for OT to talk to Māori, which is a green light for mass uplifts.
Placing uplifted Māori children into Māori Community Groups rather than the statistically likely abuse within State care is an actual solution (as long as the funding follows the child).
What ACT, National and NZ First are really fighting for here is to turn Orac on and let the magic of AI determine which child gets uplifted and which one doesn’t!
Think of it as a cross between Kindergarten Cop, Minority Report and The Handmaid’s Tale.
If the realty of this hard Right Government gaining the power to use AI to invade your life and rip children from parents doesn’t scare the bejesus out of you, I don’t know what will.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
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The deal Stuff have cut with Warner Bros for Newshub will be less than 30 staff out of 300 jobs lost.
That’s not success.
Fingers crossed the obligation doesn’t choke Stuff and weaken them for a Sky News and Rupert Murdoch takeover.
We are already seeing what a culture without News is starting to look like.
The vast majority of Kiwis are on social media, and they mistakingly believe what they are seeing in their feed are the most important stories of the day when the reality is that social media hate algorithms are pumping them with the most reactionary opinion to keep them doom scrolling and fixated emotionally to their phones.
This allows for Swamp Kingdom Conspiracy theories and culture war revenge fantasies to dominate most peoples social media feeds and drawing more and more into vortex’s of wilful ignorance and demented realities.
You can already see Qanon conspiracy theories shaping part of this current Government’s agenda!
If there are no agreeable facts, and everything is dominated by easily manipulated feelings, we have replaced reason, objectivity and rationality with the worst imagined monsters of our deepest insecurities.
The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media hate algorithms in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another.
Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetized by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalization, financialization, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.
Rather than celebrate the human experience, we will vomit the worst of us into an existential gravity of likes for hate.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
If you can’t contribute but want to help, please always feel free to share our blogs on social media
A deplorable scene of political posturing, over inflated ego and false narratives around democratic value have all collided this week as the High Court ruled Children’s Minister Karen Chhour could not be compelled to testify to the Waitangi Tribunal about her politically motivated desire to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
The Political Right have used this legal victory as a great blow against Māoridom when that is just political bluster and empty bigotry.
The real victims in all of this are the children in State care who statistically have more chance of being abused in State care than if left in the community.
The true motive in repealing Section 7AA are not the talking points ACT and NZ First are spouting. The true issue at hand here is the Social Investment Model of welfare that National are quietly putting into place.
The Social Investment Model uses big data to pinpoint abused children who will cost the State money downstream.
The model will indicate who Oranga Tamariki should uplift and when.
This model is about the welfare of the State’s wallet, it has little to do with the welfare of the child!
Section 7AA forces Oranga Tamariki to consider Whanau when uplifting a child, but that requirement slows down the uplift process, so removing Section 7AA allows Oranga Tamariki to fully implement the Social Investment Model to ruthlessly use big data to launch a vast new wave of uplifts.
The court battle of whether the Minister should appear in front of the Waitangi Tribunal is a side show to what is really happening here.
If the Social Investment Model, with its big data hit list of uplifts, is allowed to progress post the 7AA removal, we could see a new generation of lost Māori children swallowed by a system that hasn’t made them safer at all.
First published on Waatea News.
The over reaction by American Police to protests on Campus against Israel’s ethnic cleansing war crimes tells you everything about how the land of free speech really operates…
Here is a video clip of “free speech on college campuses” in Texas right now.
These last few years we’ve had to put up with the Right screeching about “free speech” and “cancel culture”.
All of it was a load of bullshit, just as we said it was. pic.twitter.com/08u27FWcvH https://t.co/dUXqeB4EAe
— Owen Jones (@OwenJones84) April 25, 2024
…Israel has literally bombed every single University in Gaza, yet the moral panic is crushing any protest on Campus that pricks the conscience of Pro-Israel students?
How dare those pro-Israel students be made to confront the obscenity of their Government’s ethnic cleansing war crimes!
This hilariously has been the American response…
…I know right?
They built a wall.
I’d be laughing if I wasn’t crying so much.
There is a vast world of difference between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism.
If you are attacking Jewish students for being Jewish, you have no place in our movement, but if you are protesting the criminal over reaction by Israel to October 7th and their brutal Occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, then step on up.
America is enabling Israel’s war crimes with their Military Budget, the youth of America acting to protest against that hypocrisy, to protest against the brutal Occupation and to protest against Israel’s current ethnic cleansing war crime is evidence that America is redeemable and does have a conscience.
Netanyahu’s entire political career has been to provoke Palestinian violence, respond brutally to that violence and then politically harvest the fear this dynamic creates. He has to keep escalating to prolong the conflict so as to avoid any accountability.
The invasion of Rafah must be the red line the West draws against his regime and the brutal occupation of the Palestinians.
I stand with the young people who have the courage to resist this ethic cleansing war crime.
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TDB warned you that this new hard right ra ist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government were going to bend over backwards for their donor class and were focused on vast environmental damage for the Trans National Mining Industry.
Lo and fucking behold we have this egregious fast track power process where 3 of the most stupid Politicians we have, Simeon Brown, Chris Bishop and Dr Pork, Shane Jones will have the power to over ride the experts and over ride any environmental concerns whatsoever to fast track their mates projects…
Quarry connected to $55,000 donation to NZ First and Shane Jones, approached over fast-track
One of the firms approached about the Government’s new Fast-Track consenting bill has a part-owner and director whose other company has donated $55,000 to the NZ First Party and MP Shane Jones.
AJR Finance donated $50,000 to NZ First and $5000 to Shane Jones at the last election. AJR Finance’s sole director is Andrew Ritchie, who owns the company along with Mark and Elizabeth Markovina.
Ritchie is a director of Kings Quarry and, along with the Markovinas, owns 50 per cent of the company. The other 50 per cent is owned by Alexander and Stan Semenoff. Stan Semenoff donated to Jones’ campaign in 2008 and is a distant relative of Jones.
…the Auditor-General is scathing of the damage this will cause…
The Auditor-General John Ryan is concerned the Government’s fast-track consenting bill, which will give three ministers broad powers to consent certain developments, lacks transparency and effective ways of dealing with real or perceived conflicts of interest.
The bill allows three ministers to consent a range of nationally significant projects, with an expert panel having the ability to impose certain conditions on those consents.
Ryan wrote that the bill needed a stronger mechanism than just the Cabinet Manual for dealing with real or perceived conflicts of interest, given the extent of the power the legislation would grant to ministers.
…we have 3 Politicians as power crazed as Muldoon on Meth running the entire infrastructure plan of NZ.
Do you honestly trust these fucking Muppets over the advice of actual engineers and people who have to build the infrastructure?
If Labour had pulled a stunt like this, you’d all be screaming about abuse of power, but Shane Jones, Chris Bisho[ and Simeon Brown are doing it, it’s suddenly ok?
The Right are hypocrites!
Allowing 3 of the worst Ministers to have the power of God over our economy is a terrible;e idea that will produce a harvest of self interest.
This hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government is an Authoritarian one.
That Authoritarianism seems to excite the Right Wing Media trolls and The Democracy Project, but it should terrify the rest of us…
We have a Prime Minister who won’t even bother informing the people if we are entering a new military arrangement with America…
Watch: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon won’t say if government will consult public on joining AUKUS
…they are throwing 50 000 beneficiaries off welfare into a sea of rising unemployment caused by a technocrat Bank Governor no one elected, who is crashing the economy to save the economy while this Government wages a war on renters, workers, Māori and the environment to fund tax cuts to the richest!
This is a very Kiwi fascism. Laid back and casual.
Don’t pretend you weren’t warned.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
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Ummmmmm, Luxon dumping two useless Cabinet Ministers to look tough in the face of Winston and Seymour bullying him isn’t the flex the Right Wing media seem to think it is…
Claire Trevett (Herald): Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s reshuffle of Melissa Lee, Penny Simmonds should keep all ministers on their toes
Ben Thomas (The Post): Luxon unleashes the corporate drone strike (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk): NZ deserves Luxon’s style of performance management
The Democracy Project takes the spin hook line and sinker.
The Right Wing Mainstream Media Trolls are trying to sell this as a moment of Corporate Strength by CEO Luxon, the tough man, the action figure, the strong leader.
The truth is more like this…
..Luxon dumped Melissa and Penny because in just 6 months internal polling is so dire they need a circuit breaker.
This decision isn’t from a. place of strength, it’s from a place of weakness!
Luxon is the weakest PM we’ve ever had and week in and week out either Seymour or Winston is bullying him in public!
Sometimes they are both doing it in the same week.
Pretending his axing of 2 useless Ministers is strength, is ridiculous!
If he is so tough, have Casey Costello sacked for misleading Cabinet on behalf of the Tobacco Industry!
Luxon is weak and it is only a matter of time before the numbers are being taken to roll him.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
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Sleepy silly Hobbits, TDB told you National were trying to privatise the roads…
Officials tell Simeon Brown to consider tolling existing roads
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is being encouraged to look at tolling existing roads to relieve pressure on strained transport funding.
At present only new highways can be tolled to help pay for them, and only when there is a free alternative route.
But officials have told Brown they wanted to talk to him about exploring congestion charging “and/or relaxing the constraints on tolling legislation to include, for example, the tolling of existing roads”.
“Currently tolls can only be applied to new roads where there is a free alternative. Legislation could be changed to allow tolls on existing roads,” they said in advisories released to RNZ by the minister under the Official Information Act (OIA).
These also show the officials have taken this further.
“We have identified potential changes to legislation that would help us to simplify our systems and in turn reduce costs of the tolling system,” a briefing in February said.
The Government has already promised to reform tolling laws and spread the technology. RNZ has asked Brown if as part of this, he was considering tolling existing roads.
…this mutation of a road policy that National have trotted out slashes public transport infrastructure and is a naked attempt to push poor people off the roads!
This is user pays privatisation of our Roads, exactly as TDB warned you!
Bernard Hickey is scathing…
Simeon Brown’s road-taxing bait-and-switch
Govt unveils unmentioned $50m rego fee hike & fuel tax hike from 2027 to raise $650m and help build 15 new motorways; Funding for cycling, biking & walking slashed; Climate impact unmentioned
…he’s right!
Simeon only mentions Climate Change twice throughout his 43 page ‘plan’.
NZ is one of the few countries that sold our public transport systems and the nonsense underfunding of our public transport system sees entire rail closures because it’s too hot…
Thousands affected as dozens of Auckland trains cancelled due to hot weather
…this heat that shuts down underfunded Rail networks is also eroding the ground with huge rainfall…
Discovery of 3m cavity closes part of state highway in Tauranga
Barely a year after the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, we are seeing what catastrophic climate change looks like in real time as roads develop mass erosion caused by extreme rain dumps caused by climate change.
We don’t have the adaptation capacity because we refuse to tax the polluters more.
You appreciate things are only going to get worse from here on in right?
Despite the climate denial from the Right in NZ, it is real and it is here now.
The $14billion dollar damage of Cyclone Gabrielle and our inability to rebuild highlights how little resilience we have in our underfunded system…
National’s response to all these threats to our roading infrastructure is user pays.
When the Boomer King Wayne Brown is struck dumb by the Government destroying the hopes of public transport infrastructure in our groaning gridlocked city, you know shit just got real.
I kept asking questions to candidates about roading privatisation during the election debate series because the obviousness of where National’s roading platform led to seemed an important issue, but it never caught a wider focus.
Now we not only get the privatisation, but we get the pain of user pays inequality.
It’s all stick, no carrot.
What the petrol tax did was generate revenue from as wide a group as possible to fund infrastructure, National have dumped that in favour of privatisation of roads with tolling and congestion taxes that will burn the poor with no expansion in public transport infrastructure to provide alternatives.
Remember our subsidisation of public transport was supposed to be an emission reducing tactic as well, so by dumping them will not only make gridlock more likely, it will produce more emissions that are feeding the climate change extremes we are watching burn our country this Summer.
So we open the taps on immigration (250 000 in a year) and rather than build the infrastructure for that level of migration, we simply impose user pays as the solution???
Whatever decision is cooked up will be for the benefit of a Right wing donor somewhere.
We are in the age of consequences now and we will choke on our denial.
Look at these numbers…
…road crashes were 4% of GDP!!!!
Our roads should not be privatised and they should not by made user pays. Roads should be seen as a common good with huge state investment focused on climate change adaptation, better engineered for safety and vast upgrades for public transport.
Nothing National have planned here will solve anything in the short term, medium term or long term.
This is simply about pushing poor people off roads and hoping no one notices.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
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It’s how I roll.
Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
The Editor doesn’t moderate this blog, 3 volunteers do, they are very lenient to provide you a free speech space but if it’s just deranged abuse or putting words in bloggers mouths to have a pointless argument, we don’t bother publishing.
All in all, TDB gives punters a very, very, very wide space to comment in but we won’t bother with out right lies or gleeful malice. We leave that to the Herald comment section.
EDITORS NOTE: – By the way, here’s a list of shit that will get your comment dumped. Sexist abuse, homophobic abuse, racist abuse, anti-muslim abuse, transphobic abuse, Chemtrails, 9/11 truthers, Qanon lunacy, climate deniers, anti-fluoride fanatics, anti-vaxxer lunatics, 5G conspiracy theories, the virus is a bioweapon, some weird bullshit about the UN taking over the world and ANYONE that links to fucking infowar.
In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land
08:00, 23 April until 08:00, 24 April 2024
[Source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group]
Air strikes: Heavy aerial bombardment on buildings, homes and many facilities.
Attacks: All over Gaza, there are air strikes, heavy gunfire, tank and artillery shelling, as well as missiles fired from Israeli forces and military occupation, especially in Khan Yunis. The Israeli Navy continues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the shoreline of the whole of Gaza.
Victims: 79 people killed in Gaza brings the total number of deaths since 7 October to at least 34,262. With another 86 wounded, that figurehas risen to 77,229.
https://news.un.org/en/story/
“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” according to the 54-page final report, Independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure adherence by UNRWA to the humanitarian principle of neutrality.
An independent panel released its much-awaited report on Monday about the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), providing 50 recommendations and noting that Israeli authorities have yet to provide proof of their claims that UN staff are involved with terrorist organisations.
“Israel made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organisations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” according to the 54-page final report, Independent review of mechanisms and procedures to ensure adherence by UNRWA to the humanitarian principle of neutrality.
The UN Secretary-General, who received the final report at the weekend, had appointed the independent review group days after Israel announced the allegations against UNRWA, which employees 30,000 people and serves 5.9 million Palestine refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and war-torn Gaza.
The much-awaited final report found that UNRWA, established by the General Assembly in 1949, has extensive tools in place to ensure it remains unbiased in its work and routinely provides Israel with employee lists and “the Israeli Government has not informed UNRWA of any concerns relating to any UNRWA staff based on these staff lists since 2011.”
West Bank
[Palestinian Monitoring Group]
Israeli Army attack – 3 wounded: Hebron – 21:40, Israeli Occupation forces, firing live ammunition in the al-Dahr area of Beit Ummar,wounded three people, one of whom is named Muhammad Wael Khaled Bahr.
Home invasion: Jerusalem – dawn, Israeli Occupation forces raided Anata and searched a house.
Israeli police and settlers’ mosque violation: Jerusalem – 08:00, settler militants, escorted by Israeli police, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.
Raid: Ramallah – 14:44, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled the village of Ajul.
Raid: Ramallah – 20:55–01:55, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of al-Mugheir.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 06:50, the Israeli Army raided Ni’lin, taking prisoner one person.
Raid: Ramallah – 14:55, Israeli troops firing stun grenades, raided the village of Ajul.
Raids: Jenin – 13:30-14:30, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the villages of Faqua and Arbouna.
Raid – 3 taken prisoner: Jenin – 03:45–05:30, Israeli troops raided Ya’bad, taking prisoner three people.
Raids: Jenin – dawn, the Israeli military raided and patrolled Silat al-Dahr as well as the village of al-Fanduqumiya.
Raid – abduction: Tulkarem – 19:35-21:15, Israeli soldiers, firing stun grenades, raided Anabta and abducted a 14-year-old boy: Adam Iyas Sabri Shehadeh.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Qalqiliya – 05:10, Israeli Occupation forces raided Azzun, taking prisoner two people.
Raid: Nablus – 13:50-16:10, Israeli forces raided and patrolled Beita.
Raid: Nablus – 18:30, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled Qusra.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Nablus – 18:45-21:25, Israeli troops raided Beit Furik, taking prisoner one person.
Raid: Nablus – 20:55–22:30, the Israeli military raided and patrolled the village of Yatma.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner in refugee camp: Nablus – 02:00–06:30, Israeli soldiers raided the Askar refugee camp, taking prisoner twopeople.
Raid: Nablus – 18:30, Israeli Occupation forces, firing stun grenades, raided Qusra.
Raid: Nablus – 20:55, Israeli forces, firing stun grenades, raided Yatma village.
Raid – rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades fired on refugee camp: Nablus – 02:00, the Israeli Army, firing rubber-coated bulletsand stun grenades, raided the Askar refugee camp.
Raid: Bethlehem – 21:15, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the village of Harmala.
Raid: Hebron – 10:05, the Israeli military raided and patrolled the city.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Hebron – 23:50, Israeli soldiers raided the city, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Hebron – 01:55–07:35, Israeli Occupation forces raided Halhul, taking prisoner two people.
