Aotearoa / New Zealand

This fast track to corruption bill, is more worrying than the budget...

Im quite surprised by this, isn't Parliament a crown/british concept? And Te Pati Maori are usually quite opposed to Crown concepts.

Regardless, I think as much hate as ACT gets for this - it seems obvious that clarity on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi is required so that every New Zealander knows where they stand (legally speaking) and we can move on as a country.

The different interpretations from different groups are distracting from the real issues because the solution gets muddied.

Should we establish group-specific organisations that all do the same thing, just for different segments of society - or should we pour our energy and resources into making organisations work for all New Zealanders?

Major loyalty scheme FlyBuys will come to an end later this year.

The scheme allows customers to redeem points for items in its loyalty shop, get petrol discounts and convert their points into New World Dollars.

The programme, has been running since 1996 and has about 1.8 million active Flybuys members.

"The landscape for loyalty programmes has changed, and continues to change rapidly, with businesses now having greater access to technology and capabilities that enable them to create their own highly tailored proprietary loyalty programmes. The Flybuys model of a services and retailer alliance has run its course, so will close at the end of this year," Ryley said.

Flybuys members would be able to earn points up until 11.59pm on 31 October and would have until 11.59pm on 31 December 2024 to redeem them.

Fewer babies and migration that "fell off a cliff" during Covid-19 have contributed to slower population growth in New Zealand, the first Census results released today reveal.

The Census, conducted in early 2023, placed New Zealand's official population just shy of 5 million, at 4,999,923.

Nearly a million people (one in five) are of Māori descent.

The total number is slightly lower than estimates of 5.34 million, because it does not include people out of New Zealand during the Census, those who did not complete the Census, and those who have been born or moved to New Zealand since.

Overall, New Zealand's population has grown by about 295,000 since 2018.

Hi all!

TL;DR: If you're reading this, please fill in the Lemmy.nz Census survey.

I have indicated in the past that I would like to do an instance census in the same manner as Lemmy.ca does. You can see the results of their survey here.

I have used similar questions and answers for much of the survey as I think it would be good to be able to compare between the instances. I have also made some changes based on their comments in the post, and have added other questions.

None of the questions are mandatory, so just answer what you are comfortable answering. I expect to leave this open for a while and have some reminders to make sure we get as many responses as possible. I'll do a results post once the results are in and I have had a chance to analyse them.

I am hoping to do this on an annual basis, with some tweaks but largely keeping it the same to allow for watching the trends.

Thanks for your participation!

Answer the Lemmy.nz Census survey

Wot ?

The residents of an island in Northland are grappling with an unusual problem - they have too many kiwi.

Seven kiwi captured near Waitangi, when their bush habitat was about to be cleared for pine forest, were released onto Moturoa island in the 1980s.

Since then, kiwi numbers on the island, near Kerikeri Inlet in the Bay of Islands, have grown into the hundreds - and that has put pressure on the limited habitat and food available for the protected birds.

As a result, 21 kiwi caught on the island were released in Opua State Forest on Friday, easing the island's population boom and boosting kiwi numbers on the mainland at the same time.

The operation would not have been possible even a few years ago but a massive pest control effort in Opua forest, which cloaks the hills behind Paihia, has made the area safe for the flightless birds.

With much of Europe glowing pink will we get to see a good display here in NZ?

Transcription: a photo of a shared pathway entrance with a series of steel pipes placed to create very narrow pathways to enter. The width is hard to tell from the angle of the photo, but far too narrow for a wheelchair or bicycle to fit.

Woolworths has apologised to thousands of customers after mistakenly telling about 79,000 people they had won a competition.

The email for the Big Night In prize was meant to be sent to about 1000 winning customers.

Instead, 79,000 extra so-called winners were sent the same email - awarding them 4000 points towards the supermarket's Everyday Rewards card system, which would equal $30 worth of groceries.

There are a few dashboards around. I saw someone shared their own personal (next level!) grafana dashboard.

• Transpower offers a Live system and market data view: https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/live-system-and-market-data
• Transpower offers EM6 Live: https://app.em6.co.nz/
• The Electricity Authority (EA) has: https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/
• EA also offers historical datasets: https://www.emi.ea.govt.nz/Retail/Datasets

The open data situation for electricity information in New Zealand is "pretty good". The main problem is that people in charge see commercial value in up-to-date cost and usage information so the "free data" is delayed. This prevents people from using near real-time data to improve efficiency of their own power systems.

This paywall exists because of the belief that profit is more important than climate action.

Please keep this handy for when Seymour starts coming after parents who feed their kids Quinoa and hummus charging them with child abuse.

Remember folks. Only feed your kids high carb, high fat, fried, nutritionally empty foods.

Also of course no vegetables of any sort.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/11902186

joyous skittering of the least-bird

The national electricity grid operator is warning of possible insufficient power generation to meet households' demand on Friday.

Transpower has issued a notice saying there was a risk that power generation and reserves would not meet demand between 7.30am-8.30am.

It said if power generators could not provide enough electricity, Transpower would manage demand to avoid a grid emergency.

"The system operator may instruct the grid owner to disconnect feeders without further notice to connected parties," it said.

Having binged Fallout, 3 Body Problem and The Boys recently, I've moved onto Severance. It's a quirky, slow burn with an intriguing setup. 7/10 jaffas so far.

What are you watching?

A 43-year-old man has been arrested in Auckland after an elderly woman was viciously knocked to the ground in an unprovoked attack in broad daylight on Sunday.

In a video sent to RNZ, a person walking briskly away from the security camera can be seen hitting an elderly woman in the face with their elbow as they walk by, knocking her to the ground before walking off, while onlookers attempt to help the victim.

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?

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.

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.

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 🙂