Credit to Bernie for shifting the terms of debate on healthcare. But I've got my doubts that Medicare for all would have been enough to tip it to Bernie even had the pandemic happened a year earlier.
First, there's Bernie's approach to the topic. Half of Americans get their healthcare through employer subsidised insurance. It's a fact of human nature that people value keeping what they have more than taking a risk on getting something better. Given the degree of governmental malfunction in areas of governmental monopoly in the US, being forced into a government health health plan looks like a big risk.
Second, paying for M4A is a gnarly topic. Bernie didn't have a clear message on how workers would be better off financially. Most people just heard their taxes would go up to pay for it. Furthermore, relieving companies of their burden of subsidising their employee health insurance programs amounts to a massive windfall to the companies.
Third, the other candidates would have adjusted their messaging, so Bernie's stance would not have remained as large a differentiation as it was.
edit: then there’s this piece for a broader look at why Bernie fell short.
There is the practical matter that if he gets over 1/4 of the delegates (including superdelegates), he can force a vote at the convention on any policy platform proposals he wants to push. That means he would need around 1200. He's got about 900 now, with about 1600 still to be voted on, so it will be tight for clearing that hurdle.
The global death toll is horrendous, including the high NUMBER of deaths in the US. However, so far, the US does not have the highest death rate pre 1 million of their population. Their’s is 44. Many European countries and the UK have higher death rates so far.
The US and the UK are catching up Carolyn, though doubt if they will get near Spain and Italy which has a death rate of 292/m. Odd you missed it from your list.
Yes. I did say this is the current stats. My list wasn't comprehensive – just a selection to show some of the spread. Spain is the highest at the moment.
If the US gets a similar death rate to the current death rates in Italy and Spain, then they will have around 100K deaths. But they're still suffering high ongoing deaths in Italy etc.
Compared to Italy and Spain, the US has a younger population and a culture that is somewhat less up close and personal in terms of physical space. But the US went a lot later and softer on physical distancing and isolation, helping the contagion spread.
It's a horrifying but fascinating experiment to watch as it plays out in real time.
Thanks for that Carolyn, was wondering what that stat's were like re population. Much appreciated.
Andre, they were talking of 100,000 -200,000 expected deaths in the US last week at one of trumps pressers. Agree re horrifying but fascinating however twisted that sounds.
The stats don't tell everything. You probably know that we Kiwis have greater personal space than people in densely concentrated urban areas.
The last time I visited a big European city, I took two weeks to get used to the density of buildings and the number of people always close to me.. So different from my major-city NZ abode.
NZ has an advantage in that respect – the virus will naturally spread faster in those areas of greater population density.
And, condescending post of the day so far award goes to…it never failed to amaze, the number of spineless centrists and closet righties masquerading as leftists, disparaging the Sanders Campaign on The Standard. Not even luke warm support for Medicare for all and $15 min wage etc.
Bernie put up a great campaign–his analysis and policy were spot on–as subsequent tragic events have illustrated what happens with for profit healthcare and millions living week to week on low wages…
His strength–not running with the herd–was ultimately his weakness too. But he has certainly laid the platform for “the next Bernie”.
The big question is whether Trump's popularity bump holds for 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 10. That's the danger. Nothing either Biden or Sanders could have done about that,.
Or a coup installing Trump as dictator for the duration of the"temporary" emergency. Depends if his allies can convince enough of the USAn military and bureaucracy that he is a useful idiot.
But then, some people may actually take their oaths of office seriously. Maybe?
Florida has been a bit of a disaster with Covid 19…Trump in a bit of trouble there too though close…the average of the last two Florida polls has Biden 3.2% ahead of Trump.
The Sanders campaign no doubt made some tactical mistakes – I've said before that the branding of 'revolution' and "democratic socialism" was unsuited to that particular political market. The policy prescriptions (on the whole) were well received by a majority – and a rhetoric of returning to the sensible centre after 40 years of extremism, a return to proven solutions from America's own past and to core American values, would have been a better approach.
That said, history takes no prisoners as 'Pepe' Mujica remarked"And now I am the president. And tomorrow, like everyone, I will just be a pile of worms". The grace, historical awareness and humility of Sanders withdrawal speech yesterday, as is so often the case with defeated candidates, gives us a sense of what has been lost.
Bernie was out of the race when he failed to counter Warren's scurrilous lie about him being a sexist, and when he claimed, bizarrely, that that doddering old fool from Delaware could beat Trump.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist. There was nothing Bernie could have said to 'defend' himself. Indeed the mere attempt at doing so would have only confirmed his guilt.
Defending the literacy programme of Castro was excellent for left sympathizers, but it lost him Florida. You can win neither a nomination nor a presidency without Florida.
But the Cuban literacy programme was, and is, excellent. As is the Cuban health system. Bernie lost not because he told the truth and angered a few elderly extreme right ideologues, but because the Democratic Party machine was determined not to let his "insurgent", i.e. authentically popular and truly democratic, campaign triumph. They'd rather have Trump than Bernie, that is clear.
And then of course there's the very serious question of Bernie's failure to stick up for himself in the face of a campaign of belittlement and abuse; very similar to Corbyn's failure.
Sanders was indeed correct about the Cuban literacy programs being a good thing. In a very narrow sense.
But arguing that statement is technically correct when you are trying to win an election in Florida is grossly negligent political malpractice, given the importance of the Cuban-American vote. The malpractice is further aggravated by the foregone opportunity to draw a contrast with the current nepotistic kakistocracy's habit of using the presidency to promote their personal private business interests in foreign countries.
The Democratic Party has a long and dishonorable history of compromising, indeed abandoning, basic commitments to human rights in order to get the votes of certain sectors. Before the Cuban right wing, the Florida constituency it bent over backwards to placate was the Ku Klux Klan.
What does that have to do with the dumbfuckery involved in Sanders blowing a perfect opportunity to go after Don Drumpfeone's corrupt foreign entanglements, just so he could show off the moral superiority of his progressive purity?
Thereby blowing any chance he may have had of winning the biggest swing state, for no conceivable gain anywhere else.
Stating an uncontestable truth is not to make a show of "purity", it's simply stating a fact. Telling a lie in order to curry favour with the extreme Cuban right wing would not make him a whit more electable, it would make him another Hillary Clinton.
But, anyway, they’re going to select someone who’s prepared to say anything, and does.
One of the most basic political skills needed to successfully run for a position as basic as a student council is how to use a question as an entry to talk about a subject that's favourable ground. There's no need to lie, he simply needed to make his answer about something that isn't awkward ground, while still "addressing the subject" in an innocuous way.
Sanders failed that basic test that's frankly at high-school politics level. And cost himself what could have been a significant prize in a completely unforced error.
Well said, sir. Yes, Mr Sanders could certainly have spoken more adroitly.
However, in the end, his opposition was the billionaire-backed DNC, and they were going to win their pyrhhic victory no matter what. I do not look forward with any relish to the gruesome spectacle of Biden being savaged and humiliated by Trump.
I just hope that this year we are spared the unedifying sight of unhinged Democratic Party supporters gnashing their teeth and melting down like this….
The World Trade Organisation makes it very clear why this impending global recession will be far worse than the 2008-9 GFC:
"The economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably invites comparisons to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. These crises are similar in certain respects but very different in others. As in 2008-09, governments have again intervened with monetary and fiscal policy to counter the downturn and provide temporary income support to businesses and households.
But restrictions on movement and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease mean that labour supply, transport and travel are today directly affected in ways they were not during the financial crisis. Whole sectors of national economies have been shut down, including hotels, restaurants, non-essential retail trade, tourism and significant shares of manufacturing."
"A strong rebound is more likely if businesses and consumers view the pandemic as a temporary, one-time shock. In this case, spending on investment goods and consumer durables could resume at close to previous levels once the crisis abates. On the other hand, if the outbreak is prolonged and/or recurring uncertainty becomes pervasive, households and business are likely to spend more cautiously.
Under both scenarios, all regions will suffer double-digit declines in exports and imports in 2020…"
Ha! Radio NZ just had a piece on the news with National’s Campaign Chair Paula Bennett saying that the government must delay the election – “NZers won’t cope” she said.
Any guesses what National’s polling must be telling them?
I don’t know what she meant. Whatever it is it will be bullshit though, a delaying tactic to allow National time to get their dirty politics machinery back on track.
Interestingly I’ve been getting some of those National Party Border Closure petition posts on my Facebook in the last 24 hours. Given the party political nature of these posts you’d expect the comments to be mostly supportive. But they’re not really. National is getting chastised by their own supporters for electioneering at this time.
What's more, the deputy Oppn leader doesn't even understand the law:
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date." (italics added)
Of course, the PM doesn't need to discuss the election date with National at all. PMs never do that with the opposition. Ardern could call an election tomorrow (if she lost her mind). September 19 is an intention, but has no meaning in law.You aren't relevant, Paula.
They would certainly need to discuss an extension of the term, which would need approval from Parliament. But there is no reason to do that when an election could be held as late as December, if the PM so decides.
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much."
I will be interested to see how that goes down. Can't see any kind of rationale there. The only challenge is how to vote in ways that don't spread coronavirus. Other than that, NZers are resilient enough to manage voting in five months time. It's not like it's next week. Daft (but haven't listened for the context).
If there was any kind of rationale, Bennett would be saying:
"Forget about going to watch sport in September. Forget about going to concerts and all those events that require more public interaction and health concerns than going to one location and putting paper in a ballot box."
That would be logical, and incredibly unpopular, so …
Actually, I'm not assuming we will be able to do public gatherings by September, and that the govt may have to make arrangements around that to ensure voting can happen.
Paula's not a deep thinker, but it should occur to her that the lockdown will be over well before Sept … unless things go badly wrong and we have a second wave – a rise in cases and back to Level 4.
If that happens, the government's support will take a hit. National would change their tune.
It depends what you mean by lockdown. I can't see the entire country being still at level 4 for the duration. But level 1 certainly, which prohibits mass gatherings (eg political rallies, demonstrations, or fundraising concerts). And some parts of the country may be level 2 or higher (over 70s encouraged to stay at home and as yet unspecified size smaller gatherings only).
But a virtual lockdown may linger on in people's heads. Being permitted to return to social proximity does not mean that we will overnight overcome the fear and distancing conditioning we will have spent months soaking up.
A society is an ongoing process not a fixed object.
I predict we will have stamped out but will still be quarantining and inbound travelers a measure that will start this week . (It better start this week)
The USA will be carnges Europe will be winning slowly . 3rf world countries dont know.
How will we know if we have stamped out Corona? Given that the antibody tests are far more likely to give a false negative (insufficient viral load at time,or sampling error), than a false positive (samples getting mixed up, testing equipment inadequately sterilized). Let alone the possibility of animal reservoirs (really hoping that we've avoided that nightmare scenario).
If any of the 10% or more people diagnosed with Covid who test as false negatives then proceed to infect others, we will be back in an exponential growth phase again very quickly.
Antibodies are a host response and made by the host and will stay in the host’s circulation (or not) long after the virus has gone from the host. Equipment sterilisation is to remove viable bugs and spores, not antibodies (although these should also be removed in the whole cleaning & sterilisation process).
Whoops! I meant that the current SARS-COV-2 RNA testing. Overly hopeful to announce the existence of an antibody test that would be able to tell who has previously been infected!
Sterilisation itself should get rid of contamination from previous tests, but only if done correctly. People get tired and mistakes get made, but my point was that a false negative is currently more likely than a false positive.
Almost all the materials used for the PCR-based test are disposable.
Yes, people do make mistakes and tired people make more mistakes but the decontamination & sterilisation processes are almost fully automated and done according to SOPs that stand the test of time, so to speak.
Yup, likelihood of false negative is much higher than false positive.
Yes ForgetNow, , and Jacinda will listen to the scientists.
You are right about the possible problem of animal transmission.
We have never eradicated bovine TB in possums, and spend billions testing and poisoning. Governments deal with Foot and Mouth by culling and burning all affected animals… that was a British nightmare at one stage.
We are learning more about this virus, some helpful, some terrifying.
I have never in my 78 years felt as I do now. Friends and family truly at risk and many learning how tenuous the threads of the "safety net" really are. Learning to value our humans and pets, and creating our own safety net, all the time being aware of the hidden mainly silent suffering of those whose lives have been damaged or at least impacted by this virus.
I am a survivor of the 1946/7 polio epidemic which closed schools and had 34 victims in a village of 326. I was six and did not have close contact with my parents while in the Waikato Crippled Children's Hospital for nearly six months. I saw them twice through the distorting glass of the hospital door.
This has made me feel for those in quarantine or hospital separated from loved ones. It is terrible and remains a fear for life. Also not being able to say goodbye takes comfort away from the bereaved.
Awful though this has been for some, most of us have been spared that through the decisions of a switched on Leader and cabinet, who have put well being at the centre of Government Policy.
Let us hope that they manage the swell of unemployed, streamline the mechanics of welfare, revamp training and retraining and build the support net needed 'till we weather this. May the goodwill last.
@wags: Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
My bigger concern is how long this lurgee can be infectious in asymptomatic/low symptom carriers. It could only need a chain of two or three asymptomatic carriers to go past that four weeks and then initiate a whole new infectious breakout.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date."
It's interesting how someone projects their own wants and needs onto someone else. She means the opposition wants to discuss. The government certainly does not need to. It sets the election date. It's about Paula's, and National's, desires. She really means, "I want to change the date." Needs and wants- too easily confused.
Listeners this morning were inflicted with another P.R. piece for Israel—this time a once-over-lightly piece about Passover/Easter in Jerusalem with one Barry Guy, who usually does the sports news, having a breezy chat with Liat Collins of the extreme right wing Jerusalem Post. He asked not one awkward question, of course.
Liat Collins has been used by the dupes at RNZ National before…..
Lin, why is this ignoramus allowed to post inflammatory nonsense?
[lprent: Because we mainly and almost entirely moderate on behaviour. Ideological differences can be aired provided that they don’t descend into hate speech and bigotry. And we’re pretty good at detecting undeclared pattern of behaviours and dealing with them. The same thing applies to paddington, as it does to you. ]
The data is taken from the Washington Post. These are simple facts. If you want to self promote your own blog, go for gold. But as I have posted earlier, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complex mixture of historical, religious and cultural factors where there is no good guy/bad guy scenario. No matter how you try to paint it otherwise.
Nope – I’d describe them as being self-serving propaganda and simply not worth the media they are printed on.
Those figures are what are reported by the Israeli forces. Since the occupation troops are a pack of layabout draftees who have been known to lie every time they fuck up – I personally give them no credibility when they are reporting their live round kills.
Anyone who has spent time living on the west bank (and I know a few who have) knows the Israeli draftees are useless lazy young badly trained fuckwits with guns. They routinely block the checkpoints so that they can have a siesta. They like to provoke the palestinians going through checkpoints or when they are on patrol. And in my estimation at least half of their kills and injuries are directly due to their behaviour.
They are an occupying force of incompetent garritroopers. Which is why they also don’t let in outside observers to evaluate their reporting of the justification of their troops. It is also why the Israelis don’t even let their own courts look at the behaviour of their troops.
I can’t read the WP article – but I’d take a bet that they haven’t referenced a single Palestinian report.
So I’d say that your authoritative source could be described only as complete trash. About as credible as the lack of active Russian troop involvement in Eastern Ukraine – which is the classic example of fake PR.
Hi lprent. Thanks for your response. I'm not going to push this, because my point was not to defend Israeli activity but to try to communicate to Morrisey that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is far more complicated than his rather simplistic commentary. From my own observation, this is a conflict between intractible parties whose focus on ancient historical and religious grievances is (close to) psycopathic.
Of course I could have just as easily argued the other way.
But on the balance, I think that the Palestinians have had the raw end of the stick both from the Israeli state (who in my view have no historical rights to Palestine – unless they wish to argue with the Romans) and from the Europeans of Europe and the US, who they could easily argue owe them for their complicity and actions in a recent genocide.
It sure as hell doesn't give the Israeli government any right to attempt genocide or ethnic cleansing on their fellow citizens of the land of Palestine.
Those absurd and dubious "statistics"—Palestinians are not just shot by IDF marksmen, they are always killed appropriately, as in "killed carrying out attacks against Israelis", "clashes", and "attempted stabbings"—are direct from the Israeli authorities, and are nearly always contested by human rights groups and witnesses of the killings. The Washington Post is notoriously biased on this issue, amongst many others.
It's a discussion of Passover. In Jerusalem. With an extreme right commentator who shamelessly defends Israeli actions and routinely pours opprobrium on the victims of Israel’s regime of repression.
There is every reason to object to that, but poor Barry Guy had not a clue.
None of which is in the piece. So listeners were not "inflicted" (your word) with anything.
Except an accurate description of a traditional Jewish festival, and that would not annoy any reasonable person. (Of course some might be triggered by it, but we despise those people, don't we?).
On Jessie Mulligan today a lovely intelligent Jewish restaurant lady was talking about the fact that because NZ Jews cannot meet some were going to have "Zoom Passover"….love that.
My problem is with credulous RNZ hosts being bamboozled by nasty zealots like Liat Collins. At the end of her four minute chat this morning, she told the the hapless Barry Guy; "It's kind of mindbending, I don't think there's EVER been anything like this." He didn't get the brutal irony of what she was saying.
Yesterday Mark Sommers QC, the extremely erudite and bookish second counsel for Julian Assange in his extradition hearing, trembled with anger in court. Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser had just made a ruling that the names of Julian Assange’s partner and young children could be published, which she stated was in the interests of “open justice”. His partner had submitted a letter in support of his Covid 19 related bail application (which Baraitser had summarily dismissed) to state he had a family to live with in London. Baraitser said that it was therefore in the interests of open justice that the family’s names be made public, and said that the defence had not convincingly shown this would cause any threat to their security or well-being. It was at this point Sommers barely kept control. He leapt to his feet and gave notice of an appeal to the High Court, asking for a 14 day stay. Baraitser granted four days, until 4pm on Friday.
I am in lockdown in Edinburgh, but received three separate eye witness reports. They are unanimous that yet again Baraitser entered the court carrying pre-written judgements before hearing oral argument; pre-written judgements she gave no appearance of amending.
There have been two Covid-19 deaths in Belmarsh prison so far. For obvious reasons the disease is ripping through the jail like wildfire. The Department of Justice is admitting to one death…
You laugh at the suffering of Julian Assange. I have no doubt that you would also have laughed at the suffering of other dissenters and journalists imprisoned by repressive and anti-democratic regimes.
You sneer at the suffering of a political dissenter in Great Britain and callously repeat state-sponsored lies about him. Ergo, you would probably have sneered at the suffering of political dissenters in other brutal regimes and you would have callously repeated state-sponsored lies about them. That’s a reasonable inference, assuming that your behaviour in this case is not bizarrely inconsistent with your normal behaviour.
Your comments on logic are as credible and as thorough as your disparagement of Julian Assange.
You can be sure that I'm not the only one who sees you have little or no credibility. Your lame "Mr Angry from Cheam" quip shows you have little or no SOH, either.
No the UK and US govts with the complete endorsement of vast numbers of total plonkers brainwashed by propaganda is what has put Assange in danger of his life
What do you mean when you put the word "torture" in scare quotes? Are you pretending that he is not being tortured? Is that another of your jokes?
I urge other Standard readers to bear in mind The Al1en's sneering contempt for Assange and compare his behaviour to that of the United Nations' Rapporteur on Torture….
I'm not making an argument, I'm replying to your continued usage of logical fallacies, which is easy to do as you're well practiced and predictable with it.
The actual guts of the matter are:
Good job he's in solitary. – Turns out he's not being isolation 'tortured' anymore.
The convicted bail jumper didn't get bail. – No answer.
Excerpts from a February 2020 report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
"Four democratic countries joined forces – the U.S., Ecuador, Sweden and the UK – to leverage their power to portray one man as a monster so that he could later be burned at the stake without any outcry. The case is a huge scandal and represents the failure of Western rule of law. If Julian Assange is convicted, it will be a death sentence for freedom of the press."
"There is only a single explanation for everything – for the refusal to grant diplomatic assurances, for the refusal to question him in London: They wanted to apprehend him so they could extradite him to the U.S. The number of breaches of law that accumulated in Sweden within just a few weeks during the preliminary criminal investigation is simply grotesque."
You are probably wasting your time on these subservient citizens here Morrissey, they are obviously just a bunch of wannta be camp guards only waiting for the opportunity to prove their worth to their masters, quite disgusting and vile.
btw, Kenneth Williams used to refer to the regular voice he used in the Hancock shows as 'the Snide'. Doesn't remind me of anyone here at the Standard, of course.
Someone here needs to do a decent response to Trotter.
Hey Mr Trotter try this out:
1. New Zealand now has the most effective democratic socialist government in the entire fucking world Mr Trotter. Best led, best communicated, best response through the public health system, best deployment of policing and social enforcement. And it's not me saying it.
So fuck off with your "thoughts" on democratic socialism. We already have it.
2. This government has just embarked on the largest Keynsean expansion since the Depression, and is going to keep expanding through the May 8th 2020 budget, and through the campaign manifesto, and through the 2021 budget.
The state is going into tens of billions of debt on new projects, is propping up every single waged person with a business who asks for it, and we are now a month away from even more largesse in the budget.
So fuck off with your "… but not yet!"
3. There is a gobsmacking irony of a blogger begging for a lifeline for a physical print of the Listener, when his own personal blog is now the only place the Trotter's own writing is published anywhere. Trotter's own practise of publishing online from many years ago is the clearest evidence that he knew this day was coming and planned for the demise of printed commentary years ago.
If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers.
And while we are at it, the government is already well underway to strengthen broadcasting under Fa'afoi's plan for RNZ and TVNZ. They are well and truly doing their part already.
So fuck off with your defence of The Listener.
4. Trotter needs to get it out of his head that the government reaction to this recession is going to look the same as the Labour response to the 1930s Depression. That he can't step out of his tragedian pyre and lead something practical in society other than perpetually interviewing his typewriter and adding poorly paralleled historical anecdote, shows how deeply stale his imagination really is.
5. This government is holding the whole of the political order, the whole of society, and the whole of the economy, together right now, through sheer will and debt. They are about to get us through the virus crisis in better health shape than any other developed nation on earth. Overseas commentators are already noticing.
So we can afford to give them a smidgen of a break as we await coherence on the plan to revive our economy.
"If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers."
Funny you should suggest that, I was wondering why he hadnt proposed the staff purchasing it for the dollar (potential liabilities aside) and running it as a collective (or co operative)…the existing staff would be the best placed to judge its future viability an could potentially secure both their ongoing employment and maintain an independent voice but havnt seen anyone involved propose such.
He now seems to think that he can return here from his self-imposed exile with a blatant troll comment.
Sam is wrong about that.
Banned for a year so that we can all recover from the pandemic and prepare for the election without having to endure his inane troll comments that create more work for Moderators – Incognito]
It [The Listener] still had 30,00 subscribers apparently.
Subscribers really isn't that useful as a measure of utility. Certainly not a measure of how much it is valued by the public for whom it is purportedly doing good.
Consider this site as an alternative ‘risk free rate’ for taxpayers and look at the usage – which is our only measure of subscribers.
According to google analytics this site has had ~23k unique visitors in the last 30 days in ~89k sessions. This excludes almost all of the bots and because it is google has a fairly accurate idea about who is a person even when they jump machines (as I do all of the time)`.
~57k of those sessions were from users who entered the site with more than 15 times over 30 days – ie reading on average about every two days or better on average. ~31k sessions were from users who read the site more than 201 times over that 30 days.About ~26k of the sessions were from users who entered less than 5 times or less.
Average session duration is 6:32 and average pages per session is 3.84. Once you start figuring out the probable times that some people on here, then there is clearly a *lot* of utility.
The last 30 days was up about 1/6th above our recent median. Session times and page counts are slightly elevated.
That was done with a far more amateur level level of writing, no subscription to the site, we don't inflict advertising, and the commenters provide as much writing value as the authors.
Arguably even with all of the low rent comments and the provocative authors, that is a shit load of writing on here. I'd expect that it is of far more volume than The Listener.
The Listener really has to argue on the basis of the quality of its writing.
Quality – who knows? I personally haven't read one in some time – but it hasn't improved much beyond the mostly 'I reckons' writing that we do in blogs, or is common in the daily media, or even around reddit.
Sure there were always nuggets in the mix of waffle. But they weren't worth effort of finding the paper copy, paying for it, and reading it without the opportunity to comment. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it as taxpayer even when I last read it.
It provided me with no value. If I want to subsidize writers then personally I'd prefer to pay for this ad-free venue – which is mostly what happens. I think that it is of more benefit to many of the people here.
I wouldn't mind being able to subsidizing journalists more. All they have to do is to have it all easily online, largely dump the advertising, separate the opinionists away from the journalism (the former is ideal as a filtered pay per read), and let me subscribe just to the journalism.
Problem is that is very hard to get in NZ media outside of a few mail feeds.
The writing here might be rough as (especially when I write), but in terms of the value that you pay for it is extremely valuable.
For me, I'm happy to spend money for reading material that is better than what we have here. But I didn't feel any sense of value in any of the Baur stable of magazines to outweigh the cost. A different editorial policy may have produced a better material. But they basically needed to change their business model even more – and showed no real signs of doing that.
Can't see a reasons to subsidize them more than any other business as there are others around that market place. The wage subsidy should have been enough to keep them viable if they’d had a business model that would work in the future – which they didn’t. That looks to have been the conclusion of Bauer.
I love it when I read a truly good piece written by a true professional. It’s the same with music, art, or science. When I need to dig too deep and too hard to find that rare gem, it’s not worth my money and even less so my time – actually, I have to work for my money so it all comes down to my time, which I don’t have as much of as I’d like 🙁
Indeed, a good editor is like a good conductor: worth their weight in gold; they can work miracles and turn things into gold but equally, they can fuck up things and turn things to custard.
My assessment of Fa’afoi is based on his hopeless performance when that rogue RNZ board suddenly announced that they planned to liquidate RNZ Concert. Fa'afoi, after guffawing that he did not listen to classical music, then went on to regurgitate their talking points. He clearly had no idea, and was blindsided by Jim Mather and his cronies.
Edit – this got shunted down the list while I was writing it.
I am replying to Ad at 8.2
As a reader of the Listener since the 1970s, I am not entirely convinced by you, Ad.
1) If our system is best in the world, the standard is not very high. Other countries with far greater population density (meaning far more infections) seem to have done better. And you may be counting chickens that have not yet hatched.
2) Partly true, but only in its infancy, and I hope that the Govt has the courage to continue in this vein. Especially if the Righties start criticising this policy, as they will.
3) That is not irony – I see it more as Trotter lamenting the Listener's earlier role. I also remember the Listener and the Auckland Star being the only printed vehicles of real criticism of the disastrous Vietnam War.. There is a lot to be lamented since the Listener got swallowed by the right-wing marketers.
4) Maybe Trotter still has a vision of real social reform, whereas you don't. Or you don't show it very often. Blairite?
5) Fully agree, but one out of five is far from convinced.
I suspect that Trotter is afraid that after we have succeeded in starting to look for coherence on the plan to revive our economy, it will be too late to do any serious social reform.
Ad – do you want any serious social reform?
I am struggling to understand why you are so hostile to Trotter.
I can't see that Chris has 'melted down' with this statement though:
"According to Andrew Little’s former Chief-of-Staff, Neale Jones:
“I cannot think of a worse time to implement a UBI than in the middle of this economic crisis. Some of us are doing fine. Others need unprecedented government support just to stay afloat. UBI would spread that support thinner, or quickly spend 10s of billions we may need later."
Meaning Neale has no grasp at all of Keynesian economics. No understanding of the crucial importance of keeping up the level of aggregate demand. No historical grasp of the crucial role spending plays in lifting a nation out of an economic slump. Nor does he understand the practical and moral efficiency of universal, as opposed to means-tested, state support. The massively positive effect of telling every Kiwi: ‘You are important in your own right, not because you’re in need of charity but because you are a citizen of New Zealand.’ Everyone keeps telling us that “we’re all in this together” – a UBI would prove it."
" How did dreary pragmatism become Labour’s default-setting? A full explanation would require a book-length answer. Suffice to say that once a party embraces the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism, anything other than orthodox and cautious policy responses will be treated as the political equivalent of upending a can of petrol over your head and striking a match."
It seems to me that someone (the janitor – it's always the janitor) changed Labour's label to 'socialist' while everyone was at morning tea and no one has the courage to change it back, while the majority of them has no courage either to enact real socialism.
I wonder if Jacinda is banging her head against her desk at the 'dreary pragmatism' that pervades the party. I wonder.
Although perhaps it is the fact that since the 1980s Labour has become a centrist party with neo liberal leanings and that's all there is to it.
Collective is implicitly shared agreement. When it is mandated by those for whom it is convenient it just becomes coercion.
Problem is that I fail to see a point in subsiding a stable of publications that with massive cost-cutting producing what looked like a inaccessible mediocre product and barely managing to hold a subscriber base or a profit level is worth trying to save.
In an economic sense you could easily argue that their mere presence in the marketplace was actually constraining innovation in a failing area. They were holding on to audiences and thereby preventing development of a more viable economic model. As a government, you’d be better off using resources to provide technical infrastructure for writers to try to find a more useful model to build a viable and accessible product in. There are examples around like Newsroom, Spinoff, Evening Report, and even Scoop as well as the online mass media.
Because in the end, unless they figured out a different way to operate, then all of those magazines had been on a ventilator ready to die of technical obsolescence in the market for about a decade. Removing their Bauer DNR wouldn’t have made them last for many more years even if there wasn’t a pandemic at the same time.
no i dont imagine they do…and it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall should the staff ever attempt it….I could imagine it wouldnt go smoothly.
Trotter doesn't understand economics, or pretends not to. Buying these magazines for a dollar sounds cheap until the losses start to mount. I think he is emotionally attached to the titles and can't bear to see them go.
If there is a profitable market for a right-wing (but pretending not to be) glossy like the Listener, a new magazine will be set-up by somebody using their own money.
It's not the government's job to invest in/take over the media-accusations of manipulation for political ends would follow like night follows day.
Speaking to relatives in Aussie last night , one of whom works for a large retailer (who shall remain unnamed) and the relating of how the social distancing and 'lockdown' is being handled there is an object lesson in why we are correct to minimise the number of retailers that are able to trade.
The complete disregard for the guidelines from both the company and the general public makes a mockery of the process.
Couldn't believe it at pak n save today, waiting in the queue at the checkout, using the marked lines as a distancing guide, and people were pushing their trolleys between the gaps left behind me, completely ruining the purpose of having the lines in the first place. I told a floor supervisor that I realised it's not up to her to police it, but that particular part of the system was broken.
Didn't help that the customer in front of me took out a wad of notes and proceeded to lick his fingers, twice, whilst thumbing through them, and then again before touching the eftpos card he part paid with. Had to warn the checkout kid before she touched this idiot's cash, and patiently waited until she had decontaminated it and the terminal before I could check out, contemplating survival of the fittest v stupid by association.
and pales in comparison in both scale and actions related to me about Victoria last night….Im very pleased our Gov appears to be holding the line as staunchly as it is in the face of considerable pressure
Generally I've been impressed with the supermarkets down here, but then I've been able to time my runs really well, to have shopped at the slowest of times. Today, I had to risk the one day closed hoarders, so maybe the mentality of customers and staff were a bit less focused than of late, especially with the drop off in new cases. Let's hope complacency doesn't creep in and ruin all the good work thus far.
I thought you generally made sure you were better informed RedLogix. 'A' has reeled off an out of date hit-job and stupidly highlighted China which is not on the Council. Besides, the representatives on the Council are not appointed to represent their countries or any political viewpoint, unlike the Cato Institute or Quartz.
Two weeks till Business as Usual reconvenes, woohoo!
Government sanctioned "mental illness" will be forgotten, and Cognitive Dissonance in all things will be the name of the game. Project your fears onto anyone weaker than you and aim to take it all!
Hot Tip: don't get caught on the line when the starter pistol fires, not unless you are ready to slash your way through anyone you meet.
I'm feeling lucky to be the recipient of good fortune in several ways. These are: NZ's isolation, a generally competent government that aims to serve the interests of all its citizens not just some, and enough social cohesion to voluntarily observe a lock-down with high levels of compliance. (There are a few peripheral sociopaths like Mike Hosking but that is to be expected)
Therefore I'm not really faced with the fear and rage that clearly prompted this piece from the fabulously civilised RJ Eskow a couple of weeks ago – No – I will not die for this damned economy. He used the word 'damned' advisedly – not as a mere expletive, but in the Biblical sense "this damned economy…and we, the damned who live within it." What we need to emerge from this crisis is an economy that does not damn so many – the odds are we will get one which damns more.
FFS! David Seymour is asking, at the Epidemic committee, why employers including sole traders in receipt of wage subsidies get named publicly, but sole parents etc in receipt of benefits are not publicly named! At about 1hr 15 minutes into the committee today.
I think Sepuloni also said there is a box to tick asking if employer agrees to be named publicly when applying for a subsidy.
The Government is extending expired or expiring licenses and Warrants of Fitness to enable essential travel.
Transport Minister Phil Twyford said all driver licences, WoFs, CoFs, and some vehicle certifications, that expired on or after January 1, 2020 would now be valid for up to six months from April 10, 2020.
You can order a rego online, doesn't need to be at a Post Shop. Post is still being delivered as far as I can tell. I was just curious if that part of NZTA was still operational or not.
It also looks like there is some vehicle WOF renewals for essential business vehicles.
Where can I go to renew my WoF/CoF if I am providing an essential service and it is expiring during Alert Level 4?Back to top
You can renew your WoF/CoF at several vehicle inspection sites around the country (see links below) or check with your local provider if they are available on an appointment only basis.
Please note that at all locations, there are requirements you need to follow for an essential vehicle inspection to be carried out
I don’t work for an essential service, my vehicle WoF/CoF is due for renewal and I need to get groceries. Can I keep using my vehicle since testing stations and garages are shut?Back to top
To help smooth the transition back to compliance, if your WoF/CoF expired on or after 1 January 2020, it is temporarily extended.
The Stuff article I linked to in my previous comment says:
It'll still be up to drivers to keep their vehicles safe and I urge owners to follow the NZ Transport Agency's advice and regularly self-check their vehicle." The Government was allowing for essential repairs, like sorting out punctured tyres or damaged windscreens. Previously only essential service workers' vehicles could access repairs and certification services. Other people are only able to get critical repairs done for the purpose of accessing essential services. "If anything looks out of order, please go get it fixed as soon as you can," Twyford said.
Seems the ICs applied the precautionary principle as well….
"As a result, many insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies for losses caused by viruses or bacteria. Now, the added policy language will potentially allow insurance companies to avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in business-interruption claims because of the covid-19 pandemic."
Insurers in the US respond to cv with refunds and discounts.
With less traffic on the road, there have been fewer accidents and fewer car insurance claims. And the prospect of paying claims is what auto insurance base their rates on. Several car insurance companies have now stepped up to offer their customers refunds. More will likely follow.
Some have been published on media for not hearing the result of their tests for many days afterwards. The explanation includes the fact that results are fed back to whoever authorised the test such as the doctor.
If the test is positive the victim is informed straight away and followup action taken.
If the result is negative then the lesser urgency will be in the hands of the doctor to inform. Maybe too busy but must be anxious wait for the victim though the longer the wait the more likely all is well.
Heh, just like when you get tested for STDs, if you all clear you usually don't get notified (check your online hub thing), only if you positive will they be in touch (& not a call you want, obviously).
So closing down flights from China didn’t save thousands of lives.
Coronavirus in New York came mainly from Europe, studies show.
New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia.
“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.
A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.
There could have been hundreds more cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand already if a lockdown had not gone ahead, new modelling shows.
Instead, the country now has a high chance of eliminating the virus, the research says – but only if the level 4 restrictions are extended.
Te Pūnaha Matatini, a cluster of researchers from Landcare Research and the Universities of Auckland and Canterbury, has been working for more than a month on modelling the spread of the virus here.
The total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand has stalled over the past four days, hovering between 920 and 930 cases.
Additionally, the Ministry of Health reported 29 new cases of Covid-19 today – the lowest number of new cases over a 24-hour period in a fortnight.
The paper published by Te Pūnaha Matatini today showed that had the government not gone into a level four lockdown, the number of new cases each day would exceed 150 by now, rising to 350 a day by the middle of next week.
"Coronavirus: Greenkeepers granted exemption for maintenance work after Easter"
And about bloody time. Golf Greens and Bowling Greens can be destroyed and take years to recreate if they aren't very carefully maintained. Why did it need Grant Robertson to do the bloody obvious. You don't need to allow people to play but a green keeper can work in isolation and preserve the painstakingly cared for lawns.
They are far more fragile and harder to repair than most Council owned parks and sports grounds. Mowing of those seems to have been allowed throughout.
The membership of the average golf club is quite typical of the whole New Zealand population. And New Zealand is one of the cheapest places to play golf in the world. A full playing membership at Inglewood, which is a pretty little course near New Plymouth is only about $500/year. The Waitara Golf Club, also near New Plymouth is even cheaper at $350/year.
Royal Wellington and Royal Auckland and Grange excluded of course.
Tut tut, alwyn. I sail, and my yearly sub is only $120. I probably spend less on my boat (which I bought with trailer for $2,500 in 1987) than you spend on clubs and lost golf balls (sorry to be rude.)
Your altruistic concern for the well-being of golfing greens is rather amusing.
But there we are. I get mad when stupid but well-meaning people plant trees near the lake I sail on, and ruin the wind after the tree has grown.
$2,500! For a boat? It sounds as if you bought one of Paul Allen's cast offs.
I am, I admit, an unusual golfer (or should I say a former golfer). I played for about 48 years and only ever owned two sets of clubs. I bought the first set in the late 60's for the grand sum of $100. The second set was purchased in about 1996 for rather more, but I would still be under the cost of your boat. Golf balls are quite cheap. You can get perfectly suitable golf balls for about $2.00 each.
Most people I know spent rather more. Almost every golfer lives with the dream that if they buy the latest driver they will be able to hit their drives out to about the 280 metre mark. I was always a realist. I might have admired the skills of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods but I was never under the illusion that I could play like them.
Aye, and I am foolishly still trying to sail a teenager's one-man racing skiff, because when I get a few good rides, it beats being on every big expensive lead-swinging keelboat that ever sailed.
As a matter of interest, what were your average subs for belonging to a club?
I sailed a P class when I was very young. In my 20's we bought a Javelin. That was great fun, although we always thought we should fly the letter flag "D" when we were out. For those who don't sail it means "Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty".
I had to give up playing 5 years ago so my knowledge of subs is a bit out of date..
When I was a child I had a dose of a much nastier virus than Cofid 19. It appeared I had fully recovered from it but it turns out you never do. About half the people like me get problems many years later and my walking was affected so I gave up playing. I believe a full playing membership at the last club I belonged to is about $1250/year. You can play all day, every day of the year for that. That would be typical of city clubs I should say.
I was thinking more of you bringing petty nitpicking shit here. The government was made aware there was a problem and rightly assessed that a green keeper can probably work alone safely.
My patience has run out with pathetic moaning morons .
Have any golf courses or bowling greens been destroyed thus far? If not, what's the problem? Lots of people are waiting to get their privileges back, it takes time for processes to be worked through.
Lol. I still like to lie on my lawn, and I can see the potential of permaculture cricket pitches and rugby fields. But holy shit, there's a reason there are no organic golf courses. I'm guessing bowling greens might be similar?
I understood that Singapore was initialy relying on phone apps and the internet to do a lot of the tracing work and they found out a bit too late that it wasn't very successful, as Dr Bloomfield said a few days ago a phone can't do the job that a thorough face to face ( at 2 metres I presume ) interview can. Just exactly how many crimes would be solved with a little chat on line or a few texts. Sweet fuck all.
I think Singapore tried to move too quickly and were reliant on the phone technology. Furthermore being an island about the size of Lake Taupo and with over 5m people isolating is far more difficult. I'm not sure just what restrictions they have in place wrt new arrivals, but a large proportion of their workforce in terms of amah, and construction workers are from the Philippines, India, and Malaysia.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will only allow the entry / return of work pass holders, including their dependents, for those providing essential services, such as in healthcare and transport.
yep – and I see that a good proportion of the new cases are in those worker dormitories. Mind you a lot of the wealthy families have live in house maids etc _ I can't see them giving up their amahs so easily
Well this is interesting. Overseas buyer’s interest in the Pacifica apartment building is up 200% because of favourable reaction to the government’s Covid-19 response. Both expats and foreign buyers (this development has an exemption for foreign buyers) have registered an interest.
It appears that there is some appetite to change the paradigm….Kate Raworth style
"The port of Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour exploitation,” she says."
WASHINGTON — Although President Donald Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
Officials who've had materials seized also say they've received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies
It's based on unpublished data, so has to be taken with a chunk of salt. But, if; the IL6 cytokine is predominantly involved in SARS-COV-2 pneumonia, then an IL6 receptor blocker being of use in preventing that, does make a certain amount of sense on the face of it.
After all, it doesn't really matter if people are infected with the Crow, just so long as you can stop them suffocating on their own body!
Except that the more replications of a virus, the more chances for mutations. DNA is more stable than RNA.
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
Bernie Sanders is out of the race.
If this pandemic had happened a year earlier, the need for nationwide healthcare reform would have been his saving.
It's a cruel fate this 2020 election.
Credit to Bernie for shifting the terms of debate on healthcare. But I've got my doubts that Medicare for all would have been enough to tip it to Bernie even had the pandemic happened a year earlier.
First, there's Bernie's approach to the topic. Half of Americans get their healthcare through employer subsidised insurance. It's a fact of human nature that people value keeping what they have more than taking a risk on getting something better. Given the degree of governmental malfunction in areas of governmental monopoly in the US, being forced into a government health health plan looks like a big risk.
Second, paying for M4A is a gnarly topic. Bernie didn't have a clear message on how workers would be better off financially. Most people just heard their taxes would go up to pay for it. Furthermore, relieving companies of their burden of subsidising their employee health insurance programs amounts to a massive windfall to the companies.
Third, the other candidates would have adjusted their messaging, so Bernie's stance would not have remained as large a differentiation as it was.
edit: then there’s this piece for a broader look at why Bernie fell short.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-campaign-retrospective-2020-democratic-primary_n_5e837ecfc5b603fbdf4a8782
Andre I just threw that line about healthcare in to be kind to the Bernie supporters.
Be nice to them today and don't bayonet the wounded.
Sorrreeee.
🙂
🙂
Gutted for the USA, beginning to think they have been cursed, the death toll coming out of there is horrendous. Those poor people.
At least Bernie is staying on the ballot, even if he has pulled out of the presidential race.
There is the practical matter that if he gets over 1/4 of the delegates (including superdelegates), he can force a vote at the convention on any policy platform proposals he wants to push. That means he would need around 1200. He's got about 900 now, with about 1600 still to be voted on, so it will be tight for clearing that hurdle.
Wow, that's interesting, wonder how it will play out in the end.
The global death toll is horrendous, including the high NUMBER of deaths in the US. However, so far, the US does not have the highest death rate pre 1 million of their population. Their’s is 44. Many European countries and the UK have higher death rates so far.
US: 44
UK: 105
France: 167
Netherlands: 131
Belgium: 193
Spain: 316
Switzerland: 103
Sweden: 68
Ireland: 48
The US and the UK are catching up Carolyn, though doubt if they will get near Spain and Italy which has a death rate of 292/m. Odd you missed it from your list.
Yes. I did say this is the current stats. My list wasn't comprehensive – just a selection to show some of the spread. Spain is the highest at the moment.
I linked to the full list in my opening sentence.
If the US gets a similar death rate to the current death rates in Italy and Spain, then they will have around 100K deaths. But they're still suffering high ongoing deaths in Italy etc.
Compared to Italy and Spain, the US has a younger population and a culture that is somewhat less up close and personal in terms of physical space. But the US went a lot later and softer on physical distancing and isolation, helping the contagion spread.
It's a horrifying but fascinating experiment to watch as it plays out in real time.
Thanks for that Carolyn, was wondering what that stat's were like re population. Much appreciated.
Andre, they were talking of 100,000 -200,000 expected deaths in the US last week at one of trumps pressers. Agree re horrifying but fascinating however twisted that sounds.
The stats don't tell everything. You probably know that we Kiwis have greater personal space than people in densely concentrated urban areas.
The last time I visited a big European city, I took two weeks to get used to the density of buildings and the number of people always close to me.. So different from my major-city NZ abode.
NZ has an advantage in that respect – the virus will naturally spread faster in those areas of greater population density.
And, condescending post of the day so far award goes to…it never failed to amaze, the number of spineless centrists and closet righties masquerading as leftists, disparaging the Sanders Campaign on The Standard. Not even luke warm support for Medicare for all and $15 min wage etc.
Bernie put up a great campaign–his analysis and policy were spot on–as subsequent tragic events have illustrated what happens with for profit healthcare and millions living week to week on low wages…
His strength–not running with the herd–was ultimately his weakness too. But he has certainly laid the platform for “the next Bernie”.
Sanders and Warren have already shunted Biden leftwards on many policy areas.
Everyone will be looking to see what Biden's revised healthcare plan looks like.
Straight out of the blocks the big progressive activist groups have told Biden what they are wanting out of him
https://nextgenamerica.org/Biden-letter/
The big question is whether Trump's popularity bump holds for 4 weeks, 8 weeks or 10. That's the danger. Nothing either Biden or Sanders could have done about that,.
Realclearpolitics has Biden 49.7 Trump 43.4 on 7 April.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html
Trump is history.
Well I'm just unwilling to hope yet.
Thanks for the poll, it's slightly cheering.
Presumably it all comes down to which way Florida goes, again.
Or a coup installing Trump as dictator for the duration of the"temporary" emergency. Depends if his allies can convince enough of the USAn military and bureaucracy that he is a useful idiot.
But then, some people may actually take their oaths of office seriously. Maybe?
I don't think the military are Genrl Bonespur's number 1 fans.
Florida has been a bit of a disaster with Covid 19…Trump in a bit of trouble there too though close…the average of the last two Florida polls has Biden 3.2% ahead of Trump.
Did he sell it to employers as saving them a buttload of money?
The Sanders campaign no doubt made some tactical mistakes – I've said before that the branding of 'revolution' and "democratic socialism" was unsuited to that particular political market. The policy prescriptions (on the whole) were well received by a majority – and a rhetoric of returning to the sensible centre after 40 years of extremism, a return to proven solutions from America's own past and to core American values, would have been a better approach.
That said, history takes no prisoners as 'Pepe' Mujica remarked"And now I am the president. And tomorrow, like everyone, I will just be a pile of worms". The grace, historical awareness and humility of Sanders withdrawal speech yesterday, as is so often the case with defeated candidates, gives us a sense of what has been lost.
Bernie was out of the race when he failed to counter Warren's scurrilous lie about him being a sexist, and when he claimed, bizarrely, that that doddering old fool from Delaware could beat Trump.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist. There was nothing Bernie could have said to 'defend' himself. Indeed the mere attempt at doing so would have only confirmed his guilt.
All white males over a certain age are by definition misogynist.
What perfect balderdash that statement is.
Well yes.
It has the ring of truth about it…
Defending the literacy programme of Castro was excellent for left sympathizers, but it lost him Florida. You can win neither a nomination nor a presidency without Florida.
But the Cuban literacy programme was, and is, excellent. As is the Cuban health system. Bernie lost not because he told the truth and angered a few elderly extreme right ideologues, but because the Democratic Party machine was determined not to let his "insurgent", i.e. authentically popular and truly democratic, campaign triumph. They'd rather have Trump than Bernie, that is clear.
And then of course there's the very serious question of Bernie's failure to stick up for himself in the face of a campaign of belittlement and abuse; very similar to Corbyn's failure.
Sanders was indeed correct about the Cuban literacy programs being a good thing. In a very narrow sense.
But arguing that statement is technically correct when you are trying to win an election in Florida is grossly negligent political malpractice, given the importance of the Cuban-American vote. The malpractice is further aggravated by the foregone opportunity to draw a contrast with the current nepotistic kakistocracy's habit of using the presidency to promote their personal private business interests in foreign countries.
The Democratic Party has a long and dishonorable history of compromising, indeed abandoning, basic commitments to human rights in order to get the votes of certain sectors. Before the Cuban right wing, the Florida constituency it bent over backwards to placate was the Ku Klux Klan.
What does that have to do with the dumbfuckery involved in Sanders blowing a perfect opportunity to go after Don Drumpfeone's corrupt foreign entanglements, just so he could show off the moral superiority of his progressive purity?
Thereby blowing any chance he may have had of winning the biggest swing state, for no conceivable gain anywhere else.
Stating an uncontestable truth is not to make a show of "purity", it's simply stating a fact. Telling a lie in order to curry favour with the extreme Cuban right wing would not make him a whit more electable, it would make him another Hillary Clinton.
But, anyway, they’re going to select someone who’s prepared to say anything, and does.
One of the most basic political skills needed to successfully run for a position as basic as a student council is how to use a question as an entry to talk about a subject that's favourable ground. There's no need to lie, he simply needed to make his answer about something that isn't awkward ground, while still "addressing the subject" in an innocuous way.
Sanders failed that basic test that's frankly at high-school politics level. And cost himself what could have been a significant prize in a completely unforced error.
Well said, sir. Yes, Mr Sanders could certainly have spoken more adroitly.
However, in the end, his opposition was the billionaire-backed DNC, and they were going to win their pyrhhic victory no matter what. I do not look forward with any relish to the gruesome spectacle of Biden being savaged and humiliated by Trump.
I just hope that this year we are spared the unedifying sight of unhinged Democratic Party supporters gnashing their teeth and melting down like this….
The World Trade Organisation makes it very clear why this impending global recession will be far worse than the 2008-9 GFC:
"The economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic inevitably invites comparisons to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. These crises are similar in certain respects but very different in others. As in 2008-09, governments have again intervened with monetary and fiscal policy to counter the downturn and provide temporary income support to businesses and households.
But restrictions on movement and social distancing to slow the spread of the disease mean that labour supply, transport and travel are today directly affected in ways they were not during the financial crisis. Whole sectors of national economies have been shut down, including hotels, restaurants, non-essential retail trade, tourism and significant shares of manufacturing."
"A strong rebound is more likely if businesses and consumers view the pandemic as a temporary, one-time shock. In this case, spending on investment goods and consumer durables could resume at close to previous levels once the crisis abates. On the other hand, if the outbreak is prolonged and/or recurring uncertainty becomes pervasive, households and business are likely to spend more cautiously.
Under both scenarios, all regions will suffer double-digit declines in exports and imports in 2020…"
https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres20_e/pr855_e.htm
This to me show how distinct the New Zealand response to the health crisis of the virus is to the economic response to the shutdown.
I have a suspicion we will be as different a country coming out of this one as we were before and after the Great Depression.
Ha! Radio NZ just had a piece on the news with National’s Campaign Chair Paula Bennett saying that the government must delay the election – “NZers won’t cope” she said.
Any guesses what National’s polling must be telling them?
Lol.
What does she mean "can't cope"?
I don’t know what she meant. Whatever it is it will be bullshit though, a delaying tactic to allow National time to get their dirty politics machinery back on track.
She means that National knows they don't have a shit Show of getting back into power this year.
So. They need extra time for a manipulative propaganda offensive.
She means NZ "can't cope" with anything other than a National government.
Yesterday colmar brunton put out a poll saying 90% of people trust the government's handling of covid
Interestingly I’ve been getting some of those National Party Border Closure petition posts on my Facebook in the last 24 hours. Given the party political nature of these posts you’d expect the comments to be mostly supportive. But they’re not really. National is getting chastised by their own supporters for electioneering at this time.
My good she popped up on my fb this morning.
My eyes my eyes .
Swinging voters likely on board then and why not when you look at Bridges arrogance.
I thought Scott must have misheard (hey, it's early) but no …
RNZ news report
What's more, the deputy Oppn leader doesn't even understand the law:
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much.
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date." (italics added)
Of course, the PM doesn't need to discuss the election date with National at all. PMs never do that with the opposition. Ardern could call an election tomorrow (if she lost her mind). September 19 is an intention, but has no meaning in law.You aren't relevant, Paula.
They would certainly need to discuss an extension of the term, which would need approval from Parliament. But there is no reason to do that when an election could be held as late as December, if the PM so decides.
Wondered how long before they'd bring that up.
Shows where the real concern is…..getting decimated. Bridges would’ve floored them.
"With New Zealand now in full lockdown for at least another two weeks and businesses and livelihoods in disarray, the opposition said an election in September just seemed too much."
I will be interested to see how that goes down. Can't see any kind of rationale there. The only challenge is how to vote in ways that don't spread coronavirus. Other than that, NZers are resilient enough to manage voting in five months time. It's not like it's next week. Daft (but haven't listened for the context).
If there was any kind of rationale, Bennett would be saying:
"Forget about going to watch sport in September. Forget about going to concerts and all those events that require more public interaction and health concerns than going to one location and putting paper in a ballot box."
That would be logical, and incredibly unpopular, so …
Actually, I'm not assuming we will be able to do public gatherings by September, and that the govt may have to make arrangements around that to ensure voting can happen.
Assuming the lockdown is over by Sept!!!
Paula's not a deep thinker, but it should occur to her that the lockdown will be over well before Sept … unless things go badly wrong and we have a second wave – a rise in cases and back to Level 4.
If that happens, the government's support will take a hit. National would change their tune.
We wont be in lock down in September. It just wouldn't be possible.
It would destroy nz financially.
People wouldn't handle it or accept it .
Bw very likely you are right
BUT can you predict especially what will happen with the virus, AND what will happen overseas eg USA, Europe.
It depends what you mean by lockdown. I can't see the entire country being still at level 4 for the duration. But level 1 certainly, which prohibits mass gatherings (eg political rallies, demonstrations, or fundraising concerts). And some parts of the country may be level 2 or higher (over 70s encouraged to stay at home and as yet unspecified size smaller gatherings only).
But a virtual lockdown may linger on in people's heads. Being permitted to return to social proximity does not mean that we will overnight overcome the fear and distancing conditioning we will have spent months soaking up.
A society is an ongoing process not a fixed object.
I predict we will have stamped out but will still be quarantining and inbound travelers a measure that will start this week . (It better start this week)
The USA will be carnges Europe will be winning slowly . 3rf world countries dont know.
How will we know if we have stamped out Corona? Given that the antibody tests are far more likely to give a false negative (insufficient viral load at time,or sampling error), than a false positive (samples getting mixed up, testing equipment inadequately sterilized). Let alone the possibility of animal reservoirs (really hoping that we've avoided that nightmare scenario).
If any of the 10% or more people diagnosed with Covid who test as false negatives then proceed to infect others, we will be back in an exponential growth phase again very quickly.
Antibodies are a host response and made by the host and will stay in the host’s circulation (or not) long after the virus has gone from the host. Equipment sterilisation is to remove viable bugs and spores, not antibodies (although these should also be removed in the whole cleaning & sterilisation process).
Whoops! I meant that the current SARS-COV-2 RNA testing. Overly hopeful to announce the existence of an antibody test that would be able to tell who has previously been infected!
Sterilisation itself should get rid of contamination from previous tests, but only if done correctly. People get tired and mistakes get made, but my point was that a false negative is currently more likely than a false positive.
Almost all the materials used for the PCR-based test are disposable.
Yes, people do make mistakes and tired people make more mistakes but the decontamination & sterilisation processes are almost fully automated and done according to SOPs that stand the test of time, so to speak.
Yup, likelihood of false negative is much higher than false positive.
Yes ForgetNow, , and Jacinda will listen to the scientists.
You are right about the possible problem of animal transmission.
We have never eradicated bovine TB in possums, and spend billions testing and poisoning. Governments deal with Foot and Mouth by culling and burning all affected animals… that was a British nightmare at one stage.
We are learning more about this virus, some helpful, some terrifying.
I have never in my 78 years felt as I do now. Friends and family truly at risk and many learning how tenuous the threads of the "safety net" really are. Learning to value our humans and pets, and creating our own safety net, all the time being aware of the hidden mainly silent suffering of those whose lives have been damaged or at least impacted by this virus.
I am a survivor of the 1946/7 polio epidemic which closed schools and had 34 victims in a village of 326. I was six and did not have close contact with my parents while in the Waikato Crippled Children's Hospital for nearly six months. I saw them twice through the distorting glass of the hospital door.
This has made me feel for those in quarantine or hospital separated from loved ones. It is terrible and remains a fear for life. Also not being able to say goodbye takes comfort away from the bereaved.
Awful though this has been for some, most of us have been spared that through the decisions of a switched on Leader and cabinet, who have put well being at the centre of Government Policy.
Let us hope that they manage the swell of unemployed, streamline the mechanics of welfare, revamp training and retraining and build the support net needed 'till we weather this. May the goodwill last.
Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
bwaghorn, "quarantining"Starting midnight tonight 9/4/20
@wags: Can this thing lie dormant? Or if we have 4 weeks with no new cases is most likely it's gone.
My bigger concern is how long this lurgee can be infectious in asymptomatic/low symptom carriers. It could only need a chain of two or three asymptomatic carriers to go past that four weeks and then initiate a whole new infectious breakout.
Not only that. Lockdown would have been a proven failure by September.
Nope, we should still be able to vote even from lock down.
And the other aspect is that some big businesses are struggling to survive for 4 week and need tax payers support
Do they not have ANY planning for major problems?
National's deputy leader and campaign chair Paula Bennett said the government and opposition needed to discuss in the weeks ahead whether 19 September was a realistic date."
It's interesting how someone projects their own wants and needs onto someone else. She means the opposition wants to discuss. The government certainly does not need to. It sets the election date. It's about Paula's, and National's, desires. She really means, "I want to change the date." Needs and wants- too easily confused.
Who can't cope paula? Maybe she's run out of oregano?
She needs a haircut and a real job.
But I haven't got a brother Bob? 🙁
He ain't heavy …
They'll be glad of a day out by September.
A puff piece on Passover in Jerusalem
RNZ National, Thursday 9 April 2020, 8:50 a.m.
Listeners this morning were inflicted with another P.R. piece for Israel—this time a once-over-lightly piece about Passover/Easter in Jerusalem with one Barry Guy, who usually does the sports news, having a breezy chat with Liat Collins of the extreme right wing Jerusalem Post. He asked not one awkward question, of course.
Liat Collins has been used by the dupes at RNZ National before…..
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/another-israeli-propagandist-takes.html
You're on that again? Ok, I can argue this either way, because there are madmen on both sides. But just for you:
Attacked by Palestinians on Israeli's since October 1st:
Stabbings = 84
Attempted Stabbings = 57
Car Attacks = 31
Shootings = 20
Bombings = 4
Death Toll:
Palestinians killed carrying out attacks against Israelis = 149
Palestinians shot by Israeli forces during clashes = 59
Israelis killed in attacks by Palestinians = 35
Citizens of other countries killed = 5
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/israel-palestine-deaths/
MEMO: Editors/Moderators of The Standard
Lin, why is this ignoramus allowed to post inflammatory nonsense?
[lprent: Because we mainly and almost entirely moderate on behaviour. Ideological differences can be aired provided that they don’t descend into hate speech and bigotry. And we’re pretty good at detecting undeclared pattern of behaviours and dealing with them. The same thing applies to paddington, as it does to you. ]
The data is taken from the Washington Post. These are simple facts. If you want to self promote your own blog, go for gold. But as I have posted earlier, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a complex mixture of historical, religious and cultural factors where there is no good guy/bad guy scenario. No matter how you try to paint it otherwise.
Nope – I’d describe them as being self-serving propaganda and simply not worth the media they are printed on.
Those figures are what are reported by the Israeli forces. Since the occupation troops are a pack of layabout draftees who have been known to lie every time they fuck up – I personally give them no credibility when they are reporting their live round kills.
Anyone who has spent time living on the west bank (and I know a few who have) knows the Israeli draftees are useless lazy young badly trained fuckwits with guns. They routinely block the checkpoints so that they can have a siesta. They like to provoke the palestinians going through checkpoints or when they are on patrol. And in my estimation at least half of their kills and injuries are directly due to their behaviour.
They are an occupying force of incompetent garritroopers. Which is why they also don’t let in outside observers to evaluate their reporting of the justification of their troops. It is also why the Israelis don’t even let their own courts look at the behaviour of their troops.
I can’t read the WP article – but I’d take a bet that they haven’t referenced a single Palestinian report.
So I’d say that your authoritative source could be described only as complete trash. About as credible as the lack of active Russian troop involvement in Eastern Ukraine – which is the classic example of fake PR.
Thanks, Lin. Here's some reading for our friend Paddington….
https://mondoweiss.net/2019/01/newspapers-palestinians-headlines/
Hi lprent. Thanks for your response. I'm not going to push this, because my point was not to defend Israeli activity but to try to communicate to Morrisey that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is far more complicated than his rather simplistic commentary. From my own observation, this is a conflict between intractible parties whose focus on ancient historical and religious grievances is (close to) psycopathic.
Of course I could have just as easily argued the other way.
But on the balance, I think that the Palestinians have had the raw end of the stick both from the Israeli state (who in my view have no historical rights to Palestine – unless they wish to argue with the Romans) and from the Europeans of Europe and the US, who they could easily argue owe them for their complicity and actions in a recent genocide.
It sure as hell doesn't give the Israeli government any right to attempt genocide or ethnic cleansing on their fellow citizens of the land of Palestine.
The data is [sic] taken from the Washington Post.
Those absurd and dubious "statistics"—Palestinians are not just shot by IDF marksmen, they are always killed appropriately, as in "killed carrying out attacks against Israelis", "clashes", and "attempted stabbings"—are direct from the Israeli authorities, and are nearly always contested by human rights groups and witnesses of the killings. The Washington Post is notoriously biased on this issue, amongst many others.
It's a discussion of Passover. At Passover.
There is no possible reason to object to that.
It's a discussion of Passover. In Jerusalem. With an extreme right commentator who shamelessly defends Israeli actions and routinely pours opprobrium on the victims of Israel’s regime of repression.
There is every reason to object to that, but poor Barry Guy had not a clue.
None of which is in the piece. So listeners were not "inflicted" (your word) with anything.
Except an accurate description of a traditional Jewish festival, and that would not annoy any reasonable person. (Of course some might be triggered by it, but we despise those people, don't we?).
????
This person is either disoriented or utterly cynical.
On Jessie Mulligan today a lovely intelligent Jewish restaurant lady was talking about the fact that because NZ Jews cannot meet some were going to have "Zoom Passover"….love that.
Yes, she was cool. If I lived in Auckland, I would be joining a queue to book in.
Zoom powered Passover Seder.
Jeez Morry, what's your problem with passover?
?????
My problem is with credulous RNZ hosts being bamboozled by nasty zealots like Liat Collins. At the end of her four minute chat this morning, she told the the hapless Barry Guy; "It's kind of mindbending, I don't think there's EVER been anything like this." He didn't get the brutal irony of what she was saying.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018742132/coronavirus-jerusalem-marks-easter-with-restricted-movement
Here is the news, the sad new about the lockdown.
We have 'gotten' nasty in 14 days with online bitching. Exactly that.
Mike Hosking said it; " … and nasty, and my word we have gotten nasty in 14 days with online bitching."
He is upset because in 14 days we have got nasty and bitchy? 14 days? Is it 14 years he's been like that?
Lmao !!!!!! Bruised ego hosking after kiwi's slayed him on social media for being an egg.
Maybe he could start a support group 🙂
Start a Give A Little for Mike's ego I say! I'll put in the first cent (or do they allow half-cent donations?)
Next MikieHoskings will be calling for kindness….
seriously though, can’t we get rid of him. Please
twenty years. He was bitchy and nasty while on morning TV in 1998 with his then lover, now wife.
The guy and his now missus were never anything else but nasty and bitchy.
He’s gone behind the paywall on the Herald. Maybe they no longer think he’s quite the crowd-puller they thought?
Mike's so formulaic that it's easy to imagine what his reckons are based on the headline.
Wonder if he writes his own columns these days or just uses the Mike Hosking Bot?
What kind of 'puller' was that?
Did the wind change on Horeskin and he got his own back?
Ah, such a subtle shrinking violet you are, Gabby. (Please don't stop.)
From the Independent Media Institute:
Truth and Propaganda About Coronavirus
"In the early weeks when the virus emerged in Wuhan, the Chinese government neither suppressed evidence nor did their warning systems fail"
Beyond Words
by CRAIG MURRAY, 8 April 2020
Yesterday Mark Sommers QC, the extremely erudite and bookish second counsel for Julian Assange in his extradition hearing, trembled with anger in court. Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser had just made a ruling that the names of Julian Assange’s partner and young children could be published, which she stated was in the interests of “open justice”. His partner had submitted a letter in support of his Covid 19 related bail application (which Baraitser had summarily dismissed) to state he had a family to live with in London. Baraitser said that it was therefore in the interests of open justice that the family’s names be made public, and said that the defence had not convincingly shown this would cause any threat to their security or well-being. It was at this point Sommers barely kept control. He leapt to his feet and gave notice of an appeal to the High Court, asking for a 14 day stay. Baraitser granted four days, until 4pm on Friday.
I am in lockdown in Edinburgh, but received three separate eye witness reports. They are unanimous that yet again Baraitser entered the court carrying pre-written judgements before hearing oral argument; pre-written judgements she gave no appearance of amending.
There have been two Covid-19 deaths in Belmarsh prison so far. For obvious reasons the disease is ripping through the jail like wildfire. The Department of Justice is admitting to one death…
Read more….
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/04/beyond-words/
Good job he's in solitary confinement, then, and not general population.
People like you sneered at the people locked away in Stalin's and Mao's crackdowns on dissenters.
Will you laugh if he dies?
Only people like you could associate assange with the victims of Mao and Stalin.
Only people like you would laugh at the victims of Mao and Stalin.
Except I don't.
You laugh at the suffering of Julian Assange. I have no doubt that you would also have laughed at the suffering of other dissenters and journalists imprisoned by repressive and anti-democratic regimes.
Or is this contempt for Assange just a one-off?
Logical fallacies
I think you used every single fallacy in this chart during this exchange.
You sneer at the suffering of a political dissenter in Great Britain and callously repeat state-sponsored lies about him. Ergo, you would probably have sneered at the suffering of political dissenters in other brutal regimes and you would have callously repeated state-sponsored lies about them. That’s a reasonable inference, assuming that your behaviour in this case is not bizarrely inconsistent with your normal behaviour.
Your comments on logic are as credible and as thorough as your disparagement of Julian Assange.
Losing credibility in your eyes is a right of passage on the standard and should be taken as a compliment rather than a curse.
Being shamed by Mr Angry from Cheam isn't as bad as you may believe it to be.
But that aside, do carry on with how outrageous it is that a convicted bail jumper didn’t get bail.
You can be sure that I'm not the only one who sees you have little or no credibility. Your lame "Mr Angry from Cheam" quip shows you have little or no SOH, either.
Moz, a few people here agree with you. A few people here agree with The Al1en. That's how a forum works.
I would suggest you get over yourself, but that would be futility exemplified.
You could be right there, McFlock.
Except he's not
That ended some weeks if not months ago
So the campaign to end the isolation 'torture' has put him in more danger. Well done.
No the UK and US govts with the complete endorsement of vast numbers of total plonkers brainwashed by propaganda is what has put Assange in danger of his life
So the covid excuse to get out of jail was just a ruse. Looks like the magistrate called it.
What do you mean when you put the word "torture" in scare quotes? Are you pretending that he is not being tortured? Is that another of your jokes?
I urge other Standard readers to bear in mind The Al1en's sneering contempt for Assange and compare his behaviour to that of the United Nations' Rapporteur on Torture….
https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
The Standard readers are free to bear in mind whatever they want about me, be that my alleged sneering contempt, or whatever else takes their fancy.
It's all good.
No, it's not "all good." Your sneering contempt for this suffering dissident is not "alleged", it's there for posterity.
You've condemned yourself, and your flippant words now can't make it go away.
Yep, it's still all good, as am I.
You're gasping. It's embarrassing.
Logical fallacies
Bingo. lol
You keep saying that, but you have no ability to develop an argument. Why don't you cut your losses and go read a book or something?
I'm not making an argument, I'm replying to your continued usage of logical fallacies, which is easy to do as you're well practiced and predictable with it.
The actual guts of the matter are:
Good job he's in solitary. – Turns out he's not being isolation 'tortured' anymore.
The convicted bail jumper didn't get bail. – No answer.
Excerpts from a February 2020 report on the propaganda war against Assange. UN special rapporteur on torture Melzer "admits that he was himself initially taken in by the propaganda campaign."
You are probably wasting your time on these subservient citizens here Morrissey, they are obviously just a bunch of wannta be camp guards only waiting for the opportunity to prove their worth to their masters, quite disgusting and vile.
Thanks for those kind words, Adrian. Much appreciated.
They're not "kind words", Moz. Far from it, actually.
I'm devastated that your normally astute and utterly reliable analysis of the written word has deserted you on this occasion.
I blame The Al1en for making you angry 😉
ps, Cheam is a very pleasant London suburb, particularly the Eastern portion around the railway cutting.
Hancock's half hour. lol
Stop messing about!
btw, Kenneth Williams used to refer to the regular voice he used in the Hancock shows as 'the Snide'. Doesn't remind me of anyone here at the Standard, of course.
“He's right you know”
How the hell did I miss that reference?!!??!?
Al1en & te reo 1-0 Breen.
It's only half time, Morrissey. I expect you'll give yourself a good talking to in the changing sheds and come out fighting in the second half.
No, you two have got me beat, my friend. Unless I can find a Craig Joubert type to bribe, I haven't got a show.
We've had python and Tony Hancock, so next time we should try Frankie Howard.
Plenty of time for homework, Lurcio.
… next time we should try Frankie Howard. [sic]
Frankie Howerd.
There you go, back in the game, though pointing out a spelling mistake is the football equivalent of getting a corner kick against the run of play.
Mr Trotter having something of a meltdown?
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/04/lord-give-us-democratic-socialism-but.html
Yes it's a beauty isn't it? I think he's in mourning lol
or one of the stages of grief
Someone here needs to do a decent response to Trotter.
Hey Mr Trotter try this out:
1. New Zealand now has the most effective democratic socialist government in the entire fucking world Mr Trotter. Best led, best communicated, best response through the public health system, best deployment of policing and social enforcement. And it's not me saying it.
So fuck off with your "thoughts" on democratic socialism. We already have it.
2. This government has just embarked on the largest Keynsean expansion since the Depression, and is going to keep expanding through the May 8th 2020 budget, and through the campaign manifesto, and through the 2021 budget.
The state is going into tens of billions of debt on new projects, is propping up every single waged person with a business who asks for it, and we are now a month away from even more largesse in the budget.
So fuck off with your "… but not yet!"
3. There is a gobsmacking irony of a blogger begging for a lifeline for a physical print of the Listener, when his own personal blog is now the only place the Trotter's own writing is published anywhere. Trotter's own practise of publishing online from many years ago is the clearest evidence that he knew this day was coming and planned for the demise of printed commentary years ago.
If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers.
And while we are at it, the government is already well underway to strengthen broadcasting under Fa'afoi's plan for RNZ and TVNZ. They are well and truly doing their part already.
So fuck off with your defence of The Listener.
4. Trotter needs to get it out of his head that the government reaction to this recession is going to look the same as the Labour response to the 1930s Depression. That he can't step out of his tragedian pyre and lead something practical in society other than perpetually interviewing his typewriter and adding poorly paralleled historical anecdote, shows how deeply stale his imagination really is.
5. This government is holding the whole of the political order, the whole of society, and the whole of the economy, together right now, through sheer will and debt. They are about to get us through the virus crisis in better health shape than any other developed nation on earth. Overseas commentators are already noticing.
So we can afford to give them a smidgen of a break as we await coherence on the plan to revive our economy.
"If Trotter wanted to he could amass his analogue leftie comrades and buy the Listener masthead from the receivers. But that's won't happen because he's all mouth and no trousers."
Funny you should suggest that, I was wondering why he hadnt proposed the staff purchasing it for the dollar (potential liabilities aside) and running it as a collective (or co operative)…the existing staff would be the best placed to judge its future viability an could potentially secure both their ongoing employment and maintain an independent voice but havnt seen anyone involved propose such.
It still had 30,00 subscribers apparently.
[lprent: 32,000 from memory. ]
If the staff and management dont see a future path to sustainability why would anyone else
thats why command dosnt suit you
[On 26 July 2019, Sam wrote these memorable words:
Link: https://thestandard.org.nz/protect-ihumatao/#comment-1640435.
He now seems to think that he can return here from his self-imposed exile with a blatant troll comment.
Sam is wrong about that.
Banned for a year so that we can all recover from the pandemic and prepare for the election without having to endure his inane troll comments that create more work for Moderators – Incognito]
good grief…its Sam , youre still alive!
See my Moderation note @ 1:42 PM.
does us all a favour. Never come back.
FYI, I’m not on the pay-roll; we’re all volunteers here.
Subscribers really isn't that useful as a measure of utility. Certainly not a measure of how much it is valued by the public for whom it is purportedly doing good.
Consider this site as an alternative ‘risk free rate’ for taxpayers and look at the usage – which is our only measure of subscribers.
According to google analytics this site has had ~23k unique visitors in the last 30 days in ~89k sessions. This excludes almost all of the bots and because it is google has a fairly accurate idea about who is a person even when they jump machines (as I do all of the time)`.
~57k of those sessions were from users who entered the site with more than 15 times over 30 days – ie reading on average about every two days or better on average. ~31k sessions were from users who read the site more than 201 times over that 30 days.About ~26k of the sessions were from users who entered less than 5 times or less.
Average session duration is 6:32 and average pages per session is 3.84. Once you start figuring out the probable times that some people on here, then there is clearly a *lot* of utility.
The last 30 days was up about 1/6th above our recent median. Session times and page counts are slightly elevated.
That was done with a far more amateur level level of writing, no subscription to the site, we don't inflict advertising, and the commenters provide as much writing value as the authors.
Arguably even with all of the low rent comments and the provocative authors, that is a shit load of writing on here. I'd expect that it is of far more volume than The Listener.
The Listener really has to argue on the basis of the quality of its writing.
Quality – who knows? I personally haven't read one in some time – but it hasn't improved much beyond the mostly 'I reckons' writing that we do in blogs, or is common in the daily media, or even around reddit.
Sure there were always nuggets in the mix of waffle. But they weren't worth effort of finding the paper copy, paying for it, and reading it without the opportunity to comment. I certainly wouldn't want to pay for it as taxpayer even when I last read it.
It provided me with no value. If I want to subsidize writers then personally I'd prefer to pay for this ad-free venue – which is mostly what happens. I think that it is of more benefit to many of the people here.
I wouldn't mind being able to subsidizing journalists more. All they have to do is to have it all easily online, largely dump the advertising, separate the opinionists away from the journalism (the former is ideal as a filtered pay per read), and let me subscribe just to the journalism.
Problem is that is very hard to get in NZ media outside of a few mail feeds.
My summary: we’re doing ok but there’s always room for improvement here on TS 😉
And IMHO the Listener was not.
The writing here might be rough as (especially when I write), but in terms of the value that you pay for it is extremely valuable.
For me, I'm happy to spend money for reading material that is better than what we have here. But I didn't feel any sense of value in any of the Baur stable of magazines to outweigh the cost. A different editorial policy may have produced a better material. But they basically needed to change their business model even more – and showed no real signs of doing that.
Can't see a reasons to subsidize them more than any other business as there are others around that market place. The wage subsidy should have been enough to keep them viable if they’d had a business model that would work in the future – which they didn’t. That looks to have been the conclusion of Bauer.
I love it when I read a truly good piece written by a true professional. It’s the same with music, art, or science. When I need to dig too deep and too hard to find that rare gem, it’s not worth my money and even less so my time – actually, I have to work for my money so it all comes down to my time, which I don’t have as much of as I’d like 🙁
Indeed, a good editor is like a good conductor: worth their weight in gold; they can work miracles and turn things into gold but equally, they can fuck up things and turn things to custard.
Good reply to the insufferable Trotter—except for the confidence expressed in Chris Fa'afoi. He's an incompetent minister, if ever there was one.
Morrisey, reasons for your attack on Chris Fafoi?
My assessment of Fa’afoi is based on his hopeless performance when that rogue RNZ board suddenly announced that they planned to liquidate RNZ Concert. Fa'afoi, after guffawing that he did not listen to classical music, then went on to regurgitate their talking points. He clearly had no idea, and was blindsided by Jim Mather and his cronies.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2020/03/integrating-seamlessly-with-lowest.html
Edit – this got shunted down the list while I was writing it.
I am replying to Ad at 8.2
As a reader of the Listener since the 1970s, I am not entirely convinced by you, Ad.
1) If our system is best in the world, the standard is not very high. Other countries with far greater population density (meaning far more infections) seem to have done better. And you may be counting chickens that have not yet hatched.
2) Partly true, but only in its infancy, and I hope that the Govt has the courage to continue in this vein. Especially if the Righties start criticising this policy, as they will.
3) That is not irony – I see it more as Trotter lamenting the Listener's earlier role. I also remember the Listener and the Auckland Star being the only printed vehicles of real criticism of the disastrous Vietnam War.. There is a lot to be lamented since the Listener got swallowed by the right-wing marketers.
4) Maybe Trotter still has a vision of real social reform, whereas you don't. Or you don't show it very often. Blairite?
5) Fully agree, but one out of five is far from convinced.
I suspect that Trotter is afraid that after we have succeeded in starting to look for coherence on the plan to revive our economy, it will be too late to do any serious social reform.
Ad – do you want any serious social reform?
I am struggling to understand why you are so hostile to Trotter.
I second every single word of your comment, Ad
I can't see that Chris has 'melted down' with this statement though:
"According to Andrew Little’s former Chief-of-Staff, Neale Jones:
“I cannot think of a worse time to implement a UBI than in the middle of this economic crisis. Some of us are doing fine. Others need unprecedented government support just to stay afloat. UBI would spread that support thinner, or quickly spend 10s of billions we may need later."
Meaning Neale has no grasp at all of Keynesian economics. No understanding of the crucial importance of keeping up the level of aggregate demand. No historical grasp of the crucial role spending plays in lifting a nation out of an economic slump. Nor does he understand the practical and moral efficiency of universal, as opposed to means-tested, state support. The massively positive effect of telling every Kiwi: ‘You are important in your own right, not because you’re in need of charity but because you are a citizen of New Zealand.’ Everyone keeps telling us that “we’re all in this together” – a UBI would prove it."
" How did dreary pragmatism become Labour’s default-setting? A full explanation would require a book-length answer. Suffice to say that once a party embraces the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism, anything other than orthodox and cautious policy responses will be treated as the political equivalent of upending a can of petrol over your head and striking a match."
It seems to me that someone (the janitor – it's always the janitor) changed Labour's label to 'socialist' while everyone was at morning tea and no one has the courage to change it back, while the majority of them has no courage either to enact real socialism.
I wonder if Jacinda is banging her head against her desk at the 'dreary pragmatism' that pervades the party. I wonder.
Although perhaps it is the fact that since the 1980s Labour has become a centrist party with neo liberal leanings and that's all there is to it.
Oh well.
isnt a collective real socialism?
Collective is implicitly shared agreement. When it is mandated by those for whom it is convenient it just becomes coercion.
Problem is that I fail to see a point in subsiding a stable of publications that with massive cost-cutting producing what looked like a inaccessible mediocre product and barely managing to hold a subscriber base or a profit level is worth trying to save.
In an economic sense you could easily argue that their mere presence in the marketplace was actually constraining innovation in a failing area. They were holding on to audiences and thereby preventing development of a more viable economic model. As a government, you’d be better off using resources to provide technical infrastructure for writers to try to find a more useful model to build a viable and accessible product in. There are examples around like Newsroom, Spinoff, Evening Report, and even Scoop as well as the online mass media.
Because in the end, unless they figured out a different way to operate, then all of those magazines had been on a ventilator ready to die of technical obsolescence in the market for about a decade. Removing their Bauer DNR wouldn’t have made them last for many more years even if there wasn’t a pandemic at the same time.
dont disagree with that but my point was Mr Trotter was bemoaning a lack of socialism and ignored the most socialist response
Yeah – there are number of fully or semi cooperatives already in that space (as I pointed to). They just don't pay much.
no i dont imagine they do…and it would be interesting to be a fly on the wall should the staff ever attempt it….I could imagine it wouldnt go smoothly.
Trotter doesn't understand economics, or pretends not to. Buying these magazines for a dollar sounds cheap until the losses start to mount. I think he is emotionally attached to the titles and can't bear to see them go.
If there is a profitable market for a right-wing (but pretending not to be) glossy like the Listener, a new magazine will be set-up by somebody using their own money.
It's not the government's job to invest in/take over the media-accusations of manipulation for political ends would follow like night follows day.
Speaking to relatives in Aussie last night , one of whom works for a large retailer (who shall remain unnamed) and the relating of how the social distancing and 'lockdown' is being handled there is an object lesson in why we are correct to minimise the number of retailers that are able to trade.
The complete disregard for the guidelines from both the company and the general public makes a mockery of the process.
Couldn't believe it at pak n save today, waiting in the queue at the checkout, using the marked lines as a distancing guide, and people were pushing their trolleys between the gaps left behind me, completely ruining the purpose of having the lines in the first place. I told a floor supervisor that I realised it's not up to her to police it, but that particular part of the system was broken.
Didn't help that the customer in front of me took out a wad of notes and proceeded to lick his fingers, twice, whilst thumbing through them, and then again before touching the eftpos card he part paid with. Had to warn the checkout kid before she touched this idiot's cash, and patiently waited until she had decontaminated it and the terminal before I could check out, contemplating survival of the fittest v stupid by association.
and pales in comparison in both scale and actions related to me about Victoria last night….Im very pleased our Gov appears to be holding the line as staunchly as it is in the face of considerable pressure
Generally I've been impressed with the supermarkets down here, but then I've been able to time my runs really well, to have shopped at the slowest of times. Today, I had to risk the one day closed hoarders, so maybe the mentality of customers and staff were a bit less focused than of late, especially with the drop off in new cases. Let's hope complacency doesn't creep in and ruin all the good work thus far.
+1
UN Council for Human Rights – China now on the council.
Unbelievable.
Countries with a seat on the council get to oversee and appoint representatives who in turn investigate + report on human rights abuses.
Other council members with this influence include Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Egypt, Nigeria, Venezula, Lybia…more here https://qz.com/1418293/what-countries-are-on-the-un-human-rights-council/
A den of thieves put in charge of the bank. This is the problem when you select for 'equitable representation' than competency.
I thought you generally made sure you were better informed RedLogix. 'A' has reeled off an out of date hit-job and stupidly highlighted China which is not on the Council. Besides, the representatives on the Council are not appointed to represent their countries or any political viewpoint, unlike the Cato Institute or Quartz.
Fair cop.
Two weeks till Business as Usual reconvenes, woohoo!
Government sanctioned "mental illness" will be forgotten, and Cognitive Dissonance in all things will be the name of the game. Project your fears onto anyone weaker than you and aim to take it all!
Hot Tip: don't get caught on the line when the starter pistol fires, not unless you are ready to slash your way through anyone you meet.
Totally – I'm devising a method to gouge the newly-unemployed. Awesome eh? Can't wait.
Domestic tourism = landlords and AirBnB are rubbing their hands with glee. Shame that many campsites have turned into mini- wannabe-Omahas.
I'm feeling lucky to be the recipient of good fortune in several ways. These are: NZ's isolation, a generally competent government that aims to serve the interests of all its citizens not just some, and enough social cohesion to voluntarily observe a lock-down with high levels of compliance. (There are a few peripheral sociopaths like Mike Hosking but that is to be expected)
Therefore I'm not really faced with the fear and rage that clearly prompted this piece from the fabulously civilised RJ Eskow a couple of weeks ago – No – I will not die for this damned economy. He used the word 'damned' advisedly – not as a mere expletive, but in the Biblical sense "this damned economy…and we, the damned who live within it." What we need to emerge from this crisis is an economy that does not damn so many – the odds are we will get one which damns more.
FFS! David Seymour is asking, at the Epidemic committee, why employers including sole traders in receipt of wage subsidies get named publicly, but sole parents etc in receipt of benefits are not publicly named! At about 1hr 15 minutes into the committee today.
I think Sepuloni also said there is a box to tick asking if employer agrees to be named publicly when applying for a subsidy.
The crisis is an opportunity for people to surface any sadistic fantasies they have been harbouring for years.
Seemore Coq doesn't require a crisis.
Why does Seymour get to be on the committee? How does this happen when you only get 1% of the vote?
He represents the only other party in Opposition.
We had some debate about this early on in level 4.
It has now been announced that WOF's, regos and licenses that expired after Jan 1st have been extended for essential travel.
so someone with an expired rego or wof can use their car to drive to the supermarket?
Has NZTA shut down?
No, their regulatory team just have more pressing things to attend to.
so we can still get a rego online and via NZPost?
Are NZPost places still open?
I wouldn't expect quick service, and as the Minister has pointed out, it's unnecessary.
You can order a rego online, doesn't need to be at a Post Shop. Post is still being delivered as far as I can tell. I was just curious if that part of NZTA was still operational or not.
in order to get a rego you need a wof.
in order to get a wof you need to go to a testing station.
so essentially to me it means if you can get a rego because your wof is still valid, go online, get it.
if you need a wof first, don't worry, you can still drive without getting a huge ticket.
Yes, regos still being issued:
Cheers.
Looks like it means private vehicles used by essential workers, or general members of the public using their cars to access essential services.
It also looks like there is some vehicle WOF renewals for essential business vehicles.
See also at ATA.
The Stuff article I linked to in my previous comment says:
Wimbledon and the precautionary principle.
https://twitter.com/darrenrovell/status/1247933676874334208
Seems the ICs applied the precautionary principle as well….
"As a result, many insurers added exclusions to standard commercial policies for losses caused by viruses or bacteria. Now, the added policy language will potentially allow insurance companies to avoid hundreds of billions of dollars in business-interruption claims because of the covid-19 pandemic."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/02/insurers-knew-damage-viral-pandemic-could-wreak-businesses-so-they-excluded-coverage/
i wonder how well insurers are doing out of the lockdown,say fewer home burglaries,vehicle accidents etc.
true….imagine claims are very quiet…though they will be spending some time explaining the out clauses in business interruption policies I expect.
Insurers in the US respond to cv with refunds and discounts.
With less traffic on the road, there have been fewer accidents and fewer car insurance claims. And the prospect of paying claims is what auto insurance base their rates on. Several car insurance companies have now stepped up to offer their customers refunds. More will likely follow.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/04/06/car-insurance-companies-start-offering-refunds-because-few-are-driving/#309b43c84350
I suspect these would be mutual insurers.
You know the world is in turmoil when insurance companies start giving money away
Over the past couple of weeks various voices have said "Let's be Sweden"!
Latest: Sweden 696 deaths. New Zealand 1.
That wouldn't deter 'various voices', but how's the Swedish stock exchange doing?
What'ye expect?
Now 793-1
Fuck, I love NZ.
Ministry of health tweet on exercise in isolation. Informative and funny.
I love that walking stick. A bit of fun poked at our walking fraternity and sorority. Prepared for anything…..
so good.
Some have been published on media for not hearing the result of their tests for many days afterwards. The explanation includes the fact that results are fed back to whoever authorised the test such as the doctor.
If the test is positive the victim is informed straight away and followup action taken.
If the result is negative then the lesser urgency will be in the hands of the doctor to inform. Maybe too busy but must be anxious wait for the victim though the longer the wait the more likely all is well.
Heh, just like when you get tested for STDs, if you all clear you usually don't get notified (check your online hub thing), only if you positive will they be in touch (& not a call you want, obviously).
So closing down flights from China didn’t save thousands of lives.
Coronavirus in New York came mainly from Europe, studies show.
New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case, and that it was brought to the region mainly by travelers from Europe, not Asia.
“The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.
A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.
http://archive.li/Ek2U9 (nyt)
Latest graph of modelling for CV19 shows just what NZ has avoided:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/413885/lockdown-could-eliminate-covid-19-new-nz-research
Science, huh.
https://twitter.com/AshleyBurkeCBC/status/1247925285565145090
"Coronavirus: Greenkeepers granted exemption for maintenance work after Easter"
And about bloody time. Golf Greens and Bowling Greens can be destroyed and take years to recreate if they aren't very carefully maintained. Why did it need Grant Robertson to do the bloody obvious. You don't need to allow people to play but a green keeper can work in isolation and preserve the painstakingly cared for lawns.
They are far more fragile and harder to repair than most Council owned parks and sports grounds. Mowing of those seems to have been allowed throughout.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/golf/120948493/coronavirus-greenkeepers-fume-as-jacinda-ardern-defends-delay-in-exemption-request
You know the government is doing a great job when rich rightwing fuckwits can only find golf greens to attack them about.
Your KDS is showing. He plays golf doesn't he?
The membership of the average golf club is quite typical of the whole New Zealand population. And New Zealand is one of the cheapest places to play golf in the world. A full playing membership at Inglewood, which is a pretty little course near New Plymouth is only about $500/year. The Waitara Golf Club, also near New Plymouth is even cheaper at $350/year.
Royal Wellington and Royal Auckland and Grange excluded of course.
Do't be such a bigoted little prat.
Tut tut, alwyn. I sail, and my yearly sub is only $120. I probably spend less on my boat (which I bought with trailer for $2,500 in 1987) than you spend on clubs and lost golf balls (sorry to be rude.)
Your altruistic concern for the well-being of golfing greens is rather amusing.
But there we are. I get mad when stupid but well-meaning people plant trees near the lake I sail on, and ruin the wind after the tree has grown.
$2,500! For a boat? It sounds as if you bought one of Paul Allen's cast offs.
I am, I admit, an unusual golfer (or should I say a former golfer). I played for about 48 years and only ever owned two sets of clubs. I bought the first set in the late 60's for the grand sum of $100. The second set was purchased in about 1996 for rather more, but I would still be under the cost of your boat. Golf balls are quite cheap. You can get perfectly suitable golf balls for about $2.00 each.
https://www.golfwarehouse.nz/collections/golf-balls/products/srixonad333whitegolfballsv8-4dozen
Most people I know spent rather more. Almost every golfer lives with the dream that if they buy the latest driver they will be able to hit their drives out to about the 280 metre mark. I was always a realist. I might have admired the skills of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods but I was never under the illusion that I could play like them.
Aye, and I am foolishly still trying to sail a teenager's one-man racing skiff, because when I get a few good rides, it beats being on every big expensive lead-swinging keelboat that ever sailed.
As a matter of interest, what were your average subs for belonging to a club?
I sailed a P class when I was very young. In my 20's we bought a Javelin. That was great fun, although we always thought we should fly the letter flag "D" when we were out. For those who don't sail it means "Keep clear of me; I am maneuvering with difficulty".
I had to give up playing 5 years ago so my knowledge of subs is a bit out of date..
When I was a child I had a dose of a much nastier virus than Cofid 19. It appeared I had fully recovered from it but it turns out you never do. About half the people like me get problems many years later and my walking was affected so I gave up playing. I believe a full playing membership at the last club I belonged to is about $1250/year. You can play all day, every day of the year for that. That would be typical of city clubs I should say.
I was thinking more of you bringing petty nitpicking shit here. The government was made aware there was a problem and rightly assessed that a green keeper can probably work alone safely.
My patience has run out with pathetic moaning morons .
Self loathing must be a terrible affliction. My sympathy for your suffering.
Aren't poor people allowed to play golf? Far canal.
Have any golf courses or bowling greens been destroyed thus far? If not, what's the problem? Lots of people are waiting to get their privileges back, it takes time for processes to be worked through.
Golf courses, bowling greens, rugby fields and other expanses of manicured lawn are ring-worm patches on the body of Mother Earth
Lol. I still like to lie on my lawn, and I can see the potential of permaculture cricket pitches and rugby fields. But holy shit, there's a reason there are no organic golf courses. I'm guessing bowling greens might be similar?
Thirty seconds in tRump says that he wants the US economy to collapse.
https://twitter.com/gaslitnation/status/1237785570815938560
'Murica
https://twitter.com/mbaram/status/1247597527987339269
He's jist plannin' to shoot some cans.
Mexicans. Puerto Ricans. Jamaicans …
Ginning up the poors.
https://twitter.com/KeriLeighMerrit/status/1030516134485925888.
Americans? Not sure if he can!
Undoubtedly he'd be delighted to if they're African ones.
Anglicans
Nope – none there!
The Episcopal Church, USA, is the official organization of the Anglican Communion in the United States.
If Singapore can't keep this under control then I doubt we'll be ending lockdown anytime soon.
https://twitter.com/ChorzempaMartin/status/1247893963639386117
ulp
I understood that Singapore was initialy relying on phone apps and the internet to do a lot of the tracing work and they found out a bit too late that it wasn't very successful, as Dr Bloomfield said a few days ago a phone can't do the job that a thorough face to face ( at 2 metres I presume ) interview can. Just exactly how many crimes would be solved with a little chat on line or a few texts. Sweet fuck all.
I think Singapore tried to move too quickly and were reliant on the phone technology. Furthermore being an island about the size of Lake Taupo and with over 5m people isolating is far more difficult. I'm not sure just what restrictions they have in place wrt new arrivals, but a large proportion of their workforce in terms of amah, and construction workers are from the Philippines, India, and Malaysia.
The place is as tight as a drum and aside from Malaysians, guest workers are required to live in licensed foreign worker dormitories. They've issued new guidelines for residents including guest workers, and shut the door on most returnees.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will only allow the entry / return of work pass holders, including their dependents, for those providing essential services, such as in healthcare and transport.
https://www.gov.sg/article/covid-19-travel-restrictions-for-foreign-visitors-entering-singapore
yep – and I see that a good proportion of the new cases are in those worker dormitories. Mind you a lot of the wealthy families have live in house maids etc _ I can't see them giving up their amahs so easily
Well this is interesting. Overseas buyer’s interest in the Pacifica apartment building is up 200% because of favourable reaction to the government’s Covid-19 response. Both expats and foreign buyers (this development has an exemption for foreign buyers) have registered an interest.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/37795
It appears that there is some appetite to change the paradigm….Kate Raworth style
"The port of Amsterdam is the world’s single largest importer of cocoa beans, mostly from west Africa, where the labour is often highly exploitative.
As an independent private company it could reject such products and take the economic hit, but at the same time almost one in five households in Amsterdam qualify for social benefits due to low incomes and savings.
Van Doorninck says the port is looking at how it moves on from dependence on fossil fuels as part of the city’s new vision, and she expects that to naturally evolve into a wider debate over other pressing dilemmas brought to the forefront by the doughnut model.
“It gives space to talk about whether you want to be the place where products are being stored that are produced by child labour or by other forms of labour exploitation,” she says."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/08/amsterdam-doughnut-model-mend-post-coronavirus-economy
This is outright malice.
https://twitter.com/npratc/status/1247988083376549888
WASHINGTON — Although President Donald Trump has directed states and hospitals to secure what supplies they can, the federal government is quietly seizing orders, leaving medical providers across the country in the dark about where the material is going and how they can get what they need to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospital and clinic officials in seven states described the seizures in interviews over the past week. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is not publicly reporting the acquisitions, despite the outlay of millions of dollars of taxpayer money, nor has the administration detailed how it decides which supplies to seize and where to reroute them.
Officials who've had materials seized also say they've received no guidance from the government about how or if they will get access to the supplies they ordered. That has stoked concerns about how public funds are being spent and whether the Trump administration is fairly distributing scarce medical supplies
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/2020/04/08/hospitals-across-us-say-feds-are-seizing-masks-and-other-coronavirus-supplies-without-a-word/
Feds are chucking in the towel and repugs are lemmings
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1248062198922051584
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1248060581107679243
This looks like good news (haven't typed that phrase in a while!):
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(20)30092-8/fulltext
It's based on unpublished data, so has to be taken with a chunk of salt. But, if; the IL6 cytokine is predominantly involved in SARS-COV-2 pneumonia, then an IL6 receptor blocker being of use in preventing that, does make a certain amount of sense on the face of it.
After all, it doesn't really matter if people are infected with the Crow, just so long as you can stop them suffocating on their own body!
Except that the more replications of a virus, the more chances for mutations. DNA is more stable than RNA.