Tuesday, November 08, 2005
A Bill attempting to ensure marriage in NZ is only between a man and a woman is back on the Parliamentary table. The Marriage (Gender Clarification) Bill was put forward earlier this year by United Future's Larry Baldock, but he withdrew it before the Election after time ran out for adequate debate, and because he was unsure it could get the numbers. The Bill's now been picked up by UF No. 3 Gordon Copeland, and is due to have its first reading on 7 December. (Not online, but the full story will be in Challenge Weekly on Friday.)
Finance Minister Michael Cullen has asked the Treasury and the Reserve Bank for new ways to help dampen the economy, amid frustration that higher official interest rates are not feeding quickly enough into higher mortgage rates.
If you really must read the full text of the Governor-General's speech from the throne opening Parliament today, it can be found here.
Up to 15 people were arrested in raids involving some 400 officers in Sydney and Melbourne this morning in an operation police said "disrupted ... the final stages of a large scale terrorist attack". New South Wales police commissioner Ken Moroney said at least six people have been arrested who were "proposing to conduct a terror attack in Australia". ABC has reported a further nine people were arrested in Victoria though this has yet to be confirmed. The raids are still being carried out and involve searches of properties in Australia's two largest cities.
A chronic shortage of home carers is reaching crisis point. Industry leaders say carers are not being paid for the time and cost of travelling to clients and rising petrol prices and a tightening labour market has seen turnover skyrocket. Access Homehealth – the nation's largest rural homecare provider – is grappling with turnover rates of 50 per cent nationwide and as high as 80% in popular tourist regions where labour was in short supply.
"The rioting in France has shocked the Government into realising it must face a painful reassessment of its efforts to integrate immigrant communities into mainstream society."
Israeli archaeologists have unearthed what they believe is the oldest church discovered in the land where Jesus was born. Oddly, is has been found while adding extensions to a maximum-security jail just down the road from Armageddon. "This is one of the most important finds of early Christianity," archaeologist Yardena Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities told journalists on a tour of the excavation on Sunday.
The annual international Durex sex survey needs to be read with a lot of care - I have grave suspicions about the accuracy of its findings, partly because the people responding self-select. However, the latest survey, if true, presents some eyebrow-raising findings. Among them:
Kiwis rank fourth in the world for having unsafe sex, with 65% of Kiwis admitting to having had unprotected sex with a partner without knowing their sexual history. Women were worse than men in this regard.
Globally, New Zealanders have the third highest number of sexual partners with 13.2, behind Turkey (14.5) and Australia (13.3). The survey also found Kiwi women are more sexually active than their male counterparts, with 18% claiming they've slept with between 11 and 20 people. 15% of men claim they've slept with the same amount of partners. >From these results it is hardly surprising that 18% of Kiwis admitted to having contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and 11% of Kiwi women under 18 years said they'd had an unplanned pregnancy.
On average New Zealanders are having sex 114 times per year - ahead of the global average of 103 and the Australians who fall behind on 108. 3.4% of Kiwi men and 1.7% of women claiming that one day is too long to abstain from having sex. Unbelievably, 1.1% of all Kiwi respondents revealed they wanted sex at least once an hour.
"But quantity of sex for Kiwis does not necessarily equate to quality," says Durex manager Virginia Potter. "The survey found that only 49% of Kiwi respondents are happy with their sex lives, and more than two thirds of Kiwi women admitted to having faked an orgasm." The survey also revealed that an unfortunate 6% of Kiwi respondents find their sex life monotonous.
Kiwis top the global charts for having one-night stands (64%), second in the world only to the Norwegians on 70%.
Kiwis on average lose their virginity at 16.4 years, younger than the global average of 17.3 years.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen has asked the Treasury and the Reserve Bank for new ways to help dampen the economy, amid frustration that higher official interest rates are not feeding quickly enough into higher mortgage rates.
If you really must read the full text of the Governor-General's speech from the throne opening Parliament today, it can be found here.
Up to 15 people were arrested in raids involving some 400 officers in Sydney and Melbourne this morning in an operation police said "disrupted ... the final stages of a large scale terrorist attack". New South Wales police commissioner Ken Moroney said at least six people have been arrested who were "proposing to conduct a terror attack in Australia". ABC has reported a further nine people were arrested in Victoria though this has yet to be confirmed. The raids are still being carried out and involve searches of properties in Australia's two largest cities.
A chronic shortage of home carers is reaching crisis point. Industry leaders say carers are not being paid for the time and cost of travelling to clients and rising petrol prices and a tightening labour market has seen turnover skyrocket. Access Homehealth – the nation's largest rural homecare provider – is grappling with turnover rates of 50 per cent nationwide and as high as 80% in popular tourist regions where labour was in short supply.
"The rioting in France has shocked the Government into realising it must face a painful reassessment of its efforts to integrate immigrant communities into mainstream society."
Israeli archaeologists have unearthed what they believe is the oldest church discovered in the land where Jesus was born. Oddly, is has been found while adding extensions to a maximum-security jail just down the road from Armageddon. "This is one of the most important finds of early Christianity," archaeologist Yardena Alexandre of the Israel Antiquities told journalists on a tour of the excavation on Sunday.
The annual international Durex sex survey needs to be read with a lot of care - I have grave suspicions about the accuracy of its findings, partly because the people responding self-select. However, the latest survey, if true, presents some eyebrow-raising findings. Among them:
Kiwis rank fourth in the world for having unsafe sex, with 65% of Kiwis admitting to having had unprotected sex with a partner without knowing their sexual history. Women were worse than men in this regard.
Globally, New Zealanders have the third highest number of sexual partners with 13.2, behind Turkey (14.5) and Australia (13.3). The survey also found Kiwi women are more sexually active than their male counterparts, with 18% claiming they've slept with between 11 and 20 people. 15% of men claim they've slept with the same amount of partners. >From these results it is hardly surprising that 18% of Kiwis admitted to having contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and 11% of Kiwi women under 18 years said they'd had an unplanned pregnancy.
On average New Zealanders are having sex 114 times per year - ahead of the global average of 103 and the Australians who fall behind on 108. 3.4% of Kiwi men and 1.7% of women claiming that one day is too long to abstain from having sex. Unbelievably, 1.1% of all Kiwi respondents revealed they wanted sex at least once an hour.
"But quantity of sex for Kiwis does not necessarily equate to quality," says Durex manager Virginia Potter. "The survey found that only 49% of Kiwi respondents are happy with their sex lives, and more than two thirds of Kiwi women admitted to having faked an orgasm." The survey also revealed that an unfortunate 6% of Kiwi respondents find their sex life monotonous.
Kiwis top the global charts for having one-night stands (64%), second in the world only to the Norwegians on 70%.
Kiwis on average lose their virginity at 16.4 years, younger than the global average of 17.3 years.
