Gordon Campbell: On The New Pope, And The Israeli Attack On Peter Davis
The election of any Pope tends to be retro-fitted in ways that make the choice seem inevitable. God's will, no less. If the new Pope had been Italian ('Time for the papacy to return home!) or a staunch conservative ('Time for a balance to the liberalism of Francis!') then much the same process would be taking place. It seems apparent that Cardinal Robert Prevost looks to have been a protege of Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2023. This was in the wake of the 2022 Curia reforms that de-centralised power, and elevated the role of bishops' conferences in particular.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
30-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Letters to the Editor: landfill, hospital cuts and spouting
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including the new Smooth Hill landfill site, another round of cuts to the hospital, and just how important is spouting? Message to Lee: keep rubbish close to home As a resident of Winton I would like to inform Cr Lee Vandervis that many of us here do not want refuse from other centres outside our province coming to AB Lime's site. Build your own. We don't want to be the dumping ground for other provinces' refuse/waste. Dunedin has been dithering for 32 years. Just imagine what could have been done with the $85.4 million if action had been taken all those years ago when $7m was mooted. Consultancy fees have cost Dunedin ratepayers huge sums too. Anyway, why on earth are you talking landfill when very efficient incinerators are available and are multifunctional? Contradictory votes? Dunedin City Council just voted to go ahead with the Smooth Hill landfill. So on one hand they want to dig a big hole on Smooth Hill, so we can truck our rubbish there. But on the very same day they debated carbon-friendly projects. The landfill in Winton could be accessed by rail, so no need to burn tons and tons of diesel to build a new landfill that will never be accessible by rail. Looking for carbon-friendly projects? Being dumped on Many Dunedin councillors today (27.5.25) in their meeting say they don't support "at any cost dumping landfill waste on other regions". Good to hear but I'm a bit confused over their values when they support dumping diverted sewage waste from the hill suburbs on South Dunedin? Which side are you on? Last Friday, another round of cuts to our hospital was revealed: after five long years of construction, the government will deliver a facility with 26 fewer beds than the current hospital, which is already over capacity. This would plainly be a disaster for the South. If this plan goes ahead it will increase waiting times for ED and for life-saving surgeries, and will ultimately force many who need frequent care out of the city. Our honorable Mayor, Jules Radich, has welcomed the announcement as "a great result". Even ignoring his ethical and democratic responsibilities, this is an election year; Jules has little to lose and everything to gain by opposing these cuts. I cannot fathom why he is assenting to this plan which will plainly cause great harm to the city. Which side are you on, Jules? [Mickey Treadwell is a Green mayoral candidate.] What He says Re "Claim hub sale call guided by God" ( ODT 24.5.25), I would have been surprised had it been otherwise: the decision to sell was made after "the local churches in the region discerned the mind of Christ together over a long period of time . . . together they felt this was the decision God would have them make." Is it likely that after consultation among a group of like-thinking people strongly desirous of selling the property, they would not get the desired response from their God? A neutral arbitrator would have been equally persuasively informed regarding current claims of rightful use of the property, and history of the provision of the land, buildings and improvements over the time it has been used both as a religious and community facility. Good try but China can be seen another way Mercy Fonoti's article on the rise of China (Opinion ODT 23.5.25) was an admirable attempt at trying to be evenhanded, but it still failed. This is because it views China through a Western minority world lens, which has at its core a deliberate omission of historical context, painting the actions of China as either capricious acts or interpreting their motivations as if they are the same kinds of imperialistic motivations that Western nations have had for 500 years. The 'contradictions' of China's behaviour she cites are not contradictions at all. Their actions in the South China Sea are solely in response to the Obama administration's initiation of 'The Pivot to Asia' in 2011, which has at its core the military containment of China. As part of this, the US and its allies conduct an annual naval exercise, explicitly practising the closure of the Straits of Molucca through which the huge bulk of China's exports and imports transit. At the same time on the eastern side of the SCS, America and its allies began ramping up relatively dormant diplomatic and military relations with Taiwan in contravention of agreements going back 50 years, that recognise the island as Chinese sovereign territory, to a point where the Biden administration actually stated they would militarily defend Taipei from invasion – an explicit abandoning of five decades of strategic ambiguity. In response, China activated its long but disputed claim to the SCS (and built its own equally illegal Diego Garcia type island base close to the Straits of Molucca) and conducts naval exercises off Taiwan (and in the Tasman Sea). These are defensive acts in response to obvious provocation, not signs of any kind of expansionist agenda. Mushrooms, ridge lines, and mould Re the recent article on the MBIE inspection of student flats. I have the greatest sympathy for the tenants suffering damp and mushrooms as I did almost within the photograph where Liam White is standing, in an old masonry house where the damp proof course had failed, some decades ago. I went to extreme lengths to replace the foundations and damp proof course and was thrilled when I managed to persuade the next door neighbour to do the same much more efficiently than I had via a masonry saw. However, seeing from a careful read of the article that most of the problems with the flats, apart from three which seemed to be in a bad way, were the same minor home maintenance issues that most home owners of old villas would find if they inspected their own home, I feel that the whole thing is what people refer to as a beat-up these days. Yes, spouting is important. I have some pulled down twice a year on a flat in that area by young ones trying (and succeeding) to get on to the roof. I have seen photos of about 20 sitting on the ridge line on numerous occasions. I would see non-functioning heat pumps as a more serious issue. Ironically, they have proved the opposite point of view to their own by their survey: that the vast majority of flats in that area despite the beating they get are fine. The MBIE tenancy and compliance team has made me agree for the first time of the government's slashing of government employees. It reminds me of a survey done a few years ago when all the houses failed, even brand-new ones. A house of someone I know failed because the footpath was always wet. They said the concrete path needed dug up and replaced. Actually, it was the spouting leaking, Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@
NZ Herald
29-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics: Peters refuses to quit as Deputy PM, barricades himself in office
David Seymour takes up the Deputy PM role this weekend, after Winston Peters spent 18 months in the job. Photos / Getty Images Greg Dixon is an award-winning news reporter, TV reviewer, feature writer and former magazine editor who has written for the NZ Listener since 2017. Online only Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics is a weekly, mostly satirical column on politics that appears on Armed police are surrounding the Beehive after Winston Peters announced 'hell would freeze over, sunshine' before he resigned from the office of deputy prime minister. Under New Zealand First's coalition deal, Peters is supposed to hand over the official title and office to Act leader David Seymour on Sunday. However, the NZ First leader is refusing to hand over the office, including the baubles of office. He has instead barricaded himself in the office and issued a five-point list of demands. The first states that 'Winston Raymond Peters shall remain Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand for life, whether he is in government, opposition or not in Parliament. Upon the unlikely event of his death, he shall also remain Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand in the afterlife.' The four other demands relate to the size and colour of his ministerial limousine, use of the Prime Minister's executive toilet on the 9th floor of the Beehive, a limitless tab at Bellamys and exclusive parliamentary use of the word 'sunshine'. The incident began when parliamentary staff told Peters late yesterday he must pack up his office so that Seymour could move in by Monday. Peters then locked the door and began piling the baubles of office against it. Attempts to get him to leave led to a barrage of sarcasm and threats from Peters, after which police were called. It is understood that Peters is holding an Italian-made espresso machine hostage and has armed himself with a stapler and a paperweight. Attempts by a police negotiator to get Peters to release the coffee machine unharmed and to give himself up have so far come to nothing. Seymour told a press conference that Peters' decision not to stand down as deputy prime minister would make no difference. 'As of Sunday, I'm deputy prime minister by right and by name, though Act party supporters should not be worried that this amounts to a demotion. I can assure them I will carry on running the country until the next election by continuing to outmanoeuvre the Prime Minister.' Contacted for comment before his phones were cut off, Peters said he was prepared for a long siege but was not concerned. 'Listen, sunshine, this isn't my first rodeo. I've been holding other political parties and the country to ransom for years. This is child's play.' Willis to wear NZ-designed sackcloth and ashes until next year's Budget Finance Minister and Feminist of the Year Nicola Willis has bowed to demands by local fashionistas that she dress in New Zealand-designed sackcloth and ashes as an act of contrition for her Budget day wardrobe blunder. Willis, who claims to be pro-New Zealand business and asserts she is growing the New Zealand economy, wore what was believed to be a $1100 Nouvelle Sculpt Stretch Crepe frock from British womenswear label The Fold London while she delivered the Budget last Thursday. Local clothes horses were left aghast by the slight, with one saying the Nouvelle Sculpt dress wasn't only 'fashion treason' but made Willis 'look like she was in The Handmaid's Tale'. 'It was like she was channelling Serena Joy, which was very appropriate given that she had just helped shaft other women so that she could balance her budget,' said one local designer who did not wished to be named but was wearing a vintage piece from Karen Walker matched with a very odd hat made by World. Demands for Willis to have to wear locally designed sackcloth and ashes garments as an act of penitence have grown throughout this week, with Willis yesterday agreeing she would do so, though she has refused to wear a hair shirt. In a win for New Zealand business, Willis's sackcloth frocks will be designed by a fashion house in Auckland, although the sackcloth will be manufactured in China, the ashes will come from India and the garment will be sewn by a person in a sweatshop in Bangladesh. Oxford invites Seymour to debate legal status of larvae in school lunches Soon-to-be Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour will take part in an Oxford Union debate next week, opposing the moot that states 'no larva can be illegal if found in a school lunch paid for by the government'. The invitation is perfectly timed after a larva was recently found atop a pile of mashed potato in a meal produced by Seymour's cut-price school lunches programme. Serving commercially made food containing dead insects is illegal under New Zealand food safety regulations. However, Seymour said those rules do not apply to school lunches provided by the government. 'Under the programme I designed, larvae are legal and so is melted plastic.' Joining Seymour to argue that larvae are lawful in state-funded school lunches will be US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has previously said that consuming insects like the one found in his brain is perfectly safe. Political quiz of the week Photo / Facebook What is Minister For Everything Chris Bishop saying to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown? A/ 'Hallensteins sale or Farmers sale?' B/ 'Should we give each other a heads-up next time?' C/ 'I like the jacket but the Lynx Africa is too much.' D/ 'Seeing you makes me wonder if I should let the wife do my clothes shopping.'
Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Simmonds taking charge as Te Pukenga gets whacked
Vendetta is the Italian word for "revenge", and it was used quite a lot by Labour in the House on Tuesday. No, not because its MPs were complaining about the National Party's views of Te Pati Maori (which they were), but because they were complaining about that well-known political mafiosi, Invercargill National MP Penny Simmonds. Now, Ms Simmonds has not got a bitter bone in her body, but so far as Labour was concerned, as she got to her feet to begin the work she has been preparing for for many months — the dismantling of Te Pukenga — Ms Simmonds was some sort of conglomeration of Vito Corleone, Tony Montana and Tony Soprano as she sought retribution for the perceived wrongs done to her. "This plan is Minister for Vocational Education Penny Simmonds' personal vendetta," Shanan Halbert thundered. "This is a terrible move from a minister with a vendetta, with no plan, no funding for vocational education," Rachel Boyack said. Ginny Anderson's contribution was somewhat less on the nose — she accused Ms Simmonds of having "a singular purpose" — but you know that she meant the "V" word. So, what was Labour getting so steamed up with Ms Simmonds about? The Education and Training (Vocational Education and Training System) Amendment Bill basically undoes a huge chunk of work which Labour had done while it was in government, to merge the country's various polytechnics into the mega Te Pukenga organisation. The mega merger was, you may recall, the work of one Chris Hipkins, a man of some prominence in Labour's ranks. The creation of Te Pūkenga had laudable aims, such as streamlining procedures and policies and reducing cost duplication. However, its critics — notably the former Southland Institute of Technology chief executive, one Penny Simmonds — claimed it stripped away local autonomy and punished successful polytechnics by using their better bottom lines to prop up less successful polytechnics. After a brutal gangland war otherwise known as the 2023 election, Don Luxon took control of the mean streets of New Zealand and Capo Simmonds was placed in charge of the vocational education sector, making the woman tasked with making Te Pukenga sleep with the fishes. If that be a vendetta, then so be it. "Te Pūkenga will be referred to as the New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology and will remain as a transitional entity for a one-year period before being disestablished by 31 December, 2026, if not before," Ms Simmonds said. "Each polytechnic will be funded independently and will have local governance and management. For most, they will continue operating at their current campuses across the country. Some polytechnics will be established as stand-alone entities; others requiring additional support will be designated members of a federation or merged, with Cabinet considering their options later." And as for why Te Pūkenga had to be offed, Ms Simmonds slated it as being an expensive failure. "Its push to centralise and standardise polytechnics and work-based learning was wrong, and it cost this country dearly." Ms Simmonds will not have been surprised at the level of Labour's ire, although she may have been a touch dismayed given the considerable amount of praise her first salvo at vocational education reform, a revamp of work-based learning, received when it was announced in April. She harked back to those glory days, saying that those changes were just what apprentices, learners and industry had been calling for — decentralised vocational education with training based around the specific needs of industries. "It [the Bill as a whole is] for all those apprentices, trainees and employers involved in work-based learning who've struggled to get support from an overly bureaucratic and remote Te Pūkenga head office in Hamilton," she said. "This redesign is also for the communities up and down the country who've watched on in frustration as their local polytechnics have been stripped of local innovation and control." She probably got most people on side as soon as she mentioned Hamilton. A more measured assessment of the Bill came from Dunedin Green list MP Francisco Hernandez, who did not even come close to using the "V" word, but certainly raised several cogent objections to Ms Simmonds' proposals. "We have no philosophical objection to the idea that there could be thriving, independent vocational institutions; however, this legislation does not establish that," he said. "However, this disestablishment has been severely disruptive to the hundreds of staff around the country who've been let go; to the thousands more that have had to go through job consultations that have rescoped, descoped and unscoped their roles." Mr Hernandez further asserted that the reforms potentially opened a door for asset sales and privatisation. "It's asset sales and privatisation. That's absolutely what's going on. So, we would like to see guardrails against that," he said. "Let's have some support for thriving, independent polytechnics. Let's actually put our money where our mouth is by supporting funding for them and not disestablishing them." Speaking of scrapping things As foreshadowed last week, Parliament did indeed pass Southland National MP Joseph Mooney's novel notice of motion regarding legal training. To clarify, Mr Mooney sought to overturn a regulation that tikanga Maori be a compulsory component of all compulsory legal subjects. He had no objection to tikanga being taught, nor with the NZ Council of Legal Education having acted within its powers to make tikanga a standalone compulsory subject. However, he and the majority on the regulations review committee found that making tikanga a compulsory part of all compulsory subjects was "unusual and unexpected" and should be disallowed. So did a majority of the House, but not without a heap of scorn from the Opposition benches.
