That's good news. I especially like that they're using their anti-slavery laws against us, because NZ likes to think of itself as above that sort of thing (the fishing industry {cough}).

There is a certain circularity is stagnant/lowering…

Yes, lucky for our exploited migrants, certain international markets have the will and the ability to force change;

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/95595998/NZs-apple-and-pear-industry-goes-pip-squeaky-clean-on-labour-exploitation

I dunno, National has in other areas demonstrated a willingness to change the law when asked, then apply those changes very vigorously to the people who asked for them. Sure, it's usually "the dole…

Agree with linger, you've confused our high volume immigration policy with our dismal refugee quota. And I don't think Jacinda was referring to refugees in the debate. I think instead she was alluding to…

Why cut immigration when you can make life easier for immigrants.

Refugees often face a hard life. The answer isn't to decrease the number of refugees.

Yes, and one which gives real consideration with respect to our shared governance with Maori. Not sure if I've posted this before, but it's a really interesting perspective from Ranginui Walker;

http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc0402/article_316.shtml

In theory, I guess, anti-immigration bias isn’t always definitionally racist but in practice the exceptions are rarer than the kakapo.

I can’t disagree with much in that article.

And this :-

" we have been systematically making the entire country more stupid for decades.

We learned long ago in this [media] business that dumber and more alarmist always beats complex and nuanced. Big headlines,…

"Thanks for adequately illustrating how entrenched the racism and apoligism is FG."

What would you have done without me? :-)

But you weren't saying that an anti-immigration bias is necessarily…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HVogejKx_c

It’s true that farming communities can be inward looking, but I live in a Chinese market-gardening community, and I experience none of what you are describing.
And my four part-Maori children , and Maori/Asian grandchildren have a similar experience. Caucasians are the…

Thanks for adequately illustrating how entrenched the racism and apoligism is FG. Enough were paying attention to the…

Easier, cheaper – as aspirations seldom – if ever – propagate best outcome.

Should we plan to cease exporting food when our population reaches that number?
We could produce just enough for 5 million and…

If the thesis is that we should not grow these ruminant-ready Mediterranean grasses in our Mediterranean climate , then what should we grow?
The grasslands that we now have , co-evolved with ruminants.…

Any numbers?
The point might be that NZ produces protein to feed 20 million people. Should we plan to cease exporting food when our population reaches that number?
We could produce just enough for 5 million and enough…

I don't see anyone doing that at present. But who knows what inanity is "beyond the pale" during an election campaign?

I responded at length to this other night, but I put it on ice, got bored writing it. But in response to this point, we have a relatively minute population dwarfed by our current environmental issues. Scapegoating immigrants for our…

"Although all plants photosynthesize, no vegetation type beats grasses, which cover a greater area of the earth’s landmass than any other. And if that wasn’t enough, unlike forests, grasslands store most of the carbon they sequester from the atmosphere deep under…

The proliferation of dairying…

:-)
The grasslands that we have today in NZ might suit a moa . . . chickens like it.
I was just referring to the phenomenon of the building of productive topsoils by grazing ruminants. It might be the only sustainable lifestyle that…

I would like to see us make far greater use of environmental carrying capacity (quantitative analysis) as a part of our planning/development decisions – including built environment as well as natural environment carrying…

Nah bro, you're not in Africa now. Unless you're saying that there's ruminant moa somewhere in Aotearoa? The co-evolution you're talking about happened overnight like so:…

Which is not to say that reducing the impact of the present population is particularly difficult, just that immigration is a seemingly trivial thing to change. The flow-on effects are much more exciting, not least…

A higher population means a greater impact on the environment.
A lesser impact on the environment might be something that the populace believes should be brought about.
Cutting immigration would be easier and cheaper than…

A higher population means more people to pay for and utilise public transport.

A higher population creates a larger local market in which to develop added value products that can be exported.

And yet Labour are sticking to cutting…

And:

Green Party co-leader James Shaw has apologised for how the party introduced its immigration policy last year, which was slammed as "racist pandering" by migrant groups.

And I'm glad James Shaw was big enough to make that apology.…

Refugees made homeless by war and climate change, or wealthy people buying and selling homes they don't use, choose your preferred victims.

Now that you mention it, so does Donald Trump. It’s amazing what one can get away with when the hairs start falling out. When the next populist revival of racism inevitably rolls around people will no doubt look back on today and say “but that…

But that is simply popular myth – it isn't the case at all. Rather in the main the immigration policy has been deliberately set such that we are able to import labour that we can…

The real issue for me is not the immigration per se , but rather
the policy that sees a generation of young NZers provided with dismal education , thus creating a need for immigrants, who have the required education, to…

We have no proper immigration policy – instead we have an exploitation and education trafficking policy;

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/337158/the-outcome-of-these-10-years-is-not-even-zero

And many, many more similar stories – it's been known for years – and the National Government is complicit in respect of the…

Labour has a longer history, but I'm struggling to see the Greens as being any better on this count.

I don't. But to be clear, I did not mean to accuse him personally, but probably didn't make that clear enough. I have no reason to believe he's anything than what he says he is. But he is co-leader of a party which…

Duhhh, 2d animation standards are specified in decimal inches, i.e. 10 inches between background registration peg centres. Hollywood never really felt the need for the metric system. Most US art supply stores can…

I guess that we are all allowed to listen to whoever we choose . . . .aren't we?

cos that is what all the older folk they hear from claim is so.

Especially economic wizards.

http://thesaker.is/the-neocons-are-pushing-the-usa-and-the-rest-of-the-world-towards-a-dangerous-crisis/#comment-391111

David Duke was a wizard.

Say no to wizards.

What I don't understand is why any young NZer would claim to want such a thing, to the point where they think they are missing out on something that ought to be theirs by right. I agree that we all have bestowed…

Perhaps the acquisition of literacy and numeracy could be considered as a "resource" in teaching how 1s and 0s work.
Just a thought.
Without wishing to appear disheartening , I am sure that thinking "educationalists" have…

Can you give examples of this? It's certainly a gross misrepresentation of James' own views. I think he deserves an apology,…

James Shaw's apparently sudden enlightenment on issues…

I won’t pretend not to understand why liberal Labour voters might want to distract from the party’s appeal to racists, especially now the white supremacists have been effectively mobilised in the US. Perhaps like Jacinda Ardern they feel “not comfortable” about the…

If Labour simply cut-and-pasted their research methodology from Vancouver, then they should have…

"first home"? I don't understand how someone can live in more than one home at a time. There's home, and there's "all my other houses" (which number is probably zero). The "first home" thing…

Yeah but there were much better ways of demonstrating that the money had to be from overseas investors than using last names of registered buyers. It was stupid.

More importantly it allowed the government to ignore the actual problem of ridiculous levels of foreign investment in…

Incidentally, that kind of "research" was done in Vancouver. This comes from a Guardian article that is probably not shared nearly enough in NZ:

Last year [2015], Andy…

Then again, I was more shocked that Susie Ferguson…

By "really, really need" I was thinking more of the emergency than the current approach of "why train people, we can import them". The latter…

Light rail.

She's a bit stuck. A strongly worded statement now would stand in contrast with her silence at the time.

As I understand it, only the Māori Party currently supports this.

That was lamentable. It was a perfect opportunity to renounce the whole stupid thing, and she didn’t. Maybe she didn’t want to throw Twyford under the bus or something, but…

What would have been ironic would be Labour having actively opposed the suspension of the family reunification category – which was tailored in part to help accommodate Chinese people – while simultaneously campaigning against the Chinese name cohort buying houses.

Our failure to allow for growth in the systems that support immigration and social change is linked to the linguistic and…

Perhaps, but more pertinently National haven’t blamed our problems on immigrants.

I’m not sure if Louisa Wall’s words were careless or measured but I’m not sure either is any better. It comes after quite a long series of statements…

My issue with this is the reason we need them is because we've failed to educate residents to fill those roles. Sure in an emergency get them as immigrants but surely you'd be trying to fix the system…

It is a little ironic that National hasn't copped more…

I’m fine with the idea of…

Chaired by Noelle McCarthy and featuring writer and broadcaster Ali Ikram, researcher and Maori spokesperson for the Migrants and Refugee Rights Campaign Dr Arama Rata, filmmaker…

It's in a way worse, because we know that we have no way to accurately judge quality. Fraudsters are the obvious example, often people think they're excellent for years until they get discovered we find out…

I think it’s an important discussion to have and rather than lay out concrete policies, parties seem to fall into a trap of things like ‘low quality’, or ‘Chinese-sounding-names’. It seems the priority is not to come up with policy backed by evidence, but rather…

I'd happily triple our refugee quota (or more) because it's the humane thing to do.

But why is immigration "crucial"? Yes we need some immigration, if for no other reason than…

Oh, you're not the first to say so. But the name predates the Greek neo-Nazi party (it's an Aleister Crowley thing). Its…

Google is not your friend here: https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=golden+dawn

It was a shame the crazy weather deprived…