Lemmy NZ

Who is going to listen?

Jamie Arbuckle, the Marlborough councillor who became an MP, says he has settled into having two roles so comfortably he's going to keep both salaries after all.

There's been a lot of video calls from his office in Wellington, but it's meant he's made it to most of the meetings at the Marlborough District Council since being elected to Parliament as an NZ First MP in October.

At the time, he said he felt juggling the two roles would be easy enough until Christmas 2023, and said he would hand his council remuneration back after that, should he feel he could not give the job his all.

But, for now, he said he was keeping up and did not feel that was necessary.

One Wellington peanut butter company has gone where no Kiwi food company has gone before.

Last year, nut butter brand Fix & Fogg was approached by NASA with a request to create a space rocket-approved product.

After months of working with the space agency to find the perfect delivery and storage pouch, Fix and Fogg's nut butter was launched into space on a recent six-month mission.

She sounds absolutely unhinged, going into someone's business just to pick a fight with them is straight up bullying behaviour.

International testing indicated New Zealand had more bad readers among its 10-year-olds than other developed nations, but the picture improved for teenagers.

The 2020/21 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) found 29 percent of New Zealand Year 5 pupils failed to meet its intermediate benchmark for reading proficiency, a group which included the 10 percent who did not even meet the lowest benchmark for reading proficiency.

Internationally, 25 percent of participating pupils fell short of the intermediate benchmark and just 6 percent were below the low benchmark.

However, another testing system found older students performed better when compared to their peers around the world.

The 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test found 21 percent of New Zealand 15-year-olds were reading at the lowest level - meaning they struggled with all but the simplest reading tasks measured by the test.

"The proportion of Aotearoa New Zealand students who performed below Level 2 was 21 percent, which was less than the OECD average of 26 percent. The proportion of low achievers in Aotearoa New Zealand was similar to that of Australia and the US - countries that had similar average reading performance," the report said.

It said the percentage of New Zealand students reading at the highest level, level 5, was relatively high.

"In reading, Aotearoa New Zealand had 13 percent of students performing at or above Level 5 compared to the OECD average of 7 percent. The proportion of top performers was similar to that of Australia (12 percent) and the US (14 percent), but this proportion was also better or similar to Estonia (11 percent), Japan (12 percent) and Ireland (10 percent), countries with average scores significantly above Aotearoa New Zealand."

Man, Wellington shop owners must dread seeing a green MP walk in the door at this point.

I guess housing and urban development is not a priority after all.

Lol. Q3 here sets out what he (edit: allegedly) said (anything said in the House is protected by Parliamentary privilege)

https://bills.parliament.nz/v/11/59669ddb-f7b1-405a-0e5b-08dc696671a5

You could call it a 'mask off' moment, although VFF have never been keen on masks.

When Eugene Dementyev heard a tap at his back door, he thought it was a cat - and was shocked to discover it was a kiwi.

Dementyev lives in the Wellington suburb of Broadmeadows and was watching a movie with his wife when they heard a sound at the door.

"We thought it was a cat, and it did look like a cat a little bit. But then we looked closer and it was a kiwi," he told Morning Report.

Corrections has spent over $305,000 on slushy syrup and maintaining frozen ice machines in the past six years.

The news comes as proposed job cuts ravage the public service with 3460 jobs set for the chopping block, as part of the cost savings drive.

The slushy machines caused controversy in 2019 when it was revealed Corrections had spent over $1 million of taxpayer money on 193 slushy machines.

The then-National leader Simon Bridges called it "irresponsible and wasteful spending" at the time but then-Corrections minister Kelvin Davis said was about health and safety.

Since then the slushy fund has continued with 160 of the 193 original machines still in use and $305,906 spent on syrup, maintaining them.

A New Zealand team has taken home gold at the Cheerleading World Championships in the US.

The 23-member All Star Cheerleaders Academy All Girl team is the first Kiwi team to win at the competition, which saw more than 550 teams from 21 countries compete.

Wow, turns out being jerks to kids is really unpopular......better backpedal as fast as possible.

How long is too long to spend in a 24-hour gym? Can you do too much squatting?

That is the question on the mind of Hawke's Bay man Arthur Eagle after what he claims was his unfair eviction from FlexFitness in Hastings after spending all night there.

Eagle, whose membership has now been cancelled after the 4 March incident, claims a clause stating that 'all memberships include unrestricted access' was not followed and he was deliberately discriminated against.

But the gym manager has a different story. He claims Eagle broke several gym rules and was loitering, leaving no choice but to terminate his membership.

Gym manager Meryn Hemmingsen said staff members had spoken to Eagle several times about what he described as "highly unusual" behaviour within his gym, asking him to stop violating rules.

Hemmingsen claimed Eagle spent "numerous occasions" all night at the gym in the very early hours of the day, "for instance, arriving just after midnight and leaving around 7am".

"When he did exercise in the gym, it was nowhere near the entire time of his stay, and some early mornings when he spent time in the gym, he did not exercise at all for many hours at a time.

"Our gyms are not a place for loitering; they are a place for exercising."

Hemmingsen also said Eagle was following people into the gym without using a security tag.

"Our manager discovered on several occasions that he was not using the security key tag to swipe into the gym, but rather following others who swiped ahead of him.

Eagle denied this was the case, saying he asked a few people nicely, and only on two occasions, to use their swipe card to enter the gym.

The Stratford-revered glockenspiel has stood proud in the main street, Broadway, since it officially opened in 1996, but it had stopped working over the weekend.

Stratford District deputy mayor Min McKay said it was a large tourist attraction.

She did not know the reason why it had stopped but hoped an engineer would check it on Tuesday.

Edit: If you're reading from All, this is Stratford in New Zealand, it's named after Stratford upon Avon but it's not the same place 🙂

She added: "Perhaps I was a little slow, what I can say is I tried my very best ... and I respect the prime minister's decision."

Having a minister describe themselves as "a little slow" is just an incredible quote.

Lol

It's time to have your say on Wellington’s 10-year plan and budget.

Formal consultation on our 2024-34 Long-term Plan is open until midnight 12 May 2024. Providing feedback is an important way to have your say on the future of our city.

Find out about the key proposals below and make a submission at wcc.nz/ltp.

Key proposals / questions:

• How much should we spend on fixing the pipes?
• Do we introduce Council wheelie bins for rubbish and organics to reduce landfill waste?
• Do we sell our airport shares to help manage insurance and investment risk?
• The introduction of parking fees in suburban centre shopping precincts to better manage demand and be consistent with the rest of the city
• Closing the Khandallah Pool
• Closing the Arapaki Service Centre
• Selling the Wadestown Community Centre

Make an online submission: https://www.letstalk.wellington.govt.nz/submission-form/surveys/ltp-submission

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that doesn’t justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like a hippo
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how's it going?

This government doing it's best to ruin the country and our reputation overseas. Having said that I have witnessed too many acts of corruption to every buy that we were somehow more honest than other countries.

Are there any legal experts that want to weigh in on this.

Can the police in New Zealand force unlock your device with your biometrics?

How does this work with NZ law?